The Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural Innovators (YCI) is an annual series of Salzburg Global Seminar that brings 50 of the world's most talented young innovators from the culture and arts sector together at Schloss Leopoldskron to help them develop the dynamic vision, entrepreneurial skills, and global networks needed to allow them, their organizations, their causes and their communities to thrive in new ways. The artistic disciplines represented by the young innovators range from the visual and performing arts, literature, and cultural heritage, to foods, fashion, architecture, and design. The YCI Forum represents a major commitment by Salzburg Global Seminar to fostering creative innovation and entrepreneurship worldwide with the intention of building a more vibrant and resilient arts sector and of advancing sustainable economic development and positive social change agendas worldwide.

Each annual YCI cohort will be comprised of ten expert facilitators and 50 young cultural innovators between the ages of 25 and 35 from around the world. The group will be balanced in terms of gender, genre, and geographic representation. Most of the participants will come from several "culture hubs" in various cities around the world that form the core of the YCI multi-year project, including Baltimore, Rotterdam, Phnom Penh, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, and Salzburg. Participants are selected through a highly competitive application and nomination process, to ensure outstanding quality and diversity of professional knowledge and experience within the Forum.

Forum components include a one-week annual program in Salzburg combining theory and praxis, with capacity-building sessions focusing on: intra and entrepreneurship, exposure to the latest digital resources, new business models, risk-taking and innovation, psychology of leadership and emotional intelligence, and cross-cultural communication and negotiating skills.

Outstanding participants from each year are invited back as facilitators and/or resource specialists at future sessions to assure continuity, communication and exchange of best practice across the multi-year series. The Forum also assists the YCIs in creating "culture hubs" in target cities to share the learning, foster a multiplier effect, and magnify the impact of the YCI network created in Salzburg. The "culture hubs" will convene mini-sessions, workshops and public events and become a local resource for emerging cultural innovators.