After a successful Sandbox US-wide event in June, we set out to organize another regional event: the first Sandbox European Retreat took place last week-end in „poor, but sexy“ Berlin. Next on the map and in our agenda: an Asian Retreat! The date will be announced until the end of this year.

When a large group of people who, in most cases, never met each other before, come together to spend 72 hours which each other, one question always arises: What is our common denominator?

This question is so important, because it is the critical step to trespass mere small talk and enter a realm of real exchange and mutual understanding. There are cases, in which this question has to be answered with a sad, but true “not existent“. But not so in the case of the 25 Sandboxers that met for our first European Retreat in Berlin.

In less than 2.5 days, the Sandboxers that came together met people worth staying in touch with, listened to stories worth retelling and found passions worth sharing. Obviously, such a process can be facilitated by “icebreaker“ formats or large quantities of alcohol, but if it weren’t for a shared vision, all these teambuilding mediums would remain useless.

The participants came from Romania, Israel, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Kosovo, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands and they all had one thing in common: they love to build things. This is why we set out to brainstorm what projects Sandboxers could collaboratively work on in the future. With some truly inspiring outcomes! William McQuillan, Tobias Jaeger and Patrick Mielmann will organize a „US Venture Spa Road Trip“ through all major US Sandbox hubs (would love to elaborate on this one, but more to be announced). Others have developed a plan to buy an island close to the Philippines to host Sandbox survival camps or thought about how Sandbox could write its first community-supported magazine.

We’ll see how these projects will develop, but one thing is for sure: the level of energy was extremely high! True to the motto „work hard, party hard“ we dived into the Berlin party scene (thanks to our super friendly and cool Kreuzberg hostel, we didn’t have too long cab drives back home) and we found a productive environment at Betahaus, a local coworking space. A format that turned out to be very successful was what we call the Venture Spa, a discussion group in which all members collectively analyze one person’s biggest challenge and help her or him with advice, contacts, ideas and manpower. And this all the more because of the multitude of perspectives: designers, social entrepreneurs, artists, philosophers, educational activist, lawyers, tech specialists – all using their collective brainpower to solve the problem at hand.

Finally, I can only echo the resume of the first US Retreat: Anyone who is pessimistic about our generation should come, spend a weekend with us and see the creative and productive dynamic that these young movers and shakers have. Many more Sandbox retreats to come

Check out more photos from the retreat here.

Congratulations to our fellow Sandboxers from Poken for winning Best European / Real World Gadget.

Furthermore congrats to Amiando for being “highly commended” in the category Best Web Application Or Service and to the founders of Amiando Felix Haas, Armin Bauer, Markus Eichinger, Dennis von Ferenczy, Sebastian Baerhold and Sandboxer Marc Bernegger for being listed as finalists in the category Best Startup Founder(s).

Our good friends from Amazee and Doodle got listed as “highly commended” in the categories Best Social Innovation (which benefits society) – (Amazee) and Best Bootstrapped Startup (less than 3 years old) – (Doodle).

A complete list of winners and finalists can be found here.

More about the Young Entrepreneurs of Sweden; YEOS is a nationwide network established to connect, educate and inspire young entrepreneurs in the age from 18 to 30. YEOS was founded to be an accelerator helping young achievers learn and grow with the help of each other, which shall lead to more successful businesses and an enriched private life. The network relies on is members for the development, having a cooperative legal setup where each member is a part owner. Each year, YEOS arrange two national events and several regional meetings gathering the foremost young entrepreneurs in Sweden to exchange ideas, network and be inspired. Activities of the network are mainly financed by partners and project assignments.