About

suklaa.org started Oppi in 2014. We had just completed organising the first ever London Festival of Education at UCL and had an ambition to organise a global learning event. We had noticed that education events were focused on specific sectors; teachers, or ed tech businesses, or policy makers. We wanted to bring everyone together in one place, to learn together. We chose Helsinki. The first Oppi in 2014 was huge. 1200 people. We called it a festival and tried to shake off the standard conference format. We got terrific reviews; we made no money; it was exhausting.

In the spirit of trying to launch a global event, our original aspiration was to move it to a different continent each year. So Oppi 2015 was downtown Manhattan, NYC. An audience of 450 and the Oppi that most famously offered free beer (thank you Sam Adams) but you had to pay for the water. What we noticed most about Oppi NYC, was the people who appreciated the event the very most, were not the audience, but the contributors. The keynotes, the panelists, the workshop facilitators. They were offering their time for free, just to be with the rest of the line up.

So we conceived a new idea. What if the line up was the audience? What if we didn’t curate any content, we just curated the audience? What if we stopped trying to make money from the idea (because we hadn’t) and instead made it not for profit? What if we didn’t seek sponsorship and therefore didn’t have to consider a sponsor’s ROI? What if the people who valued this event the most funded their own attendance? What would a tiny little “by invitation only” Oppi look like? And that is how Oppi Venice, in 2016, was born.

This intimate, “by invitation only” event is about to celebrate its 10th Anniversary. With each iteration we become more defined, more nuanced and bolder. Most importantly, we have grown a community who professionally sustain one another throughout the year. There’s a fast track to trust because everyone knows the audience has been specifically chosen and invited. Everyone is expected to leave their ego at the door and turn up believing that they can learn from this community and have something valuable to share of themselves. It’s a rich mix of thought leaders, education businesses, policy makers, educators, trainers, dreamers and doers. It’s first class professional development, but it’s unashamedly personal development first. At Oppi, you’ll be safe. Safe to learn, to be vulnerable, to fail and to grow.

The value of Oppi is that it is now a community who nurtures itself. It has triggered countless professional collaborations all around the world. The impact that Oppi has on the frontline of education has become immeasurable.