nextMedia Festival

Industry Format in HafenCity

HafenCity is Hamburg's newest district – an urban quarter on the former port areas east of Speicherstadt, in the Hamburg-Mitte district. In recent years, a cluster for media, publishing, marketing, and tech companies has formed here – and it is precisely in this environment that Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft organizes the nextMedia Festival. The venue is SPACE, an event-focused location complex at Sandtorkai 27.

Two Days of Program

The festival is concentrated over two days and follows a clear program structure:

• 9:00 AM–1:00 PM — Masterclasses in small groups (focus topics change per slot)
• 1:00 PM–2:00 PM — Networking and lunch break
• 2:00 PM–4:30 PM — Main stage with speakers and panels
• 4:30 PM–5:30 PM — Closing reception with informal networking
• 6:00 PM — End of day

Target Audience

The festival is aimed at professionals from traditional media industries – press, advertising, film, broadcasting, music, books – as well as from newer digital industries: games, e-commerce, tech. This combination is programmatic: Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft aims to promote dialogue between established media players and the digital economy, rather than dividing both worlds into separate conferences.

Masterclasses as a Format

Unlike OMR (a large conference with 60,000 participants), nextMedia focuses on small groups. The morning masterclasses limit the number of participants, allowing for intensive exchange between speakers and the audience. This makes the festival a complementary address to OMR – less of a mass trade fair, more of a workshop atmosphere.

Organizer

Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft mbH is a subsidiary of the City of Hamburg and promotes the creative economy in the federal state. nextMedia.Hamburg is its central industry program for the media and digital economy – the festival is the annual showcase event of this program.

HafenCity Context

SPACE is located on Sandtorkai, overlooking the Sandtorhafen basin and in close proximity to the Elbphilharmonie. This location is one of Hamburg's most attractive business addresses – a statement by the organizers that the media and digital economy actively shapes Hamburg's geography.