Set against the energy and colour of Queensland’s Gold Coast, the Independent Schools NSW ICT Management and Leadership Conference — engagED: Where innovation meets education — felt less like a typical EdTECH conference and more like a genuine meeting of minds.

Held from 29 April to 1 May at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, the event brought together a strong mix of close to 1000 ICT leaders, educators and industry partners from across Australia and beyond. What stood out was the shared focus: making sense of how technology is reshaping education in real, practical ways.

Across the three days, conversations ranged from big-picture digital transformation right through to the tools teachers are using every day in classrooms. It created a space where people weren’t just talking about innovation—they were actively unpacking what it looks like in practice, and where it’s heading next.

I had the opportunity to run five sessions across the three days, which was a real highlight. Four of those were in partnership with Matt Esterman, and together we leaned into a shared theme: how schools can thoughtfully navigate the scale of transformation happening in a world now shaped by generative AI.

Each session, in its own way, circled around that central question—what does it actually look like for schools to respond well to this moment? Not just in theory, but in the day-to-day reality of leadership, teaching and learning.

Session 1 – A Structured Approach to Reviewing AI App

This was a hands-on workshop focused around my framework for assessing gen AI tools for safe, ethical classroom use. It involved over 80 ICT managers and educators. We looked at some of the research around average weekly tasks for a typical Aussie teacher and how AI can help safe time on the less human focused areas.

Session 2 (with Matt Esterman) – Leading your IT team in the age of AI

In this session, Matt & I explored strategies with about 70 ICT managers to build capacity within their various school IT teams to help them navigate the AI storm of activities happening in schools across Australia.

Session 3 (with Matt Esterman) – AI in schools: a structured roundtable

This was a structured round table session where IT leaders shared what is actually happening with the AI in their schools, the wins the failures and the unresolved challenges.

Session 4 (with Matt Esterman) – operational AI governance in your school

This session demonsatrted how to build a practical, whole school, governance framework that moves beyond compliance checklist. The participants explored who needs to be at the table, how to bridge the gap between IT teams and the broader School community, and what it takes to create AI policies that people actually use not just file away.

Session 5 (with Matt Esterman) – shadow AI: what your staff are already doing (and what to do about it?)

This final session re-framed AI not as a compliance failure, but as a useful signal of unmet needs, creative pressure, and staff adapting faster than policy. We explored how banning what we don’t understand creates blind-spots, and how leaders can surface these practices, learn from them, and shape them into safer smarter norms.

Huge congratulations to the IS NSW team and a special shoutout to Chris Woldhuis for bringing together such a thoughtfully and well put together program of presentations. An amazing effort all around

It was a great pleasure to work with Matt for most of these sessions and catch up with a number of EdTECH gurus.