The network's first meeting will be held in Thessaloniki, Greece (6-8 November 2009) at the University of Macedonia, and is entirely devoted on issues of quality on the education and training of the adult educator in Europe.

This meeting is planned to be a forum for exchanging theoretical considerations and empirical evidence, between researchers studying the different roles and tasks of the adult educator and trainer and the ways that these are assessed. The meeting will also address issues relating to the quality of adult educators' training (initial and continuing), their professional development as well as how the aforementioned parameters contribute to the overall quality of adult educational programmes.

The meeting aims to bring together participants from different disciplines and countries who are interested in these topics. The conference is also open to practitioners who are working in adult training organizations or educational structures that provide for adults including universities. Thus, the conference will bring insights from different parts of the academia together with insights from the field. The conference itself will therefore be a site of cross-disciplinary learning.

The organisers invite researchers, scholars and policy makers from all around Europe to give presentations and to discuss their topics, findings and approaches to the main conference theme. Postgraduate and doctoral students are especially welcome.

We encourage submissions which reflect on practices applied and methods used to assess, measure and/or assure quality of adult educators' training, as well as papers that focus on comparative and international approaches of quality in policy making regarding professionalisation of the adult educator and trainer. Paper proposals that relate to issues of quality in professional practice focusing on the role of the adult educator and trainer are also welcome.

We look forward to seeing you in Thessaloniki!