Focusing on organizational and institutional capacities, this topic discusses the growing need for advisory and extension organizations to adapt to new challenges, including digitalization, AI, and misinformation. It will explore how advisors can enhance their professional skills, manage diversity, and engage in cross-cultural interactions while supporting systemic, transformative processes within agri-food and rural systems. Key issues to address under this topic include but are not limited to: 

• Extension organizations and systems and the management of diverse professional orientations—including age, experience, and gender composition within advisory organizations. Impact of diversity on service delivery to farmers and other stakeholders, as well as collegial and intergenerational interaction and organizational adaptability
• Advisors and cross-cultural interactions when working across different organizations and jurisdictional levels, such as community, provincial, and federal. Proven adaptation dynamics take place in terms of technologies and methodologies when advisors work across different scales.
• Processes and methods available to build the professional reputation of advisors and ethical service delivery. Advisory ethics that account for diversity and power dynamics in transition pathways
• Methods, tools, and practices to enhance the professional profile of advisors and develop new types of advisors, such as ‘farmer coaches’. Necessary human and organizational aspects to support such competence development
• Engagement of advisors with different ‘back-offices’ (e.g. data/information gathering, processing etc.) which provide input from science and provide professional training, and identified gaps
• Emerging methods, tools, and practices (e.g., living labs, farmers for climate solutions) that support learning aimed at systemic, transformative, and multi-stakeholder (multi-actor and/or transdisciplinary) processes such as coalitions, networks, platforms, social learning, and interactive innovation

Supporting youth and the next generation of professionals

• Programs and initiatives designed to support youth transitioning to agri-food careers, including higher education and vocational training. This includes examining the successes and challenges faced during this transition
• Available higher vocational education curricula aimed at training professionals for agri-food extension and advisory roles. This includes addressing the skills and knowledge needed for new entrants and advisors to successfully transition into these roles, with a focus on the qualities and skills required for working in multi-actor environments across various sectors and scale
• Vocational and higher education systems’ preparedness in training new advisors for digitalization and adapting to new hybrid learning environments