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!
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.
You can find out more about the general schedule framework for this year, and the final schedules of past editions here, and get a glimpse into the likely topics that will find their way into the program by scrolling through our social media feeds on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram!
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 tricks of the trade get exchanged, beautiful connections form, and meaningful initiatives get launched along the way!
One of the best aspects of the event is that while the framework and structure of the event is loosely set in advance, the sessions of the program are open for everyone participating to contribute to!
We take care of the opening, closing, meals, coffee breaks, and social programs, while the participating group as a whole contributes to generate and provide the content of the actual schedule.
Quality assurance: During your application process, you will be asked both about your learning & networking needs, as well as the general kind of support you would love to contribute. Based on this information, we may reach out to you with session and facilitation requests based on your proposals, and the summary of the collective needs assessment to help inform our design process in the weeks leading up to the event. You will receive some session design guidelines, and an opportunity to get feedback on your planned session(s) and materials, to ensure it will be the best possible fit for the event and its participants.
Important disclaimer: Even if you consider yourself a beginning or less experienced trainer – DON’T WORY! 🙂 This is a learning experience first and foremost, with other educators available to help throughout the process! (Still worried? Just hit us up at conference[at]trainersforum.org – a short mail is enough and we will reach out to you. 😊)
Location: 10 years after TsF embarked on a path of developing as a self-organising community, we are returning to the pivotal scene, as it was in Milano, 2015 where that journey really took off. We found a nice and cosy location (with private, 2-person rooms) at the heart of Bergamo. Arrival and departure transportation will be organized and you’ll be guided to the location. You can get a glimpse into the Casa del Giovane venue through this short video.
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.
This fee automatically confers the benefits associated with TsF Ecosystem membership, which grants access to “back-stage” TsF communication and collaboration platforms for anyone interested to dive into deeper co-creation and continue collaborating year-round.
When calculating the fee amount, we are staying true to our values of accessibility and inclusion, and commit to covering costs associated with the Conference, with any surplus funds allocated to cover TsF operational expenses – no personal benefit will be drawn from the fees.
This fee is set at 300 €. However, if cost is the main limiting factor for you attending, you can briefly outline your situation in the closing question of the application form, and we might be able to grant a 50 € scholarship discount to a limited number of people on a case-by-case basis.
If you will not be able to attend the TsFC2025 for any reason after covering your membership fee, we cannot provide you with any refunds, given our timeline with unavoidable expenses related with organising the event.
Congratulations for making it this far!
Your journey to join us in Bergamo, and thus create one of the best TsF Conferences so far, starts through the form embedded below (or available on this link)!
The first round of applications (open until the 28th of September), and is intended for those who want to ensure the best chance of securing a space at the event before it fills up, and want to start making travel arrangements ASAP.
The last round of applications (open until the 5th of October), is intended for those who need more time to decide, but would still like to participate in the full pre-event process, especially informing the selection of sessions and starting to prepare their own.
Now, we’ve moved into rolling applications (until spaces remain), and are starting with the process of curating a co-created learning experience based on the needs and contributions of the participant community.
You can reserve your space by applying, covering your fee and sending back a (digitally) signed participation agreement.
If you know other aspiring or professional educators, please share the link to this page with friends and colleagues that might enjoy and benefit from the experience! If you’d need it, here is a template message you can use as a start, along with a PDF event invitation you can attach. 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!