From Dinner to Group Text Chat to AI Support Group

What started as a casual dinner conversation among a handful of education leaders became a daily group text and, eventually, an informal support network for district leaders navigating AI. As AI moved faster than traditional professional learning, policies and conference cycles, superintendents, technology leaders and innovators faced the same questions: Which tools can we trust? How do we create guardrails without slowing innovation? How do we help educators adapt? What does responsible implementation look like? This session tells the story of how district leaders, county office leaders and AI practitioners built a real-time learning community centered on honesty, collaboration and shared problem-solving. Explore why traditional professional learning couldn't keep pace, how peer-to-peer learning accelerated implementation, and how trusted networks help leaders move from uncertainty to action. Learn how to build psychological safety around innovation and leave with practical strategies for launching your own AI support group that sustains innovation long after the conference ends.