| Event | ISSA Conference 2024: It Takes an Early Childhood Ecosystem for All Young Children to Thrive |
| Date | 23-24 October 2024 |
| Location | Sofia, Bulgaria |
Description
The ISSA Conference is a unique platform to listen to the world’s leading early childhood experts, an opportunity to learn from your peers, but also to share the knowledge and experience you have gained. ISSA unites researchers, practitioners and policymakers from around the world. Together, participants will explore themes through discussion and interactive sessions, and share lessons learned and proven solutions. As always, there will be a rich and diverse offer of one-day pre-conference workshops and site visits to choose from, alongside conference sessions.
The conference also marks ISSA’s 25th anniversary as a learning community devoted to early childhood development, and the 30th anniversary of the Open Society Foundations’ Step by Step Program, upon whose legacy and resulting network ISSA continues to build.
The conference theme, It Takes an Early Childhood Ecosystem for All Young Children to Thrive, recognizes that we live in disruptive and increasingly challenging times where the concern for protecting and asserting the importance of safe, healthy, and happy childhoods is more pressing than ever. Recent years, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing with economic downturns and devastating consequences of wars, have clearly demonstrated how rapidly changes are occurring, exposing vulnerabilities not only in societies but also in early childhood systems.
Keynore Speakers
- James Cairns, M.A. - Senior Director for Strategic Engagements and Organizational Learning at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University
- Mathias Urban, Phd - Desmond Chair of Early Childhood Education and Director of the Early Childhood Research Centre (ECRC) at Dublin City University, Ireland
