What a Futures Fair is and how Discovery Education’s works

A futures fair is a career exploration event: students meet people who work in different fields and learn how they got there. In autumn 2025, Discovery Education announced a free, online version for pupils across the United States. The company’s press release of October 2, 2025 set the date as Wednesday, November 5, 2025. This piece looks at how that event was designed and at an unrelated in-person fair that shares the name.

The Discovery Education event at a glance

Because the date has passed, everything here describes the plan as it was announced. The release does not report attendance or outcomes, so none are given.

What a student session looked like on paper

The programme was built from 30-minute virtual sessions on Zoom. In each one, a professional was to give an age-appropriate overview of their job and their industry, and to explain the path they had taken to reach it.

The announcement listed the skills students would meet along the way: abilities specific to a trade, plus the 5 Cs of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity and character. Each virtual session came with standards-aligned, hands-on learning tasks meant to reinforce what the presenters had described, so the event could be tied back to ordinary classroom work.

Who was lined up to present

The event was powered by Discovery Education’s corporate partners. The release named these organizations: Verizon, Warner Bros. Discovery, The Home Depot, Meta, Norton, Honda, Honeywell, Nucor, Prologis, Clayco, 3M, ASME, Hartford, CVS Health, Genentech, Illumina, LIV Golf, Polar Bears International and the Drug Enforcement Administration. That list covers manufacturing, health care, technology, sport and conservation, which gives a sense of how wide a young person’s options can be.

The stated aim was to raise career awareness and prepare students for success after school. The release describes Discovery Education Corporate Partnerships, the business unit behind the event, as a bridge between industries and classrooms.

Brian Shaw, the company’s chief executive, tied the idea to engagement. He cited research showing that 92% of students say engaging lessons make learning more enjoyable, and argued that showing how classroom subjects connect to a future career is one way to create such lessons. The release does not name the research, so the figure is the company’s own claim.

Teachers who already use Discovery Education services were pointed to extra material. The Careers Hub and Career Connect, both part of Discovery Education Experience, were said to offer curated career resources and further live guest speakers from high-demand industries.

A different Futures Fair in Wichita

The same name also belongs to an unrelated, in-person event. KWCH reported on the 34th annual Futures Fair, held at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas, on a Tuesday in October 2023. Its purpose is to bring institutions from the local area, from elsewhere in Kansas and from out of state together so that high school juniors can see their options after graduation.

• Exhibitors included beauty schools, technical colleges, community colleges, four-year universities and military institutions.
• Every student who attends is entered in a drawing for the scholarships, which go to six high school or homeschool students.
• The winners are picked at the following month’s Futures Fair Committee meeting.

Committee chair Laura Barker summed up the appeal by saying students cannot visit every campus, so the fair brings the campuses to them in one place.

The two events share a name but not a format. One was a virtual, career-focused programme open to every school level; the other is a local college showcase with scholarships attached.

Featured image. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Credit: Courtcourtwest. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.