May, 2026
One year of Education Lab: Opening up spaces. Connecting people. Shaping education together.
There are days when you can really feel what it’s all about. Our first birthday party was just such a day. On April 29, 2026, we celebrated one year of Education Lab and, with the celebrations, all that has been created in the past twelve months: encounters, ideas, courageous first steps and many joint developments. A year in which we have seen what is possible when people come together to shape education with heart, curiosity and attitude.
A day that shows what makes us special
Our birthday kicked off in the morning, with two school classes immersed in workshops together with the Austrian Federal Publisher of Schoolbooks (ÖBV). It could not have been a more fitting start: young perspectives, curious thoughts and a great desire to get involved.
The young people experienced how school books are actually produced and asked clever, sometimes surprising questions: How long is a roll of paper in the print shop? And how many trees are actually in all that paper? One question in particular stuck with us: “How many trees are actually felled for textbooks?”, a moment that shows how attentive, critical and future-oriented young people are when it comes to education.
In addition to these insights, they were also able to get active themselves: The lower school class tested a new, playful format for German lessons, which is currently being developed at ÖBV and will be published in October, with lots of fun and valuable feedback that will be incorporated directly into further development. The upper school class in turn gave feedback on two biology textbooks: How comprehensible are the texts? How do the pictures look? And what might still be missing?
What became clear: When children and young people are involved, valuable perspectives are created. After all, they are the ones who work with textbooks on a daily basis and should therefore also help shape what they look like.
From midday onwards, the Education Lab gradually filled up with our community. As we arrived together around the food, it quickly became clear: exchange doesn’t just happen during the program, it starts in the small conversations in between. The first small groups formed, familiar faces were reunited and new connections were made. Ideas were initiated, thoughts were spun further: precisely this lively togetherness that defines the Education Lab.
A look back and ahead
With the official part, our director Julia drew the bow: from the first appointments still in winter jackets on the construction site, when much was still vision, to a place that is now used, designed and thought about every day.
To be honest, we are a little speechless ourselves about what has been achieved in a year:
- over 277 events
- almost 10,000 visitors
- a growing community with over 400 members
- around 30 partner organizations that are walking this path with us
- Programs such as the Education Lab Venture Fellowship, Get a taste & exchange, Close the Gap, or our FABB social media format, which make education visible and spread the word
- numerous school classes, children and young adults who fill the Education Lab with life
- and many stories that have made it into the media and the public eye
With our community, we now reach around 4% of kindergartens and 30% of schools in Vienna and therefore precisely those places where education takes place every day. In terms of content, we have focused on three main topics in recent months in particular: “Common language”, “Mental health” and “Innovation transfer”. These are topics that are not only highly topical in society, but also play a central role in the everyday lives of educators, educational institutions and organizations. In the Education Lab, we try to create spaces for exchange, diversity of perspectives and concrete solutions.
Building the future together
In the afternoon, things got very concrete: in two co-creation sessions using the LEGO® Serious Play® method, we asked ourselves together: What does the future we want look like? We built, thought and discussed about mental health in the education system and a common language for educational success. Hands became tools for making thoughts and ideas visible, tangible and shareable.
The focus was on a clear vision of the future: kindergarten and school as living spaces that naturally incorporate retreat, encounters and nature. This gave rise to very specific approaches, from quiet zones and cooperative forms of play to collegial intervision during working hours and resilience days. At the same time, it became clear that for all of this to work in everyday life, structural changes are also needed in training, in framework conditions and in the design of spaces. One thing was emphasized again and again: attitude is the foundation on which everything is built.
The topic of language was also about a common understanding: not as an isolated subject, but as a consistent everyday practice, both in kindergarten and at school. Flexible and modular learning settings, clear responsibilities in language education, multi-professional teams and the active involvement of parents as co-designers were discussed.
What connected both sessions: They were often small, concrete interventions that together create a coherent overall picture. It is crucial that they interlock and that relationships, networking and attitude are always taken into account.
The invisible side of change
A special moment of the evening was Beck Crowhurst’s keynote speech. Under the title “The Invisible Architecture of Change”, she spoke about the change that occurs when we see ourselves as a connected network and not as individual areas next to each other. At the heart of this is the idea of a “partnership dividend”: the additional power that arises when many people work in different places, learn from each other and share responsibility. What remains: Change does not happen alongside each other, but with each other.
Celebrating what connects us
And then we celebrated. With beats from beatboxer Dan Lio, a live performance by Mansoola with our Bella and DJ sounds from Martin Nicolai, the exchange turned into movement, in the truest sense of the word.
Over 200 people thought, talked, laughed, built, danced and celebrated together on this day. Because in the end, it always turns out that a room only becomes something special through the people in it.
A year full of encounters
When we look back on this first year, we see one thing above all: movement.
We visited educational institutions and welcomed many of them. We have learned, listened and tried things out. We got to know impressive educational initiatives and gave them a stage in the Education Lab, making them visible and spreading the word. We have grown as a team: from a small group in which everyone did everything, to a team with clear roles and at the same time the same spirit of standing up for each other, supporting each other and shaping things together.
And we have seen how quickly initial ideas can become concrete programs, collaborations and formats.
A place that lives through people
One year of Education Lab and it feels as if an incredible amount has happened at the same time and yet everything is only just beginning. What drives us has remained the same: To be a place for everyone who wants to get education moving. A space for exchange, networking and thinking ahead together. A place where good practice becomes visible and finds its way into the mainstream.
This place lives through the people who use it: through educators who share their knowledge, through initiatives that dock on and help shape it, through our team and through every single person who has visited us in the Education Lab.
Thank you & here’s to everything that lies ahead!
Thank you to all (prospective) teachers & kindergarten children & pupils. Thank you to our community. Thank you to our partners, initiatives and companions. Thank you to our team. And thank you to all the education creators who have filled this place with life over the past year. We look forward to everything that lies ahead. Here’s to further encounters, new ideas and many steps together. Here’s to the next few years in the Education Lab.
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