WATERKANT
FESTIVAL
Waterkant Masterclasses
Your deep dive into practical knowledge and targeted skills
This isn't just about theory, but about practical insights that will truly help you. The Waterkant Masterclasses are specifically designed to provide you with in-depth knowledge on specific topics directly from experts. In small groups, you'll work on practical use cases, learn proven methods, and be provided with helpful tools and concrete next steps.
Whether for professional development, fine-tuning your project or simply for inspiration – the Waterkant Masterclasses offer you the space to work specifically on your knowledge and put it into practice directly.
WHEN // Thursday, 19 June 2025 from 3 pm // directly before the festival opening
Masterclass tickets are only valid in conjunction with a festival ticket!
Maturing digitally_
Wolf Lotter
Introducing AI just because everyone else is doing it? Only those who know why will succeed. Digital transformation only delivers results when companies know why they are using a particular technology – and what they really want to achieve with it.
This is precisely what is often missing. Caught between hype, mounting pressure to implement changes and a flood of tools, many companies lose their bearings. The result: costly decisions with no clear impact.
This masterclass is about understanding complexity not as a threat, but as a task of orientation. Those who ask the right questions before deploying technology gain something valuable: their own perspective. No fear of the next hype. No blind activism. Instead, the freedom to choose consciously – and to shape digitalisation in such a way that it truly delivers and can be used as a competitive advantage.
Wolf Lotter has been writing about technology for decades – and helps to separate the essential from the noise (in Silicon Valley). As co-founder of the business magazine brand eins and author of Digital Erwachsen, he has developed a perspective that sees through the hype.
This masterclass will be held in german.
How companies become collaborative_
Aileen Schmuck
Start-ups bring new technologies, fresh perspectives and a pace from which established companies can benefit enormously. Partnerships are no longer just a nice-to-have – they are a crucial competitive advantage.
Yet many start-up partnerships fail. The reasons for this are varied – unclear use cases, processes that are too slow, a lack of accountability, and organisations that are not ready.
In this masterclass, you will learn how venture clienting works as a concrete model and which levers you need to pull to ensure that collaborations can truly achieve their objectives and impact. With the Innovation Readiness Check – conducted live during the masterclass – you will analyse your own readiness for innovation across six specific areas: from organisational structure and processes to budgets and culture. You’ll go home with a clear picture of your strengths, blind spots and concrete next steps.
As Head of Open Innovation & Ecosystems at the Digital Hub Logistics & Commerce Hamburg, Aileen Schmuck supports numerous companies on a daily basis as they move from intention to genuine collaboration, and has successfully launched numerous partnerships.
This masterclass will be held in german.
Silence as Disruption: Hacking the Invisible World of Bluetooth_
Simon Weckert
Wireless headphones have turned shared spaces into private bubbles. What was once a collective acoustic experience has fragmented into millions of isolated soundscapes – curated, controlled, and closed off. AI-driven recommendation systems and always-on audio are accelerating that isolation further.
But what happens when that seamless flow gets interrupted? And what does it mean to reclaim the public auditory realm?
In this masterclass, Simon Weckert merges sociopolitical discourse with radical practice. Starting with an Artist Talk on the hidden frequencies of Bluetooth, surveillance, and AI-driven isolation, participants then build their own Bluetooth jammer using a provided Starter Kit – hands-on soldering included. You leave with a tangible tool. And a question you won't stop thinking about.
Simon Weckert doesn't just critique technology – he builds tools to interrupt it. As a digital artist and self-described "modern-day digital wizard", he works at the intersection of code, circuits, and cheeky social commentary. His work has been shown at the V&A Dundee, Ars Electronica Linz, Vitra Design Museum, and Bauhaus Museum Weimar – among others.
This masterclass will be held in english.
