Last year, I joined OEB’s 30 Under 30 cohort. Having attended OEB for many years, I know it blends keynotes and panels with audience participation. What changed last year was experiencing that through the 30 Under 30 lens: an access all-areas experience with easy access to keynote speakers, session leads, and other senior people in the industry. I wasn’t just skimming ideas from the main stage. I spent three days inside a small, diverse group where people brought very different realities to the same table.

The mix was the first surprise. Our cohort spanned teachers, higher‑ed technologists, corporate L&D designers, public‑sector programme leads, accessibility specialists, start‑up founders, and a couple of policy folks. It was great meeting people in the same field with very different roles. My day job is shipping AI products and machine learning systems into organisations, so most of my conversations orbit delivery, data, adoption, and model quality and safety. The 30 Under 30 conversations surfaced a different reality: practical constraints, time and capacity, budgets and procurement, policy requirements, inclusion, and the simple fact that people can only handle so much change at once.

One of the best parts was hearing day‑to‑day realities outside the corporate bubble. Teachers, higher‑ed teams, public programmes, and start‑ups talked about what actually helps and what gets in the way. My takeaways were practical: keep tools light, reduce workload, and make sure everyone can use them.


The 30 Under 30 badge wasn’t symbolic. We had easy access to speakers and session leads, which made introductions simple and gave us room to ask follow‑ups. This was great for opening doors and meeting people that I would never have had the opportunity to meet otherwise.


Through attending OEB, I was invited to give a series of AI talks at universities in South Africa; I joined several EU research proposals; and a few senior leadership meetings turned into consulting and implementation work. OEB and its community were the catalyst for all these opportunities.

For me, the key takeaway was a sharper test for whether learning tech is worth using. It has to be adoptable in the tools people already use, explainable in plain language to non‑specialists and aligned with front‑line constraints like time, policy and inclusion. That might sound obvious, but it is easy to forget when you are busy shipping AI. 30 Under 30 put the human side back at the centre.


Confidence was a real outcome. OEB 30 Under 30 helped me speak up in rooms where I might have stayed quiet. Easy access to approachable senior people made a real difference. A year on, I still mention OEB 30 Under 30, not because of the prestige (though that helps) but because it marked a shift in identity. I don’t just attend learning conferences; I contribute to the
conversations that shape how learning (and the technology around it) should work for real people. As someone who spends most days shipping AI products, it was energising to be reminded that the most important part of any system isn’t in the codebase. It’s in the teacher’s timetable, the learner’s context, the policymaker’s scrutiny, and the manager’s need for proof that this helps the job get done.

That perspective is what OEB’s 30 Under 30 gave me. And it’s why I recommend it: to ambitious practitioners, yes, but especially to those of us working in corporate settings who need regular doses of reality from the wider learning ecosystem.

Written for OEB 2025 by Callum Clark

Meet the 30 Under 30 Cohort of 2025

This year’s 30 Under 30 group brings the same energy that made last year’s programme such a standout. The new cohort comes from classrooms, research labs, start-ups, public institutions, and corporate learning teams across more than a dozen countries. Their perspectives differ, but their goal is shared: to shape learning for the Intelligent Age with ideas grounded in real practice.

Throughout the OEB Global Conference, they will take part in sessions, join discussions with senior speakers, and contribute their own insights in the Youth Voices panel. You will see them in the Learning Battle, at the evening event, and in the spaces where some of the most meaningful conversations happen.

If you want to meet the people who are likely to influence the next wave of learning innovation, this is the group to watch.

Explore the full cohort on our website and connect with them in Berlin during #OEB25.

Written for OEB 2025.