Justin Barisich is a writer, satirist, poet, performer and former educator in Atlanta. In this piece, he highlights the upcoming Collaborative Leadership Summit, the (co)lab Summit, which features  several great speakers on education issues, including Sir Ken Robinson, whose videos I have posted on the blog.

The two-day conference - Sunday and Monday -- also features one of the founders of online MOOC provider Coursera and education innovators from around the country.

Here is what Barisich has to day about the event:

After a single semester of student-teaching, I was already burned out. I had studied the science of education for four years and passed all of my standardized exams, but by the end of my final performance evaluation, I had long concluded that I would not be adopting the life of a teacher-martyr.

Anticipating a career trajectory with forty-plus years of extreme exhaustion – in a profession that is neither respected as much, nor paid as well, as it should be – had succeeded in pushing me away. And as my brief experience as a classroom teacher is becoming more common, it’s refreshing to hear about a committed group of people who are dedicated to trying to change this.

The enterprising folks over at Leadership Atlanta are seeking to amend this trend of attrition and burnout in talented, promising, future educators. They have orchestrated the inaugural (co)lab Summit, occurring in less than a week in midtown Atlanta, to bring together a wealth of the best experts, authors, and leaders in our nation and beyond to spark some discussion and to ignite some action. Imagine the thematic consistency of a TEDx conference bred with the local focus of Chicago Ideas Week and you’ll have a good idea of what (co)lab is all about, as well as what it hopes to accomplish.

Focusing this year on the areas of “Transforming Education, Attracting and Retaining Talent, and Cultivating Innovation,” (co)lab serves as the perfect cross-section of what Atlanta needs to continue its existence as a great American city and to remain competitive with emerging economies from around the world. The positive domino effect goes like this: the education molds the talent; the talent fuels the innovation; and then innovation paves the way for industry. But if we neglect these connections, the inverted, vastly more depressing trend of industry, innovators, and educators leaving the city will undoubtedly begin its downward spiral.

With anticipated speeches from the education realm by Sir Ken Robinson (a global advisor in education), Bud Peterson (the president of Georgia Tech), Garry McGiboney (from the Georgia Department of Education), and Andrew Ng (the co-founder of Coursera), as well as notable appearances by Kasim Reed (the Mayor of Atlanta), Thomas Friedman (a columnist for The New York Times), David Butler (the VP of Innovation for Coca-Cola), and 50 more speakers, (co)lab hopes inspire a profound, interdisciplinary discourse.

Just as every student yearns to know the WIIFM (“what’s in it for me?”) of a lesson, here’s what the summit will provide its attendees. From (co)lab, you’ll get both inspiration and vision for a better Atlanta. You’ll be investing in your own city and learning from leaders of other successful cities about what makes a great metropolitan area. You’ll have the rare opportunity to network with folks who are also striving to make connections outside their fields of expertise and to push themselves to think differently. And with the discussion-focused labs occurring both throughout and after the summit, all participants will be challenged to think collaboratively about how to apply what they learned from the expert talks specifically to the city of Atlanta. As (co)lab’s marketing director Mike Siegel so simply explains it, “You don’t just attend (co)lab. You actively partake in (co)lab.”

There’s a palpable urge in this city, a feeling that Atlanta wants to see itself grow and improve, and these great minds are coming from near and far to help make that happen. So let us all take this unprecedented opportunity to begin enacting some collaborative changes both within and outside of our education system. Let us learn something together and collectively ensure that our great city will keep fulfilling its citizens and thriving for decades to come.