At the heart of Europe, an egg is about to hatch
Nestled between mountains, Alpbach is a village in the Austrian Alps that you would normally associate with hiking trails, traditional wooden houses and a kind of quiet that makes you slow down almost automatically. It is also, once a year, a place where hundreds of young people from all over Europe and beyond come together for the European Forum Alpbach to discuss, to listen and to learn about current societal challenges but also to think about the future.
It was there, in August 2023, that the founding members of the Palumba.org team met for the very first time. We did not know each other before, coming from different countries and backgrounds. And yet, very quickly, we found ourselves sitting together in between conference talks or on the meadows outside the building having the same conversations again and again and again. Not because we had nothing else to chat about but because the questions felt too important to just drop.
We talked about how worried we were about the current state of the political landscape, about how confusing and overwhelming politics sometimes feels, about polarization and misinformation and about the growing sense that many young people simply did not feel represented in politics anymore. We talked about the frustration of seeing family and friends who did not vote. Not because these people did not care but because they felt lost, disconnected and tired about the status quo. However, at some point the conversation shifted: from worry to a feeling of responsibility and from complaining from what is going wrong to what we could possibly do about it.
That was the moment when the idea emerged to build a Voting Advice Application for the European Parliament elections in June 2024. An app that would be simple, accessible and genuinely designed for young people who are not already politically engaged. Not just another tool for political insiders, but something that meets people where they are and supports them to understand their options on the ballot.
To make this idea concrete, we decided to apply for Alpbach IDEAS, an innovation competition during the European Forum Alpbach that supports teams with mentorship and initial funding. What followed was a slightly chaotic but very intense few days. You could see us meeting in random corridors, in front of conference rooms, sometimes even in the middle of the street, writing a proposal, filming an application video… all that to turn a shared intuition into a proposal.
Later in September we found out that we had actually won the competition and the joy was huge. But so was the doubt, because winning an idea competition is one thing. Turning an idea into reality is something else entirely. We were spread across Europe and had never worked together before. So, we asked ourselves if we would actually meet again after Alpbach? Would we really commit the time and energy once the mountains were gone and everyday life returned? Or would this idea remain a beautiful moment that ended there?
Well, what followed surprised us ourselves. We met again. In the beginning, once a week. Then, multiple times a week. And then nearly every day.
Building Something from Scratch
Starting in September 2023 the online meetings began, we distributed tasks, learned how to work together and very quickly learned how much we did not know yet.
The possibly biggest question was funding. How can you actually fundraise the money needed for such an idea if you are just a small group of young people and this is your very first project together? At first, it felt impossible and then we realized that with simply a PowerPoint presentation, a lot of energy and belief in what we were doing, people were willing to listen. Even more than that, people were willing to support us with funding, advice, networks and their trust.
A first important milestone was in November 2023, when some of us met again in person at SocialHack PDS in Barcelona. This Hackathon –which we won too!– allowed us to work on the project but even more importantly it was a reminder that the people behind the screens we are working with every day are real people. This moment mattered more than we expected as it boosted the motivation of the whole team. From then on every opportunity we got for part of the team to meet in person became something special.
So, between September and December 2023, Palumba.org slowly took shape. From researching existing Voting Advice Applications, debating algorithms and content, figuring out technical requirements, fundraising and communication or even finding a name; everything happened at the same time.
However, the greatest thing that happened during that time was that not only sponsors and mentors believed in us, but also fellow young people started doing so and with it our team started growing. Over the months we grew from a small core team into a movement of more than 120 volunteers spread across Europe. Volunteers who helped match local candidate lists with European Parliament groups, translated content into over 20 languages, promoted the app concept in their home countries and supported everything from content writing to technical development. Everything that followed was only possible because of this collective effort. And that, more than anything else, became part of Palumba.org’s identity.
Let us introduce our little yellow pigeon and how it took flight over Europe
In January 2024, it became clear that if we wanted to collaborate properly with institutions, partners and media we needed to become a formal organization. That is how the project got its name and became officially founded as a youth NGO. And yes, we know the question: “Why the hell a pigeon?”. Honestly, at the beginning it was chosen half-jokingly but then we embraced it fully. Because let’s be honest, sometimes you need something a little unexpected to start conversations, to get attention and motivate others.
Later on we would see this was a genius move; pigeons are iconic, a great communication ally and hook for social media, and they are everywhere. Moreover, carrier pigeons can symbolically bring our message about democracy. Even more incredible was to discover that Columba Palumbus, the Latin name of the common species of pigeon, is a pan-European species of bird… just like our project.
Shortly after, in February 2024, some of us met again in Vienna at the Alpbach IDEAS Bootcamp. Working together in person allowed us to refine statements, connect ideas more easily and recharge after months of intense online work. Every opportunity to meet offline strengthened both the project and the team.
From there, our pigeon started to take flight over Europe. We took part in events like Re-Imagine Europa Forum in Lisbon, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the European Youth Events in Berlin and Forlì and many more local events in our home countries. Each event helped us test our pitch, gather feedback, recruit new volunteers and slowly build visibility.
A defining moment came in April 2024, during the LevelUp! event in Brussels. With more than a thousand young people inside the European Parliament, sitting at the desks normally occupied by MEPs, our president stood up during a plenary session and spoke about Palumba. That was also when the pigeon invasion truly began. We carried pigeon plushies to all events we attended and it turned out to be an unexpectedly effective conversation starter. People asked questions, conversations began and suddenly we were talking about democracy.
The most emotional milestone was shortly before the elections when our official launch event happened in Barcelona. Here we presented the Palumba app to the world for the very first time together with speakers such as Jaume Duch –director general of communications at the European Parliament– and people could actually try out the Beta version of the app. After months of working behind the scenes, this was the moment when the idea finally became reality.
Going Live and Reaching Thousands
When Palumba went online shortly before the European elections in June 2024, the response exceeded everything we had imagined. More than 170,000 people completed the quiz, the app was localized for 27 countries, translated into 20+ languages, reached the #1 spot in App Stores in multiple countries, generated more than 5 million individual data points, and appeared in 100+ media outlets across Europe. And all that with a very small communication budget and a very large collective effort.
After the elections, we collectively needed to pause.
To take a breath.
To look back.
To process eight months that were intense, overwhelming, stressful and deeply transformative.
Looking back to August 2023, to those first conversations in Alpbach filled with worry and uncertainty and then looking at what had grown out of them made something very clear to us. A small group of young people, with a shared concern and a willingness to act can spark something much larger than themselves. That was the moment we decided that Palumba would not be a one-time project. At Palumba.org, we genuinely believe that an optimistic future for democracy is possible. And we want to keep working towards it, through future elections, new projects and by continuing to motivate the people around us to engage, to question and to take part.
And just as a small fun fact to end this story:
The WhatsApp group where all of this started contained four people in the very beginning. By June 2024, it had turned into over 120 people, split into more than 20 different sub-groups, task forces, country teams and sub-chats.
That’s what turning worry into action looked like for us. But the underlying crisis regarding democracy we are living in has not stopped…and so our sense of urgency remains.
