What inspires a lifelong commitment to learning? In this Tandem Talk, Kriti Thakur and Inge de Waard explore how unconventional learning paths, life’s turning points, and personal setbacks can lead to resilience and professional growth. Drawing from their own diverse careers - from researcher to activist to comedian - they reflect on the personal sparks, mentors, and challenges that shaped their journeys.

Through storytelling and audience interaction, this session invites participants to reflect on their own learning paths and discover the hidden drivers that have guided them through change and into education.

Inge de Waard

Learning Strategist and Connector, EIT InnoEnergy, Belgium

Inge de Waard is the learning strategist at EIT InnoEnergy, she is a longtime researcher, activist, award-winning learning innovator and (e)Learning coordinator. She developed multiple online & hybrid courses, co-designed AI tools, and embedded learning innovations. Inge coaches and co-creates international, blended curricula with engineers and teachers, and explores innovative learning formats. Her expertise is recognized by peers, resulting in additional co-authored papers, invited talks and keynotes in both academic and professional conferences, workshops and seminars. She recently founded the Power Elders initiative to spotlight role models who changed their lives at any age beyond 50. Most of all, she likes to connect with people and share stories.

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Kriti Thakur

Expert - Educational Design & Facilitation, Unternehmertum

Kriti is an entrepreneurship education expert, certified coach and a learning expert with 10+years of experience with Design Thinking, learning design, social entrepreneurship. Kriti is an expert in educational design and facilitation at UnternehmerTUM- Europe's leading start-up based out of Munich, Germany. She considers herself as a polymath, a professional with diverse passions, skills and expertise. Her prior experience ranges from qualifying as a lawyer, working as a pro-bono legal activist to Teach For India and Teach For Vietnam.

Real learning and disruptive innovation can’t be achieved by training and discipline, but by removing the fences around people. With ‘Education Unchained' we introduce a new framework for Learning and Organizational Development in Education. It will be a confrontational awakening session that should snatch us from the obsolete frameworks of the past and provide guidelines to initiate the necessary transformation to boost the value of students and teachers. To boost the value of all of us! 'Education Unchained' will discuss 3 challenges ... How do you recognize valuable people? What should be the impact on Education & Work? What are (disruptive) ideas to make it happen? What is real learning based on passion & talents? What should be the impact on 'Training & Education'? What should be the impact of 'Artificial Intelligence'? What are (disruptive) ideas to make it happen? What is the biggest innovation killer in organizations? What should be the impact on management to kill the innovation killer? What are (disruptive) ideas to make it happen? 'Education Unchained' will mix 'Poster Talks' with 'Table Engagements'. It will be a challenge to introduce some disruptive thoughts and leave sufficient time for reflection and feedback. To streamline passion to results we propose a challenging agenda.

Proposed Agenda: 

The session will be divided in 3 parts of 45 minutes with a short coffee break between the parts.

Kick-off (15 min.)

Part 1 (45 min. + 15 min. coffee break) ... Switch-3D and the Battle of the Smarts. 3 'Poster Talks' to challenge participants with the impact of today’s information explosion (including AI) on our personal value.

Part 2 (45 min. + 15 min. coffee break) ... 3D-Smarts are Bright. 3 'Poster Talks' to challenge our understanding of 'learning' and the impact of this on Training & Education.

Part 3 (45 min.) ... The 'Power Defect'. 2 'Poster Talks' to understand why most change and innovation projects fail and the dramatic impact of this on management if we want to succeed in change and innovation.

Target Audience Job Titles:

Open for all Job Tittles

Target Audience Sector:

All sectors

Prerequisite Knowledge:

No prerequisite knowledge needed but participants can also participate in an 'Education Unchained Journey' between September and November. 

Expected Outcomes:

·       

Understanding of the needed disruption in education to stay valuable in this fast-changing world.

·       

Understand 'real learning' based on passion and talents and the disruptive impact of this on education and work.

·       

Understand why innovation projects fail and the impact on management if you want to succeed in innovation.

