The Professional Programme offers lasting skills how to face challenges in a participatory manner in companies and organisations as well as the wider community.

Target Group
All those who want to develop collaboration and participation as professionals in public service, social innovators and entrepreneurs, representatives of NGOs, leaders in business and selected Forum Alpbach scholarship holders.

The Alpbach Professional Programme on Facilitation and Participatory Leadership is a training course designed to teach simple yet powerful processes for building community, activating collective intelligence and fostering individual and collaborative leadership practices.
At the core of the training are the questions of how we can meet the complex challenges of today’s society and what are the practices and ways of working that can help us to unlock the potential inherent in organisations in this age of diversity.
Based on the “Art of Hosting” methodology, the training aims to give a dynamic and effective introduction to methods of working in a participatory and collective manner to tackle complex systems and challenges on local, regional and national levels and beyond.

The practice of participatory leadership recognises strategic dialogue and conversations as drivers for development and change. It can be used to good effect in areas like:

• Strategy-making
• Stakeholder engagement and alignment
• Organisational and community development
• Leadership and management alignment
• Team and network development
• Staff engagement
• Developing and animating networks and communities of practice

Your Learning Outcomes

• A deeper understanding of a wide range of participatory methods and approaches
• Practical skills to apply in their own organisations
• The chance to gain first-hand experience as co-facilitators during the European Forum Alpbach 2016

Who is it for?

All those who want to develop skills in collaboration and participation and want to harness the richness of diverse backgrounds and experiences.The Summer School is most suited to participants who will have the opportunity to apply what they have learned on return to their respective place of work, especially:

• Professionals in public service and private sector
• Change makers, social innovators and entrepreneurs
• Representatives of NGOs
• Leaders in business
• Selected Forum Alpbach scholarship holders