Lifestyle Learning

My Electrifying Adventure at SXSW EDU: Part One

My name is Paris Gamble. I and my Cofounder, Dr. Anthony DePass, make up a startup Edtech company called Lifestyle Learning (https://lifestylelearning.com/). Our mission is to empower individuals at every stage of their academic and professional journey by providing innovative tools, resources, and guidance for career exploration, educational success, and workforce transitions.

Many of my friends and colleagues have never attended SXSW EDU and always ask me “What was going on” and “What did I see”.

As a result, I am continuing something I started a couple of years ago by writing a recap of my experience at SXSW EDU in Austin. SPOILER ALERT – I had a GREAT time, met some AMAZING people, was part of some OUTSTANDING conversations, and I LEARNED quite a bit. You will learn more about those things later in my writeup. I am breaking my writeup into multiple parts, this is Part One.

Day One – Sunday 3/2

Went to the SXSW EDU 2025 Early Bird Social. I met Michael J. Cooper and Bryan Ferguson of Aware Security Consultants out of Deerfield IL, that were part of the Allstate delegation. Both were x-police officers and extremely committed to school security. We had a very engaging conversation that started with school security and moved to Career Exploration.

I met Dr. Lizzy Perez and Celina Canales of Lizzy Perez LLC (AMAZING ladies). They are doing work in the mentoring and professional development space. They are a startup. Lizzy is a past educator, and Celina has extensive experience in mental health. Our conversation focused on their origin story and how passionate they are about helping people with their work.

Guerilla Tactic #1 – Each year I spend time before the conference officially starts posting postcards about Lifestyle Learning and our products (Career Navideer (https://careernavideer.com/), Student Success Modules (https://lluniversity.thinkific.com/), and Transition Navideer (https://transitionnavideer.com/). While I was doing that, I met Ela Ben-Ur of Innovators’ Compass who was putting out stickers. Her company creates free content for educators and others to use to start conversations. She starts with Five questions to move us forward.

Guerilla Tactic #2 – When you are SXSW EDU, TALK to people! This is the one education-based conference where you can strike up a conversation with a VC, teacher, principal, college president, state representative, foundation program manager, non-profit executive or for-profit executive and you won’t be stonewalled.

The last person I met on my way out of the “Social” was a gentleman from the Twin cities. His focus was on AI and data.

Time Management Tactic #1 – Many of the sessions you will be interested will be offered at the same time. You must determine which one to go to in advance as early as possible. Popular sessions fill up fast.

Stay tuned for more insights and experiences from SXSW EDU in the upcoming parts of my recap!

Recap of SXSW EDU 2024

Last week I attended SXSW EDU. I have been attending since 2016. Below is a recap of my experience.

I would like to highlight the work done by ECMC through their campaign. Their survey results made a very strong case for the need for our career exploration product, Career Navideer.

Our flagship product, Career Navideer (https://careernavideer.com/) continues to resonate with the people we talked to at the conference. Career Navideer is a powerful career exploration platform that provides students with personalized guidance and resources to help them make informed decisions about their future careers.


I attended the “Empowering Education and Social Leaders through Better Applications” breakout session. The discussion was very insightful. It was refreshing to hear organizations that fund Edtech companies through their accelerator programs talk about a framework to make the application/submission process more streamlined and understandable. I was very impressed with the discussion of how impactful feedback could be provided to applicants who were not selected. I would like to give special kudos to Daniel Stein-Sayles. I had a follow up conversation with him later and came away feeling that he and the consortium of organizations that put on this session really understand the pain of startup companies who devote time and effort to submit applications. I hope all similar programs will institute this framework.

I attended “Promise & Peril: The Potential of Our Community Colleges. The speakers did an outstanding job of laying out how our Community Colleges can best serve their students. There was a discussion of partnerships with 4-year institutions, corequisite courses and earn to learn models. Examples of Community Colleges doing a great job were given as well. Two things stuck with me: 1) integrate career centers into every program on campus and 2) most students that attend Community Colleges want a bachelor’s degree. I hope other Community Colleges move to some of the models discussed.

I attended the “Hide & Seek: Find, Train, Place & Support Hidden Workers” session. I found the session very informative about “hidden” workers and what they need to be successful. Two things stuck with me: 1) some employers hire for attitude (passion), not aptitude and 2) skills-based hiring may be good a first job, but not a career.

I attended the “Build, Buy, or Partner: HBCUs & Tech Innovations” breakout session. I was very impressed with some of the partnerships with HBCUs that were used as examples in the discussion. The work that Dr. Manicia Finch is doing at South Carolina State is outstanding. Cecelia Marshall did a good job of explaining and tying everything together.


I attended the “Reimagining CTE & How Industry Can Support WBL for Students” session. Lisa Dughi gave a very good overview of how under resourced high school populations can be helped.

