By: Chris Piehler
Last week at the super-sunny Hyatt Regency in Scottsdale, Arizona, PRP’s EdNET 2017 began with the ed tech community saying a warm “hello” to our data-driven storytelling approach, and ended with a poignant “goodbye” to industry legend Vicki Smith Bigham, who retired after a 40-year career in education.
A proud Tier 1 sponsor of EdNET, PRP hosted two Birds of a Feather roundtables and a panel discussion (starring the fabulous Stephanie Miller, Superintendent of Congress School District #17), and everyone we talked to had one thing in common. Whether their company was a startup or a stalwart, they were all looking for ways to reach administrators effectively with a message that doesn’t feel invasive but is still powerful enough to compel educators to act. To do this, more and more ed tech companies are using marketing automation platforms. And for those platforms to be effective, they need a long-term content strategy that helps them build relationships with people before they ever meet face-to-face.
That’s where data-driven storytelling comes in. If you’re curious about how it works, you can check out a whole slew of resources here, but suffice it to say we were thrilled at how many of our ed tech colleagues were excited and inspired by the power of a great story, told to the right audience and validated by smart data collection and analysis.
EdNET Says Thank You to Vicki Smith Bigham
At the final lunch in Scottsdale, vendors, educators, and thought leaders came together to raise their glasses of champagne to Vicki Smith Bigham, who first attended the conference 26 years ago and has since become synonymous with EdNET. The loving (and occasionally tearful) farewell featured tributes from EdNET founder Nelson Heller and other educational luminaries.
Vicki’s distinguished career paralleled the rise of ed tech as a concept and EdNET as a community. As she told me in an interview before her final EdNET, she was a high school English teacher in Houston, Dallas, and Wichita, who took a programming course because “I got so excited when I saw the children at the computer.” By observing how her students were programming, for the first time, she said, “I could see thought processes.”
Vicki’s gathering of tech-curious teachers in Texas became the first TCEA conference, and she went on to become the president of TCEA, as well as the president of ISTE. Her achievements outside the classroom included working on an early form of speech synthesis with Texas Instruments, running statewide software evaluation projects, and setting up shop as a consultant some 30 years ago. “I never set out to be a consultant,” she laughed, but she saw a need because “as technology use was increasing, funding was dropping.”
Whether at EdNET or elsewhere, she said, “My real focus and love has been on professional development all these years.” That love affair led her to serve as a PD consultant for CoSN and NSSEA (now EdMarket Association) for more than a decade each. Along the way, she created a wide range of PD material to help educators use technology in their classrooms, from her 1987 technology planning guide for Apple Computer to 2016’s CoSN publication “Building Team Leadership for a Digital Transformation.” And of course, everyone in the ed tech community looked forward to her funny and informative “She Snoops for Scoops” columns.
With her column, her consulting work, and her steady hand on the tiller of EdNET, Vicki has been instrumental in creating that ed tech community. “My whole career has been about trying to bring people together,” she said, “and I have been blessed by deep relationships with educators, associations, and business leaders in the space.” She helped turn EdNET into a place where like-minded people celebrate “the shared passion for our industry and the work we do” and connect with “the fabulous friends that we have made along the way."
Vicki’s most vivid memories of EdNETs past include the silly, like Kathy Hurley’s 60th birthday party, where “we did a singing tribute with men from the industry dressed up as nuns”; or the time at Palmer House in Chicago when the combined voltage needs of her blow dryer and curling iron blew out power on two floors of the hotel.
But she recalled with special poignancy the EdNET in Washington, DC, that was interrupted by the 9/11 attacks. After Heller halted the opening presentation to gives attendees a chance to connect with their loved ones via 20 conference computers, Vicki said that Heller decided to continue programming. “He made the right choice, because we had some people all day. That night at the reception, everybody came back together. It was community. It was my second family, and every 9/11 I get messages from a lot of EdNET people.”
Vicki's work has gone a long way towards defining who “EdNET people” are. As she said, “There are certainly a lot of competitors in the room, but it’s a very collegial atmosphere. Whether it’s a CEO or a superintendent, you can just walk up to someone and introduce yourself. I love that it’s that kind of an atmosphere.”
Over the years, Vicki has made EdNET “a chance to learn and a chance to reflect on personal leadership and how to grow your company,” but most importantly, it has become a community united by what she called “a sincere passion to help improve our nation’s schools.”
Thank you for everything, Vicki. You will be missed.
Thanks for sharing!