The Aurora Institute 2020 Symposium In-Person Event Is Canceled: We’re Going Virtual

Dear Colleagues,

After much discussion and careful deliberation, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person 2020 Aurora Institute Symposium, scheduled for October 25-28, 2020, in San Antonio, Texas. We are working now on holding the Aurora Institute Symposium events virtually in the fall, including on October 26-28, 2020 (so keep your calendar’s save-the-date), to ensure we create a space for important conversations with our community.

Our top priority has always been the health, safety, and wellbeing of our attendees—the K-12 education innovators working for systemic change in K-12 education the world over. We have concluded in our reasonable judgment that COVID-19, and the resulting public health emergency, have made it inadvisable to hold our Symposium in physical proximity. With so much uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, especially what it means for school communities, we believe canceling is the only way to protect attendees, speakers, staff, sponsors, and crew.

2020 will mark the first time in 15 years that the Symposium has not been held in person. This decision wasn’t an easy one to make, but we believe it’s the right one.

All attendee registration fees will be refunded, and we’ll be communicating those details separately.

While we’re disappointed that we must cancel our Symposium, we are exploring virtual conference options as an alternative. We’ll be sending more details about that in the coming weeks. In the meantime, keep holding the dates. We’re also looking forward to returning stronger than ever when we come together in Palm Springs for the Aurora Institute Symposium 2021.

We encourage you to visit aurora-institute.org/symposium2020 regularly to keep up to date on the latest developments as we move forward.

We are inspired and buoyed by the flexibility, resilience, and creativity that the education innovation community is demonstrating during this crisis. May these challenging and uncertain times find us more resolved to work even closer together so that our school communities can continue to thrive.

Please let us know what we can do to assist you in your work. We remain committed to our collective mission to drive the transformation of education systems and accelerate the advancement of breakthrough policies and practices to ensure high-quality learning for all.

Sincerely,

Susan Patrick
Aurora Institute President & CEO
CompetencyWorks Co-Founder