Your Guide to the Premier Ed Tech Conference in 2026

Planning to attend an education technology conference in 2026? You are making a strategic investment in your professional development and your institution’s future. Education conferences offer far more than networking opportunities. They provide access to emerging research, hands-on demonstrations of cutting-edge tools, practical strategies from peers facing similar challenges, and insight into where the ed tech landscape is heading. Whether you work in K-12 schools, higher education, special education, career and technical education, or any other sector, there is a conference designed specifically for your needs and interests. The key is understanding which events align with your goals, your budget, and your schedule. This guide walks you through the major conferences happening in 2026, helping you choose the ones that will have the most impact on your work.

Understanding the 2026 Ed Tech Conference Landscape

The education technology conference ecosystem has evolved dramatically over the past five years. What was once dominated by product demonstrations and vendor booths has transformed into a diverse ecosystem of learning opportunities ranging from massive international events drawing tens of thousands of attendees to intimate specialized conferences focused on specific teaching methodologies or student populations. This transformation reflects the maturation of educational technology itself. The sector has moved beyond asking “what technology can we use?” to asking “how do we use technology to improve learning outcomes, increase equity, and support educators more effectively?”

When evaluating which conferences to attend in 2026, consider several factors. First, identify your primary role and audience. Are you a classroom teacher, instructional coach, administrator, curriculum specialist, technology director, or policymaker? Second, determine your specific interests within ed tech. Do you focus on AI applications, online learning, special education, specific subject areas, or broader digital transformation? Third, assess your budget, including registration fees, travel, and time away from work. Fourth, consider the conference format. Some conferences are entirely in-person with massive expo halls. Others are hybrid or fully online, offering flexibility and lower costs. Finally, think about the specific dates and locations that work for your schedule and whether you want to combine attendance with professional travel or team attendance.

The 2026 conference calendar offers unprecedented opportunity to engage with the latest thinking in educational technology. Early in the year, major conferences cluster in January and February, offering a rapid-fire sequence of learning opportunities. Spring conferences like SXSW EDU in March bring together education and broader innovation communities. Summer conferences provide mid-year insights and connection-building. Understanding this landscape helps you make strategic decisions about where to invest your professional development time and resources.

Major January and Early-Year Conferences

January is traditionally the busiest month for education conferences, and 2026 follows this pattern. This timing serves a practical purpose: educators often have winter break flexibility for travel and professional development, and conference organizers use January as a reset point for the calendar year, timing new product announcements and initiatives to coincide with the back-to-school planning cycle.

Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC)

FETC is among the largest and most comprehensive education technology conferences in North America. Held in early January at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, FETC attracts more than 12,000 attendees and over 400 exhibiting companies. The conference spans multiple days and offers a staggering breadth of programming across parallel tracks.

What makes FETC unique is its genuine commitment to serving educators across all levels. The conference deliberately structures programming to appeal to K-12 teachers, higher education faculty and staff, administrators, technology directors, and instructional coaches. Rather than forcing all attendees into generic sessions, FETC creates distinct tracks allowing participants to dive deep into areas most relevant to their work. You might attend sessions on AI-powered personalized learning in the morning, shift to a panel discussion about managing large-scale technology adoption in the afternoon, and cap the day with a hands-on workshop on a specific tool or platform.

The exhibit hall is particularly valuable. With over 400 vendors, you encounter virtually every major ed tech company plus numerous smaller innovators. More importantly, most companies bring product experts and engineers who can have substantive conversations about your specific use cases and challenges. This is where you can evaluate tools you might invest in, see live demonstrations of emerging technologies, and often receive special show pricing for software licenses.

FETC also excels at addressing emerging issues. In recent years, sessions have tackled AI in education extensively, addressing both the opportunities and concerns educators have. You find sessions on prompt engineering for teachers, understanding ChatGPT and other AI tools, mitigating academic integrity challenges, and leveraging AI for personalized learning. Sessions also cover equity and access, data privacy and security, mental health and technology, and the social-emotional dimensions of digital learning.

Cost and registration: Registration typically ranges from $300-$600 depending on your role and how far in advance you register. Many schools cover registration costs for selected staff members, making FETC accessible even for educators with limited professional development budgets.

