This year's excursion as part of Project 2 took place from October 14 to 17, 2025. Project 2 is the centerpiece of the bachelor's program. This year, the Upper Austrian communities of Perg, Naarn, Arbing, and Schwertberg were explored on foot and by car, and initial important insights into the region were gained. After all, regional planning can only work on site!

On the first day, the students were given a tour of the respective municipalities by the mayors. On the second day, there were exciting keynote speeches by Eveline Grabmann (Perg Chamber of Commerce), Christian Lang (Freistadt-Perg District Chamber of Agriculture), Gerold Markgraf (Upper Austrian Transport Association), Günter Kowatschek (Perg City Marketing and Tourism), Andreas Mandlbauer (State of Upper Austria), Karin Schwarz (town planner Schwertberg, planning office Topos3), and Manfred Hinterdorfer (LAG Perg-Strudengau).

On this day, the students were already working diligently on the regional SWOT and the structural map of the Perg region. SWOT stands for “strengths,” “weaknesses,” “opportunities,” and “threats” and is a helpful tool for assessing an area in such a way that planning strategies tailored to that area can be developed.

In the second half of the excursion, the students independently worked out the areas of action to be addressed, explored the region, and held discussions with residents. They also visited the LOC factory and the Perg-Machland business park together.

The next steps in the project are to develop a vision, give an interim presentation in which the working groups present their analysis results and visions, and draw up a mission statement and a corresponding catalog of measures and a lead project. The students' proposals for the further development of the region will be presented in January at a final presentation.