Exploring Student Career Success
April 17, 2026
Richland Community College (Decatur, IL)
Virtual Option Available
While there are a lot of education conferences in Illinois, our event is the first one catered to the rural and small school perspective. If you are a rural educator, administrator, or CTE director, this event is designed for you!
For our first conference, our topic of focus is student career success. We will explore the changing technologies such as AI and innovations in agriculture; student career pathways and CTE programming in rural schools; and hear from students and teachers about what works in their own schools.
This event is best experienced in-person. Join us to network with and learn from other rural CTE directors and educators, meet our exhibitors and partners, and participate in a collaborative workshop with our keynote presenter Christian Jackson! You can learn more about Christian on his website.
You will also receive PD hours for the day thanks to our partnership with ROE #26. In-person attendees will receive 6 hours, and online attendees will receive 3 hours.
We will have a virtual live stream for those who cannot attend in person, and virtual materials will be provided to all attendees post-conference. The live stream will only run for the morning presentations, and stop before lunch. The afternoon sessions are interactive and collaborative, so they can really only be experienced in person!
You can register now and view the agenda on our conference website. If you are interested in sponsorship, please visit our sponsor page.
Thank you to our sponsors and exhibitors, be sure to stop by and say hello during the conference:
- CDW-G
- Gaggle
- Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
- Illinois Virtual Schools and Academy
- KU | The University of Kansas
- Learning Technology Center
- Midwest Equipment *Lunch Sponsor!
- Presentation Solutions Inc.
- Quality Network Solutions
- University of Illinois Chicago
- University of Illinois Springfield
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Please contact Hailey Winkleman, AIRSS Director of Communications, with any questions. You can also check out our “Know Before You Go!” session below for an overview of the conference details. Christian Jackson also joined the session to provide a preview of the keynote and workshop!
We can’t wait to see you there!
– AIRSS Team
