Numerous educational initiatives - including SEEd, IW JUNIOR, Futurepreneur, START Hamburg, Körber Start-Hub, Young Founders Network and the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce's business workshop - will be presenting interactive programmes at the festival's marketplace. Teachers, guardians and educational stakeholders will gain insights into entrepreneurship education concepts as well as suggestions for school practice. Participation is free of charge for all young people - including catering - and is recognised with a certificate for their commitment to future skills and entrepreneurial thinking. Exemption from school is possible.
How does an idea come about - and how does it become a company? What will the professions of tomorrow look like? And how can schools today prepare students for the world of the day after tomorrow? The first Young Makers Festival, which will take place on Friday, 27 June 2025, at the Factory Hammerbrooklyn, will provide answers to these questions.
From 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., a unique experience space will open up for pupils from Year 7 upwards - with workshops, talks, start-up stories, interactive offers and a large exhibition of school companies. The focus: entrepreneurial thinking, creative solutions - and the desire to take responsibility for their own future.
Dr Melanie Leonhard, Senator for Economics, Labour and Innovation: "If you want to shape the world of tomorrow, you have to have the courage to start today. The Young Makers Festival makes exactly that possible: it gives young people the stage on which ideas can grow - and shows how entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and responsibility belong together. The future is not created in textbooks, but by doing. And Hamburg needs precisely these young doers who say: I have an idea - and I dare to realise it."
"If you want to promote entrepreneurial thinking, you have to start early," says Dr Rolf Strittmatter, Managing Director of Hamburg Invest. "With the Young Makers Festival, we are creating a framework in which young people can not only develop their own ideas, but also realise them - in a very practical way, with strong partners and without the usual hurdles. This makes it possible to experience that business is not abstract, but a creative task with social relevance. Hamburg needs this courage and these investments in the future - and we support this wherever we can."
The Young Makers Festival is a project of the Ministry of Economics and Innovation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and is implemented by the business development and investment agency Hamburg Invest as part of the Young Makers Hamburg umbrella initiative. The festival is also supported by the Bertelsmann Foundation and numerous partners from education, business and civil society.
A festival for everyone who wants to shape the future
Young Makers Festival - Facts at a glance:
📍 Location: Factory Hammerbrooklyn, Stadtdeich 2-4, 20097 Hamburg
📅 Date: Friday, 27 June 2025
🕙 Time: 10:00 - 19:00
🌐 Registration and info: www.meet-and-moin.com/young-makers-festival