Move Beyond Awareness—Create a Strategic Roadmap for AI Adoption
November 5–6, 2026 – Knoxville, TN
This interactive summit supports Superintendent-led executive leadership teams in moving from AI exploration to intentional implementation. You’ll leave with a clear vision, and a head start on creating a fast start 3- to 9-month action plan that aligns generative AI with your district’s mission, values, and long-term goals.
Why Attend
“AI is revolutionizing how we conduct business in education and will greatly impact teaching, learning and assessments. It carries possibilities and risks, and we must plan for it accordingly.”
– May 2025 Summit participant
What You’ll Experience
Come ready to roll up your sleeves!
- Bring together key decision-makers and stakeholders for protected time to focus on shared planning and alignment.
- Explore how strategic integration of AI capabilities into school district operations is a critical step on the path toward full adoption of AI tools for teaching and learning.
- Gain experience on how to use the CoSN/CGCS K-12 Gen AI Maturity Tool to gauge your district’s current readiness across seven cross-functional domains.
- Work as a district leadership team to build a mission-aligned, three- to nine-month implementation roadmap rooted in insights from the maturity assessment.
- Learn how adopting a change management framework can support stakeholder engagement and leadership accountability, helping to ensure sustainable progress.
- Leave with a clearly articulated rationale and strategy for AI integration aligned with your district’s mission, vision, and values, and a Board-ready presentation outlining goals and next steps.
NEW! Post-Summit Monthly Virtual Roundtables
District teams that attend the Summit have the option of adding on participation in a monthly, facilitated virtual roundtable series beginning after the event. Each session will focus on a strategic topic directly tied to roadmap implementation and will help teams pressure-test plans, navigate common barriers, and learn what’s working in peer districts. The roundtables are designed to extend the value of the Summit by providing ongoing opportunities for collaborative learning and knowledge sharing as districts move from planning to action and work to successfully implement their roadmaps.
Can districts outside TN attend?
Yes, absolutely. While this summit takes place in TN and may have some references to state-specific guidance, it is designed for all K–12 district leadership teams looking to move from AI awareness to strategic adoption.
Who Should Participate
This summit is ideal for district teams in decision-making roles needing the framework and dedicated time to lead strategic AI implementation—especially those seeking to build internal alignment and long-term capacity.
Suggested attendee roles include:
- Executive leadership (Superintendent, Assistant/Deputy Superintendent, or Chief of Staff)
- Technology leadership (CTO, CIO, Technology Director, or IT Coordinator)
- Data and reporting leadership (Data/Assessment Director, SIS or state reporting lead, registrar, or equivalent)
- Operations and purchasing leadership (COO, Business Manager, School Business Official, or procurement lead)
- Instructional leadership (Chief Academic Officer, Curriculum & Instruction leader, Principal, or instructional supervisor)
- Academic technology leadership (Director of Digital Learning, instructional technology coach, media specialist, or edtech coordinator)
Larger teams of five or more with representation in these areas will maximize the benefit of this strategic planning workshop. If there are other individuals in your district who play a meaningful role in AI-related planning or implementation, we strongly encourage you to include them as well.
Our district serves less than 2,000 students. Should we still attend?
Absolutely. The readiness assessment and roadmap activities scale to your context, independent of staffing levels or technical capacity. Smaller districts often have advantages: decisions can move to action more quickly, communication is more direct, and teams can adapt with greater agility. So whether your leadership team is three people or ten, you will leave with a practical, right-sized plan and clear next steps you can act on immediately. We’ve hosted many small districts and helped them to find success.
What Past Summit Participants Are Saying
- “This conference greatly improved our capacity and ability to begin our journey on how the district can begin its roadmap on integrating AI responsibly and effectively.”
– Steven Magno, Director of Student Services, McKinney-Vento Liaison, Peabody Public Schools - “This was an immensely helpful two-day workshop. The information involved in this AI transformation is overwhelming at times, but this workshop helped me get a bird’s eye view, create a roadmap for our next few months as well as our next few years of work, AND dive into some details. An impressive feat for a workshop. It was also really helpful to hear other districts’ roadmaps at the end of the conference.”
– Tina Vanasse, Assistant Principal, Acton-Boxborough Regional School District - “This conference was invaluable to me as a tech director who needs to focus on district readiness for AI in education. Having the opportunity to workshop with your own district team, colleagues from other districts, and experts in the field offered the opportunity to clarify the process, be exposed to other districts process and approach, and access to incredible resources to make the process easier and more approachable. I will leave here ready to create our district stakeholder team and plan to make this an integral part of our district goals formation and revision.”
– Dr. Lisa Roe, CTO, Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School - “One of the greatest benefits of the CoSN AI workshop was the protected time for our leadership team to collaborate. It created the space for us to ensure that our approach to artificial intelligence is not an add-on, but a direct accelerator for our existing strategic plan. The guidance and framework provided were instrumental in helping us build a unified vision and a set of actionable goals for the Madison Consolidated Schools.”
—Dr. Teresa Brown, Superintendent
Presenters
Event Details
Dates: November 5–6, 2026
Venue
Schedule
- Thursday, November 5th: 12:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
- Thursday, November 5th: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. (Reception)
- Friday, November 6th: 8:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. (Breakfast available at 7:30)
Meals
- Lunch provided on November 5th.
- Light appetizers provided during the reception on November 5th.
- Breakfast provided on November 6th.
Bring Your Team
This event is designed for cross-functional district leadership teams. To maximize impact, we strongly encourage districts to send teams of at least three members to collaborate on their AI readiness strategy. A discount will be available for groups of two or more.
Event Registration & Pricing
- Members of CoSN/AESA/AASA/SETDA/TETA: $699 first registrant/$299 for all others from the same district.
- Non-Members: $799 first registrant/$399 for all others from the same district
- Registering a group? You will need to add your team to your organization’s roster prior to registering. For assistance, contact registration@cosn.org
Virtual Monthly Roundtable Participation & Pricing
- Participation is $199 per district (members and non-members). Each district may decide which team members will participate each month based on that month’s discussion topic.
Registration will open soon.
Thank you to our Project Partners:
