The European Young Innovators Festival took place in Graz on 26-28 November 2025.

The purpose of this festival was to connect. create. collab.

And the festival delivered on its promise. The usual multicolored tapestry of faces, some familiar from other years, some new, but all enthusiastic to learn from each other, to find ways to work together towards the shared goal of achieving the 2030 Agenda.

Some of you may be here to know how it went. Some of you might be wanting to know what WSA events are really about. But most of you are probably looking for photos, so I'll leave a link to those on the button below.👇👇

Photos

Highlights

Photos

Key Participants

Winners

Champions

Program

Partners

Festival Highlights

Nov 26 - Connect4Impact

The guests arrived at the Radisson Hotel throughout the day on November 26th. Key cards were obtained. Suitcases unpacked. Dusty travel jackets replaced with smartly fitting blazers. Once all the attendees had arrived, there was a short walk to the city center where the Murinsel (a somewhat bizarre venue that sits on an artificial island in the middle of the Mur) kickstarted the festival. People were encouraged to get to know each other - strangers don't stay strangers for long at WSA. After a few icebreakers and a particularly vicious rock paper scissors tournament, attendees began to wind down with beers, teas, and walks through the Graz Christmas market. The walk back to Radisson had everyone feeling significantly more connected to each other than they had a few hours ago.

Nov 27 – Connect. Create. Collab

Day two took place during the entire day at the Seifenfabrik. This repurposed soap factory gave the industrial backdrop to show that it was time for business. Idle chitchat and fierce rivalries over rock paper scissors had to be put aside, and the attention was turned to the winners and thought leaders of WSA. The thought leaders talked about the importance of AI, the question of how to use it ethically, the looming threat of global warming, and the changing role of Europe in a world where all other global powers seem to be turning from humanitarian ideals to populism. The conversation was focused, but not one directional, with the padded audience mic being tossed around the room like a volleyball to accommodate every voice.

Then came the practical applications of all this talk: The winners. They told attendees how they were turning these problems into opportunities, business models, and digital products. The audience mic was now used to poke and prod at these business models, to ask questions about their impact, and to offer insights about their potential uses. The jurors questions redirected these products towards more impactful trajectories, not unlike how space lasars redirect the trajectories of orbiting objects to send them back to earth. The winners found themselves seeing things in a new way, like a deaf person able to hear an EDM beat through a vibrating bracelet.

Nov 28 - Skills & Knowledge

The third day invited attendees to ease their attention spans that had been somewhat overworked at the Seifenfabrik. Lofty shot talks were replaced with interactive activities - mindfulness exercises, workshops on branding, playing with legos (for business) and round table discussions.

The UniVation students, who had been examining the winning projects in the previous weeks, were able to share their insights with the winners in a way that benefitted the students, who got the chance to work on real world projects. It also benefitted the winners, who got free consulting by the starry eyes of idealistic students as opposed to the dead eyes of McKinsey spreadsheet goblins.

After the exercises, workshops, and UniVation presentations the attendees all went deep into a cave in a mountain - the Dom im Burg for the award ceremony. Winners were given the recognition they deserve for creating products that make a better world for everyone. The UniVation students got their prizes as well, and the Global Champions were announced.

All in all, the European Young Innovators Festival was a potent mixture of academia, ecosystem building and entrepreneurship that benefitted the networks, business models and curiosity of all those involved.

Key Participants

Winners

Champions

Supporting Partners

Strategic Partners

European Outreach Partners