Annual Team Meetup

This year, we once again finally came together in Vienna for a workshop. What is the future role of social innovation in society and where do we see ourselves as SozialMarie? We are heading towards our 20th anniversary in 2024 so it is time to look back – but also to look forward and talk about our vision for the future. At the time the founders of SozialMarie came up with the idea for the prize, social innovation was a new, rarely mentioned concept. In the past 19 years, SozialMarie managed to achieve the goal it set out to achive; to set up an international network across the CEE, in Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia. We have arrived at a stage where we have a local coordinator, evaluators and a jury member in each of these countries, we communicate in each of the local languages and receive about 300 applications every year. With that, the goals envisioned by the founders for the first twenty years, have already been achieved. But what’s next for SozialMarie? What role could we take in a society where “social innovation” has become part of the mainstream vocabulary? 

We invited our team to discuss and debate these questions and brainstorm together about the future of SozialMarie. To share a little teaser with you about the topics that came up: Community building – strengthen our role as an international platform, providing more opportunities for exchanging ideas and networking across national borders. Policies – connect projects with decision makers; support them if they aim to have an impact on public policy. Partnerships – increase our engagements in the social innovation ecosystem, join forces with existing platforms, networks, and initiatives.

Bringing together our team is an important step in building an international social innovation community. Our coordinators, evaluators, jury members and patrons are experts in the various fields related to social innovation. What unites these about 50 very different personalities is their long-term dedication to SozialMarie, its winners, and nominees. Last weekend was a great opportunity to take a step back, put our heads together and think about the future of SozialMarie.

Scroll through our photo gallery for some impressions about the event.

Photos by Jónás Mátyássy