In Review: The 2025 NESA Fall Leadership Conference & Gallery
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.Jane Goodall
Exotic Istanbul – the bridge between East and West – was the venue of the 2025 NESA Fall Leadership Conference, October 16-19, 2025, at the Renaissance Polat Istanbul Hotel overlooking the Sea of Marmara.
This year's theme, “The Story of Learning” invited leaders to step into the narrative of learning: to co-create and reimagine education as a story of flourishing, identity, innovation, and interconnection.
School leaders were also encouraged to explore what it means to move from “Old Excellence to New Excellence”* – from narrow definitions of achievement towards a broader, richer vision that values relevance, agency and human flourishing.
Engagement Keynotes amplified the idea that education is not a fixed script but a narrative we create together:
- The Story of Human Flourishing: Michael Stevenson on “OECD Education for Human Flourishing” described the OECD’s High Performing Systems for Tomorrow initiative, advocating for a major shift in education to broader knowledge, values and character skills.
- The Story of Belonging: Rosalind Wiseman in “Writing the Next Chapter: Dignity, Agency & Belonging for All”, described how to build learning cultures powered by trust, motivation, and connection with a ‘mentor mindset’ of “high standards and high support”.
- The Story of Innovation through Diversity: Hans Johansson in “Creating the Medici Effect: Groundbreaking ideas at the intersection of different fields, cultures & perspectives” explored how blending different perspectives can foster fearless experimentation and expand innovation and problem-solving capacity.
- The Story of School Experience & The Story of This Conference: David Willows and Suzette Parlevliet in, “Unpacking the Story of School Through the Felt Experience Indicator®”, led a brief opening reflection to connect human flourishing to our own story of learning. In their closing keynote, “Mapping the Experience, Making Meaning, Moving Forward”, they invited delegates to map the moments of the FLC that moved and challenged them, or sparked insight.
School leaders also chose among nine one-hour Sharing the Journey Sessions presented by peers at NESA schools on diverse topics such as parents as partners, cultivating caring students, AI competency via UNESCO’s framework, creating an Arabic program students love, culturally responsive SEL, among others.
Specialists led deep-dive (2.5-hour) Connect & Engage Workshops for deep learning and discovery including weaving equity in every classroom, the attributes of great international school teachers and how to hire them, building cultures of dignity and belonging, data analysis using AI, pedagogy of hope and regenerative leadership, and other topics.
Four multi-day Professional Strands on Governance, Business & Finance, Human Resources, and Admissions & Advancement were offered, as well as Pre-Conference Workshops on Middle Level Leadership, Culturally Relevant SEL, and Designing Digital Learning Systems, and 31 Learning Partner Sessions presented by NESA Affiliates over three days that shared resources and innovations – all in a spirit of professional generosity and collaboration.
Time for informal connection is integral to the NESA FLC, starting with Thursday’s Welcome Reception at the Polat’s Noblesse Lobby Lounge with views of the Sea of Marmara and the twinkling lights of the city’s Asian side, and culminating with Saturday’s “Evening in Kumkapi” – a multi-course fish dinner in a storied and colorful Istanbul neighborhood with traditional roving music troupes.
During these four days, leaders listened, shared and were stretched by new perspectives to shape the story of learning together. FLC delegates unpacked what it means to lead schools where stories – human, intergenerational, technological, cultural – are at the center of learning.
* Tim Fish, Two Chairs Studio, info@twocharis.co; New View EDU Podcast, Episode 61, September 17, 2024, NAIS.
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