30 Under 30: What It Changes

The 30 Under 30 programme at OEB is not about recognition alone. It is about access, contribution and perspective.

Each year, a group of young professionals and researchers joins the conference not as observers, but as active participants, contributing to sessions, discussions and the wider exchange that defines OEB. What happens in those three days often extends far beyond them.

Two alumni from last year reflect on what the experience meant in practice.

A perspective from Keanu Pense:

What OEB’s 30 Under 30 Gave Me

It started with a message from Rebecca. I remember reading it and feeling two things at once: surprise, and a kind of quiet pride. I had never been nominated for something of that scale before. The conference takes over the InterContinental Hotel in the heart of Berlin: endless corridors, grand ballrooms, rooms full of people who have spent careers thinking seriously about how learning works. Walking in for the first time, I felt the weight of that. I was nervous. I came alone on the first day.

Then I saw Rebecca and Rosa, and they smiled, and something shifted. Within minutes I was being introduced to people. The nerves didn’t disappear — but they turned into something more useful. Energy.

The 30 Under 30 cohort made it immediately clear that this wasn’t going to be a passive experience. Everyone in that group wanted to grow, wanted to learn, and wanted to share — you could feel it from the first conversation. I was also, by some distance, the youngest person there. At first that felt like a gap. It quickly became one of the most interesting parts of the whole thing. Being one of the few actively studying gave conversations a different texture — perspectives that didn’t usually share the same room suddenly did, and something genuinely useful came out of the middle.

There were many moments that stayed with me. Right at the start, during the 30 Under 30 get-together, Callum Clark said something simple: say yes to everything, because once an opportunity is gone, it doesn’t come back. He said it like someone who had learned it the hard way, and it landed accordingly. The same day I stood on a stage and told a room full of people what I had learned in 2025. It was terrifying. But before, Inge had said something I couldn’t shake — that you might lie in bed tonight and regret not doing it. So I did it and it was the best decision I could have made. Then there was Gerald, who gave me direct feedback on my public speaking after another session — the kind of honest, specific input that’s rare and genuinely valuable. These weren’t small interactions. Each one left a mark.

The 30 Under 30 badge opened doors, but what I learned is that access only matters if you move towards it. Speakers don’t come to you. The conference showed me what proactivity actually looks like in practice — noticing a moment, deciding to take it, and going. That lesson didn’t stay at the conference. It followed me into my heart and my spirit.

And it ended too soon. I was tired by the last day — the second night had turned into a proper party and gone on longer than any of us planned — but it was the kind of tired that comes from being genuinely alive for three days. I was happy I did it, sad it was over, and already looking forward to the next year before it had even finished.

If you’re considering applying: do it. Fully, without hesitation. Not for what it looks like on paper, but for what it does to how you think, how you move, and who you meet. OEB 30 Under 30 is the kind of experience that’s hard to explain and impossible to replicate. The only way to understand it is to be there. I’ll see you at OEB26.



A perspective from Buena Galleposo:

Being part of the 30 Under 30 at OEB Global changed how I show up in professional spaces.

The programme is built on the belief that younger professionals bring something distinct to the table from seasoned professionals but equally worth hearing. 

That belief was put into practice in ways I didn’t expect. For instance, during the Learning Battle, experience level didn’t determine whose ideas landed. It was the delivery and the relevance of what was brought to the table that mattered, rather than the age or years behind the person presenting it. It was quite validating that both winners came from the 30 Under 30, and I was one of them. That outcome meant something to me because it evidenced what the programme stands for.

The Youth Voices panel – a panel I was in as part of the 30 Under 30 – took that a step further. It afforded me the opportunity to speak with conviction about things I genuinely believe in. For example, I care deeply about centring the human experience in education rather than the tools, and having a space to say that clearly, to a room of people with far more years in the field than me, and to have it be accepted and valued, was significant. It reinforced that the ideas and values you hold don’t need to wait for seniority to be worth sharing. If anything, the freshness of perspective is part of what makes them valuable.

But the experience also pushed me to think more critically. An audience member pointed out that most of us on that panel, myself included, came from relatively privileged backgrounds: university-educated, professionally connected, able to attend an international conference. The 30 Under 30 opened a door, but it questions whether everyone has equal access to that door in the first place. Giving younger professionals space is a start, but the real work is asking who among us still isn’t being heard, regardless of age.

With all of that said, I continue to carry the things I learned from the conference to my everyday professional life. I am one of the younger Senior Learning Technologists in my organisation, and I line manage and lead team members who may have more experience than me, in the field or in work generally. The 30 Under 30 gave me the confidence to navigate that, to lead without waiting until I feel senior enough, because being younger or less experienced in years doesn’t mean you have less to offer. The OEB Conference proved this. However, it also gave me a responsibility: to make sure I’m doing the same for others, uplifting them regardless of age, sex, or background.

Programmes like this matter. That’s why the smaller, quieter decisions we make every day about who we invite into the conversation is even more important.

About the 30 Under 30 Programme

The 30 Under 30 programme brings together a selected group of emerging voices from across education, training and learning technology. Participants are fully integrated into the OEB experience, contributing to sessions, joining discussions and building connections across sectors and geographies.

It is designed to do more than highlight potential. It creates space for contribution, exchange and challenge.

Applications and nominations for the 2026 cohort are currently open.

If you know someone who should be part of this, nominate them. If you see yourself in it, apply.

Explore the programme and submit your application here: https://oeb.global/30under30.

Written for OEB 2026.