Accredit Now: Meet the Creative Bureaucracy Award 2026 Recipients
Accreditate Now: Creative Bureaucracy Award 2026 for Monica Barone, Ólafur Elíasson, Mariana Mazzucato, Audrey Tang and Wolfgang Schüssel
- The Creative Bureaucracy Festival honors international pioneers of innovative, digital, and citizen-centered public administration.
- Press interviews with the award recipients can be arranged upon request at press@creativebureaucracy.org.
- Additionally, the Bertelsmann Stiftung will present the inaugural "Change Learning Award" at the Creative Bureaucracy Festival, recognizing initiatives that demonstrate how change in education and education administration can succeed.
- Press accreditation is available at: https://creativebureaucracy.org/press-accreditation.
- Registration for the main stage (Club Stage) livestream is available at: https://creativebureaucracy.org/livestream2026.
- The Creative Bureaucracy Festival is organized by the Falling Walls Foundation, with PD – Berater der öffentlichen Hand GmbH as its principal partner. The pre-festival program is supported by the Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement e. V.
Berlin, 04 June 2026 – With the Creative Bureaucracy Award, first presented in 2018, the Creative Bureaucracy Festival recognizes international figures from public administration, politics, science, and the arts who have made a lasting impact on the state, public administration, and democratic institutions through courageous, innovative, and forward-thinking action.
The award makes clear that modernizing the state cannot happen within individual disciplines or institutions alone. It requires cross-sector collaboration, fresh perspectives, and a willingness to evolve existing structures. This year's recipients exemplify precisely this kind of interdisciplinary thinking and action.
The Creative Bureaucracy Award 2026 goes to:
City of Sydney, represented by CEO Monica Barone, for decades of building an administration that successfully plans and delivers major infrastructure projects, urban development initiatives, and community programs — including Sustainable Sydney 2030 and the transformation of George Street.
Monica Barone will be attending the Creative Bureaucracy Festival on June 10 and 11 and is available for press interviews.
Ólafur Elíasson, artist, for his artistic work (including Corkelbroen, Ice Watch, and New York City Waterfalls) which opens new perspectives on public space, community, and social responsibility around the world, inspiring cities and institutions to reinvent themselves.
Ólafur Elíasson will be attending the Creative Bureaucracy Festival on June 11 and is available for press interviews.
Mariana Mazzucato, University College London, for her contributions to repositioning research as a driver of public sector modernization, and for founding the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London.
Mariana Mazzucato will be represented at the award ceremony by University College London.
Wolfgang Schüssel, former Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria, for his political foresight in the early digitization of public services — including the introduction of the digital cabinet, e-ID, and the e-Card — and for his role between 2000 and 2007 in making Austria a European pioneer of the digital state.
Wolfgang Schüssel will be attending the Creative Bureaucracy Festival on June 10 and 11 and is available for press interviews.
Audrey Tang, Cyber Ambassador and former Digital Minister of Taiwan, for building resilient digital and citizen-centered structures that strengthen democratic participation and have established Taiwan as an international pioneer of digital democracy.
Audrey Tang will be attending the Creative Bureaucracy Festival on the pre-festival day, June 10, and is available for press interviews.
Press accreditation is available at: https://creativebureaucracy.org/press-accreditation.
The Creative Bureaucracy Award ceremony will take place on the main stage (Club Stage) and will be broadcast simultaneously via livestream. Livestream registration is available at: https://creativebureaucracy.org/livestream2026.
Interview requests and media inquiries can be directed to press@creativebureaucracy.org.
CREATIVE BUREAUCRACY FESTIVAL
10 – 11 June 2026
Festsaal Kreuzberg | Am Flutgraben 2, 12435 Berlin
Press Contact
Sophie-Theres Guggenberger, Company Spokesperson Falling Walls Foundation
Felix Mihalek, Press Officer Creative Bureaucracy Festival
+49 30 60 98 83 97 80
press@creativebureaucracy.org
About Creative Bureaucracy Festival
Public administration, too, has excellent, creative solutions for almost every challenge facing society — the Creative Bureaucracy Festival brings them to the stage and the people behind them into conversation. The festival, in the words of its President Charles Landry, stands for the shift from a "No, because" culture to a "Yes, if" culture that embraces new ideas with enthusiasm. Through the presentation of the Creative Bureaucracy Awards, the festival also aims to strengthen the public reputation of administration. The Global Forum of Public Service Leaders, which begins on the day before the festival, is the annual gathering of public sector leaders from around the world. The Young Bureaucrats Event addresses the next generation of creative talent in the public sector. creativebureaucracy.org
About Falling Walls Foundation
The Falling Walls Foundation gGmbH is a Berlin-based non-profit organisation dedicated to strengthening science communication and public engagement with research. Its initiatives bring together international experts to develop breakthrough solutions for global challenges. In addition to the Falling Walls Science Summit, the Foundation runs the Berlin Science Week and programmes such as Falling Walls Lab, Falling Walls Engage, Falling Walls Venture and Female Science Talents. Since 2020, the Foundation has also hosted the Creative Bureaucracy Festival, an international platform for innovation in the public sector. The Foundation is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, the Berlin Senate, the Hannover Re Foundation, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, PD – Berater der öffentlichen Hand, Volkswagen Foundation, and more than 100 additional international philanthropies, academic institutions, companies and NGOs. falling-walls.com/foundation
About PD – Berater der öffentlichen Hand GmbH
As a partner to the public sector, PD combines economic and strategic expertise with in-depth knowledge of the special processes and structures of public sector clients. On this basis, PD offers consulting and management services on all aspects of modern administration with a team of around 1,100 employees. Clients are exclusively federal, state and local authorities as well as other public bodies and institutions, as PD is itself 100 per cent publicly owned as an in-house consultancy. pd-g.de
About GPM – Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement e. V.
"The great challenges of our time are not written into strategy papers — they are delivered through projects. That is why a future-ready public administration needs people who can drive change professionally and translate innovation into practice." Peter Thuy, GPM Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement e. V.
GPM Deutsche Gesellschaft für Projektmanagement e. V. is a non-profit professional association for project management. Founded in 1979, GPM today spans an extensive network of project management experts from across business, academia, and public institutions. The association makes a significant contribution to the professionalization and advancement of project management in Germany, offering comprehensive opportunities for training, continuing education, and certification in project management. More information: https://www.gpm-ipma.de/.