Monetary Diversity Gathering II
Brussels · October 23–25, 2026
Two years after MDG1 and a fantastic gathering that officially launched the MoDi Network... The conversation returns and Monetary Diversity (MoDi) is proud to announce a brand new European Monetary Diversity Gathering, taking place in Brussels from 23–25 October 2026.
This three-day professional gathering will bring together municipal and regional representatives, institutional actors, digital infrastructure providers, researchers and monetary innovators from across Europe to explore one central question:
How can new monetary infrastructures strengthen territorial resilience and public innovation?
Over 10,000 complementary currency projects are active worldwide today. Yet most policymakers have never heard of them.
The systems that could make local economies more resilient, reduce inequality and give territories genuine monetary sovereignty exist; and they work. The problem is not innovation. It is connection, recognition, and scale.
That is why MDG II exists.
The monetary landscape is changing. Are you part of it?
For decades, monetary innovation has developed in parallel worlds: academic research that rarely reaches practitioners, community experiments that struggle to connect with institutions, and policy discussions that ignore what already works on the ground.
The result? A fragmented field & full of solutions, short on momentum.
Across Europe and beyond, municipalities, territories, NGOs and financial institutions are experimenting with new monetary tools. Local currencies that keep value circulating within communities. Municipal tokens that fund public services. Bioregional financing facilities that connect capital to ecosystems. Public digital payment infrastructure that reduces dependency on private intermediaries.
These are not fringe ideas. They are tested, documented, and ready to scale.
What is missing is a room where the people building them can finally meet the people who can take them further.
This gathering is for you if…
- You work in public finance, monetary policy or territorial development and are looking for concrete tools beyond the standard toolbox.
- You lead or support complementary currency initiatives and want to connect with the institutions that can take your work further.
- You research monetary systems and want your work to meet the people implementing it.
- You represent a municipality, region or public body interested in reclaiming monetary leverage at the local level.
- You build financial technology and believe it should serve communities, not extract from them.
No single discipline has the full answer. MDG II is built on that conviction.
The programme will combine:
- European-level keynote sessions
- Thematic workshops and deployment-focused discussions
- High-level institutional roundtables
- Structured networking and evening gatherings
Far from being a purely academic conference, the Gathering is designed as a practical and decision-oriented space focused on moving from ideas to implementation.
Four conversations that cannot wait
Bioregional Finance
Watersheds, ecosystems and cultural communities do not follow administrative borders — and neither should monetary flows. How do we design financial systems that match the living boundaries of territories?
Municipal & Public Monies
Cities and regions are reclaiming monetary tools once reserved for national institutions. What does it take — legally, technically and politically — for a municipality to design and deploy its own currency?
Complementary & Local Currencies
After decades of experimentation, the evidence is in. What works, what scales, and what do we know now that we didn't in 2010?
Systemic Advocacy & Policy
Innovation without institutional recognition stays local. How do we build the regulatory and political frameworks that allow monetary diversity to move from experiment to standard?
More details and speakers will follow soon.
Why Brussels. Why now.
Brussels is not a neutral choice. It is the institutional heart of Europe; home to the policy bodies, regulatory frameworks and intergovernmental structures that will ultimately determine whether monetary diversity becomes a recognised pillar of economic resilience or remains a well-documented alternative.
Bringing MDG II to Brussels is a deliberate signal: this conversation belongs at the centre of European policy, not at its margins.
And the timing is not accidental. Across the continent, interest in public monetary infrastructure, local economic sovereignty and complementary finance has never been higher. The window to shape what comes next is open but not indefinitely.
MDG I, Liège, July 2024 — what we learned
The first Monetary Diversity Gathering took place in Liège in July 2024. What was conceived as an international meeting of practitioners quickly became something more: a moment of collective recognition for a field that had long worked in isolation.
Participants from across Europe and beyond spent three days comparing approaches, challenging assumptions and building the kind of trust that makes real collaboration possible.
MDG II builds on that foundation — with greater ambition, a stronger programme and a location chosen to amplify impact.
The momentum is real. The question is whether you are part of what comes next.