What a weekend in Niagara Falls. Two days on the Parkway, thousands of people, and a prize wheel that barely stopped turning. Here is what it actually looked like.
On September 12 and 13, the Niagara River Parkway closed to traffic and turned into a dance floor. Salsa at Niagara Falls brought thousands of people together across two stages, and Connect Education was there both days as an exhibitor.
For us, the weekend was really about community
Community is something we talk about a lot. There is something genuinely special about watching people come together through music, culture, dancing, food and local businesses, all in the same few hundred metres of park.
The festival itself is a proper production. More than 300 performers across the TLN Stage and the Univision Canada Stage, free dance lessons running all day for people who had never tried, a Latin food market down the length of the site, and fireworks over the falls to close out each night.
Over 21,000 steps a day
Our team worked hard and had a ridiculous amount of fun doing it. Over 21,000 steps each day, some incredible food, a lot of dancing, and so many wonderful people from across the Niagara region.
At the booth, everyone who came by got a spin of the wheel. Kids got balloons and temporary tattoos. Parents got to ask a real teacher a real question while their child was busy picking a tattoo, which is a much easier way to have that conversation than typing it into a search bar at eleven at night.
One of our favourite moments
A teacher from our platform, a supply teacher from Niagara Falls, came down to join us and meet parents. Both of his parents are teachers. So is his brother. Until this weekend we had never met him in person.
Knowing we are helping teachers earn extra income while helping students is exactly why we do this. It is easy to lose sight of that when the work is a dashboard and a match rate. It is very hard to lose sight of it when the teacher is standing next to you in a Connect Education shirt talking to a parent about their kid.
Two of our engineers came too
They got to step away from the screen and meet the people who use what they build every day. They saw firsthand why their work matters, and we would recommend that to any team that ships software for families. A weekend in a park beats any amount of user research.
The people we met along the way
It was great connecting with Kristen Boccia of the University of Niagara Falls Canada, and with the Niagara Falls Rankin Innovation Hub, along with parents, educators and small businesses from across the region. A lot of the best conversations were with other vendors two tents down.
A special thank you to Mayor Jim Diodati for stopping by our booth. When community leaders show up for events like this, it matters, and it matters particularly for growing Canadian companies.
Thank you to the people who made it happen
A huge thank you to Aldo Di Felice, President of TLN Media Group, and the entire team for bringing Salsa to Niagara Falls and creating this opportunity for the community. And to Jesús Daniel Bustamante Holguín, for always being such a great presenter and for the energy he brings to every one of these events.
Thank you also to David Adames, CEO of Niagara Parks, and his team, for helping make this celebration of community and culture possible.
We have worked with TLN before. In November 2024 we sponsored TLN's 16th Annual 10 Most Influential Hispanic Canadians Awards Gala, so when the chance came to be at this festival we said yes quickly.
A national company that grows one community at a time
Connect Education serves families right across Canada, but we grow one community at a time. Every teacher who joins our network, every parent we meet, every relationship we build helps us reach more families somewhere else.
That is why weekends like this mean so much.
See you in 2027, Niagara Falls
Thank you to Aldo Di Felice, Jesús Daniel Bustamante Holguín, TLN, the City of Niagara Falls and everyone who made us feel so welcome. We are already looking forward to doing it all over again next year.