Creative Administration Strengthens Democracy

9th Creative Bureaucracy Festival on 10 and 11 June 2026 in Berlin with Veronika Grimm, Boris Palmer, George Papandreou, Wolfgang Schüssel and More

  • The world's largest festival for administrative innovation will take place on 11 June 2026 at Festsaal Kreuzberg in Berlin, organised by the Falling Walls Foundation, with PD – Berater der öffentlichen Hand GmbH as the festival's main partner.
  • On 10 June, the invite-only "Global Forum of Public Sector Leaders" will bring together international senior leaders in public administration.
  • Around 2,200 participants from public administration, politics and civil society will discuss how innovative administration can strengthen democratic capacity to act.
  • Thematic priorities in 2026: artificial intelligence, migration, resilience and defence, cities as innovation labs for administrative modernisation, leadership and personnel, and cooperation between federal, state and municipal governments.
  • The full festival programme will be published in May — already confirmed are Boris Palmer, Veronika Grimm, Wolfgang Schüssel and George Papandreou, as well as more than 200 further speakers from around 50 countries.
  • Press accreditation is now available via this form.

Berlin, 27 April 2026 – On 10 and 11 June 2026, the ninth edition of the Creative Bureaucracy Festival will once again bring together around 2,000 participants from public administration, politics and civil society at Festsaal Kreuzberg in Berlin. Against the backdrop of ongoing government modernisation, the world's largest festival for administrative innovation places at its centre the question of how public administrations can become more innovative, faster and more effective — and in doing so make a decisive contribution to strengthening democracy.

Confirmed speakers so far include:

  • Veronika Grimm, Member of the German Council of Economic Experts
  • Wolfgang Schüssel, former Federal Chancellor of Austria
  • George Papandreou, Rapporteur-General on Democracy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and former Prime Minister of Greece
  • Monica Barone, CEO of the City of Sydney
  • Boris Palmer, Mayor of Tübingen

The festival will be complemented on the preceding day, 10 June, by two curated formats: at the Global Forum of Public Sector Leaders, around 60 senior public administration leaders will discuss concrete pathways to implementing innovation under Chatham House Rules. Audrey Tang, former Minister for Digital Affairs in Taiwan and now Cyber Ambassador at the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will open the Global Forum. At the Young Bureaucrats Forum, emerging talents from the public sector will network and develop creative solutions together.

Creative Administration is in Global Demand

"Government modernisation has become one of the top political priorities in every country in Europe in recent years," says Bernd Fesel, Director of the Creative Bureaucracy Festival. "In Germany, the Federal Ministry for Digital Affairs and Government Modernisation presents 80 measures for a 'lean and digital state' in its 'Modernisation Agenda for Government and Administration', while the Bundeswehr outlines around 150 measures in its own modernisation agenda. The European Commission has a Commissioner dedicated to simplifying European law and reducing administrative burdens. Without government reform, reforms in transport, healthcare, defence or the energy sector will not succeed", says the festival's director.

Charles Landry, co-founder and President of the Creative Bureaucracy Festival, adds: "More people for more reasons are realising that we need a more creative bureaucracy. It is therefore no surprise that we are witnessing a movement in the making across the world. It is shifting our agenda from the margins to the mainstream."

"The capacity of public administration to act has long since become a hard locational factor," says Philip von Haehling, Managing Director of PD – Berater der öffentlichen Hand, the festival's main partner. "Social stability and effective investment can only be achieved with a well-coordinated and efficiently operating public sector."

Theresa Twachtmann, Managing Director of PD, adds: "We are currently facing the opportunity to shape a genuine systemic change. It is not enough to simply digitise existing structures. We need a new logic of public service delivery — with clear priorities, streamlined processes and reliable data. This is how public administration can ensure that it delivers results that people can feel."

Press accreditation is now available via this form.

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 Sector 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