Introducing the 2026 Families Learning Conference speaker lineup!

There’s now even more to look forward to at the 2026 Families Learning Conference, happening November 8-11, 2026, in San Antonio, Texas. This year’s attendees will hear from an exciting lineup of mainstage speakers, including leading voices from across the education field as well as bestselling authors.

The 2026 Families Learning Conference promises to provide a powerful learning journey around the importance of bridge building. Whether you’re looking to build bridges between families and technology, between early childhood education and lifelong achievement, or between the communities we have today and the learning ecosystems we can envision for tomorrow, this year’s keynote lineup offers a blueprint for creating those connections and real-world examples of their impact.

The conference kicks off with an opening session featuring Erin Mote, CEO of InnovateEDU and a leading enterprise architect and systems-change strategist who has dedicated her career to transforming American education. Mote will explore how schools and communities can advance AI literacy through a human-centered lens, treating technology not as an end in itself, but as a bridge to greater equity and opportunity for all learners.

Tuesday’s plenary session will feature a fireside chat with HOLT Group CEO and San Antonio Spurs Managing Partner Peter J. Holt. The conversation will highlight Holt’s longstanding commitment to early childhood education and philanthropy, exploring the initiatives he’s championed to expand access to quality early learning experiences for children and families in San Antonio and beyond.

During Wednesday’s closing session, authors Gregg Behr and Ryan Rydzewski will discuss their bestselling book, When You Wonder, You’re Learning: Mister Rogers’ Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, and Caring Kids. Along the way, they’ll explore how families, educators, and communities are following in Mister Rogers’ footsteps, building modern-day “neighborhoods” that equip every child to become the best of whoever they are.

The conference’s 70+ workshops and sessions will also offer opportunities for attendees to learn from education and workforce innovators:

• Dr. Vikki Katz, Founder and Executive Director of the Or Initiative, will present a pre-conference seminar that provides guidance on how educators can strengthen information literacy and digital discernment skills for learners of all ages while creating space for thoughtful, evidence-based discourse about issues that matter.
• Author and youth advocate Hasan Davis, J.D. will also present a pre-conference seminar sharing how community members can use his HOPE framework to positively influence the ways in which youth engage with the education systems that serve them.
• Dave W. Christopher Sr., president and founder of Adventurous Minds Produce Extraordinary Dreams (AMPED) and Sharon Darling Innovation Fund grant recipient, will share how AMPED is integrating multigenerational family learning into their business accelerator model.
• Howard University Professor and author Dr. Ivory Toldson will share insights from his latest book, Possibility and Statistics: How to Use Data to Illuminate Pathways to Success, which offers a new analytical toolkit to redefine how data is used in education and the social sciences.

Additional speaker announcements are expected in the coming weeks; updates will be published here on the conference website.

Don’t miss out on this dynamic group of speakers and the opportunity to connect with a national network of family-facing professionals, researchers, policymakers, and funders at the 2026 Families Learning Conference. Be sure to complete your registration by June 30th to save $50 with early bird pricing!