Over 140 attendees from across the country traveled to Phoenix, AZ to attend Connect 2025. It was a time filled with education and connection - let's take a look at some of the highlights of the week!
Keynote
To start off the conference , attendees and the Heartland School Solutions team gathered for the Keynote event hosted by Vice President of Business Development, Rosemary Orliss and Senior Director of Client Services, Josh Paynter.
With all of the changes and challenges being faced in the K12 school industry this year, the importance of addressing those changes together, and finding solutions to support our partners and customers is more important than ever. Rosemary and Josh discussed how collaboration and innovation, like the introduction of AI to our Mosaic BOH solution, will help us to prepare for the ever changing future.
To wrap up, Strategic Partnership Manager, Jeff Olek, and Sales Rep, Kim Lane, discussed the importance of strong partnerships by introducing some districts that were hosting classes during this year's conference.
Most popular classes of 2025
This year at Connect there were many great classes offered, and there was something for everyone! Take a look at just a few of the most popular classes this year:
- Birds of a feather | Let’s talk MySchoolBucks
In this session attendees had a chance to meet with some members from the product team, sales, and trainers, to discuss some of the top challenges districts were facing, and learned best practices for how to resolve them.
- Mosaic POS | Beyond Basic: How to become an A+ Mosaic Student
During this class, attendees gained insight from a trainer on useful tools such as how to customize district settings, notifications, and how to utilize our resource center to find even more helpful information.
- MCS Edison | The bread and butter: Create and manage your Items
In this popular MCS session, trainers taught attendees best practices on how to create different items from scratch within the system and how to update existing items.
“The staff always goes above and beyond to help. They were very informative."
- Brandi
Biggest takeaway
Learning and growth are always at the forefront of Connect, but this year it seemed even more-so with the offer of new courses. According to one of our Heartland trainers, Michael Pazica, “I thought the District lead classes were really engaging and informative. We have some of the best conversations when it was the district leading the talk. We can only talk about our perspectives so much, but when schools hear other schools talking about things, sometimes it just clicks.”
The 20-minute lightening round sessions also provided new opportunities to discuss topics that haven’t always made it onto the agenda in years past. Whether a Heartland team member or an attendee, everyone had the chance to learn from one another, which made this year’s Connect one of the best yet!
“Connect is a very powerful and appropriate title for the conference. Being about to learn and grow with other school districts is probably the most valuable aspect for me."
- Stacy