Who are we?

Trainers’ Forum (TsF) is an interdisciplinary and international community of educators, trainers, facilitators, HR specialists and most of all passionate learners.

TsF as a community has deep roots in the world of (European) student organisations – an origin story that bestows a distinctly international and interdisciplinary spirit, with the simple passage of time providing an intergenerational component. While continuing to nourish these roots, many members of the TsF Ecosystem have focused on education in its broadest sense professionally, with many more aspiring to do so. In addition to freelance and/or professional trainers, and facilitators, we are very welcoming (and in need of deeper collaboration with) actual teachers and professors from formal educational institutions!

What are we up to?

• Our shared purpose is to contribute to the sustainability and thriving of society by realizing the future of learning.
• We envision that one day, relevant knowledge will be within everyone’s reach, co-created by a community stewarding the art, craft, and science of learning.
• And finally, we intend to help accelerate this process through our mission of fostering the evolution of an educational ecosystem, bridging learners and learning providers, promoting learning literacy, and generating learning opportunities.

And this is exactly what our Conference is about! Take time to invest in your development and networking, by immersing yourself in a learning experience hosted by an international community of educators at a fraction of the cost of comparable practitioner events due to our commitment to the volunteering spirit. Gain practical insights into challenges you are facing or anticipating, and explore diverse points of view to expand your horizons, all while making a positive impact on your local and international communities by disseminating insights when you return. Feel free to browse through the list of past TsF Conferences since the first one in 2010.

Who’s invited?

The event aspires to bring together educators and learning enthusiasts from diverse backgrounds, disciplines, generations, and cultures to exchange and generate knowledge, experiences, and good practices. It’s a co-created event where all participants actively contribute to shaping the content of the Conference within a general program framework of learning, networking, and collaboration activities.

If you’re involved with learning, education, training, facilitation, hosting, or working with people in any way (or would like to get involved), this is the event for you! It’s a space to “talk shop” with practitioners, try out novel and experimental approaches, refresh your overview of the current state of the art, craft, and science of education, and connect with partners for future collaboration projects and ventures.

Participation agreement

In case your application is confirmed, and you choose to join the Conference, you will be required to read, and sign a participation agreement, which outlines the conditions and requirements intended to safeguard and support well-being and inclusivity for all participants during the conference. You can preview the Participation agreement of this years’ conference here.

This frame is intended to help seed an engaging, safe and inclusive atmosphere for everyone, informed by five core values. By gathering a vibrant diversity of perspectives and backgrounds, we aspire to create conditions where our collective wisdom can tap into emerging educational paradigms, and then explore ways to prototype and hack our way towards realizing them in our individual and collective environments. A valuable side-effect of this is that nuggets of knowledge, wisdom and practical expertise get exchanged, beautiful connections form, and meaningful initiatives get launched along the way!

Co-creation phases

One of the best aspects of the event is that while the core framework is set in advance, the program’s sessions are open for everyone to shape! We handle the logistics – opening, closing, meals, and breaks- while the participant community generates the actual schedule content. This happens in 5 phases of co-creation:

1. Mapping of needs and interests: As soon as your application is confirmed, you’ll receive a needs analysis form. This will be your first act of co-creation – sharing the central questions, topics, or challenges you’d like to place at the heart of the event.
2. Gathering expertise and contributions: On the 9th of August, we’ll share the first summary of our collective needs. This will launch our second co-creation phase – a contributions form open until the 21st of August. This will help us map our collective expertise and gather session proposals, representing the knowledge we’d like to exchange.
3. Networking map: On the 23rd of August, we’ll introduce an interactive network visualisation of the participant community – this will enable you to explore potential connections with those who have similar interests or complementary expertise, supporting pre-event networking process and highlighting session co-delivery opportunities.
4. Assembling the final schedule: With this rich treasure trove of insights, we’ll identify sessions that best address the core community needs or introduce innovative topics. We’ll reach out to selected trainers to confirm their session contributions, finalizing the roadmap for our shared learning adventure by the 30th of August.
5. Session sign-ups: The final puzzle is optimizing the “choose-your-learning-adventure” for the participant community as a whole. Between the 31st of August and the 6th of September, a sign-up form will be open to collect everyone’s preferences for up to four parallel sessions per slot. This will enable a 10-day window for trainers to invite participants into any optional, light session preparation before the event begins.

Quality assurance

During the entire process, we will be available to help inform your design process, provide session design guidelines, and an opportunity to feedback your planned session(s) and materials on request, to ensure it will be the best possible match for the event and its participants.

Even if you consider yourself a beginner or less experienced trainer – DON’T WORRY! 🙂 This is a learning experience first and foremost, with other educators available to help throughout the process and learn in public together! (Still worried? Feel free to reach out at conference[at]trainersforum.org – even a short mail is a good start and we will reach out to you ASAP. 😊)

Location

Due to geographic and transport centrality and cross-pollination between European training communities, we’re excited to host the TsF Conference 2026 in Frankfurt!

We already booked a great venue, the MASEVEN hotel. Arrival and departure to the venue will be effortless, at it is very near to major transport hubs. Please note that the venue is fully wheelchair accessible.

Meals, sleeping, pets

We will naturally do our best to accommodate your food preferences & allergies, and organise sleeping arrangements as closely matching your preferences as possible (this information will be collected after your application is confirmed and your space reserved). No pets are allowed, as we want to be mindful about people with unfortunate allergies to some of our furry friends. We treat service animals as an allowable exception – if you’re accompanied by one, mention this in the application form, and we’ll reach out to make the necessary arrangements.

1. Until the 29th of July: Full refund.
2. Until the 5th of August: 50% refund.
3. After the 5th of August: No refund possible.

How to apply?

Your journey to join us in Frankfurt, and thus create one of the best TsF Conferences so far, starts through the form embedded below (or this dedicated form link)!

The early bird round of applications (open until the 5th of July) was intended for those who wanted to ensure the best chance of securing a space at the event before it fills up, and want to start making affordable travel arrangements ASAP.

Based on our logistical timeline, the absolute latest time to apply is by the 12th of August (14:00 CEST), after which point we’ll lock in the number of participants and finalize the accommodation and catering arrangements.

How to invite others?

If you know other aspiring or professional educators, you can share the link to this page with friends and colleagues that might enjoy and benefit from the experience! As mentioned above, in case you bring a friend (and you both mention each other in your application forms), we’re happy to grant you both the early bird fee, regardless of when you apply! If you’d need it, here is a template message you can use as a start, along with a PDF invitation. You can also check out and share some of our posts on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram.

Finally, feel free to reach us directly at conference[at]trainersforum.org with any open questions that might still be with you!