Debate Exchange 2025: A Focus on Deeper Knowledge and Learning

The IDEA Debate Exchange 2025 took place from 18th to 23rd August and again returned to Warsaw. It brought together 51 participants for a week of learning, exchange, and collaboration. As in every previous edition, the event provided a space for friendly and experienced peer-to-peer learning, sharing thoughts and experiences, building new connections, exploring future visions, and forming strong friendships.

During the week participants joined a programme full of workshops and deep dive sessions focused on topics vital for our work in debate, youth engagement and organisational development. The activities were designed to share knowledge, exchange experiences from different national contexts, and reflect on common challenges.

This year’s workshops covered a wide range of areas related to coaching, education, inclusion, event organising, legal and civic knowledge, and debating in schools. For the first time, the programme also included deep dive sessions, which was a new format designed to give more time and space to explore selected topics in greater depth. These sessions were introduced to focus more closely on areas that require longer discussion and better understanding.

As every year, the exchange encouraged participants to learn from each other, as everybody has a different amount of experience or recent skills they wanted to share. Some participants contributed tools or ideas they were testing for the first time, while others shared reflections based on years of work in the debate field. The combination of different perspectives made the learning process richer and more interactive.

The evenings were also an important part of the week. After each day’s sessions, participants gathered to play board games, relax, and spend time together in an informal setting. On the final evening, the group came together for karaoke, which brought music, laughter, and a great atmosphere to close the event on a high note.

We are very grateful to everyone who made this year’s exchange possible and we already look forward to meeting again in the next year, to continue working together for stronger and better debating communities.

You can feel the atmosphere of the event on our Facebook and Instagram.