The OTT Conference brings together all our efforts to support think tanks and evidence-informed policy. The Conference is where we meet our community, we listen to think tank leaders about what matters most to them, where new ideas emerge and are shared and where new new relationships that inform the rest of the On Think Tanks programme are developed: the State of the Sector Report, the Open Think Tank Directory, the School for Thinktankers and the Building for the Future initiative.
The 9th Conference was held in June 2025 in South Africa. As it usually happens, many first-time participants reached out during the Conference to ask me about it: how we came up with the design, how we decide who attends, etc.
I will start with a bit of immodesty (I am sorry, I cringe) and share a bit of the praise we often receive about the Conferences:
- Everyone is very open and generous with others.
- The mood is relaxed and friendly.
- There is always plenty of time and space available for everyone to network, explore ideas, catch up with old friends and more – outside of the sessions themselves.
- Everything runs on time!
- “After-hours” events are plenty and fun.
- The quality of the sessions is high.
- The keynote speeches are inspiring and set the tone for the whole Conference.
- There is a good balance between frequent participants and new ones, experienced and younger thinktankers, research and managerial roles, and countries and regions from around the world.
Here is what the 2025 participants said about the OTT Conference:
I am glad this is what participants take away from the Conference. We put a lot of effort into it. But we cannot take credit for everything. Most of this has evolved slowly over the last nine years and has been informed by the lessons learned from others. So I would like to share the story of the Conference and some of the lessons we have learned along the way.
There is a story of origin
In the early years of On Think Tanks, from 2010 until about 2015, it was just me and a few collaborators.
Learn more about our first 10 years.
We met whenever they were in London (I launched OTT while living in London, working for ODI Global) or around events organised by the Think Tank Initiative, the Think Tank Fund, or the Indonesian Knowledge Sector Initiative. These events in particular offered a great opportunity to catch up with think tank leaders and others in the field, funders, and service providers. Orazio Bellettini, Peter da Costa, Goran Buldioski, Sarah Lucas, Nicolas Ducoté, Andrea Ordóñez, Hans Gutbrod, Stephen Yeo, Diakala Sanogo, and Vanesa Weyrauch, among others, were the intellectual force behind many of the articles and projects we launched in those early years.
Most of this catching up, however, occurred between sessions—during coffee breaks, lunch, and over drinks or dinner. I remember a trip to “buy” carpets in the old market in Istanbul (we didn’t buy any) and a wine bar to discuss the future of think tanks and taste some Turkish grape varieties; all on the margins of a Think Tank Initiative’s knowledge exchange.
In 2015, the Hewlett Foundation awarded us with a grant, in part to accompany their investment in the Think Tank Initiative. (They have supported the entire On Think Tanks programme ever since, and I cannot thank them enough.) The grant made it possible to invite some collaborators to join me in on a more permanent basis, we launched a new website (pro-bono by Soapbox), online courses focusing on the evolving nature of think tanks, the Winterschool for Thinktankers in Geneva, and a new working paper series to promote research on think tanks, among other initiatives. In 2017, we decided to bring the team together in London.
Jordan Tchilingirian, with whom we had been collaborating in promoting research on think tanks, offered the University of Bath venue in London for the first Conference. It was a small venue, featuring a large lecture room, several breakout rooms, and ample open space.
Since we would be in London, I thought it might be a good opportunity for some of our usual collaborators to join us. We did not plan much. It was an open invitation: We’ll be in London, do you want to join?
We were 40 people in total.
We had a few keynotes; I remember thinking they would be “TED Talks with questions” (hence the 30-minute slots for keynotes today) and a few parallel sessions led by participants themselves. Because of the space, we devised these sessions with the idea that people would “grab a chair and join the conversation”. No panellists, only conveners or facilitators. Everyone would have a chance to have a say – everyone had (and has) a contribution to make, after all.
We heard from John Young, Peter da Costa, Guy Lodge, Hans Gutbrod, John Schwartz, Stephen Yeo, Jeff Knezovich, and Vanesa Weyrauch, among others.
The kitchen was right there, so we spent lots of time talking over a coffee or tea (we were in England after all) and long lunches. And after a full day of discussions, we headed over to a local pub.
Here is the report if you are interested. Our comms director at the time, Erika Perez-Leon, wrote a brief reflection after the Conference.
This was the spirit of the 2nd conference, too. We had a few more people join. I remember I had been working with think tanks in Panama, and they joined. For 2018, we included a public event in the programme. We found a space at the Union of Journalists near Kings Cross, and after the event, we all went to a pub next door. It was a great way to “break the ice” among the new members of the community.
We also had an academic event the day before the Conference (which I would like to revisit in 2026 – let’s see). It was an opportunity for researchers to share their work with practitioners.
Also, during the first couple of years, we hosted a half-day academic session, which allowed researchers from think tanks to present their papers and discuss their findings with peers.
I recall that when we sat down to design the 2019 Conference in Geneva, which would be a significantly larger event (100 people), I reflected on our story of origin quite a bit.
I insisted that the conference had to:
- Be fun.
- Maintain the “grab a chair and join the conversation” approach.
