By Ken Giglio, Principal of Mindful Leadership

Our coaching profession has a multitude of continuing education opportunities offered daily from webinars to podcasts to experiential workshops and programs. All are valuable and interesting and yet, for me, there is always something missing.

Connecting in person with professional peers from around the world, those I’ve known for years and those I will meet for the first time, is the most compelling reason I attend physical conferences. (There’s also something irreplaceable about leaving my own context behind — new countries, new cultures, and the disorientation that only distance provides. This year, for me, that means Zagreb, Croatia, for EMCC Global 2026.)

Engaging with peers in the same environment over days brings many gifts including encountering frameworks and perspectives from markets and cultures we wouldn’t normally be exposed to—all those presentations, panels, and practice sessions. We also allow for pressure-testing ideas and models in front of peers where we can receive feedback, pushback, and support—this is the work of elevating the coaching profession.

And, of critical importance, we take the time to sit with questions long enough in reflection for new thinking to emerge in us and in the dialogue threads with our colleagues. None of that happens at scale in a webinar, and none of it survives a chat transcript.

As a long-time EMCC volunteer, I lead the Group Coaching Centre for Excellence (CfE) and serve on the Supervision CfE— work that has deepened my appreciation for what this global community makes possible. At the conference in Zagreb, I will be participating in a panel with my global colleagues, moderated by Erwin van‘t Land (EMCC Global Council Chair) with my global colleagues Ivana Vasiljević (Country Head, Salveo Serbia) and Rachelle Zhang Head of Executive Mentoring, ICEO LHH (Global Head of Executive Mentoring, ICEO LHH).

The question we will be exploring with participant coaches, mentors, and supervisors is “Who Holds the Space for Leaders When the Stakes Are Highest?”

In a volatile geopolitical environment, leaders are carrying more than ever and in need of reflective partners, who have the capacity to be honest witnesses to what leaders are working toward and what doing so costs them.

These are the questions I want to live in. These are the meaningful conversations I want to be a part of. That’s why this conference matters.

If you’re coming to EMCC Global, I hope you’ll join the panel discussion — not to hear answers, but to help sharpen the question. The leaders we serve deserve a profession that keeps raising its own standard. Conferences are where that standard gets raised.

The EMCC Global Annual Conference, in partnership with EMCC Adria region, is for coaches, mentors and supervisors. It is scheduled to take place May 10-13, 2026 in Zagreb, Croatia. To see the full program and register before sales end on April 27, 2026, click here.