Cross-Movement Open Space

☀️ Summer Edition ☀️
🗓️ 7.+ 8.6.2025
⏰ each day 10 am – 6 pm
🌐 Le+O Waldkloster, Gellertplatz 7, 1100 Vienna

For the 5th time, the Cross-Movement Open Space invites active groups and people from various social movements working on socio-ecological change in Austria (may it be on climate justice, environment, human rights, migration, peace, democracy, feminism, solidarity economy, community building or other related topics). The cyclical event gives us the possibility to meet every 3-4 months to exchange about visions, goals, strategies and current issues that might concern all or many of us. In facilitation we use methods that enable us to interweave experiences from diverse contexts and utilise our collective potential to the best. This also creates a space to discover concrete ways of working together and to practice cross-group organizing.

Everyone who is engaged in a civic initiative or political group and would like to connect with others who take responsibility for shaping social change is welcome.

You can register using the form below. We look forward to seeing you!

Purpose

• This cross-movement networking event is a space for those of us who are committed to this work for a better life on earth to meet others in the field and exchange about their current missions and challenges. A space to surface needs and find ways to share resources.
• It is a space to weave our groups’ visions and goals together into a collective image of the future we are working towards while not falling into the trap of collapsing the complexity of the work by wanting to agree on “the right way”. This means we learn to work in ambiguity and uncertainty, designing parallel experiments and coming back together to compare notes on how it went.
• It is also a space to practice working at the pace of regeneration, rather than sacrificing people’s well being for the sake of impact.

Through the regularity of the Cross-Movement Open Space we can keep in touch and stay informed about what is happening in the wider field. This helps to surface collaboration potentials that would otherwise remain unseen. The supportive nature of the event provides good practice ground for cross-group organizing.

Beyond this event, CAN offers various forms of support to help initiatives or alliances in their engagement. Through these efforts, we aim to foster the flourishing of a vast network of active groups and individuals, contributing to the unification of civil society’s strengths.

Read more about the background and intention on the event’s project page.

Focus Topic

This time the invitation question is:

Fear, grief, exhaustion… how can we process them and transform them into positive visions?

So the focus topic of this Open Space will be the question of how we can work through difficult emotions and integrate them to focus on positive visions of the future. We want to exchange concrete experiences, best practices and strategies.

We advise to have a thought beforehand about what topics are currently relevant for you or your initiative and if you want to initiate an Open Space session with that.

Organizational Info

Accessibility

🚇 How to get there: The venue, Le+O Waldkloster (Gellertplatz 7, 1100 Vienna) is accessible by public transport: the U1 station Reumannplatz, the D station Hlawkagasse and the Gellertplatz station on line 6 are all within walking distance. There are bicycle parking spaces in front of the Waldkloster.
💶 Cost: Participation is generally free of charge, but donations are very welcome, as the existence of the event cycle depends on financial means. Donations can be made on site in cash or here online with the reference “Open Space 06.2025”.
👨‍🦽 The physical space is largely barrier-free, with the exception of a few non-essential break-out rooms.
👶 Childcare is available on both days. If you want to come with child(ren) please contact us via email beforehand at open-space@civilaction.net or indicate in the registration form.
🗣️ Interpreting: The event will be mainly in German, partly in English and interpretation both ways will be available. 

Below in the registration form you can tell us all your needs and wishes!

Food

Saturday: A cold buffet with oriental delicacies from Viktor Adler Market will be offered for a free donation.
Sunday: The organizing team will not provide food, but invites you to bring something for a potluck buffet in order to share a common meal nevertheless.
Alternatively, you can visit nearby restaurants during the lunch break.
You can make your own tea and coffee at the coffee bar throughout the days.

Flow of the days

When you arrive at the location, please come to the welcome desk first. There you will receive all kinds of information, also if you need something throughout the day.

On Saturday we will take almost the whole morning to explore the focus question together. Before lunch we will create the agenda for the rest of the day in a participatory way and in the afternoon we will jump into the parallel open space sessions (explanation of the format: see below).

On Sunday, we will also spend the morning and early afternoon with open space sessions and conclude the weekend in the late afternoon with an extensive plenary harvest.

Exact times are subject to change and the facilitation team is free to adapt the schedule according to needs and dynamics in the room. Here is the rough schedule:

SATURDAY:
9:30 Check-in table is open.
10:00-13:00 Arrival together with check-in (in plenary) and exercises
to get in touch with each other and with the topic (in small groups)
13:10-14:10 Lunch
15:00-17:40 Open space sessions (in small groups)
17:40-18:00 Content harvest (in plenary)
18:00-18:30 Closing

SUNDAY:
9:30 Check-in table is open.
10:00-11:00 Arrive together & collect topics (in plenary)
11:00-13:15 Open space sessions (in small groups)
13:15-13:45 Content harvest (in plenary)
13:45-14:45 Lunch (potluck: everyone brings something to eat & share)
15:05-16:05 Open space sessions (in small groups)
16:20-17:00 Content harvest (in plenary)
17:00-18:00 Closing

If you have any questions, please contact us at this email address: open-space@civilaction.net 

And if you still want to bring/ invite other people, please tell them to register too! This helps us a lot, even if it happens at very short notice.

About the Format “Open Space”

Experienced facilitators lead us through the day with help of the “Open Space” method – which is ideal for complex issues (like the multi-crisis we are facing today) that require diverse perspectives to find comprehensive solutions.

All participants are invited to tell in front of the entire group what topic they want to address in which way in an Open Space slot (via presentation/ interactive workshop/ brainstorm/ discussion etc. You can even ask for input on a topic you know little about – maybe there is someone with more expertise in the room).
Depending on intrinsic interest, everybody can then join parallel subgroups to address the proposed topics in detail. People choose freely where they want to contribute with questions/ information. It is welcome to switch between groups (as bees doing cross-fertilization 😉 ) and to take breaks according to needs (sometimes conversations at the coffee table can be the most valuable ones!).
New ideas, solutions, questions and/or next steps emerge in a lively and creative way. At the final presentation and consolidation (“harvest”) with the whole group, essential results and plans can crystallize, with which we can then start into our coming months of work.

In this way, people from the most diverse contexts, even with differing convictions, can work together in an enriching way and gain new perspectives, ideas and insights. The know-how, experience and working power of the large and diverse group of all participants can flow in a self-organized and intelligent way and contribute surprisingly well to concrete, versatile solutions to a wide range of complex challenges.

By the way – because this probably needs to be emphasized: Open Space is also open for regenerative sessions ❤️