We’re headed to the 2019 National Charter Schools Conference

National Charter Schools Conference: Viva Las Vegas!!!

Can you believe it’s almost time for this year’s National Charter Schools Conference? The Charter School Capital team is packing up and heading to sunny and warm Las Vegas June 30-July 3 for the National Charter School’s Conference being held at the beautiful Mandalay Bay Hotel. The theme of this year’s conference is Reimagining Education and who better to represent that theme than this year’s featured speaker, the founder of Khan Academy, Sal Khan!
We are really looking forward to connecting with—and being inspired by—charter school leaders and school choice advocates from across the country.
Did you know that there will be more than 100 engaging breakout sessions and Sal Kahn, founder of the Khan Academy, will be one of the several inspirational keynote speakers?
If you are planning on attending, we’d love to meet you! Please stop by booth #602 to say hello and claim a pair of our exclusive 2019 #WeLoveCharterSchools socks (while supplies last)!
Additionally, we are honored to have been selected to present an important breakout session at this year’s event and hope you’ll be able to attend:
Play It Safe! Understanding and Implementing the Key Layers of School Safety
Tuesday, 7/2 | 9:00am| Room 378
(If you can’t make it, don’t worry, the session deck will be available online.)
As always, we’ll be sharing as much as possible of this inspiring event on our social channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. We invite you to join the conversation as well by using the hashtags #NCSC19 and #WeLoveCharterSchools so we can help amplify your voice and the voice of the movement!
Learn more about the conference and our session here.
There will be dozens of meet-ups, happy hour events and 100+ breakout sessions in the following programming strands: govern, educate, lead, operate, advocate. The conference officially kicks off on Sunday, June 30, with the welcome reception from 6:00-8:00 pm. Hope to see you in Las Vegas! And don’t forget to stop by our Booth #602 and say hi!

JOIN US AT THE 2018 NATIONAL CHARTER SCHOOLS CONFERENCE

We are excited for you to join us in Austin, Texas, for the National Charter Schools Conference (NCSC18), June 17-20! Did you know they’re expecting nearly 4,500 attendees? There will also be over 260 exhibitors on site who provide the resources and support that help charter schools succeed.
You’ll find all of the vendors in the Exhibit Hall. Please be sure to stop by and visit with us at the Charter School Capital booth (#1307).

Share the charter school love to receive a special prize! It’s as easy as 1-2-3:

Grab the We Love Charter Schools fan (find it in your registration bag)
Take a photo with it using the hashtag #welovecharterschools
Then share on Twitter for a chance to win a special prize!

Also in the Exhibit Hall, you’ll find a Charter Talks stage, including TED Talk-style presentations from school leaders and advocacy thought-leaders, live music, and book chats and signings. They will also be hosting a coffee bar and providing boxed lunches to keep us all fully charged throughout these busy days.
Ready to network? Come to the Happy Hour on Sunday night, 6-8 p.m.! We’ll be there and are looking forward to meeting other fellow charter movement enthusiasts!

We’re honored to be presenting two brand new sessions at this year’s National Charter Schools Conference:

Top Five Financial Mistakes Charter Schools Make … And How to Avoid Them

Monday, June 18 | 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. | Room 12 A/B

Whether your school is growing student enrollment, expanding facilities, or implementing new educational programs, we can all agree that a school’s financial wellness is one of the most important aspects of running a successful charter organization. Without sound financial wellness, schools close, regardless of how successful they were at educating students. Get armed with the right knowledge, techniques, and materials to ensure financial success and learn how to avoid the pitfalls that may cause trouble.

Charter School Budgeting Best Practices: Don’t Just Survive—Thrive!

Tuesday, June 19 | 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Room 12 A/B

Since the opening of Charter School Capital 10 years ago, we’ve reviewed thousands of charter school budgets. Year after year, we see common mistakes many charter schools make when budgeting for their academic year. Hear from charter school finance experts as they give you a breakdown of budgeting best practices to help you have a financially successful academic year. Don’t just survive — thrive!

To learn more about the sessions, set up a 1:1 time to meet with us, or add them to your calendar, click here. And don’t worry, if you can’t be there in person, we’ll be live streaming the sessions on our Facebook page. Be sure to follow us so you don’t miss a thing!

Get the most out of your time at a conference with these handy tips

Before the conference:

Build relationships! If you know of people you want to reconnect with or get to know better who will be attending—clients, vendors, friends-of-friends—reach out a few weeks before the conference to set up a time to meet for coffee or a meal while you’re at the event.
Plan your sessions – Try to attend a range of topics, skill-building sessions, and social events, but make sure to allow for downtime. It’s all about making the most of your time there.
Know which conference social activities you plan on attending ahead of time so you can set up some great networking opportunities!

At the conference:

Connect with the speakers of all the sessions you attend.
Use Google docs to collaborate and share session notes with your team. If time is short, list the “immediate actions” you gathered from your sessions–even just the three key takeaways and any notes on follow-ups you’d like to do on the topic or with the speakers.
Keep a list of vendors you spoke to on the exhibit floor for solutions to future needs. And, so they don’t get lost at the bottom of your swag bag, bring an empty business card case to keep those cards handy for later!

