RTF 2026 Summit 

September 17, 2026

At the beginning of September, over fifty partners of Rising Tide made their way to Schloss Marbach — a castle above Lake Constance that, for four days, became home to the largest gathering our Freedom in Practice community has ever held. Educators and policy reformers, free-speech advocates and human rights defenders, energy pioneers and community builders traveled from countries as far apart as Nepal, South Africa, Venezuela, the United States, and from just down the road in Switzerland.   

What brought this community together is the shared belief in freedom and human dignity and that as individuals in a free society, we flourish through our own agency. Yet when putting these beliefs into practice, they take different forms across countries, communities, and areas of work.  For some, it means expanding access to education or building entrepreneurial skills. For others, it means defending free expression, improving access to energy, or removing policy barriers. Each approach responds to a particular reality, but through open exchange and mutual learning, its lessons can strengthen the work of others. 

Recognizing that this diversity of experience is one of our greatest assets, the Summit was designed not simply as a gathering, but as a genuinely collaborative space—to share knowledge, test ideas, give feedback, question assumptions, and speak honestly about successes and failures. There was no expectation that every conversation would lead to a new project or collaboration. Instead, we sought to create the conditions for people to exchange ideas and form new connections, trusting that the most valuable outcomes might not be those we could predict. 

In her opening remarks, Isabelle Hirs-Schaller, Managing Director of Freedom in Practice, quoted the words of F. A. Hayek to capture this spirit of openness and discovery we hoped to experience throughout the Summit: 

“It is because every individual knows little… that we trust the independent and competitive efforts of many to induce the emergence of what we shall want when we see it.” 

That openness is not a gap in our strategy. It is the strategy. We know that no individual or institution possesses all the knowledge needed to design the future. Instead, we trust that when people are free to contribute what they know, learn from each other, and act on what they discover, new possibilities emerge to shape futures none of us could have imagined alone.  

Over four days—through sessions, shared meals, co-creation exercises, workshops, excursions, and many other activities—we saw that strategy and trust come to life. The Summit ended when everyone left Schloss Marbach, but its true value will only unfold over time—in the ideas that continue to develop, the lessons that travelled across borders, and the projects that will grow from the relationships formed here – through the ecosystem that we have started!  

The gathering may be over, but the collaboration has only begun.