Agora International Conventions (usually called "AgoraCon") are multi-day events where members from all around the world gather for competing, learning, socializing, and charting the future of Agora. Although they are centered around Agora, its goal, and its mission, they are open events that any person can attend. Membership in Agora is not a requirement. Attending an Agora Convention is, without exaggeration, a life-changing event. The number of people you will meet, the degree of camaraderie, friendship, and warmth that you will feel, the knowledge you will acquire, and the connections you will establish will resonate for many years.

Every Agora Convention has a specific logo and theme. For example, the first 2019 Convention had "Dream Big. Make it Happen". The Second Convention (which had to be postponed from 2020 to 2021 due to the COVID19 Pandemic) had the tagline "New Leaders for a New Time."

Agora Conventions are celebrated yearly, usually close to our birthday - August 21. Every year a different city and country are selected for hosting the Convention. The selection is based on a number of criteria, such as:

• The growth of clubs in the region.
• The availability of sufficient support infrastructure (transportation hubs, hotels, etc.)
• The accessibility of the location - both political (in terms of country entry requirements) and practical (in terms of safety, reachability, etc.)
• The commitment and capability of the organizers to successfully prepare an event of this magnitude.
• The location of the previous conventions (for example, if the past convention has been in Western Europe, it's unlikely that Western Europe or even Europe would be chosen for the next one).

Unlike the rest of the activities, attending a Convention is not free and requires paying a ticket. The ticket price goes towards payment of costs such as renting the venue, organizing the catering, all the infrastructure costs (equipment, lights, furniture), consumables, professional services such as photography and video recording, and possibly paying the expenses of some prominent guests or keynote speakers. 

Activities

The organizers of a convention have a lot of flexibility in deciding what will happen during a Convention, and that's why there are no two equal conventions.

At the core, each Convention will have one "Main Track" happening in the main Convention Hall that will feature:

• One or more keynote speeches
• The Contest Finals
• One or more workshops
• A Gala dinner
• An entertainment program
• A networking event.
• An Awards ceremony - both for contest winners and other distinguished members

Additionally, there may be "Side Tracks" with separate rooms where workshops, training sessions, or other events may occur.

Here's a small example of the activities that took part during the Lisbon 2019 Convention (click on each picture to see the full resolution image).

Legal Matters

Before making plans to attend a Convention, always check first with the embassy of the hosting country whether you need a visa and, if so, what documents you need to present.

Once you've decided to go, do not delay the Visa request - some countries may take up to two months to grant a Visa.

Visa Support Letters

For anyone wanting to attend a Convention Event in the European Union and needing an official invitation letter from Agora for the visa process in their country, please forward the Convention ticket receipt and your full details (full name as it appears in your passport and your physical address) to [email protected] and we'll send back an invitation letter within one business day. Please note that it's up to each embassy to accept or not this letter, and we have no control over that.

Visas for a particular country must be obtained from outside that country (and visas for any of the countries from the Schengen area must be obtained from outside the area). Besides sending the above letter, we cannot influence or control the Visa process in any way, nor can we provide information on a particular application's status or about the necessary documentation.

Also, remember that you can find all the legal details of our Foundation here.

Please note that Agora Speakers International is registered in the European Union. Our support letters may be accepted in embassies of countries from the EU, but not necessarily elsewhere.

Invoices

For receiving an invoice for your ticket, please contact the Convention organizer.