Every year, movers and shakers in the student housing sector come to The Class Conference to connect and reconnect, to share and be inspired. This event isn't just the largest student housing conference in Europe – it's our time together as individual leaders, and as a collective at large.  

Since our first conference a decade ago, our community has grown to encompass over 90 student housing players, city leaders, and members of the higher education community. As a result of this rapid growth, The Class has become an unmatched engine of opportunity; we've kickstarted new business models, promoted and supported cross- border collaborations, and built up a multi-disciplinary support network helping our members to tackle shared challenges with ease.

This year, as we come out of a global pandemic which shook the world to its foundations, many in our community are beginning to wonder how "the new normal" will manifest in their day-to-day operations. That's where we come in with great ideas and bold solutions. We identified four game changers for the industry, and we're dedicating our 2021 conference to exploring these key themes.

1. Harnessing Investment: Europe’s Recovery Plan is set to reshape Europe’s cities by investing billions of euros into urban revitalisation projects. We’ll look at the macro-scale – focusing on what cities are doing to train and retain young professionals, and touching on what this means for students seeking new ways to upskill, reskill, collaborate, and co-create as they enter the workforce.

2. Scaling Social Impact: Whenever sustainability comes up, there’s a lot of talk about balancing people, planet, and profit. Yet, true systems change requires all hands-on deck. We’ll dive into what we as a community will need to do to achieve social value.  

3. Forging a Common Agenda: We need new models of public-private partnership to spread innovations and bring about lasting change. This theme revolves around stakeholder engagement, goal-setting, collective learning, accountability, policy-making, and regulation.

4. Envisioning the student experience of tomorrow: Networked, collective intelligence allows us to cut through the noise as we widen the solution space in student accommodation. We’ll explore which trends and signals in education, mobility, sustainability, digitisation, and urbanisation are worth keeping an eye on.

The Class Conference and Best in Class Awards has a 2-day arc:

If you’re joining us in person, on the first day, you can join the site tours around Amsterdam highlighting a range of new innovative student living concepts that are disrupting the sector:

• Revamped: The Student Hotel, City

• Hybrid: Student Experience, Minervahaven

• Scale: GreyStar, OurDomain South East

• Transformed: Cohesion Lofts, Rockfield  
  

In the evening, you will join us to celebrate the organisations and initiatives at the forefront of the student and shared living, working and learning in The Best in Class Awards Dinner.  

Day two, is our day to look back and ahead at the forces shaping the industry. Our in-person audience will experience a series of inspirational speakers and breakout discussions. Online attendees can join the sessions via livestream and have the chance to view exclusive pre-programmed content during the breakout discussions.  

How might we benefit from the cross-pollination between urban living, learning and working? How might we rethink our purpose as citizens, as a community, and as leaders? And most importantly, how might we balance people, planet, and profit as we pursue a paradigm shift in university life?

We hope this conference presents you with plenty of opportunities to learn new things, form meaningful connections, and have fun.

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