We would like to thank everyone who joined us at our first IB Virtual Conference. This conference was a truly successful global experience where over 4,500 passionate educators and inspiring leaders from 110 countries participated across 77 sessions under a common theme – 'Reimagine the future'.
Our three keynote speakers’ inspiring and insightful sessions invited us all to reflect on our roles as educators. And their expertise invited us to explore the many opportunities to reimagine our current teaching practices to best adapt ourselves for the future.
Through their own experiences and areas of expertise, our three keynote speakers all highlighted the importance of creating environments and opportunities to maximize students' potential. Kiran Bir Sethi shared her experience developing the 'I CAN' mindset in students. Graham Brown-Martin encouraged us to create adequate conditions to stimulate and enable innovation – reminding us that “the jobs of the future are those machines can't do.” And Dr Elizabeth Lombardo reminded us about the importance of finding your passion, defining your purpose and forging strong relationships with others.
In addition, our topic expert sessions covered best practices in education including online learning, digital wellness, diversity and inclusion. Topic experts truly challenged our thinking and offered new approaches to teaching and learning. Similarly, IB staff and educators provided valuable updates and helpful recommendations for teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finally and for the first time, all sessions were available on-demand right after each session ended, providing our attendees with further access to the conference’s content, while our 'Come together' virtual engagement allowed participants to engage with the sessions’ content beforehand.
The IB is very proud and thankful for having such an outstanding line-up of speakers and participants. Their passion for education and the power in their ideas reached and resonated with our global virtual community in meaningful ways – across diverse cultural backgrounds and despite the distance between us.
Plenary speakers
Our keynote and topic expert speakers set the tone of the virtual conference, and provided fresh perspectives to learning and teaching across schools, by providing contrete strategies to Reimagine the Future.
Dr Elizabeth Lombardo – Leadership from the inside out
Graham Brown-Martin – Beyond tomorrow
Dr Jennifer Chang Wathall – Transform pedagogy, transform learning, transform education
Jamilah Pitts – Radical self-care as a tool to care radically for humanity
Roy Gluckman - Is our world really changing? Diversity and inclusion in 2021
The virtual conference on social media
See our #IBVirtual highlights on social media here.