TCEA Convention and Exposition

The Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) Convention is held January 31 through February 4, 2026, in San Antonio, Texas. While TCEA originated in Texas, the conference has grown to attract educators nationally, with more than 5,000 attendees in recent years. TCEA occupies a distinct position between FETC’s massive scale and smaller specialized conferences.

What distinguishes TCEA is its extraordinary depth of hands-on learning. The conference offers over 700 concurrent sessions spanning four days. This extraordinary volume means you can follow a detailed learning path based on your specific interests and needs. Want to deep-dive into AI integration? TCEA has multiple AI-focused sessions at different skill levels. Interested in specific tools like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or Schoology? Multiple sessions cover implementation and best practices. Focused on special populations? Tracks address English learners, special education, gifted education, and other specialized areas.

TCEA also partners with numerous professional organizations to offer tracks on specific teaching methodologies and content areas. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) typically presents content-specific sessions on teaching math with technology. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) collaborates on educational technology leadership tracks. This partnership approach means you often get the benefit of content expertise from leading professional organizations within a single conference.

The exhibition hall features over 450 vendors, making it second only to FETC in terms of vendor representation. Unlike some conferences where the expo feels separate from learning, at TCEA the vendor area is actively integrated. Many vendors sponsor hands-on workshops and demonstrations, and you find technology experts embedded throughout the conference rather than confined to booth spaces.

TCEA is particularly strong for classroom teachers seeking practical, immediately applicable strategies. Sessions frequently include templates, lesson plans, and step-by-step guides you can use Monday morning. This teacher-centric focus makes TCEA especially valuable for educators who are new to educational technology or seeking concrete implementation guidance.

Cost and registration: TCEA registration ranges from $250-$450, with discounts for early registration and group attendance. San Antonio offers relatively affordable hotel options compared to major conference destinations, further lowering total attendance costs.

Bett: Global Ed Tech Conference

Bett operates as a truly international conference with multiple events throughout the year. In 2026, Bett conferences occur in three major global markets: London (January), Sao Paulo (May), and Kuala Lumpur (September/October). Unlike other conferences that draw primarily from a single region, Bett intentionally brings together education professionals from across continents.

The London edition is the largest and most established, attracting over 30,000 attendees from more than 140 countries. This diversity fundamentally shapes the conference content and experience. Sessions routinely address how different countries and educational systems are approaching technology integration, offering comparative perspectives on policy, pedagogy, and implementation. You encounter vendors and thought leaders from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, exposing you to solutions and approaches you might never encounter at North American-focused conferences.

Bett’s international focus makes it particularly valuable if your organization serves diverse student populations or has global connections. You learn how other countries address challenges like digital equity, curriculum integration of AI, student data privacy (where regulations often differ significantly from the US), and preparing students for global participation. For educators working in international schools or K-12 institutions with substantial international student populations, Bett offers unparalleled perspective.

The Sao Paulo and Kuala Lumpur editions offer geographic convenience for educators in South America and Southeast Asia respectively, while also providing affordable alternatives to London for North American educators with the flexibility and budget to travel internationally. All three editions maintain similar content structures and vendor participation while adapting some programming to regional contexts and needs.

Cost and registration: Bett London registration typically ranges from $200-$500 depending on registration date and attendee type. International travel costs vary significantly by location, but Bett coordinates with hotels and provides travel resources to manage expenses.

Spring Conferences and Emerging Trends

SXSW EDU Conference and Festival

SXSW EDU, held March 9-12, 2026, in Austin, Texas, represents a fundamentally different conference experience compared to FETC or TCEA. SXSW EDU is part of the larger South by Southwest festival, creating a unique culture that blends education, technology, music, film, and creative industries. This positioning means you encounter perspectives from outside traditional education sectors, creating cross-pollination of ideas and approaches.

SXSW EDU is notably less vendor-focused than other major conferences. Rather than a massive expo hall, vendor presence is more curated and integrated. The emphasis is on ideas, research, and innovation rather than product launches. This makes SXSW EDU particularly valuable if you want to encounter emerging thinking before it becomes mainstream ed tech trends. You see research presentations about learning science, policy discussions about educational equity, and explorations of how technology might reshape education in ways that challenge conventional thinking.