Jef Staes

Architect Learning and Innovative Organisations, Red Monkey Company, Belgium

Jef Staes (1956, Belgium) is an authority on learning processes, innovation and culture change. With decennia of professional experience (Engineering Digital Telephony, Training Manager & Corporate Learning Officer), he currently assists CEO’s and Managers to find a comprehensive answer to the changing dynamics of today’s world. He is a passionate & inspirational author, keynote speaker & concept creator. His striking metaphors and stories are guaranteed eye-openers and his thoughts on the future of business and education inspire many. Google 'Jef Staes' or 'Red Monkey' and you know where he stands for.

This full-day workshop offers a hands-on design sprint where educators, technologists, and learning scientists collaborate to prototype AI-powered learning tools. Based on the Ed<>Hack model from MIT and Harvard, participants will explore functional AI literacy through live demos, team prototyping, and coaching by the SundAI Berlin community. Together, they’ll create tangible learning artifacts that reflect real educational challenges.

Agenda:

15 min: Welcome

45 min: Opening Talk: A Multidimensional Look at AI Literacy 

15 min: Coffee Break

30 min: Live Tool Demos

15 min:  Introducing the Grand Challenge 

60 min: Lunch Break

120 min: Team-Based Prototyping / Collaborative work time with real-time coaching from SundAI Berlin

30 min: Showcase Prep 

60 min: Grand Challenge Showcase / Presentation on the group AI design process

30 min: Closing Circle and Final reflection

Outcomes:

• Gain practical experience with generative AI tools and workflows
• Apply a multidimensional AI literacy framework (functional, critical, rhetorical)
• Prototype solutions with real-world relevance and present them for feedback

Audience:
Educators, learning designers, curriculum developers, edtech professionals, and education leaders from all sectors

Dan Be Kim

AI Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Dan Be Kim is a startup founder turned educational technologist focused on reimagining teaching and learning in the age of AI. A startup enthusiast with an extensive background in product management, she has conceptualized and launched several marketplaces, including a venture-backed PropTech startup in the Bay Area. After arriving at Harvard determined to build evidence-based, AI-powered tools for education, she quickly discovered how overwhelmed and under-supported many educators and learners felt when engaging with this rapidly advancing technology.

Today, Dan Be’s work explores how AI can truly enhance and augment — not replace — human intelligence. Through PromptED, she helps educators and learners develop the intuition, fluency, confidence, and critical judgment needed to collaborate with AI in thoughtful, creative, and human-centered ways.

She currently contributes to research on Inspiring Moral AI Guidance in Education (IMAGINE) at the Harvard Center for Digital Thriving. In her role as an AI Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she is helping to onboard ~700 incoming students by equipping them with the skills needed to leverage AI responsibly in their academic work and professional pursuits. As a Learning Design Fellow, she co-designed an AI literacy tutorial for all incoming students, a mandatory requirement before starting any coursework. The module introduces what responsible and effective AI use looks like in higher education, explores the nuance between school-wide and course-specific AI policies, and features diverse faculty perspectives to highlight how expectations vary across disciplines.

As an educational technologist, she is an active member of both the UNESCO Global Science of Learning Alliance and the Global Science of Learning Education Network (GSoLEN) hosted at UC San Diego, where she advocates for the conscious design of educational technologies grounded in evidence-based Science of Learning principles.

Step into the "Horror House of AI" for a playful yet insightful look at why AI sparks fear - especially in education.

From job loss to ethical concerns, we’ll explore exaggerated headlines and real worries through short case studies. What fuels our anxiety: loss of control, misinformation, or uncertainty? This session invites laughter, reflection, and debate to unpack the FUDD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt, Disinformation) around AI, and aims to equip educators and decision-makers to face these fears with greater clarity and confidence.

Bert De Coutere

IP & Innovation Lead, Center for Creative Leadership , Belgium

Bert’s professional life is all about competent people. He thinks, publishes, consults, designs and sets up learning and development projects for corporations. His areas of expertise include technology enhanced learning, leadership development and innovation.

