Konnektiv

Geraldine de Bastion is a bilingual (en/de) political scientist with an intercultural background and experience working with activists, governments, startups and NGOs across the word. Her work focuses on digital transformation and international cooperation, innovation, and human rights. Geraldine co-founded Konnektiv in 2013, advising various organisations on digital transformation.

Geraldine is also the founder of the Global Innovation Gathering (GIG), a network of grassroots innovators, social entrepreneurs, founders, and managers of makerspaces, hackerspaces, and innovation hubs. In 2018 she authored and moderated the Arte documentary “Digital Africa” which captures many of the innovators active in the GIG network.

Since 2012, she has been part of the curatorial team for the re:publica, Europe’s largest conference on the topic of the Internet and society, and regularly organizes and curates events in the field of politics and digitization. In 2018 she organised the first re:publica in Accra, Ghana with over 2000 participants and over 260 speakers from across Africa.

Work Awesome

Journalist, presenter and co-founder of Work Awesome

Lars Gaede is a freelance journalist, presenter and co-founder of Work Awesome, a series of conferences dealing with the future of work. He lives in New York and Berlin, and positions he has previously held include Chief Editor at the German edition of pop culture magazine Interview and Editor for technology magazine WIRED, for NEON and for DIE ZEIT.

Bayerischer Rundfunk

Freelance journalist

Christian Schiffer works at Bayerischer Rundfunk as a writer and an editor. The main themes of his work include politics, pop culture and digital media. He also publishes WASD, a bookazine dealing with computer game culture. In 2018, the Hanser publishing house produced his non-fiction book Angela Merkel ist Hitlers Tochter – im Land der Verschwörungstheorien (Angela Merkel is Hitler’s daughter – in the land of conspiracy theories).

Freelance journalist

Freelance journalist with a focus on gaming culture

Matthias Kreienbrink did his Abitur at night school – before that, he was a chef. After receiving his Abitur, he went on to study literature and history at Freie Universität Berlin. As a freelance journalist, he now writes about culture and society for media outlets including Spiegel Online, Zeit Online and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. He sees video games as a natural part of these topic areas. Examples of this include how the concept of art is being broadened through video games and how people can interact through games.

Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur

Managing Director

Çiğdem Uzunoğlu has been the Managing Director of Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur since February 2018. She has extensive experience in the area of foundation work, having recently been Managing Director of Stiftung Jovita’s die gelbe Villa creative and educational centre. Prior to this, she had already gained substantial experience while holding positions of leadership such as her membership of the Executive Board at Walter Blüchert Stiftung and her time as Division Head at Stiftung der Deutschen Wirtschaft. Furthermore, she spent several years advising both executives and companies in her role as Human Resources and Business Coach.

Çiğdem Uzunoğlu studied political science at Freie Universität Berlin.

Author and publicist

Philipp Reinartz (34) is a creative entrepreneur, writer and publicist. As Co-Founder of the Berlin agency Pfeffermind, he develops digital and analogue games for, among others, IKEA, Samsung and the Goethe-Institut. At the same time, he is co-founder of the largest German provider of escape room games. His novels are produced by the Rowohlt and Goldmann publishing houses. In 2020 he is publishing his first audio series for Amazon Audible. He writes for Zeit Online and Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, teaches at a university, presents events and holds workshops.