ISTELive 2026 in Orlando, Florida is coming up fast! Make the most out of your conference experience.
Success at educational conferences requires intentional planning, professional networking, and strategic self-care to manage long days. Planning ahead is essential to get all you want out of the conference and walk away with measurable outcomes and follow-up actions. Whether an EDU reseller, K12 admin, or an educator searching for the best classroom EdTech or school improvements, there is an abundance of value to take away at ISTE.
Here is your ultimate prep list to make the most out of your 2026 ISTELive experience:
New Attendees: Attend Orientation
If this is your first time at ISTE, attending the orientation ceremony can help you understand the conference themes, structure, organization and opportunities and will help you better navigate the event. This is a great chance to pick up your attendance badge and initially meet with other education enthusiasts you typically wouldn’t be able to before.
Use ISTE Conference App
Every year, ISTE provides an app for the conference available a couple days beforehand with their schedule, booth numbers, and more to easily find your next stop and session. Service and Wi-Fi are notorious to be slow or unavailable since the conference is filled with people and tech companies all vying for internet. Before going into the conference, be sure to favorite the sessions and booths you for certain want to check out to be able to have accessible even with connectivity issues.
Focus on Variety
There is always an array of different sessions and booths that cover basic classroom necessities to AI coverage and interactive makerspace tools. Check the schedule and floor plan beforehand and see if there is anything new you would like to learn about, or something that piques your interest that you haven’t learned before. Each EdTech leader offers special experiences and learning opportunities. Who knows, you might find a new teaching technique that could immensely impact your classrooms that you never heard of before.
Set Clear Goals
Are you hoping to earn CEUs? Discover new exhibitors? Or build your professional network? Define two to three goals for your time at the conference that can be achieved with your planned sessions and interested booths.Your goals should cover different objectives to make sure you get the most out of what you’re experiencing. ISTE can help you build and extend professional contacts, find a mentor or collaborator, gain experience presenting original work, advance your subject matter expertise, extend your knowledge of resources, introduce you to new theory, methods or tools, and more. Don’t limit your goals and be open to learning something new.
Introduce Yourself
Conferences are great ways to engage with your familiar and trusted workmates but make it a point to expand your professional contacts by introducing yourself to at least three new people. If you feel awkward approaching others, walk around with one of your colleagues and approach booths and sessions together. Just remember, everyone presenting and attending booths wants to have conversation with you, whether you have previous subject knowledge or not. They are there for the attendees and are happy to talk.
Don’t forget, always review ISTE’s conference SCHEDULE and FLOORPLAN before hand to map out your experience.
What are you looking forward to the most at ISTELive 2026?
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