Bert has been active in the field of corporate learning and e-learning for the last 25 years, first as instructor and course designer, later as project manager, consultant and business development manager. He worked at IBM Learning Development Europe where he was responsible for commercial e-learning development projects across Europe, and the management of the learning innovation initiatives. Thirteen years ago he joined the Center for Creative Leadership where he is now part of the global innovation team.

Drop in, explore, and be inspired! This interactive Learning Café invites participants to discover and discuss real-world applications of Augmented and Virtual Reality in education, training, and professional development,  in action. In a relaxed, World Café-style setting, You will:

Move between themed tables hosted by practitioners and developers. Try out immersive tools, hear what works and what doesn’t, and share your own ideas.
Whether you  are new to XR or already experimenting, this is a practical, informal space for peer-to-peer exchange, hands-on demos, and future-facing conversation.

With topics ranging from training astronauts to hotel staff, the hosts of this Learning Café have a wealth of experience across multiple industries.

Matthew Day

Instructional Systems Designer, European Astronaut Centre, Germany

Matt has over 25 years experience in the training field across a range of industries, designing, developing and implementing Instructor Led, E-Learning and blended courses. Since 2012 Matt has been employed by Telespazio Germany as an Instructional Systems Designer, working at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. Matt works in the Space Training Team, helping to train Astronauts in preparation for missions to the International Space Station (ISS), and also the ground crew who support their operations. He was instrumental in setting up a video production team at EAC and regularly produces instructional videos for use on ground and in space. Matt is also one of the trainers for the EAC Instructional Techniques Course, which is part of the certification process for Astronaut Instructors at EAC.

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This workshop is designed for post-secondary education professionals who seek to improve their data fluency, to support decision-making related to practices (such as advising, coaching and the use of learning management applications and platforms) that fall under the broad category of student success services. Through interactive exercises and real-world examples, attendees will learn what it takes to convert data into meaningful reports, for institutional improvement and improving student success. Special attention will be given to common challenges in educational data analysis and strategies for building sustainable data practices within institutional contexts. This workshop is for institutional researchers, academic support professionals, student success professionals, program managers and faculty interested in developing a more sophisticated approach to using data for student success initiatives.

Agenda:

Introduction (15 minutes)

Overview of how to leverage data in the service of improving student success, focusing on variables including progress, retention and program completion. This workshop is aimed at using data analytics for decision-support, program evaluation and intervention implementation. It provides an overview of how to leverage data including progress, retention and program completion information.

Interactive Activity (15 minutes):

Discuss data challenges and opportunities in your institution, agency or enterprise with

session participants.

Orientation to Student Success Data (30 Minutes)

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Key concepts in educational data types and sources

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Understanding data quality and validity

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Quick assessment activity: Evaluating data scenarios

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Privacy, ethics, and governance in educational contexts

From Data Literacy to Data Fluency (45 minutes)

·       

What Problems Can Be Solved With Student Data?

·       

Finding Student Data Sources

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Data preparation and cleaning exercise

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Dashboard interpretation

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Pattern recognition in educational data sets

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Group activity: Identifying actionable insights

Break (15 minutes)

Q & A / Discussion (15 minutes)

Research vs. Learning Analytics (15 minutes)

·       

Case studies: When to use each approach

·       

Discussion: Common misconceptions

Action Planning (15 minutes)

·       

Creating a data proficiency development plan

·       

Resource identification and next steps

Wrap-up and Q&amp;A (15 minutes)

·       

Key takeaways

·       

Additional resources

·       

Workshop evaluation

Target Audience:

Participants will see how factors influencing student data provide insight and evidence to support student success decision-making in higher educational settings.

Target Audience Sector:

HIgher Education; Workplace Learning

Prerequisite Knowledge:

Familiarity with basic descriptive research methods; familiarity with institutional research and evaluation methods.

Expected Outcome/s:

Participants will obtain experience working with student data providing insight and evidence to understand and support student success decision-making in higher educational settings.

