If you doubt the strength of social movements or lost faith in progressive politics around the world, you should have attended the training in Vienna last weekend.

From Belarus to Morocco, from Albania to Armenia: 26 members of social democratic parties in 14 countries gathered in Vienna for a training of trainers. Topic? How to become a good trainer and conduct trainings in the relationship between political parties and social movements.

The participants worked in groups on stakeholder analysis and gave each other feed back about body language and  constructive feedback. By Sunday morning there were no borders left between the participants, Tunesia spoke with Ukraine as if they knew each other and each other’s countries for years and Serbia and Jordan laughed at each other’s jokes.

Working with co-trainer Wim Klei is as attending a gentle and interesting party. There is ample time to listen, laugh and learn.