Inside the Room: What Ivybrook Academy’s Annual Conference Says About This Brand

By Jamie Smith Flatow

There is a particular kind of brand you understand better by watching how its people treat each other than by reading any brochure. Ivybrook Academy’s annual conference, held July 8–10 in Colorado Springs, was that kind of event.

The theme was “Relationships: The Heart of Ivybrook” — which is either a nice line or a genuine philosophy, depending on how the company actually runs. Three days with franchise owners, school leaders, corporate staff, and key partners in the same room has a way of answering that question quickly.

Here is what the conference revealed for anyone evaluating this franchise opportunity.

The network is real, and it is growing in a measured way

Ivybrook was founded in 2007 by Jennifer and Drew McWilliams, opening their first campus in Weddington, North Carolina. In the years since, the brand has grown to more than 70 locations open or in development, with 40 additional locations already awarded across 22 states.

That number deserves a moment. Forty awarded locations that are not yet open means Ivybrook has already identified, qualified, and signed the franchisees who will operate the next generation of schools. The pipeline is built. The brand is not scrambling to find operators — it is managing deliberate expansion with owners who have already committed.

For a prospective franchisee, this tells you something about the quality of the vetting process. Ivybrook is approaching its 20th anniversary in August 2026 with a franchise community that has clearly attracted serious investors, not just people who liked the idea of working with children.

The conference programming targeted the real work of ownership

The sessions at this year’s conference were not motivational filler. “Path to Profitability,” “Relationships That Build Your School,” “Hiring for Relationships,” and “The Afternoon Advantage” are the titles of people who understand that franchise owners are running businesses, not attending a pep rally.

The last session — “The Afternoon Advantage” — speaks directly to one of the more interesting aspects of the Ivybrook model. As a half-day preschool, Ivybrook offers a differentiated experience in the morning. Some campuses have also opened afternoon sessions, extending the value of the physical space and creating a second revenue opportunity within the same building footprint. The conference addressed this not as a universal directive, but as a strategic conversation about where it makes sense — which is the right way to handle a decision that depends heavily on local market dynamics and campus readiness.

The keynote came from leadership expert Gail Kasper, focused on growth mindset. Co-founder Drew McWilliams framed the larger conversation this way: “The relationships across our network are at the heart of our success, and we are deeply grateful for the dedication and passion that make our schools such special places for children and families.”

That language — dedication, passion, special places — could come from any preschool brand. What makes it credible here is the evidence sitting right next to it.

The awards reflect a system that runs on individual commitment

The franchise community recognized seven award recipients at this year’s conference:

What this list shows is geographic range. Tampa. Lubbock. Ann Arbor. Franklin, Tennessee. A brand reaching across markets that different — economically, demographically, culturally — is not running a single-region playbook. It is supporting owners in genuinely diverse communities, and those owners are succeeding.

The award categories themselves are also instructive. Educator of the Year and Administrator of the Year sit alongside Spirit Award and Community Connection. Ivybrook is recognizing the teachers and the directors alongside the franchise owners, which reflects a real understanding of what makes a preschool campus work. The quality of the program does not happen from a corporate office. It happens in classrooms and offices run by people like Shea Althoff and Kathleen Bookbinder, and a franchisor that honors that publicly is one worth paying attention to.

What this means for someone considering the franchise

The preschool sector is competitive, and the strongest brands earn their position through consistency of the education experience, not just the business model. Ivybrook’s Montessori-Reggio Emilia blended curriculum serves children from 18 months to 6 years in small class sizes with individualized attention. That philosophy is not a tagline — it requires training, culture, and infrastructure to deliver reliably across 70-plus locations in 22 states.

A conference themed around relationships, with programming built around profitability and team-building, and attended by award recipients from Florida to Texas to Michigan, is a picture of a franchise system doing the slow, unglamorous work of building a real network. Not a licensing deal dressed up as a franchise. Not a brand in search of growth capital. A system.

Ivybrook is approaching its 20th anniversary with momentum that looks, from the inside, like something that was built rather than purchased.

If you are evaluating preschool franchise opportunities, that distinction matters more than almost anything else.

Interested in learning more about the Ivybrook Academy franchise opportunity? Visit ivybrookacademy.com/franchising to start the conversation.

Ivybrook Academy is a half-day preschool franchise serving children ages 18 months to 6 years across the United States. The Ivybrook model blends Montessori and Reggio Emilia principles to create an individualized, relationship-centered early childhood experience.

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