The three days of the Timișoara Outdoor Office BarCamp 2025 (#oobc25) were dedicated to presenting the benefits and identifying the opportunities of outdoor office and outdoor learning activities.
The event was also the moment when Ioana Biris, from Nature Desks — who initiated the International Outdoor Office — launched the “OUTDOOR OFFICE DAY – every single day manifesto“.
CThe research carried out and presented by Charlotte Petersson Troije during the Industry & Society 5.0 pre-event on 23 October 2025 within the International Management Symposium (SIM) became a leitmotif of the workshops in the following days. As a result, both representatives of local public authorities and those of companies highlighted the need for data to underpin public policies, infrastructure development plans, and the creation of measures to facilitate outdoor work and outdoor learning.
*Images submitted by participants at #oobc25
The workshop at the Village Museum on Friday, 24 October, was opened with the participation of the Vice-President of the Timiș County Council (CJT) – Alin Popoviciu – who expressed the CJT’s openness towards outdoor activities, including the possibility that, on the 11 June edition of International Outdoor Office Day, the CJT administrative staff could work outdoors, in the open-air space of the Banat Village Museum.*
Evoking the community spirit, multicultural character, and occupational specialisations of the traditional Banat village represented a moment of reflection on it as a good-practice model for proximity coworking spaces, urban gardens, and other activities that can contribute to the creation and development of communities — so necessary in the 21st century.
*Images submitted by participants at #oobc25
The workshop dedicated to discussions with representatives of the Municipal Council, the Administrative Departments of the Timișoara City Hall, and Horticultura highlighted the opportunities that Timișoara has — also noted by representatives of the Outdoor Office movement — for work, learning, and therapeutic recovery activities through urban nature, its traditional parks, as well as the example of the recently developed Pădurice Park, which received the Council of Europe Landscape Award at the Landscape Award Conference held in Bergamo, Italy, in 2022.
*Images submitted by participants at #oobc25
Thus, one direction that can be associated with Timișoara’s identity and advantages is the possibility of becoming an internationally recognised workcation destination. Another important aspect related to outdoor work, learning, and therapeutic recovery is the fact that, through these activities, Timișoara’s significant green areas can be used and valorised more effectively also during regular working hours — not only during leisure time, such as weekends, public holidays, and afternoons.
*Images submitted by participants at #oobc25
A distinct topic was the theme dedicated to outdoor learning for children — but also for adults — laying the foundation for ensuring international support from the Outdoor Office movement for a pilot outdoor educational project at Secondary School No. 12 in Timișoara.
The workshops in Iulius Garden highlighted the importance of green infrastructure integrated into work areas that facilitate outdoor activities — as seen in the good-practice example of how many of the companies hosted by United Business Center, part of the Iulius Town mixed-use development, mark International Outdoor Office Day. Several situations that have driven the growth of the outdoor office phenomenon in Timișoara were recalled — such as the specific case of its launch in 2022, when both employers and employees felt the need to meet again physically, and the opportunity for this post-pandemic reunion to take place in an organised outdoor setting was a positive factor. Other experiences were also shared — from the initial “coffee and good ice-cream outdoors” used to encourage some participants, to the organic increase in interest and participation in outdoor activities based on positive experiences in the previous years. A strong emphasis was placed on the importance of company leadership engaging in outdoor activities themselves, in order to encourage outdoor practices across their organisations.
*Images submitted by participants at #oobc25
The discussions held during the traditional Outdoor Day of SIM at Crama Aramica Buziaș re-emphasised both the advantages and the bureaucratic challenges related to using outdoor spaces in university education.
*Images submitted by participants at #oobc25
The workshop dedicated to the conclusions of the international Outdoor Office experts, held in the Park with the Imperial Colonnade in Buziaș, reiterated the importance and richness of the existing cultural and natural heritage — on the one hand through the contemplation of the monumental art of the Buziaș Park ensemble — and, on the other hand, through focused discussions on increasing the effectiveness of the international approach to outdoor work and learning in nature, with an emphasis on the opportunity to establish a representative international structure that would give greater weight to local and individual activities.
*Images submitted by participants at #oobc25
Main partners: myBusinessCamp, Nature Desks, ErgoWork Society, Charlotte Petersson Troije from Malmo University
Meaning and Fusion of Work 