Marketplace of the Common Good

A Workshop Experience at the Economy of Francesco Global Event 2025
Workshop organized by the Village Policies for Happiness – Testimony written by Maria Osorio

Upon arriving at the 2025 EoF Global Event this November, I was assigned a workshop I did not know much about: “Marketplace of the Common Good”. As a go-to-market professional at a technology startup, the title resonated with my main goal in attending EoF: to establish a connection between my career and my purpose of building a better economy.

The workshop had a large participation of students from a high school in Slovenia, and most of the other attendees like myself were paired with one of the students to represent different stakeholders: businesses, faith communities, cultural institutions, or, in my case, youth and future generations. Each stakeholder pair received resource cards tied to health, education, justice and care for the environment, among others. After each ranked their resources “exceptional”, “strong”, “moderate” or “weak”, the pairs engaged in a “marketplace” of resource trades, sharing their strengths and mitigating their weaknesses.

For a trade to occur, the stakeholders involved must come up with a plan to ensure each resource was shared in a realistic, sustainable manner. This is where innovation and public policy came in. For instance, my pair and I, representing youth and future generations, received the resource “civil and ethical economy” from the pair acting as businesses and entrepreneurs. Our goal was to allow today’s youth more of a say in the way business is conducted, preparing as incoming professionals and leaders through career exposure and mentorship programs, the inclusion of youth representatives as board members in public companies, and mandatory disclosures about business ethics when hiring young talent.

Interestingly enough, this trade summarizes well the essence of EoF: empowering today’s and tomorrow’s generations of young leaders to shape the economy and the business world in a more inclusive and sustainable way. As I learned through this workshop, the “Marketplace of the Common Good” is not the sole responsibility of policy makers, but rather of each and every stakeholder, who must work together to improve society as a whole.