• The Creative Bureaucracy Festival
  • News & Updates
  • Events
    • The Festival 2023
    • Tickets
    • Digital Kick-Off Day
    • Call for Participation
  • Awards
    • Festival Award
    • Young Faces – Young Spaces Award
    • Award Recipients 2018-2021
  • About Us
    • About
    • Team & Circle of Friends
    • Manifesto
    • Partners
    • PD Partner
  • Previous Editions
    • The Festival 2022
    • The Festival 2021
    • The Festival 2020
    • The Festival 2019
    • The Festival 2018
    • Digital Workshop Series
    • Creative Bureaucracy Festival Meets Science
    • Speakers
  • FESTIVAL HUBS
  • Content Library
  • Newsletter
  • Press
The Creative Bureaucracy Festival
The Creative Bureaucracy Festival The Creative Bureaucracy Festival
  • en
  • de

Login or Register

You need to login!

Login or Register

Our Selection Criteria

How we select the programme

PROGRAMME SELECTION PROCESS

1. Pre-filter

The team reviews all submissions and filters out any incomplete forms, sales pitches or entries that are not relevant to the public sector. The remaining submissions are then assessed based on their relevance to create a long-list for the jury.

2. Jury Evaluation

The jury assesses the long-listed submissions across three categories – Creative Bureaucracy Factor, Relevance & Impact, Transferability (see below). In the final assessment elements such as the project’s geography of impact, the project status and the topic(s) covered are also considered to ensure a balanced programme.

3. Digital Kick-Off Day Selection

Entries selected by the jury are offered a programme slot at our Digital Kick-Off Day on 23 March 2023. The entry should be pre-recorded and 5-10 minutes in length. All submissions are also invited to get involved in our growing set of community activities.

4. Festival Selection

Based on a combined score system from the jury voting and a further community voting, three sessions per language (German and English) will also be offered a live slot at the Festival on 15 June 2023 in Berlin. You can find the winners of 2022 in this article.

THREE ASSESSMENT CATEGORIES

CREATIVE BUREAUCRACY FACTOR

How creative and innovative is the existing project / proposed project idea for the public administration?

  • Does the project show how problems and unused opportunities can be rethought?
  • Does the project show how flexibility and adaptability can be used to develop better solutions?
  • Does the project demonstrate a collaborative, experimental, transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach to work in which citizens play a central role?
  • Does the project demonstrate a culture of openness, transparency, humility and continuous learning?

For more details, read through our “Definitions of Creative Bureaucracy” (below) and find specific examples from our past programme for each of our 10 topic areas here.

RELEVANCE & IMPACT

How directly does the existing project / proposed project idea contribute to the transformation of public governance and how bureaucrats are valued?

  • Does the project aim to achieve significant, sustainable change within public administrations or in the services delivered by public administrations?
  • Are the challenge / untapped opportunity and proposed solution relevant for other creative bureaucrats? (across geographies, departments, disciplines)
  • How well does the project demonstrate a commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion?
  • Is there evidence of impact, or clear potential for impact? (see “How do we understand impact?” below)

TRANSFERABILITY

Can the inspiration and insights from the project / proposed project idea be transferred to other contexts?

  • Is the project approach clear? Including its findings or intended learnings 
  • Is there consideration for how the learnings could be used by others through e.g. documents, guides, videos or networking opportunities?
  • Is the storytelling engaging? Would the submission inspire others to act?

DEFINITIONS OF „CREATIVE BUREAUCRACY”

What do we understand by “creativity” and “innovation”?

Creativity is about unleashing the ability of the mind to think differently and conceive new ideas. It’s about ingenuity, imagination, responsiveness, adaptability and flexibility. 

Innovation is about the implementation of creative ideas. It’s about turning creativity into action and doing things differently.

How can you recognise a “creative bureaucracy“?

Creative bureaucracy is about bureaucrats using their imagination and resourcefulness to solve problems with flexibility and adaptability. Creative bureaucrats are responsive and empathetic towards citizens’ needs and wishes, while never neglecting the legalities and political mandates that are the foundations of modern bureaucracies. Creative bureaucracies are able to work collaboratively and bottom-up around joint missions to experiment in real life settings as a way to identify new and better ways to deliver and solve problems, building bridges between different actors across disciplines and sectors. Creative bureaucracies work openly, transparently and humbly – acknowledging the limits of their knowledge and living a culture of continuous learning.

Who are we referring to with the term “bureaucrat“? And who are their “allies“?

We use the term “bureaucrat“ to refer to any individual working for a government organisation at a federal, regional or local level, or within an intergovernmental organisation. They can be elected or appointed, working as policymakers or at an operational level. We consider “allies“ to be individuals and organisations across sectors who are working with or for bureaucracies to advance the creative bureaucracy agenda.

What do we understand by “impact”?

In recognition of the limitations of conventional methods of evaluating impact for truly transformative systems change work, we welcome any relevant evidence of project impact. 

This includes qualitative accounts (feedback, testimonies, commentaries), or relevant research that highlights the need for work in a certain action space. Of course, if available this also includes quantitative data or other documented forms of evidence such as changes to public policy/legislation/regulations/guidelines, statistics on improved efficiency, measures of improved public services, etc.

What do we understand by a commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)?

Our current systems have been built to reinforce certain power dynamics, social norms and mindsets. Without addressing those imbalances, we have no hope of securing healthy democracies and a thriving planetary future.

Our current systems have been built to reinforce certain power dynamics, social norms and mindsets. Without addressing those imbalances, we have no hope of securing healthy democracies and a thriving planetary future.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is a term used to describe commitments – manifest through policies, programs, campaigns and other actions – to address these power imbalances.

For guidance on best practices, we recommend this DEI Resource Bank by Finnish non-profit Inklusiiv.

 

Call for Participation

Jury

10 Festival Topic Areas

More Pages

Digital Kick-Off Day

STATEMENT ON THE ACTS OF WAR IN UKRAINE

The Creative Bureaucracy Festival
The Creative Bureaucracy Festival The Creative Bureaucracy Festival
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • About
  • Press
  • Legal Notice
  • Privacy Policy

© 2018 – 2023

STAY UP TO DATE!
Sign up for the Creative Bureaucracy newsletter