A look back: Cross Innovation Day 2025
Pushing boundaries and creating something new in the process: Cross Innovation Day 2025 impressively demonstrated how cross-industry collaboration can succeed - as a symbiosis of business and creativity.
What happens when business meets creativity and industries break new ground together? This is exactly what happened at the Cross Innovation Day 2025 in Hamburg's Oberhafen harbour. Under the motto "Changing perspectives - shaping the future sustainably", thought leaders, entrepreneurs and creative minds came together for an inspiring discussion about the future of innovation work.
In his keynote speech, author and journalist Wolf Lotter got to the heart of what really matters: "Transformation needs disruption - not conformity." Innovation does not happen by chance, he said, but where routines are broken and boundaries of thought are shifted.
In her keynote speech,Simone Kaiser from Fraunhofer IAO focussed on the human and social dimension of innovation processes. Trust, acceptance and the active involvement of all stakeholders are key prerequisites for effective change - both within organisations and in the public sphere. Her conclusion: "You can go faster alone, but you can go further together."
In the panel discussion that followed, Markus Durstewitz (Airbus), Lorraine Suxdorf (designer & entrepreneur) and Inga Wellmann (Hamburg Department of Culture) discussed the conditions for successful interdisciplinary collaboration. One thing became clear: The courage to fail, openness to other ways of thinking and clear common goals are essential. Above all, however, spaces are needed - both physically and mentally - in which different perspectives can and should come together.
Entrepreneur Hans-Dietrich Reckhaus provided a special practical example: With the INSECT-RESPECT seal of approval, he showed how an art project radically changed his medium-sized company - from destroying insects to promoting biodiversity. An impressive example of how creatively driven irritation can lead to genuine corporate responsibility and transformation.
The masterclasses then opened in the afternoon, in which participants got active themselves: Whether cross innovation methods for their own organisation, telling good ideas emotionally, using AI tools in everyday life or inclusive design for greater customer satisfaction - small groups discussed, tried out and learned together. Among other things, the impulse on the topic of circular design with Gerrit Kuhn and Sebastian Mends-Cole impressively demonstrated how design can make a systemic contribution to sustainability.
There was also plenty to discover away from the stage at Cross Innovation Day: The Best Cases exhibition presented real results from past projects and offered exciting insights into co-creation in practice during guided tours by Nicole Wittek. Knowledge was put to the test in a fun way at Circular Design Bingo in the garden - including sustainable prizes.
At the end of this eventful day, the more than 200 participants from business, the creative industries, administration and politics all agreed that innovation is not a product of chance - it is created where courage, openness and cooperation come together.
