Un-Rush Gathering South Tyrol, Italy

Un-Rush Gathering: South Tyrol

You know why to slow down, and you've found your rhythm. Now find the room where it's normal.

Three days between vineyards and the Dolomites. For people who've already chosen a different pace in their life – and are done explaining it to others who don't get it, and want to go deeper with like-minded souls.

October 18–21, 2026 · South Tyrol, Italy

THE LOCATION

A historic farm in South Tyrol, northern Italy, surrounded by vineyards. It’s harvest time in the apple orchards, and the colors in the vineyards are changing. Traveling the distance is part of the work, giving you a degree of disconnection from the everyday. And when you arrive, you will know you've left your rushing world behind. The energy here is calming, grounding.

THE IDEA

We already agree WHY we need to slow down, to un-rush. What's actually hard, is the HOW: how you defend a slower rhythm once you're back in a life that keeps pulling you off it.

This is what this Gathering is about. We'll look at what actually earns your attention and what doesn't. We'll look at the different speeds already inside you.

We have un-rushed conversations and three days of figuring out, together, what actually holds, for people who are past the theory and need the practice tested against real resistance, not imagined.

PROGRAM

Sunday — Arrival. Aperitivo, first conversations, dinner.

Monday — The Argument. Starting with the Why, then the room turns to the How. Real discussion. Afternoon: Walking coaching with Markus through the vineyards. Evening: Dinner. Special guest conversation with John McDermott: on attention, presence, and what it takes to really see another person.

Tuesday — Digestion. A second conversation, going deeper into where your own life runs on borrowed urgency, and together coming up with new ideas on how to slow down in various areas of your life. Afternoon: Rest, walk, write, disappear for a few hours. This is not downtime between the real content. It is the content. Evening: Communal dinner, unstructured.

Wednesday — Declaration Closing session. Each participant writes their own short manifesto, we provide journals. A working answer to what you now know that you didn't three days ago. Closing circle. Depart by 16:00.

WHO THIS IS FOR

You've already done the work of choosing differently, your own rhythm. You've already had the conversation where the other person nods and you realize, mid-sentence, they don't actually get it. You're not looking for someone to explain why slowing down matters — you already know. You're looking for people who are living it, thinking about it, and pushing it further.

This gathering is for changemakers, entrepreneurs, artists, leaders, creators, and life-designers who already chose their own rhythm – and looking for people who are living it, thinking about it, and pushing it further.

You want ideas sharp enough to keep you thinking. People who make this standard feel normal, not exceptional. A lived experience, not another framework to read about.

WHAT YOU TAKE AWAY

• A sharpened argument for the way you're already choosing to live — one you can actually use in the rooms that don't get it yet
• New ideas, insights, and perspectives on how to un-rush, beyond the usual superficial market advice
• A personal manifesto, written on the last morning in a journal we give you at the start, yours to keep
• Behind-the-scenes images by John McDermott
• Seven other people who now know exactly what you mean, new friendships formed.

YOUR HOSTS

Claudia Brose is the founder of Un-Rush and the author of this publication. For ten years she built and ran a photography academy — bringing together passionate amateurs and professional instructors at a historic winery in northern Italy, creating the conditions for creative depth to happen. What participants said about those gatherings: built with "heart, style, and structure," with "such care for each participant" — and a rare talent for "bringing together the right people who fit together."

Un-Rush is where that same instinct for gathering people turns toward a different question: not how to see better through a lens, but how to live at your own speed in a world that keeps trying to set it for you. Her own path — Germany, Tokyo, San Francisco, the Italian Alps — isn't a backstory. It's thirty years of choosing her own rhythm over the world's expectations, and proof that what Un-Rush argues for is actually possible.

Markus Vaja is from South Tyrol, with 35 years in the industrial sector — 30 of them in management, three abroad. In recent years he's combined a lifelong pull toward the outdoors with a talent for helping people navigate real change. He's a certified systemic personal and business coach and a hiking guide, and he believes that being genuinely seen and accompanied is what makes change actually stick.

"The coaching sessions in nature had a profound effect on me. It was different — honest, peaceful, and very powerful." — Lisa, project manager

Guest speaker John McDermott is an internationally recognized photographer whose career spans the golden age of San Francisco's commercial photography scene, the rise of Silicon Valley, international sports coverage, and portraiture of the well-known and the entirely unknown. His work is built on the same instincts Un-Rush argues for: observation, empathy, presence. "I'm not interested in the picture — I'm interested in the person," he says. "With that attitude, you end up with a picture that speaks." At the gathering, John leads a conversation at dinner on presence and attention.

"A brilliant teacher with a wealth of experience that's truly remarkable. You learn an awful lot from him." — Roland B.

THE DETAILS

When Sunday, October 18 – Wednesday, October 21, 2026 (Arrival 16:00 Sunday — departure by 16:00 Wednesday)

Participants Maximum 8. Kept small so the tone is set by exchange, not volume.



Price €895 inkl. 19% VAT Includes the welcome aperitivo, communal dinners, all sessions, walking coaching with Markus, and behind-the-scenes images from John McDermott. Accommodation and travel are separate — see below.

Accommodation

• Vacation apartment, 4 single-use bedrooms sharing 1,5 baths — €90 per room/night when 4 people share / 116,- per room/night when 3 people share
• Vacation apartment, 3single-use bedrooms sharing 2 baths — €110 per room/night
• 2 vacation apartments, 1 bedroom each — €130 per apartment/person/night
• Small 3-star hotel, 4-minute walk from the farm — from €95 per room/night/incl. breakfast

Come with a curious mind. Leave with something in your hands, and people in your corner who already speak the language.