The conference includes a participatory voting system where attendees vote on which sessions happen, creating a bottom-up rather than top-down structure. This means the conference evolves based on real-time feedback and interest from attendees. You might arrive intending to attend specific sessions only to discover that high-interest sessions on AI and creativity or virtual reality in education have been added based on voting.

SXSW EDU also features film screenings, competitions, and exhibitions exploring the intersection of education and other domains. You might attend a screening of a documentary about educational equity, then participate in a discussion with the filmmakers and education researchers. This integration of multiple formats makes SXSW EDU feel more like a festival than a traditional conference.

Austin is a vibrant hub for technology companies and startups, and SXSW EDU benefits from this ecosystem. You encounter entrepreneurs launching education startups, established companies experimenting with new approaches, and nonprofit organizations working on educational challenges. This diversity of participants creates unusually rich networking opportunities.

Cost and registration: SXSW EDU registration ranges from $350-$750 depending on pass type and registration timing. Austin hotel costs are moderate, and the broader SXSW festival creates a lively atmosphere during the conference period.

CUE Spring Conference

Computer-Using Educators (CUE) represents a different conference philosophy focused specifically on the practical classroom application of educational technology. The CUE Spring Conference attracts thousands of California educators and educators from across North America who value CUE’s teacher-centric, hands-on approach.

CUE conferences are structured around intensive hands-on workshops and demonstrations. Rather than sitting through large keynotes and panel discussions, attendees spend significant time in labs and workshops actually using technology. You might spend a session learning to create interactive lessons using specific platforms, participating in an augmented reality design workshop, or exploring AI tools for classroom application. This workshop-heavy structure means you leave the conference with actual skills and experience, not just concepts and ideas.

CUE also maintains a strong focus on practical pedagogy. Sessions don’t just ask “how does this technology work?” but rather “how does this technology improve student learning outcomes?” This alignment with learning science and pedagogical research ensures that the technological tools are always in service of educational goals rather than becoming ends in themselves.

The organization maintains strong connections with Apple, Google, and Microsoft, but remains genuinely vendor-neutral in its approach. Rather than promoting specific platforms, CUE helps educators evaluate whether particular tools align with their teaching goals and student needs.

Cost and registration: CUE conferences typically cost $200-$400 for registration, with spring locations in various California cities reducing travel costs for the significant West Coast educator population.

Specialized Conferences by Sector and Focus Area

Career and Technical Education

The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) hosts the CareerTech Vision conference, which is the primary gathering for professionals in career and technical education. This conference addresses a sector that often receives less attention in broader ed tech discussions but serves millions of high school and post-secondary students.

CareerTech Vision covers how to integrate technology into programs ranging from welding and automotive repair to information technology, healthcare, and business. Sessions address both the technical tools specific to various trades and the educational technology used to teach those skills. You learn about simulation technology that allows students to practice procedures safely, virtual reality applications for training, remote lab access for schools with limited equipment budgets, and online learning approaches for CTE students.

A significant portion of conference content addresses the unique challenges of CTE delivery. How do you scale hands-on training when expensive equipment is limited? How do you partner with employers to ensure students gain real-world experience? How do you address the skills gap that employers consistently report? Technology is frequently part of the answer, and CareerTech Vision helps educators understand how to leverage technology effectively in CTE contexts.

Key features: Over 300 sessions, large expo hall with CTE-specific vendors, partnerships with equipment manufacturers, multiple tracks for secondary and post-secondary CTE professionals.

Literacy Education

LitCon is a fully online conference held February 1-28, 2026, dedicated specifically to literacy instruction. This conference reflects growing recognition of literacy as foundational to success across all subjects and the increasing role technology plays in literacy instruction and intervention.

LitCon offers approximately 75 different recorded and live online sessions covering the latest research on literacy instruction, evidence-based reading intervention practices, and the role of technology in supporting readers at all levels. Sessions address foundational literacy instruction for early grades, intervention for struggling readers, English learner literacy development, and literacy across content areas.

