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.

It’s hard to believe that only a year has passed since we officially incorporated Sandbox on May 8, 2009. From the beginning, we were determined to find, connect, and accelerate the world’s most extraordinary young people. Before launching the current version of Sandbox, we considered organizing a major global conference bringing the best and brightest under the age of 30 together. We ultimately decided that unlike traditional conferences, we would first grow a close-knit community and think about organizing events at a later stage.

Nico and me with our lawyer, right after the incorporation

In a year we grew to almost 400 members from over 40 countries and launched Sandbox hubs in 20 cities lead by local super connectors. Through a tough selection process, we brought together entrepreneurial minds from dozens of unique disciplines, ranging from explorers, artists and scientists to politicians and business professionals. A Global Summit is now definitely back on the radar.

Building on our love for food and inspiring conversations, we organized over 150 local events in the last twelve months in cities like Austin, Bangalore, Bangkok, Berlin, Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Dubai, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Munich, New Delhi, New York City, Rio de Janeiro, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney, Washington DC and Zurich.

Sandbox members worldwide

In the process of growing an internationally recognized community, we also started sharing ideas with outside organizations. With the help of Sandboxers, we solved challenges for well-known brands including Fraport, Volkswagen, UBS, and several others. Our consulting services are quickly expanding and we hope to share our collective knowledge with many more organizations in the coming months.

Fabian presenting at Arnold Worldwide in New York

To recap a few major milestones over the last year:

May 2010

- Antoine shares Sandbox thoughts on Work Culture at LIFT in Geneva
- Chris and Antoine present best practices in social media to Frankfurt Airport
- Sandboxers meet with the Cambodian Secretary of State and Swiss Ambassador to the US
- Team grows to 9 people, from which 4 full time in Zurich
- Sandboxers close a consulting project for an online music community
- Sandbox collaborates with WDHB for the organization of dinners connecting young and senior leaders
- New hubs open in Prague, in Barcelona and in Stockholm

April 2010

Participants to the US Retreat

- 20 members convene for an inaugural Sandbox Retreat. Many more to come around the world!
- Sandbox co-produces TEDxVolcano in London. All done in 36 hours.
- Brainstorming session with Victor Chan, personal advisor to the Dalai Lama
- New hubs open in Bangalore, New Dehli and Beijing

March 2010

- Sandbox organizes event at South by Southwest
- Fabian and Paul present at Ivy Leadership Forum and lead seminar on social entrepreneurship

February 2010

- We are featured in Wired UK after a nice dinner with their editor
- Fabian and Paul present Sandbox Six Themes to Arnold Worldwide.
- Christian presents at the NACUE conference
- A new hub opens in Cologne

January 2010

Antoine, Dominik and Guillaume at Singapore University

- Sandboxers meet at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
- Sandbox dinner at the DLD conference in Munich
- Joint Sandbox-Seedcamp event in New York City
- Sandbox publishes Six Themes for 2010 & Beyond
- Antoine is invited to Singapore by Swissnex and speaks about the Sandbox business model

December 2009

- First Sandbox global virtual call (with our Entrepreneurship Ambassador calling in from a plane!)
- Tashi Lassalle joins the Sandbox Advisory Board
- Sandbox team gathers in Zurich for a Christmas dinner – we miss Chris who is blocked at London City Airport
- New Hub opens in Hong Kong
- Paul joins the Sandbox team as Head of business development US

November 2009

At Palomar5 Summit in Berlin

- Sandboxers organize Palomar5 “Future of Work Camp” in Berlin
- Online platform introduces a geolocator, introduction concierge, coworking, couchsurfing, and idea sharing tool
- Introduction of a Twitter list of all tweeting Sandboxers
- Dinner in Zurich with Raymond Abelin – Director of the Nanyang Technopreneurship Center in Singapore (NTU)
- Sandbox partners up with Europe’s leading Speaker Agency

October 2009

- Sandbox supports launch of Venture Lectures in London
- New partnership with Mexican Ministry of the Economy
- Kick-off of first phase of a project with Frankfurt Airport
- Sandbox Advisory Board Welcomes Ambassador David A. Gross
- A new hub opens in Mexico

September 2009

First San Francisco dinner

- Organization of a workshop in collaboration with UBS
- Sandboxers consult a German city about their communication strategy
- Several dinners around the world
- A new hub opens in San Francisco

August 2009

- Antoine goes to South Caucasus and organizes first Sandbox dinner in Istanbul on the way
- A new application process is put in place
- A new hub opens in Washington DC

July 2009

- Fabian joins the team in Zurich for the Summer
- We brainstorm Sandbox Strategy and ask…what comes next?

June 2009

Screenshot of Sandbox online community

- Application for Sandbox membership opens
- Joint event in London with the What Took You So Long Foundation before their 10-week africa journey

May 2009

- Sandbox AG is born!
- Antoine organizes an Ivy-League Fondue in Geneva with Sandboxers and students visiting
- Sandbox hubs open in Zurich, London, Singapore, New York, Shanghai, Berlin, Madrid

Antoine is the CEO and one of the Co-Founders of Sandbox. He is constantly amazed to see how much positive energy streams from the community and he would love to know what will happen in the next couple of years. Unfortunately, no Sandboxer has invented the time machine. Yet.

Two weeks ago we spent 2.5 inspiring days with 18 amazing Sandboxers from around the world in a gorgeous house in the woods of Pennsylvania, hanging out and talking about the future.

As always at Sandbox, it’s all about the people you meet and the things you create together. We invested a lot of energy to not only bring together a group of young movers & shakers, but to select them from as many backgrounds as possible. Among the participants were a designer, a video producer, several social entrepreneurs, two fashion entrepreneurs, a student, an investment banker, a TV producer, a digital strategist, a teacher, a consultant and several entrepreneurs working on various startups. Imagine 2.5 days with these people, full of brainstorming, cooking, best practice exchange, midnight PowerPoint Karaoke sessions, BBQ at the lake, walls filled with new ideas and offline tweeting (there was no internet, to fully de-connect, however, there was an offline tweet wall for the super addicted .

We talked about our biggest accomplishments and our biggest fears. We tried to find out how other people deal with days that only have 24 hours, we exchanged books we love and created the “Venture Spa” where all members collectively analyze one person’s biggest challenge and help her and him with advice, contacts, ideas and man power. Together we incubated ideas and built friendships.

Every time I meet fellow Sandboxers anywhere in the world, I gain inspiration and motivation from their drive and passion. But spending 2.5 intimate days with this group took this to a whole new level. Anyone who is pessimistic about our generation should come, spend a weekend with us and see the creative and productive dynamic that these young leaders have. Many more Sandbox retreats to come

Check out more photos from the retreat and many thanks to Niamh and Paul for the whole organization.