- Expand the “spaces in between sessions”.
- Be all about building a community of peers and even friends.
- Respect the aesthetics of OTT Conferences and OTT communications in general.
- And obsess about the level of the conversation and debate – high, very high!
Our hosts in Geneva, foraus, were a think tank led by young people. Perfect to embrace our vision. The public event took place at the Impact Hub. It was perfect to welcome everyone. The Conference itself was held at foraus, who were hosted in a building with lots of other “think tanks”. It had a large room at one end of the floor and plenty of breakout rooms along the corridors. It was perfect for the “grab a chair” approach. And Geneva does not have pubs, but it has fondue—and there is nothing like eating from a shared pot of cheese to bond!
In 2019, too, we held the Conference the week after the Winterschool for Thinktankers (now the School for Thinktankers), so some of the participants were able to stay over and join.
In 2019, too, we introduced a map to show where people had come from; we also recorded the keynote speeches and, of course, had more sessions running in parallel. At the end of day 2, I went around the room asking everyone what they took home with them. We filmed this roundup, and the result proved to be gold!
We also hosted events in Pretoria and Washington, DC using a similar format (only one day):
These Conferences were organised by a small team. Myself, Erika Perez-Leon, on communications, Eva Cardoso on administration and logistics and Andrea Baertl for the academic sessions. We had very limited time to spend on them, so we prioritised what we thought mattered and left the extras out. As a consequence, our Conferences are relatively frugal. Don’t expect fancy decoration, mantels on tables, lots of giveaways on registration, state-of-the-art apps, shuttles from the airport, handouts (most likely left at the hotel), etc.
Online for Covid-19
We had been supposed to host the 2020 Conference at DGAP in Berlin, and I had already started scouting Chatham House for 2021. But Covid-19 hit, and we went online. In 2020, we delivered 3 online conferences using a new platform called Hop.in (we were early adopters). It offered the chance to include plenaries, breakout rooms, informal chat spaces, one-to-one networking, etc. We did 3 because we felt the On Think Tanks community clearly needed a human connection. We also hosted 2 regional meetings of think tanks in Latin America focused on the various dimensions of the Covid-19 response (below in case you are interested).
We decided to keep the Conference online for 2021 and 2022. 2022 presented a choice. I felt that there were still some people, especially from the Global South, who would find it difficult to travel internationally and so decided to stay online one more year.
Online Conferences allowed us to reach more people. The OTT School for Thinktankers was also delivered online, and our alumni network grew.
You can watch some of the main sessions and videos from the online OTT Conferences.
But the community was impatient. It had to get back together.
Bigger but still beautiful
Chatham House hosted the Conference in 2023 and Fundació Bofill in 2024. I think both were a success; also, I was not directly in charge of either. Andrea Baertl led the 2023 Conference, and Estefanía Terán led the 2025 Conference, allowing me to spend more time engaging with participants and the sessions themselves.
I had the chance, once again, to listen to our now larger community.
At Chatham House, we crossed the 150-people mark. We worked hard to ensure that the elements that had made the smaller conference successful pre-pandemic remained at the centre of our design and delivery. You can watch all the videos from the 2023 and 2024 Conferences below.
By 2023, we had another challenge. More and more people wanted to join the Conference than we had room for. We introduced a process to ensure that there would always be a minimum number of participants who had attended a Conference before. They would carry the “spirit” of the OTT Conference with them and encourage newcomers to join in frank, open and friendly discussions.
So now we invite OTT’s alumni and past Conference participants first. Then, we open it to the rest of the OTT community (i.e., Newsletter subscribers), and finally, to anyone interested. I read every application, check applicants’ LinkedIn pages, email people who may know them, reflect on how they may contribute to the Conference, and weigh their participation against that of others. It is a process that requires a significant amount of time.
We also fundraise to ensure that many of the core participants can attend, regardless of where the Conference is being held.
With new people joining, we had to devise new ways to ensure the conference’s mood remained relaxed and open. Chatham House portrays an image of protocol and tradition, but in fact it is anything but (it would not get much done if it was!). So with the help of its fantastic communications and events teams, we introduced the “Unpopular Opinions” session and a marketplace of ideas (which did not work as well as I had hoped – but we did give a prize to the winner: a children’s book on evidence-informed policy!).
The Unpopular Opinions session has become a participant’s favourite. How many think tank conferences invite participants to sing-along?
At Bofill in 2024, we offered participants with children a daycare room to allow their parents to participate. However, if you look at the pictures of the Conference, you’ll see that the children, too, were active participants.
Also in 2023, we introduced a closed breakfast for the funders attending the Conference. This is an opportunity to help establish connections between them and encourage them to support the On Think Tanks programme through the OTT Funders’ Circle.
Moving to the South
I had resisted moving the Conference to the Global South. I am Peruvian and would love to see more Conferences taking place in the Global South, but I am also a pragmatist at heart. Organising the Conference in foraus, Chatham House, and Fundació Bofill was relatively easy. The hosts were ready and the cities are easy to navigate. And, like it or not, flying there from around the world is cheaper and more direct.
