Let’s change the conversation
Welcome to Salzburg Global: Where Big Challenges Meet Open Minds
We live in an age of polarized voices and fixed views - where perspectives narrow and thinking becomes siloed.
Meanwhile, the big challenges of our time remain. To solve them, we need leaders with open minds – individuals willing to move past fixed ideas, question assumptions, and embrace nuance. We need to change the conversation.
“The complex, global challenges we face require a different kind of leadership –one that is more adaptive and collaborative.”
We gather open-minded leaders for breakthrough conversations
Creating Space for Change
The starting point for tackling any difficult issue is meaningful conversation.
We bring leaders together to grapple with important topics in ways that open things up, instead of shutting them down. Sessions at Salzburg Global create space for subtlety and invite exploration. We get excited about the gray areas and the blurred lines between fixed ideas – the fertile ground where new possibilities grow.
It all comes down to asking questions without knowing the answers – seeking better options, instead of settling for packaged solutions.
Our sessions include changemakers from across continents, age groups, fields of study, and cultural backgrounds. The groups we convene are intentionally:
International Interdisciplinary
Intergenerational
International – Welcoming leaders from every corner of the world
Intergenerational – Mixing the experienced with the emerging Interdisciplinary – Blending sectors and specializations
WHO WE WORK WITH
We bring together leaders of every kind
Embracing Difference
We live in a connected age, but too often our worlds remain separate. Age, location, discipline, and affiliation serve to keep our circles small and make our ideas echo.
That’s not how we do things at Salzburg Global. We bring together leaders of every kind – artists, journalists, activists, diplomats, frontline workers, entrepreneurs, and many others who live and breathe the issues that matter.
Their opinions might differ or even conflict. But what unites everyone who takes part in our sessions is that they know they don’t have all the answers. Like us, they believe that uncovering new perspectives from a diverse group of people is the best way to unlock better possibilities.
OUR HISTORY How it all began, and why that still matters
Tracing Our Unusual Roots
We’ve been doing things differently since 1947. Back then, a group of three Harvard students –including an Austrian refugee – had a bold idea. They wanted to launch a center for dialogue and reconciliation in the heart of Europe, to push past barriers, and recover a sense of shared humanity in the aftermath of World War II.
Our first session brought together over 100 young Europeans and Americans – including survivors of concentration camps, veterans of resistance movements, prisoners of war, and former enemies. They met at Schloss Leopoldskron, an Austrian palace that had been occupied by the Nazis, in a country that was still under Allied military control.
Together, they wrestled with how diverse and fractured groups of people could come together and begin to create the conditions for peace in the aftermath of war.
Today, our mission carries that same founding spirit: To overcome barriers and open up a world of better possibilities.
“We’ve come to Salzburg... to communicate with one another again in ways that cut through prejudice and destroy the barriers of ignorance and hate.”
F.O. MATTHIESSEN
CO-CHAIR OF SESSION 1, 1947
Our programs are part of five key topic areas that look to address the most pressing global issues of our time.
Peace &
Justice
Education
Culture
Health
Finance & Governance
How we respond to pressing global issues
Our Pillars
Peace & Justice
How do we reduce violence, injustice, and global instability? These programs connect frontline innovators with policymakers to reconcile past conflicts, promote the rule of law, and advance pluralist values around the world.
Education
How are education systems transforming to equip learners for the century ahead? These programs explore how education is shaping people’s skills, knowledge and mindsets and is contributing to more inclusive and sustainable societies.
Culture
How can culture advance inclusive leadership, shape policy, and promote social justice? These programs explore how culture in all its forms can bridge diverse perspectives and inspire collective action toward a more equitable and just world.
Health
How can we promote a future of healthy living and well-being for all? Our programs empower leaders to transform health systems and foster sustainable, thriving communities that promote well-being for all.
Finance & Governance
How can we develop a “purpose + profit” approach to managing financial risks and investments? These programs seek to foster courageous, innovative, and ethical leadership in response to emerging systemic challenges.
“The setting, the history, the structure of the sessions… it opens up your mind. It feels like all things are possible.”