The fully online format makes LitCon particularly accessible. Educators can participate from their own schools or homes, often during planning periods or after school hours. The month-long format means you aren’t rushed to cram attendance into a conference schedule. You can watch sessions at your own pace, revisit recordings, and digest content more thoughtfully than at in-person conferences.

Attendees include classroom teachers, literacy coaches, reading specialists, special education teachers, English learner specialists, and literacy-focused administrators. The diversity of attendee roles creates rich discussion forums and networking opportunities.

Cost and registration: LitCon registration typically costs $150-$300 depending on the level of access you need and whether you want to download recordings for year-round access.

Special Education and Assistive Technology

The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Convention and Expo is the largest international conference dedicated to special education. In 2026, this conference attracts over 10,000 special educators, administrators, related service providers, and families.

Technology plays an increasingly central role in special education. Assistive technology allows students with disabilities to access curriculum and participate in classroom activities. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices enable students without spoken speech to communicate. Specialized software supports specific learning disabilities. Sensory tools and adaptive equipment expand what’s possible for students with various disabilities.

CEC conferences feature extensive exhibits of assistive technology and adaptive equipment alongside sessions addressing how to select appropriate technology, implement it effectively, train students and staff, and evaluate whether technology is achieving desired outcomes. Many exhibits include demonstrations you can personally interact with, crucial given that assistive technology success often depends on comfort and familiarity.

CEC programming also addresses broader special education topics like inclusive education practices, culturally responsive teaching, family engagement, and transition planning for students with disabilities. Technology appears throughout as one tool among many for supporting student success.

Key features: Large assistive technology and adapted equipment exhibit hall, sessions on IEP development and implementation, accessibility standards and compliance, personnel preparation for special educators.

English Learners and Multilingual Education

The TESOL International Association convention brings together educators working with English learners, second language teachers, applied linguists, and curriculum developers. This conference directly addresses technology’s role in language acquisition and teaching.

TESOL conferences include sessions on language learning apps and platforms, digital tools for teaching specific language skills like pronunciation and grammar, online conversation partners and language exchange platforms, and how to leverage technology to support culturally responsive language teaching. Sessions also address challenges like ensuring technology supports rather than replaces meaningful human interaction in language learning, and designing language learning experiences for diverse learner populations.

For K-12 teachers with English learner students and educators in intensive English programs at higher education institutions, TESOL offers specialized content unavailable at general ed tech conferences. The conference recognizes that teaching English to non-native speakers involves both language-specific pedagogy and technology applications tailored to language learning contexts.

Key features: Research presentations on second language acquisition, practical workshops on classroom implementation, international networking with language educators worldwide, advocacy and policy discussions about language learner rights and support.

Summer Conferences and Mid-Year Gatherings

ISTELive 26

ISTELive 26, held June 28-July 1, 2026, in Orlando, Florida, is one of the largest and most comprehensive education technology conferences in the world. Organized by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), this conference typically attracts over 20,000 attendees and more than 600 exhibiting companies.

ISTELive represents the mainline of educational technology discourse. If you want to understand where the field is heading, what technologies are gaining traction, and what educators across all levels are focused on, ISTELive provides an unparalleled window. The conference draws educators from all sectors (K-12, higher education, government, nonprofit, corporate training), all geographic regions, and all roles (teachers, administrators, technology directors, instructional coaches, researchers).

The conference is organized around several distinct tracks. The Teaching and Learning track addresses how to use technology to improve classroom instruction. The Leadership track focuses on digital transformation, change management, and technology leadership for administrators. The Infrastructure and IT track addresses technology systems, networks, security, and technical support. Specialized tracks address topics like AI in education, cybersecurity, coding and computer science education, maker education, and digital citizenship.

ISTELive also emphasizes standards and frameworks. ISTE publishes the Standards for Students, Educators, and Administrators that have become widely adopted guides for understanding what competencies different stakeholders need in technology-rich educational environments. Conference sessions often reference these standards and help educators understand how to build programs aligned with them.

The exhibit hall showcases virtually every major ed tech company plus thousands of smaller vendors and innovators. You encounter educational software companies, hardware manufacturers, professional development providers, security companies, and countless point solutions addressing specific educational challenges.