But it was time to diversify our community and the conversation. South Africa became an option because of our long-term engagement with SAIIA, one of the co-hosts of the T20 in South Africa. I have always had the dream that the OTT Conference will be one of a whole week of events organised by the hosts and participating think tanks, taking advantage of the gathering of thinktankers. So, maybe we could combine the OTT Conference with the T20 Midterm Conference?
It was not easy, but in the end, we did it! In 2025, we facilitated a meeting of African think tanks and the IMF on Monday, the Governance Action Hub and New South Institute hosted a public event on state capture after the Conference, there was a joint cocktail to close the OTT Conference and open the T20 Midterm Conference, and many OTT Conference participants joined the Midterm on Thursday and Friday.
We also doubled down on the fun. Sonja Stojanovic-Gajic and Goran Buldioski (two of that core group of participants) hosted a Fuck-Up Night at a nearby bar. It was not just excellent; it was beyond excellent. We heard incredibly nuanced and insightful stories from some of the most senior and experienced think tank leaders in the world. We learned, and, crucially, we had a laugh! David Watson from Chatham House was unable to join us to help lead the sing-along in the Unpopular Opinions session, but he sent a video that did the trick: the best Unpopular Opinions ever!
In 2026, the Conference will be held in Morocco at the Policy Centre for the New South.
We have new ideas to introduce.
OTT Conferences are the community
There is another element to the origin of the Conference that I have tried to emphasise and sustain over the years.
I was reacting to how other think tank conferences were being organised at the time. Too often, they were all about the host or the convener. They were a chance for the convener to set the agenda and monopolise the conversation. Participants did not feel free to express themselves openly and candidly.
Well, I do not do keynotes—nor does the OTT team. We host, at most, one of the sessions in each set of parallel sessions slots – but never alone. I limit my participation to welcoming everyone and facilitating the daily roundup sessions.
The OTT team is there, mostly, to listen, learn and help make connections between participants.
Every session of the OTT Conference is designed by the participants themselves. We review session proposals and try to make connections between them to add value; never to impose our agenda. If two think tanks want to talk about new communications outputs or sustainability, we put them in touch. If a suggested session is too similar to something we have already discussed in previous Conferences, we will give the organisers feedback to ensure their session drives our field forward.
In 2024, we also introduced regional meetings and the “Unconference” sessions. Two whole hours to forge regional conversations and allow participants to decide what they want to talk about – or use the time to meet with each other in private.
Naming the conferences
The theme of the conference is decided in dialogue with the hosts and is informed by multiple sources, including discussions at the last OTT Conference, findings from the State of the Sector Report, conversations with the On Think Tanks community, and suggestions from the host. We also try to read the mood of the context.
It is always “think tanks and”:
- In 20217, it was “evolving think tanks” (the exception);
- In 2018, “think tanks and credibility”;
- In 2019, “think tanks and public engagement”;
- In 2020, “think tanks and technology”;
- In 2021, “think tanks and change”;
- In 2022, “think tanks and partnerships (for a change)”;
- In 2023, “think tanks and political uncertainty”;
- In 2024, “think tanks and their communities”; and
- In 2025, “think tanks and impact”.
The main theme frames what keynotes and encourages participants to organise sessions that address it. But we allow and encourage sessions that challenge this choice.
How is the Conference funded, and why support it?
This is another recurrent question. The On Think Tanks programme is funded through a series of grants, as well as a contribution from the margins of our consulting work, which covers approximately 25% of the budget.
The Hewlett Foundation (since 2015), the Robert Bosch Stiftung (since 2022), the Mercator Stiftung (since 2024), and the Ford Foundation (since 2023) have provided multi-year support to the Conference. GIZ on behalf of BMZ has joined in 2025. The Open Society Foundations supports the Conference by covering the cost of participation for young think tankers through OTT’s Building for the Future initiative. Other funders, such as IDRC and the Asia Foundation, have occasionally supported participation from their grantees.
Networks like Southern Voice or the T20 in South Africa have also supported this by hosting cocktails to encourage networking.
Our hosts also make an important contribution by providing the space at no cost. Some are also able to cover some of the catering costs. Soapbox has designed the Conference branding from the beginning, pro bono.
Importantly, since 2024, we have introduced a small fee which contributes to the sustainability of the Conference. We are now exploring introducing sponsorship options for 2026.
I want the Conferences and the On Think Tanks programme to be as sustainable as possible.
Whenever I go into a meeting to ask for funding, I get asked about how we evaluate the impact of the Conference.
To put it simply: we want the Conference to be worth the effort that participants put into it.
Since we introduced a small participation fee we have seen demand for the conference rise. I was worried that the cost of flying to South Africa would make it harder to reach our target of 150 people; we surpassed the target and had to turn down many people who ended up on a long waiting list.
Many 2025 participants have already signed up to join the OTT Conference in 2026!
The Conference is also an opportunity for think tanks, funders and practitioners to come together. New funding relationships have emerged out of the Conferences. New research partnerships have been forged. Service providers come to develop new business, which they do!
This is hard work. But it is work worth doing.
Paraphrasing George Harrison: The OTT Conference is a conference I want to attend.