Introducing the Salzburg Method
Tried, tested and refined since 1947, the Salzburg Method guides all of our programs:
Gathering divergent voices, not convergent views – curating groups of people from varied backgrounds with different expertise
Creating transformative spaces, not predictable sessions – designing an experience that is never formulaic
Leveling the playing field, not elevating the stars – removing hierarchy and treating everyone the same
Making it relational, not just transactional –personalizing the experience to each group
Prioritizing in-depth conversations, not quick and easy answers – taking the time to explore topics without demanding neat conclusions
Welcoming the unexpected, not clinging to the script – keeping the agenda flexible and adapting to each group’s needs
Inspiring collaborative action, not just personal reflection – setting the foundations for real-world action
The Austrian palace we call home
A Schloss With a Mission
Since 1947, we have made our home at Schloss Leopoldskron, an Austrian palace with a rich and complex history stretching back to the 18th century.
The Schloss has been many things over the years – the summer home of a notorious Prince Archbishop, a cultural hub for Europe’s theater scene, the home of famed director and impresario Max Reinhardt, a Nazi administrative headquarters, and a monument to the past.
Today, it is a thriving center for dialogue and debate – a place of refuge and reconciliation where diverse leaders from around the world gather for conversations of consequence. We are committed to reclaiming the past of the Schloss and serving as stewards of its future.
“It was one of the best experiences of my life. We need spaces like these where we can do this bigger thinking.”
The lasting impact on Fellows from around
the world
Opening Up Better Possibilities
Time and again, our Fellows tell us about the impact our programs have had on their work and lives. They describe an experience marked by:
Breakthrough conversations
Where assumptions are challenged, and new perspectives uncovered
Disruptive ideas
Where divergent voices are heard, and new possibilities explored
Meaningful connections
Where deep bonds are formed, and lasting networks begun
The impact of our programs doesn’t end there. Fellows are equipped and encouraged to act – with many joining public calls to action, publicizing ideas and strategies, and launching new collaborations.
Since 1947…
40,000+ Fellows
1,100+ Sessions
170+ Countries
The global events shaped by our sessions
Shaping History
Conversations and connections that take place at Salzburg Global have had a direct impact on key moments in history. Here are some world events that our sessions have helped shape.
Global AIDS Crisis (1988)
We hosted the first global AIDS research gathering of its kind. Still influential today, the resulting practical approaches tackled socioeconomic, educational, and ethical issues surrounding the medical crisis.
Education reform in South Africa (1996)
Our work examining the National Commission on Higher Education report was instrumental in redesigning higher education systems in postapartheid South Africa.
The Good Friday Agreement (1998)
A conversation by the fireplace at Schloss Leopoldskron between leaders of warring factions helped build a relationship that shaped Northern Ireland’s historic Good Friday Agreement.
The launch of “One Health” (2008)
Our 2008 sessions laid the foundations for the ‘One Health’ approach to human and animal health. Now adopted by the WHO and UNEP, this was expanded in 2018 into the development of an “early warning system” used during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Park City Movement (2016)
In 2016 we began working with the National Park City Foundation to start a movement that rethinks how cities can better connect people with nature. This has so far led to London, Adelaide, and Chattanooga becoming the world’s first National Park Cities.
Tomorrow’s challenges may look different from those of the past.
However they unfold, we will continue to create spaces that overcome barriers and open up a world of better possibilities - spaces that change the conversation.
Salzburg Global is where open-minded leaders from around the world gather for breakthrough conversations on pressing global issues.
We are an independent, non-profit organization with a mission to overcome barriers and open up a world of better possibilities .
We are an independent, nonprofit organization; an international forum for people from every background.
Salzburg, Austria
Salzburg Global Seminar, Inc.
Schloss Leopoldskron Leopoldskronstrasse 56-58
A-5020 Salzburg, Austria
+43 (662) 83 9 830 info@SalzburgGlobal.org
WWW.SALZBURGGLOBAL.ORG
Washington, D.C., USA
Salzburg Global Seminar, Inc.
1541 14th Street NW
Suite 2 West
Washington, D.C. 20005
+1 (202) 637-7683
info@SalzburgGlobal.org