NAFSA 2026 Recap

NAFSA 2026 took us to Orlando, and our calendar was full from the first morning to the last evening. 110 meetings in three and a half days. The two of us moving from one table to the next, picking up conversations in the hallway, and only stopping when the convention center shut down at the end of the exhibition each day.

Last year in San Diego, we walked into NAFSA with no idea what to expect. Would anyone know who we were? Would anyone show up? This year felt different. We knew the room. We knew the rhythm. And we walked out more convinced than ever of something we have been saying for a while: free mover mobility is no longer a niche conversation.

The shift from “what exactly is a free mover?” to “how do we start working with you?” is the whole story of our week. So here is what we saw, and why it matters.

Here is what caught us off guard. A lot of the universities we were meeting for the very first time already knew exactly who we were.

They had heard about us from colleagues at other institutions. A name passed between two international offices, a recommendation dropped in a corridor, a quiet “you should really talk to these guys.” We sat down ready to explain the basics, and instead found people who already understood the model and wanted to get straight to the part that matters: how we build something together.

That is a different kind of signal than a packed calendar. A full schedule tells you people are curious. Universities recommending you to each other tells you the idea is spreading on its own, without us in the room. For a team of two, there is no better compliment.

The same pattern repeats at every event we attend, and Orlando made it impossible to ignore. Universities want to open their doors wider to international students. They are not debating whether to do it. They are actively looking for the right way to do it.

Structured programs like Erasmus and bilateral agreements still have their place. But they were never built for the student who knows exactly where they want to go and does not want to wait for two institutions to sign an agreement first. That student is the free mover, and there are far more of them than the official numbers admit.

What we heard, table after table, is that universities now see this clearly too. They want these students. What they have been missing is a clean way to find them, welcome them, and manage the flow without drowning in email chains and outdated brochures. That is the gap we exist to close, and it was the heart of almost every conversation we had.

Our days in Orlando split neatly into two kinds of meetings, and we loved both.

With our long-standing partners, the conversations were about going further. Not “here is what we do,” but “here is what we do next.” Deepening collaborations, opening new programs, finding the next thing we can build together now that the foundation is in place.

With the universities we had never spoken to before, it was the energy of a first meeting that already feels like the start of something. Many of them, as we said, came in already knowing us. The rest caught on fast. Different institutions, different countries, different systems, all leaning toward the same idea: studying abroad should be more open, more direct, and more student-driven.

Old partners or first introductions, everyone in that room was pointing in the same direction.

NAFSA does not end when the exhibition hall closes. Some of the most genuine conversations of the week happened in the evening, away from the booths, when everyone finally relaxes and genuine personal connections becomes magic.

A big thank you to the partners who hosted us. To the University of Sussex for the welcome at the BUTEX British Student Mobility reception. To Queensland University of Technology for having us at the Australian reception. And to the TOEFL team for opening their doors to us in the last evening as well.

Good food, a good drink, and the kind of relaxed chat that turns a contact into a real relationship. (Our feet were destroyed by day three: it was worth every step.)

It is worth saying out loud: wearefreemovers is still just the two of us. One running business and partnerships, one building the platform. 110 meetings in three and a half days is a lot for any team. For a team of two, it is a statement of how much we believe in where this is going.

And this time we did it together on US soil, both of us in Orlando, sharing every meeting and every late-night reception. (Fabio made it through his first NAFSA in the US without breaking any bones this time.)

We flew home from Orlando with a full pipeline of follow-ups and an even stronger belief in why we started this.

From partners we have worked with for a while to universities we met for the first time, the signal at NAFSA 2026 was the same. Free mover mobility is becoming the norm, not the exception. The students were already there. Now the universities are moving toward them, and they are looking for the infrastructure to make it work.

That infrastructure is exactly what we are building. Not alone, together, with every university that believes studying abroad should be a possibility for any student, heading anywhere, without barriers.

That is the future we are here to build. See you at the next one. 🔥