CanvasConEU 25 - Opening Remarks
Please welcome to the stage Daniel Hill, Managing Director for EMEA and Siddharth Oberoi, VP of Global Strategy. Hello, everyone. Welcome to CanvasCon Europe twenty twenty five. My name is Siddharth Oberoi. I am our head of international here at Instructure. I hope everyone enjoyed that walk on music by the band Karpe.
I hear they are an amazing Norwegian rap group, and I have under good authority that they were actually rapping about the city of Oslo, where we're all here today. So, thank you so much for joining us, and we're excited to dive in. Before I hand it over to Dan, I wanted to take a quick moment to reflect on twenty twenty five, and some of the visual changes that you may have seen to our new brand and our new mission that we're rolling out to the company. Our marketing team has done a phenomenal job in terms of reimagining and re envisioning what our future as an organization looks like, and I'm very excited to share some of that mission and vision with you today before we dive into the content and all of the amazing sessions that you all have prepared. So, what is that mission? Our mission is to help educators and learners prepare for the challenges and opportunities that are ahead of them.
Recognizing that today, individuals and institutions are confronted with a slew of new challenges that really turn around the way that they think about future proofing their institution. The way we help is through providing the technology and the platform that prepares them to address any of those challenges and ensure that we have the ecosystem that is designated to support their journey. So, have a new mission. What about our values? Our values have not changed. Our values still revolve around openness, relationships, equality, ownership, and simplicity.
We believe that through these values, we are best served and designated to address that mission and vision. So, same values, a clearer purpose, all designed to help service you all and the community that we have here today. So, with that, I think it's very important to address some of this new imagery that you're seeing on stage as well. Once again, our amazing marketing team has thought about how do we change some of the dynamics in terms of the way that we speak to institutions and help them understand our evolution from being that Canvas LMS company to being a full platform offering that helps support that full learner life cycle. So, we still have that Canvas Red, the LMS that is designed and designated to help institutions and educators and learners guide their day to day practices.
Some of you are seeing this green for the first time, which is our Mastery brand. Mastery is our assessment engine that powers Canvas quizzes and helps ensure that institutions are able to assess their learners and identify areas for improvement, opportunities that lie ahead of them, and identify the way that you are accrediting individuals themselves. And then, lastly, we have that lovely blue, the Parchment family, that has been part of Instructure for the past two years now. Parchment is our credentialing management solution, which we are focused on ensuring that we turn those credentials into opportunities. Thinking through the way that an individual gains evidence throughout their learner journey and is able to take that into take that with them into the world of employment.
And then, last but not least, if you look to the top, we have our lovely new ambition as an organization, setting potential in motion. We believe that we have a dual responsibility as instructor and you all as educational institutions to work on human potential, identifying that collaboratively, we can work together to make the future brighter for everyone. So, to turn on to a bit of a lighter note, I must say I have had the extraordinary opportunity of traveling the globe this year. I've been in over fourteen different countries, meeting with educators, faculty, learners to really hear about their challenges. How are they tackling the world of AI? How are they addressing lifelong learning in a more meaningful capacity? How are they thinking about the future of employment and what that looks like? And, there's one thing that I can tell you with certainty.
As different as we all are, we're more similar than we are different. We identify that many of the governmental challenges, or technological challenges, or educational challenges that we're all confronted with may be wrought with uncertainty, but we're all addressing them together and collaboratively. And, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the amazing events that we've had across the globe this year as well. We've been in the UK, we've been in Australia, we've been in the Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, and all these events have been phenomenal. To hear from institutions like yourselves, to hear from faculty members like yourselves, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the event today in Oslo is actually going to be the best one.
Are you with me? Yeah. Alright. So, that, a very warm welcome, or a Vel Coleman, to all of you here. Thank you so much for letting us be part of your journey. I'm very excited to say we have over five hundred individuals here with us for CanvasCon Europe twenty twenty five, that represent nearly thirty countries across the globe.
That is an instructor first. We have never had so many different institutions in one room together. So, we're very excited to take the next, you know, eight or so hours with you to walk you through a fun filled day. And with that, I'll turn it over to Daniel. Thank you, Sid, and thank you all for taking the time, effort and energy to be part of CanvasCon Europe twenty twenty five.
