Big & Growing New Work Festival Logo
On November 17, 2026, the Big & Growing New Work Festival will be held in its founding city for the first time since 2022. It is organized entirely by volunteers.
“The day is designed for exchange and interaction from beginning to end. Those who attend are not an audience—they bring their own ideas.”— Romy MöllerMüNCHEN, BAVARIA, GERMANY, October 5, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — It first launched in Munich in 2019, as an in-person event with 1,500 attendees. During the pandemic year of 2020, Bavaria’s then-digital minister Judith Gerlach opened the festival with prominent speakers including Max Wittrock, Zarah Bruhn, Christian Kroll, Anna Kopp, and Lena Marbacher. Today, chapters exist in cities such as Leipzig, Hamburg, and Stuttgart. On November 17, 2026, the Big & Growing New Work Festival will come back to its birthplace for the first time since 2022: the Bavarian capital.
What sets it apart is its organizational structure. The festival is not a commercial event but a civic initiative for New Work. Each chapter is independently run by volunteer chapter leads, who decide on the program and direction. Ticket revenue covers spaces and catering; no profits are generated. The initiative was founded in 2019 by Dr. Tina Ruseva, who donated the festival to the Bundesverband New Work e.V. in 2024. Its guiding principles are recorded in a public manifesto: bigandgrowing.com/manifesto
In Munich, this year’s festival is being organized by Romy Möller. She works as a coach for leadership and organizational development and brings together leaders from business, government, and education so they can learn from one another. A distinctive fact: Romy is a former teacher.
“Work can be shaped by appreciation, meaning, and potential. It should empower people rather than exhaust them,” says Möller. “I am driven by the question of leverage: Where can one individual make the biggest difference? That is exactly what this day is about.”
Attendees are contributors, not an audience
The program format reflects this ambition. The morning features six deep-dive workshops, each beginning with a brief external input and then transitioning into collaborative work. Topics range from AI and knowledge work to transformation and the impact of space, as well as longevity in organizations.
In the afternoon, six Open Space Labs follow, centered on the guiding question of what work will look like in the future: Future Leadership, Healthy Organization, Technology, Belonging, Societal Impact, and New Learning. Participants choose their lab and can switch during the open phase.
The day concludes with the panel “Reality Meets Perspective.” Voices from business, education, and government share what new ways of working actually look like today. Instead of success formulas, honest insights take center stage, followed by questions that arose throughout the day. Afterward, the event winds down with Wine & Connect.
“The impulses come from the people in the room,” Möller emphasizes. “The day is designed for exchange and interaction from start to finish. Those who come are not an audience—they bring their own ideas.”
The number of participants is intentionally limited to around 60 people to make this style of work possible.
Key facts
What: Big & Growing New Work Festival Munich
When: Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 9:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Ruby Leo Workspaces, Seidlstraße 5, Munich
Participants: approximately 60
Tickets: 169 euros including catering, via bigandgrowing.com/muenchen
About the Big & Growing New Work Festival
The Big & Growing New Work Festival was founded in 2019 by Dr. Tina Ruseva in Munich and has since established itself as a community-driven format across Germany, with chapters in Leipzig, Hamburg, Stuttgart, and others. It sees itself as a civic initiative for New Work: non-commercial, volunteer-organized, and open to anyone who wants to change the way we work. Since 2024, the festival has been hosted by the Bundesverband New Work e.V. More at bigandgrowing.com/manifesto
Romy Möller
Big & Growing New Work Festival
+49 1511 4386204
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Big & Growing New Work Festival München (Review from 2019)