Cost and registration: ISTELive registration ranges from $400-$900 depending on attendee type and registration timing. Orlando hotel rates are moderate, and the conference timing aligns with early summer when many educators have greater flexibility.

ASCD Annual Conference

The ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) Annual Conference is held alongside ISTELive in June 2026 in Orlando. While ASCD focuses more broadly on curriculum and instructional leadership than specifically on technology, technology increasingly features prominently in ASCD programming.

ASCD brings together instructional leaders, curriculum specialists, and education administrators focused on improving teaching and learning. Technology appears throughout conference content as a tool for curriculum implementation, assessment, personalized learning, and addressing equity. Sessions might address how to use data systems to identify student learning gaps, how to support educators in selecting and implementing technology effectively, or how to ensure technology choices align with instructional goals rather than becoming ends in themselves.

ASCD’s curriculum focus provides important balance to conferences emphasizing technology tools. Technology is most effective when it serves clear instructional and curriculum goals. ASCD helps ensure that technology conversations stay grounded in pedagogy and curriculum design.

Higher Education Specific Conferences

HighEdWeb Association Annual Conference

HighEdWeb serves professionals working on the digital and online presence of higher education institutions. Members include web developers, digital marketers, content creators, user experience designers, and digital communications professionals at colleges and universities.

HighEdWeb conferences address how institutions use websites, social media platforms, online tools, and digital services to connect with students, deliver educational content, and manage institutional operations. Sessions cover topics like developing responsive and accessible institutional websites, using social media for recruitment and engagement, online community building, digital accessibility compliance, and emerging web technologies.

For higher education technology professionals and those managing institutional digital presence, HighEdWeb provides essential professional development. The conference emphasizes both technical skills (coding, platform management, analytics) and strategy (how digital presence aligns with institutional goals and serves student needs effectively).

Key features: Multiple specialized tracks, hands-on workshops, networking focused on higher education digital professionals, discussions of higher ed specific challenges like managing multiple stakeholder needs and balancing institutional branding with flexibility.

WCET Annual Meeting: Online Learning Leadership

WCET (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies) serves primarily as a membership organization for leaders of online and distance education programs. The annual meeting brings together these leaders to discuss emerging research, policy developments, and best practices in online and distance education.

WCET programming addresses strategic planning for online education programs, scaling online learning quality, supporting online faculty, managing online student services, ensuring online program accessibility and equity, and navigating the regulatory landscape for distance education. Sessions are research-informed and often include data on program outcomes, student success metrics, and comparative analysis of different approaches.

Unlike conferences with massive attendance, WCET’s annual meeting maintains a smaller, more intimate scale. This allows for substantial conversation and relationship-building among online education leaders. Many attendees report that the networking value exceeds the formal programming, given the opportunity to discuss specific challenges with peers facing similar situations.

Cost and registration: WCET membership and conference attendance typically cost $500-$800 annually, with the membership providing year-round access to research, networking, and professional development resources beyond the annual meeting.

InsightsEDU: Marketing and Enrollment

InsightsEDU is a conference specifically focused on how higher education institutions market educational programs and recruit students, particularly adult learners and online students. Organized by Education Dynamics, the conference brings together enrollment managers, marketing professionals, student recruitment specialists, and institutional leaders responsible for enrollment strategy.

Technology prominently features in higher ed marketing and enrollment. Sessions address using marketing automation platforms, data analytics for enrollment funnel analysis, digital advertising strategies, customer relationship management (CRM) systems for recruitment, using AI to predict student enrollment probability, and leveraging social media and content marketing for recruitment.

InsightsEDU is particularly valuable for institutions focused on adult and online student recruitment, where technology often plays a more central role than in traditional undergraduate recruitment. The conference emphasizes data-driven approaches to enrollment, understanding student decision-making, and aligning marketing strategies with enrollment goals.

Cost and registration: InsightsEDU registration typically ranges from $400-$700. The conference includes networking luncheons and evening events designed to facilitate connections among enrollment professionals.