I attended the “Reimagining Workforce Development: Bridging the Skills Gap” session. Juanita Soranno and Pete Selden did an excellent job of demonstrating how to bridge the skills gap by utilizing partnerships with Community Colleges. One thing that stood out was how a Community College could partner with state and non-state agencies to address non-academic or skill needs like rent, food insecurity, etc.


For the first time I participated in a roundtable session. I attended, “Designing EdTech for Educators & Students” session. Each table was assigned mentors that would lead or facilitate discussion. Every so many minutes the mentors would move to different tables. The discussions at my table included: 1) how to find a cofounder, 2) how to do research, 3) funding and 4) how to build product for an audience.



The format for this session was that of a meetup. Each table had people who would give information about the work their organizations were doing in specific areas. It was a great meetup. I met quite a few people doing amazing things in the space.

I attended the, “Savior or Disruptor?: Non-Degree Credentials & Higher Ed” session. The work being done at the University of Texas by Lydia Riley and Wake Tech Community College by Anthony Caison is outstanding. Things that stood out included: 1) the one college approach, 2) getting faculty buy in for teaching non-degreed courses, 3) moving the career center into the non-degreed area of a college and 4) employers say that will hire based on skills, but job descriptions and hiring practices have not changed.

I attended, “A Nontraditional Approach to Bridging the Skills Gap” session. Terah Crews of ReUp Education presented a problem I dare say many are not aware of. How do you identify and recruit students that left your university without a degree or credential to come back. She elegantly lays out a narrative of how many there are and the impact if these people could be convinced to return to education.

For the first time I served as a one-on-one mentor at SXSW EDU. I thoroughly ENJOYED the experience! I spoke to Ben Resnick of GMAT for Business School, Randall Fullington of the University of Colorado Boulder, Dennis Dahlmann of GetScale, Shiloh Burton of the National Hispanic Cultural Center. I hope I was able to be a sounding board and provided some answers tto the questions they had. Take the time to reach out to them on Linkedin and find out more about what they are doing, or want to do.

Amazing Change Makers I met or reconnected with.
I reconnected with Joshua Marks of Hip Hopportunity. He is continuing his work of using Hip Hop to connect young people to financial education. He has made some great progress since I first met him last year.
I met Tedrick Holmes of the Houston L.E.A.D. Preparatory Academy. He is putting in a school for Special Needs children. It was a pleasure to meet him. I have a heart for teachers and others that are making the lives of Autistic and other students with special needs better.
I met Leila Nuland of Hanover Research in the Mentor room.
Others I met include Elizabeth Kosop, Aatash Parikh, Katie Dumai, Carlisha Harris, Nathan Levin-Aspenson and Kirk Banghart.

Things I felt were missing.
There are too many sessions on skilled-based learning that do not include job recruiters, HR system implementers, small business owners. Typically, I see large company CEOs or other high ranking officials representing the hiring -side of this argument. We have to go a bit lower. We need to present why businesses say they want skills-based but continue to hire the old way. To do that you must include the people that are in the trenches. My area of expertise is in the implementation and use of HR systems. Please reach out to me ([email protected]) if you would like to broaden this conversation.
While there were several stem-based presentations what was missing was data and evidence of efficacy. There is an entire discipline around the interventions that are successful in getting more students from all groups to enroll and succeed in completing a STEM degree and go on to working in a STEM job. Understanding Interventions (https://understandinginterventions.org/) creates training and venues to develop research based on outcomes from STEM interventions as well as the ability to publish and cite this work. Dr. Anthony DePass is the executive director and a noted expert in this field. Please reach out to him if you would like to broaden your discussions on this subject.

MY WEEK at SXSW EDU!

My name is Paris Gamble and I am Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder) of Lifestyle Learning (https://lifestylelearning.com/). I have attended SXSW EDU from 2016-2019, 2022 and this year. I believe I am qualified to give a good recap on how SXSW EDU 2023 went.

In previous years of attending SXSW EDU in person I would recap my experience for Darron Lamkin (Executive Director of the non-profit Class Matters) and others I knew to pass on the knowledge I had gained and to the explain the vibe of the conference. If you are not familiar with Lamkin or Matters, check them out at https://class-matters.org. Last year was the first time I posted my recap for others to see.

My business partner, Dr. Anthony DePass and I attended this year. Dr. DePass and his non-profit, Understanding Interventions, do fantastic work collating and organizing successful interventions towards getting more students of color pursuing degrees. Please check out his work on http://www.understandinginterventions.org.

This year we introduced Transition Navideer (https://transitionnavideer.com). This powerful tool provides a comprehensive and personalized approach to career transition, offering a wide range of resources and support to those looking to make an informed career change and achieve their goals.

I always feel encouraged at SXSW EDU because the people that attend are easy to talk to and the vibe is always about how things can be better.

