FUTURE-PROOFING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

9TH CREATIVE BUREAUCRACY FESTIVAL BRINGS PIONEEERS OF GOVERNMENT MODERNISATION FROM 50 COUNTRIES TO BERLIN

  • The  9th Creative Bureaucracy Festival presents more than 100 national and international innovation projects — including contributions selected by an independent jury from a global competition.
  • More than 200 speakers will discuss the central challenges of modern public administration, including civic participation, efficiency, artificial intelligence, migration and defence.
  • Around 2,200 participants from politics, public administration and civil society from over 50 countries are expected in Berlin on 11 June.
  • The festival programme encompasses four stages as well as five interactive workshop and exchange formats.
  • The full programme is continuously updated at: creativebureaucracy.org/en/programme.
  • Press accreditation via: creativebureaucracy.org/en/press-accreditation.

Berlin, 13 May 2026 – On 11 June 2026, the ninth edition of the Creative Bureaucracy Festival will put solutions to the world's most pressing challenges in government modernisation up for debate. Programme highlights include the following:
 

1. HOW CAN GENUINE GOVERNMENT MODERNISATION SUCCEED?

The implementation and scaling of innovation is the new key issue in government modernisation worldwide — and so it forms the focus of the opening session of the Creative Bureaucracy Festival, featuring Veronika Grimm, Member of the German Council of Economic Experts, Torsten Ruban-Zeh, Mayor of Hoyerswerda, and others. George Papandreou, Rapporteur-General on Democracy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and former Prime Minister of Greece, will also report on the current state of the relationship between European citizens and democracy. 

2. EFFICIENCY VS. INNOVATION – A FALSE DICHOTOMY?

A panel debate with active audience participation on whether efficiency targets support or hinder government modernisation, featuring Jon Alexander, New Citizen Project, Geoff Mulgan, Professor of Public Policy at University College London, and Tamara Srzentić, former Minister for Public Administration of Montenegro, moderated by Lisa Witter, CEO of the Better Politics Foundation. 

3. WHY MUNICIPALITIES ARE CRUCIAL

In municipalities and cities, public administrations play a central role — because there, change or stagnation directly touches people's lives. This in turn has a major influence on the level of citizens' trust in the democratic process. Speakers include Monica Barone, CEO of the City of Sydney, and Harry Kruiter, Institute for Public Values. A further session featuring Jennifer Collin-Feeder, Mayor of Oranienburg, and Luca Piwodda, Mayor of Gartz, moderated by Stern journalist Martin Debes, will focus specifically on municipalities in Germany. 

4. DO MEDIA INFLUENCE INNOVATION?

Innovation in public administration is often subject to particular media scrutiny, given its direct impact on how society functions and its influence on people's relationship with the state. The question of whether this relationship tends to hinder or promote innovation will be discussed by Stefan Evers, Senator for Finance and Senator for Culture and Social Cohesion of the State of Berlin, Lorenz Maroldt, Publisher of Tagesspiegel, and Boris Palmer, Mayor of Tübingen. The panel will be moderated by Helene Bubrowski, Editor-in-Chief of Table.Briefings and editor-designate of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

5. DIGITALISATION AND DEFENCE AS DRIVERS OF INNOVATION

New geopolitical uncertainties are bringing resilience and defence into focus — and with them, innovation in the administration of the Federal Ministry of Defence (BMVg) and the Bundeswehr. Jan Stöß, State Secretary at the BMVg, will present the de-bureaucratisation and modernisation agenda published in April 2026 and open the floor to discussion on topics including "Hierarchical-free working and leadership" and "Reducing unnecessary bureaucracy in large organisations"..

Whether government modernisation can succeed at all without finely tuned tech ecosystems is the focus of a contribution by Frederik Blachetta, Chief Technology Officer of Bundesdruckerei. Ott Velsberg, Chief Data Officer of the Estonian Government, will explore how the transformation of the public sector into the "Agentic State" can be achieved. Digital transformation in public administration is also addressed in presentations by byte – Bavarian Agency for Digitalisation, focusing on "Digitally Ready Legislation", and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung on "Holistic Digital Transformation: The Case of Indonesia". PD – Berater der öffentlichen Hand GmbH will shed light on the "Dos and Don'ts of AI Governance". 

100 PROJECTS AND THEIR PIONEERS FROM OVER 50 COUNTRIES

The festival will showcase the people behind more than 100 projects for future-ready public administrations — across four stages, ten demo stations and five interactive workshop spaces covering topics such as artificial intelligence, defence, civic participation, efficiency and migration. 

Furthermore, seven jury favourites are setting global benchmarks for modern public administration: 

  • Create Lithuania transforms legislation to help people break out of cycles of financial debt and unemployment (Lithuania).
  • Future Public Admin 2040 makes Japanese public authorities resilient in terms of staffing and finances against demographic change (Japan).
  • InnovateNow gives citizens in Bielefeld a platform and resources to independently develop and test ideas for improvements in the city (Germany).
  • Klub reaches socially disadvantaged young people through the "Klub" app and helps municipalities become more youth-friendly (Germany).
  • NewGov NRW implements innovation in public administration with the help of start-ups (Germany).
  • NEXO Collaborative Governance translates ideas from citizens in Montevideo into directly measurable and traceable actions by local authorities (Uruguay).
  • Waste Pickers Association of Nigeria equips people working in waste management on the ground with professional tools and resources (Nigeria).

The preliminary programme of the Creative Bureaucracy Festival is available online and is continuously updated. 

The Creative Bureaucracy Festival is organised by the Falling Walls Foundation, with PD – Berater der öffentlichen Hand GmbH as the festival’s main partner.  
 
Press accreditation is available via this form.  
 
Please direct press enquiries 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