[IDEAS FOR GOOD] Online event “Public can be more interesting: report session on the Berlin-born festival of government and creativity Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2025” was held

IDEAS FOR GOOD, the web media curates ideas for making society “better,” hosted an online event on August 5 titled “Public can be more interesting: report session on the Berlin-born festival of government and creativity Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2025.”

Who does the public belong to?

In the face of complex and multilayered challenges such as the climate crisis, economic inequality, and social fragmentation, we find ourselves confronted with barriers that cannot be overcome through individual efforts or corporate initiatives alone. To build a truly sustainable future, it is essential to reexamine and redesign the very “systems” of society.

Discussions on sustainability often begin with rethinking infrastructure such as energy, transportation, education, and welfare. This does not merely mean restructuring for efficiency, but rather reorganizing the foundations of society in a way that leaves no one behind. The pressing question now emerging worldwide is how to achieve a just transition.

At the heart of this lies the foundation of “public.”

However, when we hear the word “public,” many of us tend to imagine distant entities such as national or local governments. In truth, the public is not “owned” by anyone. It is something in which each of us should participate and nurture together. In these times of rapid change, the fixed notions of institutions and authority are being challenged, and the questions “what is the public” and “who should create it, and how” are being posed to us once again.

One place that explores the potential of the public is the annual Creative Bureaucracy Festival in Berlin, Germany. In 2025, the festival once again generated great excitement both onsite and online. Civil servants, policymakers, citizens, nonprofits, designers, researchers, and others gathered to reimagine the meaning of public by combining what may appear to be contrasting ideas: bureaucracy and creativity.

Bringing creativity to bureaucracy: what is Germany’s Creative Bureaucracy Festival?

“Creativity in bureaucracy.” With this seemingly contradictory concept, the Creative Bureaucracy Festival attracts participants from across the global public sector. Instead of “abolishing” systems, the festival asks how we can “improve” them. What can we imagine, and how can we rethink? Our on-the-ground coverage provided insights into what “new public” might look like.

https://ideasforgood.jp/2025/07/10/creative-bureaucracy-festival/

(This article is in Japanese.)

The IDEAS FOR GOOD editorial team attended the festival in Berlin and hosted this online report event to share our learnings. Our guest was Chikako Masuda, who served as a speaker and judge at the 2025 festival and is a leading advocate for introducing service design in the advancement of digital government. Together we explored global trends felt in Berlin, the differences between Japan and Europe in how “public” is understood, and the concept of “open government.”

[Reference] “Report session on Creative Bureaucracy Festival 2025: public can be more interesting” | IDEAS FOR GOOD (in Japanese)
[Related Site] IDEAS FOR GOOD (in Japanese)