Open Call for Breakout Sessions
To ensure a dynamic, engaging, and outcome-oriented Annual Forum, we encourage to design sessions that go beyond traditional presentations. The following three format types – Story, Discussion and Workshop – offer diverse ways to share knowledge, exchange perspectives, and co-create solutions around the Forum’s key themes. Each format supports a different level of participant engagement, ranging from inspiring learning and interactive dialogue to hands-on action.
Your breakout sessions should be 60–90 minutes, in English, and highly interactive. Within this slot, “Story” sessions are concise ~30-minute segments that can be combined, while “Discussion” and “Workshop” formats typically use the full 60–90 minutes. We are looking for engaging formats that spark discussion, creativity, and collaboration. Don’t just talk – engage, co-create and inspire!
Ideally, the Forum should include a good balance of all session types to ensure an engaging and well-paced programme that avoids both overstimulation and fatigue, as well as the potential loss of interest that can arise from a lack of variety. The mix will also cater to diverse participant profiles and reflect the different moods and energy levels that naturally evolve throughout the Forum.
These sessions focus on delivering insights and perspectives from leading experts, innovators, or practitioners, helping participants grasp key trends and issues in the Baltic Sea Region. Sessions should be concise, lasting around 30 minutes.
Format options:
- Data & Storytelling Jam: Mix data with personal stories or media to foster empathy and fresh perspectives.
- Keynote Dialogue: Two (or up to three) leading personalities exchange perspectives in a moderated conversation rather than through formal presentations, creating a more varied and dynamic exchange. For example, your organisation's director or leader could engage in dialogue with a minister.
- Expert Lecture: Invite a renowned academic, policymaker, journalist, business leader, or practitioner to present new findings, innovative ideas, or strategic perspectives relevant to the Forum theme. These could draw inspiration from the TED Talk format or other engaging presentation styles.
These formats prioritise interaction between speakers and the audience, creating opportunities for joint reflection, mutual learning, dialogue and debate. Sessions should be introduced with a brief presentation to set the scene, ideally in an innovative format such as a PechaKucha, Ignite Talk or similar.
Format options:
- Fishbowl: A few seats in an inner circle where speakers rotate in and out to keep discussions dynamic.
- World Café: Rotate participants through small-group discussions on subtopics, collecting insights at each table.
- Youth Pitch Panels: Young changemakers pitch their ideas to a panel of experts for live feedback and support.
- Debate Session: Two teams or experts present contrasting viewpoints on a key policy challenge, followed by audience reflection and voting.
- Hot Seat: One PAC, expert, policymaker, or public figure takes the “hot seat” to answer rapid, in-depth questions from a moderator and the audience. Per session, several candidates could be called, in succession, to the “hot seat”.
A word of advice is to allocate 60-90 minutes for this type of sessions.
These sessions specifically encourage active participation and creative problem-solving, with a view to developing practical ideas and concrete outputs through hands-on collaboration. They require the active involvement of all participants and should lead to a tangible outcome. Sessions should also be introduced with a brief presentation to set the scene.
Format options:
- Simulation or Role-Play: Put participants in the shoes of policymakers, NGOs, or citizens facing real-life Baltic Sea challenges.
- Rapid Prototyping Labs: Guide participants through co-creation exercises to design policy solutions or project ideas.
- Scenario-Building Workshop: “What could the Baltic Sea Region look like in 2040 if…?” Groups develop future scenarios around a pressing regional issue (e.g. energy security, climate resilience, disinformation, critical infrastructure), identifying risks, opportunities and joint responses.
Workshops can run for 60–90 minutes to allow enough time for co-creation and tangible outputs.
There will be a limited number of session slots available at the 2026 Forum. We strongly encourage a cross-sectoral approach and teaming up with other Policy Areas and programmes.
The organisers are particularly interested in:
- Cooperation and co-creation across multiple Policy Areas, sectors and/or organisations;
- Diversity and inclusivity;
- Engaging, interactive sessions.
Don't just talk – engage, co-create, and inspire! Your ideas will shape the future.
Key Dates
- Submit your application by 02.02.2026.
- Selected organisers will be notified by the end of February to finalise the sessions’ details.
- Concluded titles and descriptions will be posted online by early March.
- Participants' registration for the forum and the sessions opens on 03.03.2026. Please note that you will be able to update the list of speakers for your session even after this date.
The host for the Annual Forum 2026 is the City of Tallinn and the Forum is organised together with the Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat (CBSS), supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Estonia, and in close collaboration with the Baltic Sea Strategy Point. The event is funded by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme, the City of Tallinn and the Council of the Baltic Sea States Secretariat.
Organisers
