Elliot Masie, learning impresario, conference curator & promoter, and all around tech ed consultant, has been doing his “Learning” conferences for years now, and they keep getting bigger and more comprehensive, if not less expensive to attend.
Mr. Masie intrigues because he’s clearly a promoter that could be “selling” anything, he owns thoroughbred horses, is a producer/investor in Broadway shows including the TONY Award Winning Kinky Boots, as well as An American in Paris, Macbeth, Allegiance, Unknown Soldier, SpongeBob the Musical and more.
He heads The MASIE Center, a Saratoga Springs, NY think tank focused on how organizations can support learning and knowledge within the workforce. He leads the Learning CONSORTIUM, a coalition of 200 global organizations cooperating on the evolution of learning strategies, including CNN, Walmart, American Express, Walmart, Emirates Airline, Starbucks, General Electric and Fidelity Investments.
So he’s extremely well-connected in establishment circles, and an effective and sincere promoter of Ed Tech, and educational disruption. It’s probably a plus that he’s not working for a university, or the feds, or directly for a big tech company…his approach opens up a set of possibilities and potentials that those others might not “cover”. Maybe an “only in America” character.
At his best, he’s a reminder that learning reform and innovation is not just something we should depend on established educational institutions to lead. Masie definitely leans toward learning reform as part of what an enterprise does, part of workforce training and development. We’ll need that component to overcome status quo bureaucratic obstruction that has slowed and limited educational reform in the US for the last 50 years.
Here’s Elliot giving his 8 minute elevator speech. (slow elevator). Wonder if that background with the bright light leaking in through the blinds on both sides of him, was a conscious choice for shooting this video…or just what was there? Same question for the bright orange shirt…which attracts the eye…was that chosen for a reason, or just what he had on that day?