NEXT goes Reeperbahn Festival: Music Meets Digital

Hamburg, 4 February 2015 – For the first time in six years, the acclaimed digital conference NEXT will take place in Hamburg in 2015, dovetailing with the city’s Reeperbahn Festival both in terms of space and content. With a top class programme, NEXT enhances the offering of Germany‘s largest club festival with exciting digital elements. Joint organisers of the new NEXT at the Reeperbahn Festival are the agencies SinnerSchrader and FAKTOR 3, who have agreed on a long-term partnership.

With over 10,000 visitors from 40 countries, NEXT has established itself in recent years as a premier conference in Germany for the digital economy. Founded by SinnerSchrader in Hamburg in 2006, the event has taken place in Berlin since 2010. Now NEXT is returning to its roots, to merge with Germany‘s largest club festival, and to come up with a programme platform which will bring together representatives of the music and digital economy in a unique way.

With more than 30,000 visitors each year, the Reeperbahn Festival is among the most important meeting points of the European music scene, and takes place this year from 23rd to 26th September. The partnership between NEXT and the Reeperbahn Festival is making Hamburg the stage for a unique type of festival in Europe: one which blends a passion for creativity and digital, as well as for business and entertainment.

From 2015 on, NEXT will be jointly organised by the agencies SinnerSchrader and FAKTOR 3, who are developing new programme formats for digital decision-makers in companies, agencies and start-ups.

The central thread of NEXT will take place on the 24th and 25th September in Schmidts Tivoli theatre on Spielbudenplatz, right in the heart of the Reeperbahn Festival. In addition, the many common elements of both programmes, centering around the theme of interactive, will bring together delegates attending both events. The long-term partnership agreed between NEXT and the Reeperbahn Festival extends to marketing and infrastructural aspects of the events as well.

“The Reeperbahn Festival provides us with a fantastic creative environment for new formats with which we will inspire and connect the digital movers and shakers,” says Matthias Schrader, CEO of SinnerSchrader and founder of NEXT. „In partnership with FAKTOR 3 we are developing the NEXT brand into a platform, with which we position digital as a calling – and where work and passion come together.“

“We have been organising conferences in various sectors for over 10 years, and here we are developing something completely new. A business meeting place with lots of creative potential, a festival for digital decision-makers and a platform for cultural passion: NEXT15 at the Reeperbahn Festival is absolutely unique in Europe for its combination of digital themes, art and music,” adds Sabine Richter, Chairman of FAKTOR 3 AG.

The partnership is also supporting the efforts of the Reeperbahn Festival to unite the digital economy and the music sector in a single location. „Our goal is to further develop the Reeperbahn Festival as an all-round creative festival at the intersection of business innovation and popular culture. With NEXT from SinnerSchrader and FAKTOR 3 we have found the right partner to position the interactive programme in a new way, and to bring together representatives from both events with a common offering,” explains Detlef Schwarte, Director of the Reeperbahn Festival Conference.

With the expansion of the Reeperbahn Festival, Hamburg itself hones its positioning as an energy-filled location for the creative disciplines and digital expertise. This is a goal which, through the nextMedia.Hamburg initiative, is being pursued by Hamburg’s federal state government and the media-digital economy.

“The further development of the Reeperbahn Festival by the common scheduling with NEXT creates for us a unique positioning across Europe. It gets to the heart of Hamburg‘s appeal as an economic and cultural metropolis,” according to Dr. Carsten Brosda, media representative at the state government of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and also representative of the nextMedia.Hamburg initiative.

More information on NEXT can be found at www.nextconf.eu, where you can also subscribe to our newsletter or book tickets to the event. Up until 10th February 2015, you may register for a voucher which enables you to purchase two tickets for the price of one. Regular ticket sales for NEXT commence on 17th February. In addition to the NEXT event, tickets include entry to all events on the Reeperbahn Festival programme. Delegates of the Reeperbahn Festival can book access to the NEXT programme of events via a top-up function.