Forward Festival Hamburg 2021
Comeback of Creativity Between Post-Digitization and Community-Thinking
“Always keep moving Forward!” After a very successful Online-Only-Event in March, Forward Festival is returning with a hybrid format on July 1st and 2nd, 2021 in Hamburg: Forward Festival Hamburg 2021 — Comeback of Creativity Between Post-Digitization and Community-Thinking.
Forward Festival is a renowned conference for the local and international creative industries, established in 2015. The festival’s self declared mission is to serve as a platform for creative people and to promote inspiration and exchange. Protagonists from all disciplines of creativity are brought together in a program combining forums, workshops, exhibitions, talks, and side-events. Topics range from (graphic)design, typography, marketing, and branding to VR/AR, artificial intelligence, and architecture to photography, film, and TV. Forward has made an impact internationally as an important platform for the industry at locations in the DACH region (D-A-CH or DACH is an acronym for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.) From 2020 on, the focus has been on a hybrid event concept in order to make the program accessible to people across borders via livestream and interactive online formats. The success formula of Forward is: It comes from within the industry and is authentic in its approach and content. The conference hits the right tone and sets key priorities as its initiators, such as Forward founder and curator Othmar Handl, themselves coming from the creative industries. Speakers follow this spirit and therefore contribute with personal stories about success and failure in the creative process, cooperation between the disciplines, and their views of the creative industry.
The program promises a variety of speakers and lots of inspiration from all different branches of the creative industries. More than 15 speakers, masterclasses, and much more will inspire the livestream audience as well as the festival-goers on-site at designxport Hamburg. For 2021, Forward Festivals are focusing on the comeback of creativity to the real world from the digital world. Founder and curator Othmar Handl says about his vision that is inspired by the “shortest poem ever written” by Muhammad Ali: “ME, WE—When the great Muhammad Ali created this poem, he didn’t know that much later these two words perfectly fit to describe our situation in 2021: Already living the age of Me, it seems that times of lockdowns have not only confined us physically. We were also forced to focus on our egos, our Me. Were we at the brink to forget the We? The opposite was the case: We just recognized how much we missed the We!” Despite returning to the “real world”, Forward Festival Hamburg will take place as a hybrid event. This way, creatives from all over the world can take part and enjoy two days of inspiration via Livestream—just like the well-received Online edition in March 2021. About the bold decision to schedule this edition of Forward Festival even though there were still lockdowns in place when he started planning, Handl says: “We firmly believe that there must not be a cultural and creative vacuum even in challenging times. Together with partners and speakers, it is very important to us that creativity is not neglected or even completely ceased at any time.” He stresses that he is convinced that the creative industry and the many surrounding industries have an increasing need for knowledge transfer, inspiration, and exchange—after all, the festival’s mission has always been to serve as a platform for creative people and to promote exchange.
As speakers, the biggest independent agency Wieden+Kennedy, Australian illustrator Gemma O’Brien, design-legend Mirko Borsche, and digital artist Gmunk join the lineup as well as the Experience Design team of Google, and artist-designer Erik Kessels. Workshops will be held by Emily Cohen (“Managing Clients for High Impact”), Dot Lung (“Personal Branding”), and Erik Kessels (“Personality Before Portfolio”).
Forward Festival Hamburg 2021 — Comeback of Creativity Between Post-Digitization and Community-Thinking
Tickets Livestream: from € 55.–
On-site package: from € 299.–
Tickets for the on-site event are strictly limited and in high demand, capacities are added from time to time on the Forward Festival website when available.
Tickets for online and on-site workshops can be booked separately.
When?
July 1st and 2nd, 2021
Where?
designxport Hamburg
Hongkongstraße 8
20457 Hamburg-Hafencity, Germany
and online
