RIDGE EVENTS LLC

K12 Technology Departments

We serve, help, and support K12 (school district) Technology Departments. It's a lot to explain, but here we go. What is K12TechPro? What is the K12 Tech Talk podcast? What's MidwestTechTalk?

Before K12TechPro, there was MOTechTalk. In 2017, MOTechTalk was a highly technical two day conference event with School District Technology Departments in Missouri in mind. Every detail was planned by folks who work for School District Technology Departments in Missouri. NOT an instructional tech conference – A Tech Department conference. MOTechTalk grew and other states’ K12 Tech Depts started to show up. So, it became MidwestTechTalk in 2020. MidwestTechTalk is (still) a highly technical two day conference event with School District Technology Departments in the Midwest in mind (We get it; one word changed.) with over 300 in attendance. Then, it too grew. In 2022, we added the MidwestTechTalk Security Symposium into the mix. The Security Symposium is a one-day K-12 technology cybersecurity conference event with over 200 in attendance. MidwestTechTalk has annual attendee membership and sponsor membership now as well with 200 members.

In 2020, and in the midst of MidwestTechTalk’s success, Josh Bauman and Chris Warden of the MidwestTechTalk planning committee started the K12 Tech Talk podcast, comprised of weekly episodes concerning all things/issues/trends in K12 technology. Mark Racine from Massachusetts joined in later. The three have interviewed folks from around the nation. At over 100 episodes and 70k+ downloads, listenership continues to grow.

And then came K12TechPro. K12TechPro is the final piece for the podcast, the conferences, and the K12 Tech Dept community to be brought together. Josh, Mark, and Chris are there. Jay Roussin, Eric Martin, and Jason Rooks, also of the MidwestTechTalk planning committee, are there – whipping up articles and legit website stuff (https://k12techpro.com/). Content from the podcast is also posted. Content from the conferences is posted as well.

In 2023, the biggest part of K12TechPro was launched - the K12TechPro Community. We don’t let just anyone into the Community. Only K12 techs get over the wall. We use an application and downright detective work to verify members work in K12 tech. We are literally paying a person to help us with this process. This is important to us. The K12TechPro Community can trust that they are with K12 techs when they join. More info can be found at https://k12techpro.com/community-membership/

In 2023, we also began moderating and vetting the K12sysadmin subreddit on Reddit with over 41k users!

To answer the questions “What is K12TechPro?” and “What is the K12 Tech Talk podcast?” and "What's MidwestTechTalk?" – We are a community of K12 techs. On the podcast Chris likes to say “We are K12 Tech Talk, and so are you.”