The Education Innovation Summit in Scottsdale wrapped up on Wednesday evening. It was a dizzying event: almost 1,400 people and literally more than 150 presentations. We're still trying to make sense of the whole thing--so expect some comments in the days to come.

It was a meeting geared toward investors and entrepreneurs. Perhaps to soften that emphasis, conference organizers, namely Michael Moe and Deborah Quazzo of GSV Partners, created an education award this year that they called the "Return on Education" awards. Life-long awards went to two pioneers:

Bill Milliken, Founder and Vice Chairman of Communities In Schools

Marguerite W. Kondracke, senior advisor to America's Promise Alliance

Read all about them here.

Both Bill and Marguerite have made a tremendous difference for children throughout the U.S. And both referenced the fact that teachers--and relationships--make a tremendous difference for students.

What can we say about the dinner speaker, Andy Kessler, a long-time analyst and writer? Either he tried for a tongue-in-cheek talk and failed--or he genuinely failed to understand education. He's vintage Silicon Valley so we're pretty sure that he can take feedback neat, no ice. So here it comes: Just don't trouble yourself about education, Andy. The industry--meaning both entrepreneurs and educators--can handle this one without you.

There were ten other awards and three startup companies recognized for doing great work. We're tickled pink to announce that our team was awarded the prize for fostering community!

The winners at the launch competition at the conference were:

* Clever

* RaiseLabs

* Storm Wind

And here's the list of other award winners and nominees. Congrats to all!

Category: Partnerships

WINNER: 2U

Academic PartnershipsCoursera edX Middlebury Interactive Languages

Category: Kaizen EDU

WINNER: Chegg

CreativeLIVELearnist MyEdu Corporation Parchment

Category: Learning Infrastructure

WINNER: Edmodo

CleverKaltura LearnSprout, Inc. Toolwire, Inc.

Category: Learning Platforms

WINNER: Knewton

Khan Academy Kno LearnSmart (McGraw-Hill Education) Quizlet Udacity Voxy

Category: Next Generation Content

WINNER: System 44 and Read 180 (Scholastic)

EverFi Lumosity Lynda.com OpenStax College

Category: New Schools

WINNER: Florida Virtual SchoolCharter Schools USA, Inc. Ounce of Prevention Fund/Educare Learning Network Pluralsight Southern New Hampshire University The STEM Academy

Category: ROE Accelerator

WINNER: EdSurge

4.0 Schools Common Sense Media Imagine K12 Learning Technology Media Labs

Category: STEM

WINNER: Dreambox Learning

Codecademy MIND Research Institute Think Through Math TenMarks Education

Category: Teacher Support

WINNER: Teachscape

ClassDojo School Improvement Network Truenorthlogic Turnitin / iParadigms

OVERALL WINNER:

Lynda.com