My Reflections from the 2025 OTT Conference

To me, the OTT Annual Conferences have become an entity to look forward to. My association with OTT goes back to 2013, and I am pleased to share that I have attended 8 out of the 9 Conferences that have been organised. With each Conference, I have grown, felt rejuvenated, and returned home full of new ideas, associations, and a desire to put them into action through activities, networking, and projects. In an article published by On Think Tanks, I have already captured some of my sentiments about attending (and not) these Conferences.

This year, the OTT Conference 2025 brought in a lot of pleasant surprises, and yes, I had expected “some things” but a “lot of things” happened. 

One can guess what happens when 164 participants, representing 121 organisations from 51 countries across all six continents, meet and converge: the exchange of rich knowledge, diverse perspectives, honest opinions, and, most importantly, the structure of the Conference, which allows you to be yourself. 

The design of the 2025 Conference was fluid, including excellent keynote speakers. These speakers reflected and shared their experiences and were also candid in their “political” experiences and encounters. Their stories of their associations in the “political drama” arena made me think about what is different in our country, India. We, as think tanks, often encounter unhappiness, non-cooperation, and misunderstanding, and yet we need to work with governments to ensure the scalability of our ideas (and sometimes some funding).

My takeaways from the 2025 OTT Conference

What did I learn? The list of takeaways is long, and I will be happy if the learning continues. Perhaps my networking and connections with many of the wonderful participants and fellow think tankers in the coming months will help fill this gap. 

There were many learnings, but I would like to pen down the key ten points and hope to write articles on some of them in the near future:

1. Think tanks are builders of evidence-they contribute to better policy design and other aspects, and not just act as a research/knowledge hub. They help in transparency and accountability. 
2. We need to be co-competent, but may not be competent, so we encourage a collaborative approach. This is because many of us bring different skills and expertise, which can be leveraged effectively and positively to achieve better outcomes.
3. Our job as think tanks is to bridge the gap between research and policy.
4. Only say yes to things that you are capable of doing and good at; do not “work” only for money.
5. Know your strengths-it is important that think tanks should understand, acknowledge and believe in their strengths before trying to go out into the “market”.
6. We should strive to bridge the gap between the government and private institutions. ‘Crack the code’ is just a phrase; it actually means that think tanks must act as honest brokers—translators of values, not just of information. Again, I think this was stated by Mavis.
7. Is it partnership or contractship that works in policy making?-To elaborate, think tanks should, over a period of time, become thought partners and not just be providers of information in the policy-making space. 
8. If you do not talk to your people (within your organisation), you will not succeed.
9. Does bureaucracy kill policy recommendations in policy making?-In my experience, there have been instances where bureaucracy has come in the way of decision making, especially when it involves a multi-departmental approach. I recall that for a Conference I was organising on the woes of the Motor Vehicle Act in Karnataka, I had to visit one department after another to obtain nominations. I finally succeeded in getting nominations (since the Government was an important stakeholder) by approaching the topmost bureaucrat. So, ideally speaking, bureaucrats often slow down processes, which can sometimes undermine policy recommendations (despite robust evidence-based research).
10.  When should think tanks be the devil’s advocate in the policy-making process? Yes, they should ask awkward questions and challenge governments, since it will help strengthen policies and help in making sustainable and long-term solutions.

Conclusion

These are just thought-starters! However, I must say that they are important, interesting, and worth exploring further. Perhaps some of these topics could be reflected further at the OTT Conference 2026 in Morocco.

Thank you, OTT, for the excellent platform and opportunity.