iCon: Don’t Take Our Word for It... Take It from Two Districts!

#Events

Cassidy Downs

by Cassidy Downs

Cassidy Downs Public Relations Specialist

Read time:

Thinking about attending iCon, Skyward’s international conference?

I sat down with Rebekah, John, and Mary, three district administrators in Colorado who attended iCon in 2024. Read on to learn about their experience and find out what you can expect if you join us for iCon 2025.

The interviewees:

Rebekah Brooks, CFO at Elizabeth School District (enrollment: 1,900)
John Wilson, senior systems and data analyst at District 49 (enrollment: 25,000)
Mary Velasquez, senior systems and data analyst at District 49 (enrollment, 25,000)

1. How many years have you attended iCon?

Rebekah: One

John: Two

Mary: One

2. What factors led you to attend iCon?

Rebekah: We saw the email when we were going live [with Skyward’s Qmlativ solution] and thought it would be beneficial for us to find other districts that are using Skyward, see how they’re using it, and see what it’s all about. Some of it was over my head because we had just gone live with Skyward, but it got us excited about the functionality we could put in place in the future—some of it was totally like, “Oh, I didn’t know you could do that!”

Mary: The opportunities for us to learn, especially with both of us being so new to this, was probably the greatest driving factor.

John: I was overwhelmed the first year, but the second year I was really hoping and expecting to get more out of it, and I did. It is great to hear what other districts are doing and how they’re using the system. There are a lot of reasons to attend... I wish it was longer!

3. What was your favorite part of iCon? Why?

Rebekah: [We’ll let Rebekah tell this one in the video below!]

 

John: One of my favorite parts is always learning what’s ahead for Skyward. That gives me a picture of the landscape—what's important to Skyward and what they’ve heard from customers. Then I can put that in the frame of what’s important to District 49.

4. How would you describe Skyward iCon in three words?

Rebekah: Informative, collaborative, and helpful.

John and Mary: Informative, networking, and futuristic.

5. What information did you take back to your district after attending iCon?

Rebekah: There are so many ways we can continue to build out the system; we aren’t there yet. It was almost overwhelming to see all the paths we hadn’t even started down yet. The conference is full of ideas for how to build the system out, make it our own, and make it more streamlined.

John and Mary: Being able to capture the training slides was super helpful. We shared all of that training with our manager. It was valuable to be able to take those presentations and review them later.

6. What advice do you have for new attendees?

John: We can do PD at home, but the point of the conference is to learn from your neighbor, learn from Skyward experts, and make connections with them. So, definitely go to meet people!

Mary: Ask all your questions. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, even if you’re thinking you can’t possibly retain any more information.

7. What do you look forward to learning about at future iCon events?

Rebekah: The thing I get from iCon is how each district is making the most of Skyward, and how you can use it to make your life easier. Skyward does a really good job training you in the basics of the software. But it’s up to you to transform it into whatever you need for your district—and you don’t always know what you don’t know. It’s helpful to see other pioneers in other districts that have taken it, owned it, and really made it into something cool that you steal [smiles] and utilize in your own district.

John and Mary: Being able to get the system to do exactly what we need for our district is important. We have a couple specific things, like automated data transfer through APIs, we’d like to learn. We also expect more discussion of AI and how that can help, as well as customization of the software for our needs.

Like what you hear? Join us for iCon 2025!