The 5th Creative Bureaucracy Festival has come to an end
Berlin, 14.06.2022. The top manager of the Federal Government, Head of the Chancellor's Office Wolfgang Schmidt, is striving for a different public sector. "The new federal government wants to make administrations more agile," he told an audience of a thousand innovators from administrations around the world at the 5th Creative Bureaucracy Festival at Berlin's Radialsystem. A clear majority of Germans (60.3%) agree with him, as a recent representative survey by Civey shows. What's more: all levels, including the municipalities, are feeling the pressure and need an administrative culture that is open to innovation. Successful examples of modern bureaucracy were presented at the 5th Creative Bureaucracy Festival in Berlin. A thousand international guests from administration, politics and society discussed successful innovations in the public sector. Among the speakers were the head of the Chancellor's Office Wolfgang Schmidt, Housing and Construction Minister Klara Geywitz, the CIO of the Federal Government Markus Richter and the CDO of the State of Berlin Ralf Kleindiek, the President of the Federal Office of Administration Christoph Verenkotte, the Viennese city planner Eva Kail and international experts such as Susan Pettifer, Director of Human Resources, Performance and Technology at the City of Sydney as well as CBF Award winner Brian K Smith, Director of Performance and Innovation at the City of Minneapolis, USA. Press photos are available at CBF2022. The recorded Main Stage sessions available soon on the festival homepage at creativebureaucracy.org/library/. Next Creative Bureaucracy Festival on 15 June 2023.
Innovation and crisis resilience will determine the future of cities and municipalities. This was emphasised by the head of the Chancellery, Wolfgang Schmidt, in his welcoming speech at the festival: "The motto of the coalition agreement 'Dare more progress' also applies to bureaucracy. We want to make bureaucracy and administrations more agile and set an example that cooperation and collaboration are the right things to do."
The festival guests see first and foremost the urgent need in the areas of structural transformation of the administration, in the further training of professional skills and the holistic use of technologies. In view of the current and future crises, administrative reform must be clearly in the focus of the political agenda. Work processes must be designed in an agile manner and seen as projects, not as line work. "Federal ministries and their subordinate authorities, state administration and municipal level - the administration has a remarkable power of innovation," says Claus Wechselmann, Managing Director of PD Berater der öffentlichen Hand, and sums up: "We are pleased about the many clients and shareholders of PD who used the stage of the Creative Bureaucracy Festival with us and shared their creative and courageous ideas and initiatives."
After a two-year pandemic, the festival brought together over 1,000 international participants as a face-to-face event. Charles Landry, the festival president, sees this as the strength of the format: "The Creative Bureaucracy Festival is a place where administrative talents from around the world learn from and inspire each other." The next Creative Bureaucracy Festival will take place on 15 June 2023.
The following international creative projects were awarded the Creative Bureaucracy Festival Award:
- Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation was recognised for successfully digitising Ukraine.
- Kotchakorn Voraakhom, Thai landscape architect and urban planner, was recognised for her sustainable commitment and contribution to green urban development in the Thai capital Bangkok.
- Brian K Smith, Director of Performance and Innovation for the City of Minneapolis, USA,was recognised for the police reform that sparked Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
The Creative Bureaucracy Festival Award "Young Faces - Young Spaces" for the creative participation of young people in the design of public spaces went to the municipality of Bleckede in Lower Saxony. The award was made possible through the support of the "Jugend entscheidet" programme of the Hertie Foundation.
Stéphane Beemelmans, Managing Director of the PD in his laudation of the urban planner Kotchakorn Voraakhom from Thailand: "As the initiator of a sustainable urban greening initiative in Bangkok, Kotchakorn Vorrakhom has created a role model for meeting the global need for green inner cities - a need that is also reflected in the rapidly increasing number of PD consultancy projects with a sustainability focus."
Quotes Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2022 Awardees:
Kotchakorn Voraakhom: Creativity defines how you work within the limitations. It inspires to see new perspectives and sparks resilience. For me, being creative in a public space means seeing new possibilities to re-imagine the future.
Brian K Smith: Creativity means everything to me. Often we do not reach our full potential because most bureaucrats are afraid to be creative. How can we achieve it? We have to listen to the people and get inspired by them as they are at the core of creativity that can inspire us.
Mykhailo Fedorov: the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine from the very first day of its establishment in September 2019 has been aimed at fighting bureaucracy, queues at government offices and tonnes of ridiculous paperwork. We bring a brand new vision and novel approaches on how the state should interact with its citizens. The state must serve its people instead of being a tough monster and a burden. I guess we succeeded in it: we simplify public services by making everything possible digitally. As well as everything that is considered impossible - we also managed to transfer it online. That’s the point where you need a creative state of mind and a pro-active position. The full-scale war confirmed once again: simple solutions require bravery, not being afraid to fail and having creative people around. My team is exactly like that.
The event is supported by the main festival partners Falling Walls Foundation and PD - Advisors to the Public Sector, as well as numerous other organisations, including the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs, the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, the Hertie Foundation, the German Association for Project Management, the Federal Agency for Leap Innovations, the Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe Institute and the Berlin Senate Chancellery, among others.
Press Contact:
press@creativebureaucracy.org
ABOUT THE CREATIVE BUREAUCRACY FESTIVAL
The Creative Bureaucracy Festival shines a spotlight on creative solutions to a wide variety of community issues within administration, bringing them center-stage and fostering a dialogue among the individuals and minds behind them. According to its president Charles Landry, the festival stands for a change from a "No, because" culture to a "Yes, if" culture that inspires people to try new things. The festival also aims to strengthen the reputation of the administration and appeal to imaginative young talents. creativebureaucracy.org
ABOUT THE FALLING WALLS FOUNDATION
Since 2009, the non-profit Falling Walls Foundation has been bringing together the most renowned and influential thought leaders from around the world. Nobel Prize winners, start-ups, young scientific talents, research companies, culture, politics and the media discuss the question: "Which are the next walls to fall in science and society?". The Falling Walls Foundation's programmes build bridges be-tween science and society and convey enthusiasm for the work of scientists in all disciplines.falling-walls.com
ABOUT PD – ADVISOR TO THE PUBLIC SECTOR
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
