The terms are used interchangeably in listings and they are not interchangeable. What each format usually involves, and what that means for who should apply.
Short answer: a summit is large and plenary-driven; a conference is sessions and papers; a forum is discussion between stakeholder groups; a festival adds cultural programming; a fellowship is weeks or months with funding and an output attached; a bootcamp is one to three days on a single skill. Listings use them loosely, so read the programme, not the noun.
The word in the title sets your expectations about how many people will be in the room, whether you will speak, and what you leave with. Getting it wrong is how people arrive at a 500-person plenary expecting a workshop.
Large, often several hundred delegates, built around plenary sessions with notable speakers. Working groups sit underneath. You will hear more than you speak, and the value is usually the room and the contacts rather than the content.
Suits: people who want reach and visibility.
Structured sessions, frequently with submitted papers or presentations. Smaller than a summit, more specialised, and more likely to expect a contribution from you.
Suits: people with work to present.
Convened around dialogue between groups that do not usually talk — government, civil society, academia, private sector. Attendance is often by nomination or sector quota, and selection is consciously balanced rather than purely merit based.
Suits: practitioners with case experience.
A summit with cultural programming attached — performance, exhibition, social events alongside the sessions. Larger and more open than most formats, and frequently the least restrictive on eligibility.
Suits: first-timers and people who want breadth.
Weeks or months rather than days, normally with a stipend, and almost always with an expected output: a report, a piece of research, published journalism.
Suits: people with a specific project.
One to three days on a single skill, with something finished by the end. The easiest entry point if your CV is thin.
Suits: anyone starting out.
Organisers do not use these terms consistently, and some choose the word that sounds most impressive. Read the published programme: how many sessions, how many people, what you are expected to produce. That tells you the format regardless of the title.
A summit is usually larger and plenary-led, with several hundred delegates listening to speakers before splitting into working groups. A conference is smaller and session-based, and more likely to expect you to present something.
Not usually. A forum is convened around dialogue between different stakeholder groups — government, civil society, academia — and places are often allocated by sector to keep that balance, rather than purely on individual merit.
A longer programme, typically weeks or months, that carries funding and expects an output such as research, a report or published journalism. It is closer to paid work than to attending an event.
A festival or a short bootcamp. Both tend to have the widest eligibility and the lowest expectation that you arrive with an existing body of work.
Every event page has its own registration form. Places on each programme are limited.
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