Who's excited? Come on. Energy. We need energy. I know I'm excited. It's it's really good to see you all.
As you just heard, my name is Daniel Hill. I'm the managing director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Instructure. And it's my great pleasure and honor to introduce to you today the theme for our conference, Across the Learner Lifecycle. This theme represents the fact that education is no longer a linear pathway. It's dynamic.
And as such, educators, educational institutions, we're all expected to meet learners wherever they may be on their learning pathway. Over the course of today's agenda, what you're going to see is curated content that sits in one of the three buckets that you see on the stage here that we believe represent the entirety of that life cycle. And so we're gonna start with engaging learners and improving outcomes. And for all of us in this room, this has been a constant in our sector. But what's changing is the disruptive technologies, AI and the like, that are changing the how that that's delivered.
How do we engage learners? How do we improve outcomes? And so what excites me about this event, this group is I truly believe this community, our Canvas and Instructure community here in EMEA, we are uniquely positioned across all of our experience to share best practice. To be able to share the stories of how we've been able to improve those outcomes. And I take great honor and pride in the fact that we have a small part to play in facilitating those discussions. We also know that it's not just about engaging learners and improving outcomes. We have a responsibility to prepare those learners for the future world of work.
And that's really hard to do. Right? When we are asking ourselves, how do we give our graduates job ready skills when the very definition of job ready skills is changing minute by minute. So particularly this morning, in our keynote sessions by both doctor Paul Redmond and our product roadmap session with Sharon Zhao and Elizabeth, you're gonna hear about tools, techniques, strategies that will enable us to ensure that our learners can go into the world of work with the best chance for success. And then finally, embracing the lifelong learner. I feel the lifelong learner has been the buzz phrase of twenty twenty five, but it's absolutely critical.
We are seeing now individuals and learners meet our institutions at all stages in their career. And so we're having to ask ourselves questions. How do we address the learner that wants to upskill? How do we address the learner that wants to reskill? Maybe we have someone that's entering tertiary education for the very first time in their life. And so again, over the course of the agenda today, you'll see curated content. We're gonna talk about the EU credentials landscape in some depth.
We've got continuing education strategies. And we also, later today, have a wonderful panel discussion that is going be chaired by CanvasCon royalty himself, Professor Martin Bean. And I am very excited for that session.
I hear they are an amazing Norwegian rap group, and I have under good authority that they were actually rapping about the city of Oslo, where we're all here today. So, thank you so much for joining us, and we're excited to dive in. Before I hand it over to Dan, I wanted to take a quick moment to reflect on twenty twenty five, and some of the visual changes that you may have seen to our new brand and our new mission that we're rolling out to the company. Our marketing team has done a phenomenal job in terms of reimagining and re envisioning what our future as an organization looks like, and I'm very excited to share some of that mission and vision with you today before we dive into the content and all of the amazing sessions that you all have prepared. So, what is that mission? Our mission is to help educators and learners prepare for the challenges and opportunities that are ahead of them.
Recognizing that today, individuals and institutions are confronted with a slew of new challenges that really turn around the way that they think about future proofing their institution. The way we help is through providing the technology and the platform that prepares them to address any of those challenges and ensure that we have the ecosystem that is designated to support their journey. So, have a new mission. What about our values? Our values have not changed. Our values still revolve around openness, relationships, equality, ownership, and simplicity.
We believe that through these values, we are best served and designated to address that mission and vision. So, same values, a clearer purpose, all designed to help service you all and the community that we have here today. So, with that, I think it's very important to address some of this new imagery that you're seeing on stage as well. Once again, our amazing marketing team has thought about how do we change some of the dynamics in terms of the way that we speak to institutions and help them understand our evolution from being that Canvas LMS company to being a full platform offering that helps support that full learner life cycle. So, we still have that Canvas Red, the LMS that is designed and designated to help institutions and educators and learners guide their day to day practices.
Some of you are seeing this green for the first time, which is our Mastery brand. Mastery is our assessment engine that powers Canvas quizzes and helps ensure that institutions are able to assess their learners and identify areas for improvement, opportunities that lie ahead of them, and identify the way that you are accrediting individuals themselves. And then, lastly, we have that lovely blue, the Parchment family, that has been part of Instructure for the past two years now. Parchment is our credentialing management solution, which we are focused on ensuring that we turn those credentials into opportunities. Thinking through the way that an individual gains evidence throughout their learner journey and is able to take that into take that with them into the world of employment.
