Addressing the Challenges of the Future of Education Head on What to Expect at the 15th Edition of GESS Dubai

DUBAI, UAE, NOVEMBER 2022

More than 6,000 education professionals from over 70 countries and over 300 leading education brands are set to converge in the 15^th edition of GESS (Global Educational Supplies and Solutions) Dubai, happening from November 15 to 17 at Sheikh Saeed Halls, Dubai World Trade Centre. The free to attend event is still open for registration via www.gessdubai.com.

Organized by Tarsus in partnership with the Ministry of Education and held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai, GESS Dubai has been the leading education conference and exhibition in the Middle East region for the past 15 years. This year’s edition aims to address the growing and evolving demands of the 1.5M students in the GCC region, providing educators with access to products and solutions from global brands and insights from the world’s thought leaders that would allow them to meet the needs of the modern classroom and transform the way students learn.

CONFERENCE

The most highly anticipated parts of the conference are the three days of inspirational and innovative content with extensive streams of seminars, live case studies, workshops and panel discussions designed to help educators achieve excellence in their classrooms.

In the Future Transformation Room, thought-provoking topics on how to leverage technology will be tackled with notable experts on the field. These include:

• “Transferable skills in Esports and the impact it can have on lessons” by Michael Bradbury, Head of Game Design and Esports at Gems FirstPoint
• “NFTs & The Registrar: Transcripts, Report Cards, and Diplomas” by Jessica Lee, Curriculum Coordinator at American Creativity Academy, and Dr. Claire Shea, Deputy Superintendent at American Creativity Academy
• “Avatar Theory & The Psychology of Virtual Identities” by Steve Bambury, Web3 and Metaverse Consultant
• “Emerging Tech Integration in K12 – Why? When? How?” by Sreejit Chakrabarty, Director – Artificial Intelligence & Robotics at GEMS Education

Another room that is a key interest area is the Wellbeing Room, designed to offer inspiring wellbeing, SEN and Early Years talks that will outline the latest international research and techniques to help educators learn how to boost, motivate and inspire both themselves and their students. Educators can attend talks on topics such as:

• “The Art of Being Brilliant” by Sanj Sandhu, Happiness researcher, author & trainer at Art of Brilliance
• Panel: Well-being or Super-being?  By Dr. Helen Wright, Kathryn King and Rebecca Coulter
• “Wellbeing – The link between health and wellbeing to attainment” by David Cook, Headmaster at Repton Dubai
• “Educating 1 million by 2023 on Healthy and Sustainable Diets with Spinneys’ Farm to Table Program” by Sophie Corcut, Sustainability Manager at Spinneys

Among the tracks of GESS 2022 is the The Global Learning Room, which will cover key international education issues and solutions like:

• “The Role of Education Quality in National Economy” by Prof. Nayyaf Aljabri, Director General of Research and Data at Education and Training Evaluation Commission
• “Data for school improvement” by Zen Khan, Head of Business Development Education Perfect & Partner Zen Professional Development
• “Toward a Cyber-psychology in the era of eLearning” by Dr. Jeza Alosaimi, Educational Supervisor at the Ministry of Education

The Leaders in Education Conference, is a two-day professional development programme where sessions look at the challenges and skills required to succeed in senior positions. Some talks to look forward to are: 

• Panel Session: Leadership as a solution to modern educational challenges by Elina Khannanova, Dr. Shaun Conway, Anna Molero and Armands Murnieks 
• “Is the Lens of School Marketing Broken?” by Simon Noakes, Founder/CEO of Interactive Schools
• “When is the Metaverse better than real life for learning?” by David Judge, Executive Creative Director at Space Zero
• “Designing in the Desert – solutions towards a carbon neutral school” by Ian Bogle, Creative Director at Bogle Architects
• “Lessons from an International Leadership Journey” by Dr. Steffen Sommer, Director General at Misk Schools
• “Reimagining Education with Citizens” by Dr. Adil Alzarooni, Chairman of Citizens School