After the conference:

Within a week of returning from the event, send a personal follow-up to everyone you met to let them know you enjoyed meeting them
If you met anyone you specifically want to do business or build a relationship with, set up a phone call or face-to-face meeting.
Not everyone is able to attend conferences in person. Be generous with your new information, inspiration, and contacts you made at the conference by sharing them with your fellow co-workers, colleagues, and friends!

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

The Charter School Capital team is packing up and heading to Washington, D.C. next week, June 11-14. We’re proud to once again be one of the Gold Sponsors of the National Charter School Conference — you can find us in Booth #501 in the Exhibit Hall. And, our team is presenting at two breakout sessions as well.
The theme of this year’s conference is Educate. Innovate. Engage. The content presented throughout the conference has a strong focus on what makes charter schools unique as well as new solutions to many of the common challenges all charter schools face. With so much going on, the theme will be well represented throughout the dozens of meet-ups, happy hour events and 100+ breakout sessions.
Solving challenges starts with sharing ideas. This year’s conference has a number of learning and networking sessions designed to break away from the traditional presentation model. The conference officially kicks-off on Sunday, June 11, with the Unconference which is a participant-determined and facilitated experience. With no script or agenda, the topics discussed will be solely determined by those attending. Attendees are invited to share what they’re learning with the hashtag #unconfNCSC.
Also happening throughout the conference, Charter Talks are similar to a Ted Talks style of short presentations focused on a big, compelling idea (in this case charter schools), and will be held in the Exhibit Hall during the lunch hour. Informal meetings will also be happening throughout the day, designed to bring together specific groups, such as charter school teachers, school board members and education leaders from different regions.
Keynote sessions will include presentations from Nina Rees, the President and CEO of the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools, Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix and board member of many educational organizations, Dr. Steve Perry, Head of Capital Preparatory Schools, and Luis A. Miranda, Managing Partner of the Mirram Group.
Learn more about the conference and our two breakout sessions on our website. Hope to see you in D.C. Stop by our Booth #501 and say hi!

We’re heading back to Washington D.C. June 11-14 for the National Charter Schools Conference put on by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. This the annual conference where charter leaders and those supporting the charter movement come together to share ideas and learn. The Charter School Capital team is excited to continue its long-standing key level sponsorship support for the conference and the national charter school movement.
This year our team is presenting two informative breakout sessions to help charter leaders in both facilities options available and marketing efforts that benefit student enrollment marketing. Our first breakout on Monday, 6/12 is on funding options for facilities “I Need a Better Facility for My School. Now What?” with our President and CEO Stuart Ellis and Mike Morley, President and CEO at American Charter Development. Our second breakout session is on Tuesday, 6/13, “Digital Marketing 101 for Charter Schools – What You Need to Be Successful,” led by our VP of Marketing Kim Brater joined by Michael Barber, Founder and President of barber+hewitt and Scott Kauffman, Partner at Lucid Agency.
This year’s theme is “Educate. Innovate. Engage” to continue with the goals of greater growth for charter schools and offering innovative opportunities for sessions that strive to tackle many of the issues and challenges facing charter school leaders today. Last year’s conference in Nashville had more than 4,500 attendees, 130 breakout sessions and lots of opportunity for connecting with fellow charter leaders. The 2017 conference should be even bigger and better as charter leaders descend upon our nation’s capital.
Check back as our team will continue to share information about the conference on our blog and social media (if you haven’t followed us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other channels check us out). We look forward to seeing you in June at the conference in Washington, DC!

Michael Connelly, Marshall Emerson and Manny Rivera

The Charter School Capital team attended the 2013 National Charter School Conference in Washington, D.C. last week where we met great people in the charter school movement.
At the conference, Charter School Capital was one of the lead sponsors and hosted an engaging breakout session panel discussion with several knowledgable charter school leaders – Marshall Emerson, Manny Rivera and Mike Connelley. We’ve captured a few of their key points below.
Start-up schools and staffing: “Find humble, hungry and smart people…It’s not about the business plan. It’s about getting the entire team on the same page…everyone right down to the crossing guards should be able to talk about the school the same way the CEO does.” – Marshall Emerson, CEO & Co-founder of ICAN Schools
School culture: “You have to foster a great culture to keep staff. Traditional public schools usually pay more, and without the right culture many teachers will move to those schools.” – Manny Rivera, CEO & Founder of Believe 2 Achieve International
Future growth: “As the organization grows, the leader’s job becomes to hire, retain and manage the people who do the job that you used to do…you’re no longer ‘playing man-to-man,’ you’re now ‘playing zone coverage….’ Your biggest question is no longer ‘will I live to fight another day?’ It becomes ‘what do you want to be as you grow-up?’” – Michael Connelly, CEO of Mosaica Education
Learn more about Building a Growth Strategy, by viewing the presentation deck. And be on the lookout for more great advice and answers to the audience’s questions in the coming weeks. We plan to keep this discussion going and hope you will too by contacting a member of our team to learn more. 877-272-1001 or add a comment to this post.