FLOW 2026

A couple days ago, 30 people gathered in the beautiful mountains of Mutters, Austria, for FLOW, the annual training of trainers. The training lasted from April 7 to April 13, over the course of 5 days, with participants from four different continents and was organised and hosted by SCI Austria.

The training started with introductions and group agreements, to ensure respect and inclusion. It was then followed with a study on group dynamics and coordination, through theater and acting.

The group then tackled discrimination through a world café where different topics were displayed on flipcharts and participants had to divide in smaller groups to discuss and write their own input on the papers. Lots of ideas and opinions were shared on topics such as hidden exclusions, navigating complexity, beyond awareness and more.

In the middle of the week, the facilitators simulated an online support chat where participants had to write down solutions to struggling facilitators. The challenges ranged from disruptive participants to imbalanced care work, racism and harassment. This activity was done individually in silence, a great way to let everyone express themselves. Afterwards, the participants had a free afternoon where they all enjoyed their time together or alone. Some rested, others visited Innsbruck.

The following day, the group discussed facilitation in times of collapse and the importance of care work. The afternoon was an invitation for all participants to hold open spaces and exchange methods of facilitating. They were free to organise their own time and topics, the others then choosing which open space they wanted to participate in. The topics were quite diverse from manual activities like postcards making on utopian thinking to discussion-based spaces like non violence and pacificism in contexts of war and violence.

The last day was dedicated to the final tools the participants would need as facilitators. First, they learned about visual facilitation through hands-on activities, then they learned about FLOW as a career. Finally, the participants did a round to talk about the projects they have incoming, in case other people were interested in either participating or facilitating. Some people even discussed potentially working together in the future. FLOW was then closed with an evaluation and last moments together, playing games and sharing laughs.