The Skills Development Training, a fresh feature for this year’s show will be a series of certified and in-depth workshops designed for educators looking to skill up their toolset and will include:

• “Developing a culture of safeguarding and child protection in school” by Mike Glanville, Chief Safeguarding Officer at The Safeguarding Company
• “Positioning yourself for a school leadership role: why and how” by Dr. Helen Wright, Director at Global Thought Leadership
• “Can You Program A Humanoid Robot? Yes You Can!” by Dennis Kambeitz, CEO of EZ-Robot

Finally, a new space for 2022, the Growth Mindset Room promises to unpack benefits of learning from mistakes, embracing change and adapting gracefully to setbacks for better education outcomes. The speakers include: 

• “Sustainable Support for Middle Level Leaders” by Dr. Jennifer Ricks, Director of Learning at American Community School of Abu Dhabi
• Panel session: Talent acquisition and professional development pathways by Naima Navsa, Dr. Lina Lewis, Dr. Maha Bawazir and Pam Mundy
• “The Frustrated Middle Leader – Empowering Middle Leaders to Turn Theory into Practice” by Liam Stewart, Primary Manager – Training and School Review at Aldar Training Academy, Aldar HQ
• “Digital Rosenshine” by Aneil Peswani, Head of Digital Learning at St Christopher’s School

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Two additional stellar bookings making their way to the UAE for the first time are the eponymous founder of robhouben.com, Rob Houben, and Gavin McCormack, Co-Founder of the Up-School. Houben will be recounting the trials and accomplishments from his journey of building 20 Agora schools in The Netherlands and Belgium, imparting lessons applicable to all curricula. McCormack, a trained Montessori teacher, children’s author, philanthropist and school principal, will be covering topics such as educational reform with a strong emphasis on Montessori within the household: creating harmony between the school and home environments in order to enhance young adults’ potential.

EXHIBITION

Among the international exhibitors expected to be present at GESS Dubai are Microsoft, Schoolbox, OneOrigin, Soundtrap for Education by Spotify, Promethean, Amazon Web Services, Intel Corporation, Toddle, Viewsonic and more. This year will also see the largest showcase of American and Canadian companies with the likes of EZ-Robot, SMART Technologies, TehnoKids Inc, Notion Wave, Scholastic Inc, Classlink, Edpuzzle, Cypher Learning, Nearpod, Piedmont Payment Services, Speechace, Van Robotics, VIRCO USA, Amplify and Compro Technologies; and the Start-up Pavilion, with new companies bringing their one-on-a-kind technologies to the show.

In line with its theme of Shaping the Future of Education, educators will get the chance to explore the latest learning tools and technologies from cloud ecosystems, virtual communities, educational and wellbeing apps, robotics, online learning platforms and systems, teaching and research platforms, and more.

Among the exciting products educators can discover at the conference are English AcadeMe+ by Row-9 Digital, a unique film-based English language learning platform that uses select scenes from Hollywood films to teach English language skills like reading, writing, comprehension and speech; Edpuzzle, an easy-to-use platform that helps teachers create interactive video lessons and is used in 190 countries; demos from Bookr Class learning app, and Wizenoze solution, which give access to the best online educational content, curated and matched to curriculum, age and reading level from Alpha Publishing; Pitch Perfect from Young Leaders Academy, an online learning platform designed to help schools bring the amazing life-skill of public speaking in to their school; EZ-Robot that has created easy to use robots and robotics platforms accessible to all with zero or any skill level; and more.

AWARDS

Another highly anticipated part of the event is the celebration of the education industry’s brightest at the GESS Education Awards. Divided into two sections: one for Suppliers and Distributors and another for Teachers, Schools and Educational Professionals, the awards will be held on November 16 where the winners for the year will be announced.

REGISTER FOR FREE

Registration for GESS Dubai is free and can now be done online at www.gessdubai.com, giving education professionals access to all three days of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accredited conference programmes and exhibition.