Leadership and Policy-Focused Conferences

Presidents Institute

The Presidents Institute brings together leaders of higher education institutions including college and university presidents, chancellors, and senior administrators responsible for institutional strategy and governance. While not exclusively focused on technology, digital transformation and educational technology strategy increasingly occupy significant portions of discussions at leadership institutes.

Presidents Institute programming addresses strategic decision-making about technology investments at the institutional level. How should institutions balance expenditures on educational technology, infrastructure, and facilities? How do technology decisions align with mission and values? What are the risks and opportunities associated with different technology adoption approaches? How can institutions leverage technology to improve student outcomes while managing costs? These are the questions that occupy presidents and chancellors.

Technology appears throughout programming as either an enabler or disruptor of traditional higher education models. Sessions address threats from online competitors and opportunities to improve institutional efficiency through digital transformation. The emphasis is on how technology fits into overall institutional strategy rather than on specific tools or platforms.

NAICU Annual Meeting and Advocacy Day

The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) serves independent higher education institutions. The annual meeting brings together leaders from member institutions to discuss policy, advocacy, and strategic issues affecting independent higher education.

Technology and educational technology increasingly feature in NAICU discussions because they relate to key policy concerns. How should federal and state regulation address educational technology and data privacy? How can independent institutions compete with larger public institutions in terms of technology infrastructure and investment? How should policy support innovation in educational technology while protecting student interests?

Attendance at NAICU provides opportunity to understand how policy and regulation shape educational technology adoption. You encounter perspectives from institutional leadership on what policies and resources would support more effective technology integration.

OLC Innovate: Online and Blended Learning

The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) hosts OLC Innovate annually, attracting faculty, instructional designers, technology specialists, and administrators responsible for online and blended learning programs. The conference emphasizes both research-informed practice and practical implementation strategies.

OLC Innovate’s leadership track specifically addresses how institutions can effectively implement, scale, and sustain quality online and blended learning. Sessions cover organizational change management, faculty development for online teaching, student support for online learners, quality assurance and accreditation for online programs, and strategic planning for online education.

The conference balances attention to tools and platforms with attention to pedagogy, faculty development, and organizational capacity building. Many institutions invest in sophisticated learning management systems and educational technologies only to find that faculty and student success suffer due to inadequate training, support, or pedagogical clarity. OLC Innovate helps ensure that technology investments are accompanied by the organizational infrastructure needed for success.

Cost and registration: OLC Innovate registration typically costs $500-$900, with the conference often held in different cities to increase geographic accessibility.

Emerging Trends and Future-Focused Conferences

Deeper Learning Conference

The Deeper Learning Conference addresses educational approaches emphasizing critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and deep understanding rather than rote memorization and surface-level learning. Technology increasingly supports these deeper learning approaches.

Sessions address how project-based learning can be enhanced with digital tools, how technology supports collaboration among geographically distributed students, how simulations and virtual environments create opportunities for experiential learning, and how assessment technology can measure complex competencies beyond traditional standardized tests.

Deeper Learning represents an important philosophical position within education technology discussions. Rather than asking “what is the latest technology?” it asks “what learning outcomes do we want students to achieve and how can technology support those outcomes?” This student-centered, outcomes-focused approach provides essential grounding for technology decisions.

Innovative Schools Summit

The Innovative Schools Summit brings together educators interested in school design and redesign. Sessions address how to create learning environments, school structures, and educational experiences that better serve student needs and prepare students for success in a rapidly changing world.

Technology features prominently but not dominantly in Innovative Schools programming. Rather, technology appears as one tool among many for creating innovative learning environments. Sessions address physical space design, student-centered pedagogies, interdisciplinary learning, community partnerships, and how technology enables or constrains different educational approaches.

For educators or administrators thinking holistically about school transformation rather than incrementally adopting individual technologies, the Innovative Schools Summit provides valuable perspective and community.

Comparing Major Conferences Side by Side

Conference	Dates	Location	Attendance	Primary Audience	Vendor Focus	Cost Range
FETC	Early January	Orlando, Florida	12,000+	K-12 and higher ed	Very high (400+ vendors)	$300-$600
TCEA	Jan 31-Feb 4	San Antonio, Texas	5,000+	K-12 teachers and admins	High (450+ vendors)	$250-$450
Bett London	January	London, UK