Teach For All’s Europe Conference 2025 took place in Vienna, Austria from 19 - 21 March and explored the theme Leading Together For More Equitable European Education Systems. Co-hosted by Teach For Austria, the network partners across Europe, and Teach For All, the three-day conference convened over 250 members of our regional European community. Attendees included CEOs, staff members, alumni, students, and board members from across the region, as well as representatives of Austria’s Ministry of Education, universities, private sector partners, and education thought leaders from Europe and beyond.

The conference was an extremely powerful and inspirational event for so many reasons. Firstly, it was fully co-designed and organized by Teach For All and all the network partner organizations in Europe. From the early definition of its objectives, themes for discussion, and overall structure, partner CEOs and staff were fully engaged and personally involved. This led to the conference truly reflecting the priorities, opportunities, and challenges that our community in the region is facing and was a key factor in designing sessions not only relevant to our work, but also extremely practical and forward-looking.

Our community engaged in a variety of activities throughout the event, including whole group plenaries and a diversity of smaller sessions on everything from refugee and migrant education to AI, partnering with families, and teacher wellbeing. In his remarks during the opening plenary, keynote speaker Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the OECD, reminded us all to keep the region’s students at the center of our work. “We should ask ourselves, to what extent are our schooling systems in Europe helping young people to understand their place in society?” he urged, underscoring the critical role educators play in shaping the future of our region. 

There were also spaces for experiential learning and networking, such as a ‘Back to School Campus’ with classes run by students, and a Europe Spotlights experience where 24 partner staff members and alumni showcased inspiring work and lessons learned in short presentations. We also visited some of the communities and organizations where Teach For Austria alumni are working, to learn more about the local context and the incredible impact that Teach For Austria is having across the system after 13 years. 

The fact that our movement has grown exponentially in Europe was evident throughout the three days. Many organizations in the region have passed or are nearing the 10-year mark. These are now established organizations that have strong leadership, internal capacity, and experience, and over the years have produced powerful best practices in many of our functional areas. They have thriving alumni communities whose members are having an impact individually and collectively on the systems that impact children in their countries and beyond. The conference welcomed 90 alumni from across Europe, many of whom had previously or are currently participating in the Europe Alumni Leadership Fellowship, now in its third year. The alumni played a central role in the event, engaging in most sessions and panels and inspiring the wider community with their commitment and work.

The Europe Conference also presented an opportunity to see how, just in the last few years, a group of younger organizations in the region has made incredible strides. Only five years ago, when I launched Teach For Italy, our work was still nascent not only in my own country but also in places as diverse as Portugal and Poland. Today, these are all thriving organizations that are innovating in many areas of our joint efforts and are contributing actively to the regional community and goals. We can position our work, share our challenges and successes, and discuss the future vision of our network with more clarity and purpose than ever before.

The conference was also an excellent platform for sharing our work with a number of different stakeholders outside of our network: education experts and practitioners, social innovation organizations, public sector representatives from across the region, and supporters and champions from Europe and beyond. To support these efforts, Princess Tatjana of Liechtenstein, as a member of the Teach For All Europe Board, together with H.S.H. Prince Alois and H.R.H. Princess Sophie de Lichtenstein, hosted an extraordinary evening at the Stadt Palais de Lichtenstein for supporters from across the continent. Andrea Orcel, CEO of UniCredit, spoke passionately at the event about his commitment to education and about the power of collective leadership to change systems. It was inspiring to see all of the Europe region CEOs, together with alumni leaders, and so many allies of our work, discuss how to join forces to bring forward the changes we need to see in our education systems. 

I take with me a deep sense of inspiration and gratitude to be part of such a diverse and connected network of incredible human beings. For me, the Europe Conference was a reminder that we are so much stronger when we are together and allow our work to speak for us. At a time when so many forces in the world are trying to promote fear, division, and conflict, our network is living proof that connection, dialogue, and solidarity can prevail if based on shared values and a common purpose. Lately, the challenges our countries, communities, and many of us are facing often seem immediate and insurmountable, while our work seems slow and long-term. Yet, those days in Vienna have reinforced in me the conviction that our work has never been more central to solving today’s challenges and planning for a better tomorrow—and a deep belief that change is still possible, across Europe and around the world.