I want to highlight some of the amazing people (my apologies in advance for missing some people) and companies that I talked and saw in Austin: Aaron McLoud (Intervene K-12), Niyoka McCoy (Stride), Sarah Fryar (Edinno), Tomika Brown (EMC’s The College Place), Timothy C. Thompson (Tuscany Strategy Consulting), Darcy Hardy (Anthology Inc.), Brian Moon (PerigeanTechnologies), Sinclair Wu (RightOn Education), Rico R. Reed (University of South Carolina), Joshua Marks (Hip Hopportunity LLC), Drew Milner (Cygnus Education), Carlos Reyes (Newark Public Schools), Zakk Black (The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research), Patrick Waldo (Unicornforms), Girija Ramapriya (Brazen Learning), Derrick Wesley (Directed Analytics), Serena Deutch (Vela Education Fund), Stephen Schwartz (ChanceLight), Joe C***a (GrayVyne), Mareeka Dookie (Empatico), Larissa Bennett (Rye Consulting), US Currency Education Program, Lisa Thompson (Prairie View A&M University), Nathan Stewart (TimelyMD), Taco Bell Foundation, Kid-grit, Roadtrip Nation, LearnPlatform, WorkingNation, Hassan Hassan (4.0), Tracey Clark (4.0), and Lereca Monik (4.0).

I would like to highlight the work done by ECMC through their campaign. Their survey results made a very strong case for the need for our career exploration product, Career Navideer.

Our flagship product, Career Navideer (https://careernavideer.com/) continues to resonate with the people we talked to at the conference. Career Navideer is a powerful career exploration platform that provides students with personalized guidance and resources to help them make informed decisions about their future careers.

Below are a few sessions I attended that resonated with me:

Expanding Pathways in Postsecondary Education – This breakout session was excellent in providing both points of view and disseminating key information from surveys and studies about pathways. Key tidbits included if students don’t see opportunities before they exit middle school, they shut down.

Modern Learning: Future Possibilities for K12 – A good session focused around meeting students where they are and the use of game-based learning.

College Debate: Elevating Student Perspectives – The highlight of this session was the GenX panelists. They provided a point of view regarding college, debt, and postsecondary education. It was a very interesting dialogue.

Insights from the Out-of-System Space – This was an excellent session bringing the perspectives of founders creating educational spaces outside of the norm.

Wanted: Access to Career Connections for Teens – The speakers were excellent! Very good perspectives and points of view on this topic.

Investor Talk: Skills, Employability, and Pathways – I was extremely impressed by experience and awareness of each speaker. Part of the discussion summarized where we were pre-pandemic, during the pandemic and after. It was really eye opening.

During the conference we heard the message more and more that there must be better ways to increase postsecondary education success for students. Our product, Student Success Modules are online educational modules designed to help students achieve postsecondary success. Topics include: Academic Success, Success, Memory Skills, Goal Setting, Effective Communication, Time Management, Critical Thinking, Note-Taking, Decision Making, Ethics, Information Literacy, Financial Literacy, Financial Planning, and Career Planning.

The attendees, vendors, sponsors, and SXSW staff are so NICE and open to discussion.

If you get the chance to go to SXSW EDU next year, take advantage. I guarantee you will come away with renewed energy from talking to others that are trying to solve problems in Education. The passion some of the young people have that attend cannot be matched.

Help Lifestyle Learning choose their next business card!

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Looking for innovative online Student Success Curriculum for post-secondary education students? Check us out!

https://lluniversity.thinkific.com/

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Recap of SXSW EDU by Paris Gamble - Lifestyle Learning® In previous years of attending in person I would recap my experience for Darron Lamkin (Executive Director of the non-profit Class Matters) and others I knew to pass on the knowledge I had gained and to the explain the vibe of the conference. If you are not familiar with Darron Lamkin or Cl...

Check out this article written about choosing the correct career path.

Clear Choices Lead to Clear Pathways Antonio Boyd explores the potential of college and career readiness tools like Career Navideer.

Looking for beta testers for a NEW Career Transition tool!

Lifestyle Learning is looking for people interested in getting a first look at our Career Transition tool and providing some early feedback. We are excited to share this with the world, but we need your help!

Transition Navideer is an online platform that will allow users to explore their skills, abilities, and knowledge to identify potential careers they may be interested in pursuing.

This platform will also provide information about how those skills translate into different occupations so that people can make informed decisions about what they want their next step in life to be.

If you're interested in being one of our first testers simply If you are interested, please reply with your best email address or reach out directly to [email protected].

Looking for beta testers for a NEW Career Transition tool!

Lifestyle Learning is looking for people interested in getting a first look at our Career Transition tool and providing some early feedback. We are excited to share this with the world, but we need your help!

Transition Navideer is an online platform that will allow users to explore their skills, abilities, and knowledge to identify potential careers they may be interested in pursuing.

This platform will also provide information about how those skills translate into different occupations so that people can make informed decisions about what they want their next step in life to be.

If you're interested in being one of our first testers simply If you are interested, please reply with your best email address or reach out directly to [email protected]