2025 Trusted Learner Network Unconference
On the Road at Badge Summit
Next stop, Boulder!
Join the Trusted Learner Network (TLN) Community for the 2025 TLN Unconference on Monday, July 21.
For the first time, our signature event is hitting the road, serving as a dynamic prelude to the annual UC Boulder Badge Summit and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s T3 Innovation Network meeting. Our sixth annual TLN Unconference promises a day buzzing with creativity, collaboration and credentialing innovation.
Celebrate the power of intersecting and diverse perspectives to craft bold, actionable outcomes that drive learner agency and institutional success.
Don’t miss this opportunity to kick off a transformative week in the credentialing space from July 21-23, 2025 at the University Memorial Center in Boulder, Colorado. Together, let’s map out the route for a groundbreaking year of credentialing innovation — fueling new ideas, navigating challenges and accelerating toward advancement!
Agenda
Monday, July 21, 2025
In keeping with the TLN’s ethos of increasing agency, a key characteristic of the Unconference is that our participants get to help create the agenda for the event during the Open Space sessions.
Our schedule will include (all times below are in MT):
| 8:30 a.m. | Breakfast & Networking |
| 9:00 a.m. | Welcome Remarks | TLN introduction & Updates |
| 9:30 a.m. | Introduction to Open Space Technology Participants will get an introduction to the Open Space Technology framework to prepare for a day of Open Space sessions. |
| 10:30 a.m. | Open Space Session #1 Back by popular demand, conveners will be asked to present topics and invite co-conveners to join them in open discussions. Designed as a generative endeavor participants will engage around a convening question and break out into small team rooms designed for collaboration. |
| 11:30 a.m. | Open Space Session #2 Attendees will continue to roll up their sleeves to navigate pressing topics in the digital credential ecosystem. |
| 12:15 p.m. | Lunch & Fireside Chat |
| 1:45 p.m. | Open Space Session #3 During the third and final Open Space session of the day, conveners will have the opportunity to deep dive into final topics to workshop before the end of the Unconference. |
| 2:30 p.m. | Share-Out & Closing Open Space participants will share key insights back to the larger Unconference group related to the convening questions with a nod toward the future. |
Continue the conversations started at the TLN Unconference as the Badge Summit officially begins Monday evening! | |
| 3:30 p.m. | Badge Summit Kickoff with Table Talks |
| 5:00 p.m. | Table Talks & Happy Hour |
Why attend?
- Shape the agenda: Dive into an unconventional conference format that fosters co-creation and allows you to help define the day’s discussions.
- Collaborate and create: Tackle real-time challenges with peers, experts and thought leaders in credentialing and higher education.
- Gain fresh perspectives: Discover how combining diverse credentialing methodologies can unlock new opportunities for learners and institutions.
- Actionable insights: Discover strategies and practical tools for leveraging Learning and Employment Records (LERs) and digital badges to empower learners in meaningful ways.
- Build connections: Join a supportive community ready to help you navigate credentialing innovations, whether you're a seasoned pro or new to the field. Special sessions will be available for newcomers!
- Prepare for a week of skills training and discussions: Engage with the latest in LERs and get in the right mindset for a week of discovery, workshops and inspiration at the Badge Summit.
Discuss timely topics in the digital credentialing ecosystem
A signature portion of the TLN Unconference is our Open Space Technology, in which we invite participants to share pressing topics they’d like to explore exclusively with fellow attendees. In 2024, some of these topics included:
- Skills-enabled team optimization and how employers value LERs
- Interoperability through standards, profiles and radical optionality
- Empowering learners through dynamic evidence/skills validation methods and challenges
- Reducing the burden of issuing credentials
- Wallet-attached storage
- LER pathways in K-12 to college transitions
- Exploring issuer registries
The TLN Unconference is unlike any other convening in the digital credentials space. Here are a few great reasons why you should attend:
- Engage with your colleagues, collaborators and meet a host of new faces all attending with the purpose of advancing the digital credentials space. The TLN Unconference is an opportunity to advance partnerships and look for new ways to push digital credentialing (and its adjacent focus areas) into reality.
- Advance a new idea, pick through a thorny challenge or show off a new piece of technology you’re excited to bring to your customer base. Receive feedback and problem-solve together.