Ellen Wagner

Managing Partner, North Coast EduVisory LLC

Ellen Wagner is an accomplished learning technology professional with career experiences in academic, commercial, and non-profit organizations. She has worked as a tenured professor and university administrator, was a founding ed tech entrepreneur, a senior executive of publicly traded software companies, a journal editor, and a board member of a number of start-up ed tech companies. Her areas of expertise include ed tech, emerging tech, change management, instructional systems design and learning engineering, and digital learning (online and eLearning).

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Karen Vignare

Vice President, Association of Public Land-Grant Universities (APLU)

Karen Vignare, Ph.D., currently serves as Vice Provost, the Center for Innovation in Learning and Student Success at University of Maryland University College (UMUC) leading the search and evaluation for next generation learning models. The Center for Innovation in Learning serves as the research and development arm of UMUC’s academic organization. Dr. Vignare is responsible for identifying innovations and collaboratively implementing with core teams at UMUC. Areas of experimentation will include adaptive learning, onboarding, prior learning, course design, analytics, e-resources, open educational resources, instructional design changes, competency based models. She has been active in online learning for over 15 years. Karen has published research on online learning in areas such as business models, serving special populations, open education, blended learning, corporate training and data organization. She has a Ph.D. from Nova Southeastern University and a M.B.A from the University of Rochester’s William Simon School of Business.

Erin Czerwinski

Manager, Learning Engineering and TEL Product, Carnegie Mellon University

Erin Czerwinski, is the Manager, Learning Engineering and Technology Enhanced Learning Product, for The Simon Initiative and The Open Learning Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University. Erin also serves on the steering committee of the International Consortium for Innovation and Collaboration in Learning Engineering (ICICLE), has authored several chapters in The Learning Engineering Toolkit (Goodell & Kolodner 2023), and was the Chair for the 2023 ICICLE Conference. Erin has deep expertise defining and using learning science methodologies, best practices, and product quality guidelines to deliver impactful learning experiences. She has over twenty years of experience effectively designing, implementing, evaluating, and improving online courses, curricula, and platforms. Erin has provided curriculum leadership at Western Governors University, and was the Director of Learning Engineering at Acrobatiq, Inc. after serving in a Learning Engineering position with CMU’s OLI. She holds an MS in Education from Duquesne University, specializing in instructional technologies.

This session explores how to build inclusive, tech-enabled ecosystems that empower youth to lead in the intelligent age.

With rising demand for AI and green skills, we’ll discuss how to co-create sustainable learning and work systems where young people are not just participants, but co-designers of a just, human-centred future.

Ali Alam

Co-Founder- Venture Builder & Partner, Operations School

Ali Alam — a founder-turned-venture-builder and investor on a mission to make innovation human-centric, impact-driven, and radically inclusive. With experience building award-winning university-based incubators, designing startup acceleration programs with 21st-century skills needed to thrive in volatility and advising venture funds deploying capital in human growth. Ali has worked across Africa, Europe, and emerging markets to create sustainable learning & innovation ecosystems.

As AI and analytics reshape the learning landscape, L&D teams face increasing pressure to demonstrate impact, often with metrics that fall short. In this interactive roundtable, we’ll challenge the “data-driven” mindset and explore a more balanced approach that blends analytics with judgment, centering on both business outcomes and learner agency.

Through small-group discussion and real-world case examples, we’ll unpack what it means to be data-informed, using metrics as tools for insight, not just accountability. Walk away with a practical impact model, fresh language to influence stakeholders, and strategies to measure what truly matters.

Tracie Cantu

Chief Learning Strategist, Your CLO

Tracie Cantu is Chief Learning Strategist at Your CLO and a recognized authority in learning operations and technology. With two decades of experience leading L&D transformation at organizations such as Meta, Atlassian, and Whole Foods Market, she helps companies modernize their learning functions, scale their impact, and align with business priorities. Tracie brings a sharp focus on strategy, systems, and execution. She helps L&D teams scale their impact, deliver business value, and operate like a strategic business function.