Young Bled Strategic Forum

“Bringing together young leaders to develop out-of-the-box solutions.”

Are you a young leader between 18 and 35 years old, with a proven record of making an impact on your community, country or the world at large? Then we cordially invite you to apply for the Young Bled Strategic Forum 2019 (Young BSF).

Young BSF is an annual conference bringing together young leaders to engage in lively discussions and develop out-of-the-box solutions to some of the most pressing world issues. The Young BSF model has been growing and changing, and has become a unique meeting place for a diverse array of young leaders, entrepreneurs, bloggers, thinkers and socially active individuals, offering them a platform to share their visions, exchange ideas and connect with one another. Numerous thought-provoking ideas have been suggested over the years, while the main objective remains clear: to bring together audacious and action-oriented individuals from different fields and offer them a collaborative, creative, and inspiring environment for discussions and networking.

Young BSF 2019 will reflect the topics of the BSF and focus on sources and resources of (in)stability and look up at young people as a (re)source for the future. The young people that will attend this year’s edition of Young BSF will prove youth is a valuable resource in several ways. Young people are not solely valued as potential contributors to society, in their status as adults-to-be, but also in their present status as youth, whereby they contribute to society for the very reason that they are young, full of innovative ideas and able of thinking out of the box.

Special emphasis at the Young Bled Strategic Forum will be given to the cross-regional cooperation. A new generation of leaders will demonstrate that such cooperation is not only necessary, but rather inevitable for positive next steps in democratization, advancement of human rights, sustainable development, women empowerment, counter-terrorism and climate change. To do this, young leaders have to learn from their peers from different regions, share their knowledge, ideas and know-how. Sustainable regional cooperation programs are the key towards a comprehensive, inclusive, and innovative approach that engages youth and prepares agents for change.

Strong, committed and inclusive democratic youth leadership will be of crucial importance for the process of democratization, conscientious European integration and future EU expansion in general. In our efforts to build a structured regional cooperation we must therefore bring young leaders on board in order to build tighter ties among civil societies, offer room for youth-to-youth exchanges, and enable a continuous flow of information and knowledge among the EU member states and non-EU states.

Youth, being the essential cornerstone of dynamic civil societies, should be given an opportunity to:

• Contribute to the regional integration,
• Be the herald of European values and democratic leadership with dedication and perseverance,
• Identify topics of common interest and tackle issues of shared concern for communities in the region.

Young leaders will also be selected to participate as speakers at the main event. This practice has proven its worth in past editions and to the benefit of BSF, as it brought innovative solutions and shed a light on youth perspectives. Youth will through active participation at BSF have an opportunity to meet the leaders from the governmental, business and nongovernmental sectors and join them in discussions addressing salient issues.

Young Bled Strategic Forum is committed to ensuring equal opportunities to attend the YBSF are available to young leaders, regardless of their ability to pay. We work closely with our partners to provide all of our participants with accommodation, while a number of travel grants for candidates of various backgrounds and nationalities will be ensured. Travel grants may be awarded to selected participants on an individual basis and only up to the amount decided by the organizers, while we will ensure regional and expertise representation.

For any additional inquiries, do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected].