The Clackamas ESD technology services team coordinated and hosted a highly successful regional conference March 7 and 8 focused on Synergy, the student data system used by about 80 percent of Oregon school districts. Nearly 400 IT professionals, district registrars and other Synergy users from Oregon and Washington attended the 2024 Pacific Northwest Synergy Users Conference, an annual event to share information and support, and learn more about Synergy’s capabilities. Several representatives of EduPoint, the company that provides Synergy, were on hand, but most sessions were presented by district teams who offered first-hand learning on dozens of topics to help colleagues — particularly those new to their roles — maximize use of this data tool.

“There continues to be a lot of turnover in key district positions, so people at the conference had varying levels of experience in using Synergy,” said Jeremy Pietzold, Clackamas ESD chief information officer. “Synergy has a lot of helpful modules many people haven’t been trained to use, so this annual user conference provides great opportunities to learn about the system’s analytical power.”

A major focus of the conference was artificial intelligence. Next year’s version of Synergy will include AI features. Attendees were eager to learn how these new features will improve Synergy by making multiple tasks more efficient, and expand the tool’s already expansive capabilities. Teachers, for example, will be able to save time in communicating with families by harnessing AI messaging support.

This year’s conference also included a dedicated track for those who deal with the many additional data requirements for students enrolled in special education programs.

“This was the largest Northwest Synergy conference ever, and we had a waiting list of 100 additional people wanting to attend,” Pietzold said. “Our whole team, especially Assistant Director Chris Kolb and Administrative Assistant Marianne Knapp, really stepped up to make this conference a meaningful opportunity to better use an important data system that is so heavily relied on in our school districts.”