With NewKid events, Mathilde Baillet gets everyone talking about the future of education together, kids included. A mom of two, a tech entrepreneur, and an event organizer, Mathile is looking into the world our children will grow up, and the tools they will need to thrive in it.
The Story
With two children, now 5 and 7, Mathilde and her husband kept coming back to the same questions so she started a podcast interviewing parents, both of them together, about the education choices they make for their children. And one topic kept coming up: AI. Episode after episode, parents asked the same thing: where can we actually talk about this?
NewKid: A Day for Families
MacKenzie Price, co-founder of Alpha School. Credits: @agustinagalak & @theo_laille
Her answer is a day dedicated to families, built on three pillars: Learn, Extend your horizons, and Play. The idea is to bring together worlds that rarely talk to each other: cognitive science researchers, educators, schools, startups and investors, philosophers, artists, and of course, families. At the first edition in Paris last June, MacKenzie Price, the co-founder of Alpha School, the fast-growing US school where children learn with AI teachers, came to present her model to French parents. Heated debates guaranteed.
And that’s exactly the point. “We live in a world that is becoming polarized. We need to learn to talk to each other, to listen, and to build from there. It’s the example I want to show my kids too.” Her measure of a successful event: people go home with a handful of small conversations that pop back up the nex day, the next week, or months later.
Parents in Paris told her they feel caught between contradictory messages and the pressure of perfect parenting, often a little alone in the face of brand-new questions. For startups, the day is a live test lab. In Paris, ten of them spent the day with families: honest, immediate feedback from kids, and parents’ fears answered face-to-face.
After Paris, NewKid arrives in San Francisco
Workshop “My Dream School”. Credits: @agustinagalak & @theo_laille
“I want to see what’s common and what’s unique to each of these epicenters.” Her first observations: Americans explore far more educational paths, from private schools to alternative education and homeschooling. And San Francisco is full of experiments with AI toys and learning apps.
Her call to the Merci SF community: Startups building learning apps, toys or robots for kids, she wants to meet you so reach out! Parents, spread the word in your schools, aftercare and soccer groups.
I’ve already signed to the event, see you there!
NewKid: Growing Up in the Age of AI, Sunday, October 25, 2026, San Francisco. Sign up here.
It’s free, and you don’t need to have children to come. “Anyone interested in the future is welcome!”
The event is proudly supported by Kale, the computer for curious kids, Acton Academy Silicon Valley (PK-8), and everyone.AI.
MerciSF Rapid Fire
- Favorite bakery: Daymoon
- Favorite restaurant: “Too soon, I need to check my Google Maps!”
- What she’d miss most about California: the audacious energy everyone puts into imagining and building the future
- What she’d like to see more of from France: Paris, the heritage of the Enlightenment: education as a common good, equal opportunity, and critical thinking.