And then, last but not least, if you look to the top, we have our lovely new ambition as an organization, setting potential in motion. We believe that we have a dual responsibility as instructor and you all as educational institutions to work on human potential, identifying that collaboratively, we can work together to make the future brighter for everyone. So, to turn on to a bit of a lighter note, I must say I have had the extraordinary opportunity of traveling the globe this year. I've been in over fourteen different countries, meeting with educators, faculty, learners to really hear about their challenges. How are they tackling the world of AI? How are they addressing lifelong learning in a more meaningful capacity? How are they thinking about the future of employment and what that looks like? And, there's one thing that I can tell you with certainty.
As different as we all are, we're more similar than we are different. We identify that many of the governmental challenges, or technological challenges, or educational challenges that we're all confronted with may be wrought with uncertainty, but we're all addressing them together and collaboratively. And, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the amazing events that we've had across the globe this year as well. We've been in the UK, we've been in Australia, we've been in the Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, and all these events have been phenomenal. To hear from institutions like yourselves, to hear from faculty members like yourselves, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the event today in Oslo is actually going to be the best one.
Are you with me? Yeah. Alright. So, that, a very warm welcome, or a Vel Coleman, to all of you here. Thank you so much for letting us be part of your journey. I'm very excited to say we have over five hundred individuals here with us for CanvasCon Europe twenty twenty five, that represent nearly thirty countries across the globe.
That is an instructor first. We have never had so many different institutions in one room together. So, we're very excited to take the next, you know, eight or so hours with you to walk you through a fun filled day. And with that, I'll turn it over to Daniel. Thank you, Sid, and thank you all for taking the time, effort and energy to be part of CanvasCon Europe twenty twenty five.
Who's excited? Come on. Energy. We need energy. I know I'm excited. It's it's really good to see you all.
As you just heard, my name is Daniel Hill. I'm the managing director for Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Instructure. And it's my great pleasure and honor to introduce to you today the theme for our conference, Across the Learner Lifecycle. This theme represents the fact that education is no longer a linear pathway. It's dynamic.
And as such, educators, educational institutions, we're all expected to meet learners wherever they may be on their learning pathway. Over the course of today's agenda, what you're going to see is curated content that sits in one of the three buckets that you see on the stage here that we believe represent the entirety of that life cycle. And so we're gonna start with engaging learners and improving outcomes. And for all of us in this room, this has been a constant in our sector. But what's changing is the disruptive technologies, AI and the like, that are changing the how that that's delivered.
How do we engage learners? How do we improve outcomes? And so what excites me about this event, this group is I truly believe this community, our Canvas and Instructure community here in EMEA, we are uniquely positioned across all of our experience to share best practice. To be able to share the stories of how we've been able to improve those outcomes. And I take great honor and pride in the fact that we have a small part to play in facilitating those discussions. We also know that it's not just about engaging learners and improving outcomes. We have a responsibility to prepare those learners for the future world of work.
And that's really hard to do. Right? When we are asking ourselves, how do we give our graduates job ready skills when the very definition of job ready skills is changing minute by minute. So particularly this morning, in our keynote sessions by both doctor Paul Redmond and our product roadmap session with Sharon Zhao and Elizabeth, you're gonna hear about tools, techniques, strategies that will enable us to ensure that our learners can go into the world of work with the best chance for success. And then finally, embracing the lifelong learner. I feel the lifelong learner has been the buzz phrase of twenty twenty five, but it's absolutely critical.
We are seeing now individuals and learners meet our institutions at all stages in their career. And so we're having to ask ourselves questions. How do we address the learner that wants to upskill? How do we address the learner that wants to reskill? Maybe we have someone that's entering tertiary education for the very first time in their life. And so again, over the course of the agenda today, you'll see curated content. We're gonna talk about the EU credentials landscape in some depth.
We've got continuing education strategies. And we also, later today, have a wonderful panel discussion that is going be chaired by CanvasCon royalty himself, Professor Martin Bean. And I am very excited for that session.