BSF 2024 – A World of Parallel Realities

BSF 2024 – A World of Parallel Realities

Za novico v slovenskem jeziku kliknite tu.

The 19th International Conference Bled Strategic Forum will take place in Bled on 2 and 3 September. This year’s event is titled “A World of Parallel Realities”.

The focus of the Bled Strategic Forum 2024 will be a call to work together for the common goodby listening, by hearing, and by going beyond one’s own views.

We are living in a time of great global transformation, which has the potential to shape our common future profoundly. At such a time, the ability to hear and listen in the international community is crucial if we are to find effective and sustainable solutions. This is what this year’s Bled Strategic Forum offers – an inclusive platform where the different voices, perspectives and reflections of key players in the global multilateral environment are heard and taken into account. We believe that constant and constructive dialogue is the only way to build a multilateral system that operates on universally accepted norms.

This year, BSF will once again host a wide range of interesting guests from the worlds of politics, business and civil society. It will touch on all the most crucial challenges of global society while also raising themes that have the potential to shape our common future. The most exciting panels will therefore include a panel on the (dys)functioning of the global multilateral framework (including Slovenia’s experience in the work of the UNSC so far), a panel on the Middle East, preparations for the Future Summit, the Indo-Pacific, India, disinformation, food security, energy and much more.

As one of the novelties of the Bled Strategic Forum 2024 programme, an innovative concept of “Living library” will be introduced. This is an interactive event where people with different experiences and backgrounds on a chosen topic act as “books”. Conference participants (“readers”) talk to them and learn about their stories and perspectives on the topic.

The Bled Strategic Forum continues to strengthen its partnerships and, this year is working with more than ten key global thinkers from different continents to shape the programme. It continues its long-standing collaboration with leading organisations such as the Atlantic Council, the Nelson Mandela Center and the BMW Foundation. This year, for the first time, it is working with the Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity and the Oxford Process on International Law Protections in Cyberspace. Collaborating with global partners allows for a broader understanding of global issues, a wider range of speakers and topics, and the inclusion of new perspectives.

This year, for the 13th time, the Young Bled Strategic Forum will take place on the sidelines of the Bled Strategic Forum. This year, 42 selected young people from all over the world will take part in the event, which will take place in Pokljuka between 30 August and 1 September. They will focus on the causes of the existence of different realities and on ways to reunite them in a programme entitled “Restoring Common Ground“. This year, the participants of the Young Bled Strategic Forum will also be actively involved in the Bled Strategic Forum International Conference. They will have the opportunity to participate as speakers in the debates, the priority to ask questions in the debate (the so-called first question opportunity) and the possibility to organise their own debates within the Forum.

Young Bled Strategic Forum 2024 applications open

Young Bled Strategic Forum 2024 applications open

We are happy to announce that the Young Bled Strategic Forum 2024 (Young BSF 2024) applications are open!

Young Bled Strategic Forum is a unique meeting place for young leaders, offering them a platform to share their visions, exchange ideas and network with other exceptional young individuals from all over the world. Each year, it attracts a group of about 40 young leaders from diverse backgrounds and engages them in interactive discussions on pressing challenges and addresses inventive approaches to developing creative solutions. Young Bled Strategic Forum is an inseparable part of Bled Strategic Forum, the leading conference in Central and South-Eastern Europe.

If you are between 18 and 35 years old and committed to bringing positive change within society (you can be a student, young academic, NGO representative, activist, politician, engineer, young member of public administration or governmental institution, athlete, member of international organisation, entrepreneur, or anything else) you are eligible to apply. You can apply here for Young BSF by 2 June 2024 23:59.

This year, the Young Bled Strategic Forum will take place under the title Restoring Common Ground. It will take place between 30 August and 1 September 2024 in Pokljuka, Slovenia. The participants will then participate at the 19th Bled Strategic Forum on 2 and 3 September in Bled. Young Bled Strategic Forum participants will explore the factors that contribute to the divergence of realities and what can be done to bring these realities closer together to restore common ground from which meaningful social action can emerge.

For more information on the content of the conference and the format of the conference you can refer to the concept note and the website.

Announcing the title of the Bled Strategic Forum international conference 2024

Announcing the title of the Bled Strategic Forum international conference 2024

The 19th Bled Strategic Forum International Conference, titled’ A World of Parallel Realities,’ will take place between 2 and 3 September 2024.

Within the framework of the title, the thematic focus of the Bled Strategic Forum 2024 will call for cooperation for the common good, by listening and hearing beyond one’s own views. Sustainable solutions are needed at a time when international society is confronted with a cycle of competition, insecurity, and antagonism, manifested in instability, violence, and conflict. The awareness that we live in a world of parallel realities encourages us to bring these realities together for the common good.

#BSF2024 will aim to bring new innovative approaches to the programme and involve young people more. 

As per its mission, BSF 2024 will bring together a diverse set of participants, including heads of state and government, ministers, diplomats, businesspeople, scholars and experts, youth, and media from around the world. It will provide a platform for participants to openly discuss and contrast opinions and seek solutions for contemporary regional and global challenges. 

Additionally, the Forum will provide an excellent opportunity for tailored bilateral and multilateral meetings and networking with prominent regional and global actors from diplomacy, policy, business, science, and innovation.

Before the BSF, Young BSF will take place between 30 August and 1 September in Pokljuka, Slovenia.