Bastian studied communication design in Mannheim and has been working as a freelancer between design and programming for over 17 years. Next to (still!) being known for creating Zootool around 2008 he is known for developing the content management system Kirby. It wasn't always the case, that this was his sole project, but started as a side project while still working on customer projects. But what once started as a hobby or sideproject has now grown into a full-time job with a hand full of employees, selling worldwide and used by companies such as Daimler AG, Mozilla, the New York Times, many well-known names in the Web industry and universities such as Stanford or Harvard, just to mention a few.

Doro is a Hamburg based artist with a big heart for silly ideas. After studying one semester of French and History at University by accident she started studying Visual Communication/Media at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg on full purpose. She finished in 2007 with her diploma project „Fundbüro“ with hundreds of random items she found on the streets: love/hate-letters, photographies, raps, …

Since 2009 she works as an illustrator and author of „check-the-box-diaries for lazy people“ who like herself have lots of things to do but also love to spend a good amount of time on their couch. She also does stopmotion animations.

In her work she searches for the absurd, playful and funny side of life.

Stefan Sagmeister has designed for clients as diverse as the Rolling Stones, HBO, and the Guggenheim Museum. He’s a two time Grammies winner and also earned practically every important international design award.

Stefan talks about the large subjects of our lives like happiness or beauty, how they connect to design and what that actually means to our everyday lives. He spoke 5 times at the official TED, making him one of the three most frequently invited TED speakers.

His books sell in the hundreds of thousands and his exhibitions have been mounted in museums around the world. His exhibit ’The Happy Show' attracted way over half a million visitors worldwide and became the most visited graphic design show in history.

A native of Austria, he received his MFA from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and, as a Fulbright Scholar, a master’s degree from Pratt Institute in New York.

Sharon Steed is an international keynote speaker, author and founder of Communilogue, a corporate empathy and communications consultancy. She is a subject matter expert on empathy at work; she helps teams revolutionise the way they communicate, collaborate and approach diversity and inclusion by engaging empathy.

Sharon has spoken at companies and conferences in 17 countries spanning five continents, with a focus on improving team communication and collaboration through engaging empathy and vulnerability as a professional asset. She has given a TEDx talk on empowering insecurities.

A lifelong stutterer, Sharon uses her speech impediment to both teach what empathy is and to inspire audiences to engage in empathy actions daily. An author and course instructor for O’Reilly Media, Inc., her eBook Empathy at Work is available in the O’Reilly library. Sharon’s LinkedIn Learning course “Communicating With Empathy” has over 400,000 views. A Midwestern native, she currently lives in Pittsburgh.

Elliot Jay Stocks is a designer and musician, these days working almost exclusively with clients as a typographic consultant, and releasing music as Other Form on various European techno labels. His love affair with type started with the magazine 8 Faces, which he founded in 2010, and which led to him becoming Creative Director of Adobe Typekit (now known as Adobe Fonts). After Adobe, he co-founded the lifestyle magazine Lagom with his wife, which was published until the end of 2019. In the last five years, Elliot has held Creative Director roles at Colonna Coffee, ClearScore, and Maido, and is currently creating something new for Google Fonts.

Carolin Stüdemann is the passionate and optimistic CEO of the all profit organization Viva con Agua. She is highly motivated to support social transformation through the empowerment and want to inspire people to surpass themselves. Carolin brings her energy so that the organization can get closer to their Vision: Water for all.

Carolins daily mission: How can complex networks be organized so that people can develop their greatest possible effectiveness? How can people be empowered in the best possible way and all perspectives invited? As a manager, she creates a framework of connection, structure and trust in which people feel empowered to become effective through independent action. When Carolin is not engaging for the NGO she can be found at the Baltic sea to kite surf.

After studying business administration, teaching and research work and a doctorate in the field of ecology-oriented marketing, Michael Trautmann started as a management consultant at Bossard Consultants. As Managing Partner at Springer & Jacoby, he was then responsible for the renowned Mercedes-Benz account and the establishment and expansion of international offices in London, Paris, Barcelona and Milan, among other places. As "Global CMO" at Audi, he was one of the youngest top managers in the Volkswagen Group and he was voted among the "Top 40 under 40" in European marketing. In 2004, together with André Kemper, he founded the advertising agency kempertrautmann, which was awarded "Global Newcomer Agency of the Year" 5 years later. After the reorganisation of the agency into thjnk AG, as a result of which the agency doubled in size from 250 to 500 employees, Michael reoriented himself professionally once again. Since then he has been active as a consultant, senior advisor and early-stage investor. He was the first business angel at the award-winning market research company Appinio and he also co-founded Hyrox, the world's first fitness competition for everyone.

Since 1.5.2017 (fun fact: Labour Day) he can be heard once a week as a co-host on the podcast “On The Way to New Work”. At the beginning of 2021, he founded NWMS GmbH (New Work Masterskills) together with Swantje Allmers.