The gathering, PARP Future Camp 2026, opened Monday in the lakeside town of Ryn and drew mostly young attendees, including students, for workshops, grant-funding sessions and networking — some of it conducted on foot during walks through the surrounding countryside.
Organizers say the event is part of a broader effort to reverse a decline in entrepreneurship. Krzysztof Gulda, president of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP), which runs the camp, said research shows fewer Poles have wanted to start businesses in recent years, and the agency hopes face-to-face gatherings with investors and mentors can change that.
"We want to unleash the energy of Polish entrepreneurship again", Gulda said.
He connected that goal to a shift he's observing among returning professionals, describing it as a modern expression of patriotism. Many who spent years abroad describe coming back not just as a career move but as coming home, he said, adding that they arrive wanting to build, grow and create opportunities for others in Poland.
Gulda said the scale of the return migration is still too small to show up clearly in national statistics, but it is increasingly visible. He noted that many returnees bring capital that Polish entrepreneurs rarely had access to before, along with an appetite to reinvest it in new ventures — a combination he called the start of a new wave.
That pattern was reflected among camp speakers and attendees. Małgorzata Piotrowska, who came back to Warsaw after years working in London, told the gathering that Poland now has strong conditions for building modern businesses. "Work in Poland is an opportunity", she said.
Aleksandra Pędraszewska, another returnee, said during a panel that Poland still needs to cut red tape and simplify procedures for founders. Even so, she said, the country is now watched with admiration abroad, and many Polish startups have a real shot at global success.
For some attendees, the camp was less about ideology than practical connections. Mikołaj Fiedorczuk said he traveled to Ryn to find collaborators for a real estate platform he's building that aggregates property data to help buyers make decisions. The prototype has already launched as an app with active users, he said, and he came looking specifically for contacts in automated property valuation. A similar event he attended previously led to useful business relationships, he added.