A Birmingham contingent is headed to a national event to talk innovation.
Nonprofit leaders from the metro area are headed to Austin, Texas, for the March SXSW EDU conference, which is the education arm of the popular tech and music festival.
Birmingham will be represented in four panels at the conference and is the only city in the spotlight for the event. According to a release, the Birmingham group plans to engage in conversations about boosting college access, early literacy, innovations to support neurodivergent learners and the role of AI in preparing students for the workforce.
Founded as a music festival that draws more than 160,000 attendees each year, SXSW has expanded to include national luminaries from entertainment, technology and politics including Willie Nelson and President Barack Obama. Each year, SXSW EDU brings together national grantmakers as well.
“From a ‘college promise’ that guarantees tuition to every graduating high school student, to the nation’s largest early childhood implementation of edtech, Birmingham is proving that government and nonprofit leaders can work hand-in-hand to tackle the city’s most vexing problems,” said JW Carpenter, president of the Birmingham-based nonprofit Prosper. “The nation's largest foundations, from Bloomberg Philanthropies to the Walton Family Foundation, are taking note. Now the mayor is taking the show on the road to tell our story and bring more resources back to the Magic City.”
SXSW EDU presentation topics from the Birmingham delegation include:
• "One Mayor’s College Promise in the Heart of the Deep South" presented by Trisha Powell Crain of AL.com and Birmingham Mayor Randall L. Woodfin
• "Conversations Count: Innovating Early in the Deep South" presented by Ruth Ann Moss of Small Magic, Rocy O’Keefe of LENA and Alyssa Singer of the personnel board of Jefferson County
• "Step Up to the Challenge: Using AI to Future-Proof Students" presented by Candyce Monroe of Ed Farm, Allen Antoine of the University of Texas at Austin and Krystal Chatman of the Mississippi Al Collaborative
.• "Providing a Voice & Making the Nevers Possible for ALL" presented by Chris Jackson of KultureCity, Meg Raby Klinghoffer of KultureCity, and Michele Kong, University of Alabama at Birmingham
"SXSW EDU has a well-deserved reputation for elevating great ideas in education from communities around the country," Moss said. “Birmingham’s inclusion reflects a growing recognition that we have something to contribute to the national stage — and that the success of our work to date can be an example for cities nationwide.”
