About us_
Waterkant Futures Thinking Lab_
We connect_
startups & companies,
people & projects,
today's ideas with tomorrow's futures
_since 2016.
The Waterkant Futures Thinking Lab implements a wide range of formats and has established itself as a central innovation and experimentation space in Schleswig-Holstein. In an environment of rapid ecological, technological and social transformations, the Lab provides a co-creation and networking space for stakeholders from business, science, administration and civil society and promotes innovative solutions for the regional and global challenges of our time through a variety of formats.
In addition to established formats such as the Waterkant Festival, the Waterkant Future Exhibition and Coding.Waterkant, we are constantly developing new formats. These include reverse pitch events, community formats such as the Waterkant & Friends Dinner, the Futures Thinking course with the aim of promoting futures literacy education and the investment vernissage for start-ups and investors, the PhD track for academics interested in start-ups and transfer, masterclasses as thematic deep dives and the Futures Making course.
In all of these formats, we bring together a variety of stakeholders to advance our goals - the promotion of co-creation, networking and collaboration as well as the establishment of sustainable futures literacy education in Schleswig-Holstein.
Another goal of the Waterkant Futures Thinking Lab is to retain young talent in the region and attract new talent. Our opportunity spaces, programs and events motivate our participants of all ages and backgrounds to develop and reinvent themselves. We lower entry requirements, provide an open climate of support and incubate (start-up) ideas.
The Waterkant Futures Thinking Lab with all its formats is part of the non-profit association opencampus.sh and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) from the State Program Economy 2021-2027 (LPW 2021) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Transport, Employment, Technology and Tourism (MVATT) of the State of Schleswig-Holstein.
opencampus.sh_
opencampus.sh is the umbrella brand of the non-profit association Campus Business Box e.V. opencampus.sh offers a wide range of further education opportunities for all curious people - regardless of age, educational background or nationality.
Since 2009, various projects have gradually developed under the umbrella of opencampus.sh, all of which open up new educational paths with different focuses. These include the Edu program with 4,200 registrations annually, the starterkitchen co-working space with over 30 early stage start-ups, the open high-tech workshop Fablab including Makercube, the Social Entrepreneurship Program for over 162 schools SEEd, the first Machine Learning Degree in the north, the Cozy Cowork Cafe Cobl, the Waterkant Futures Thinking Lab and much more.
Since 2009, we have been able to build an independent regional, national and international network of companies, non-profit organizations and start-ups with around 25,000 people around these complementary projects. The participants in our formats use and create their own unconventional ways of implementing their project ideas with the help of mentors.
The association is financed by institutional funding from the City of Kiel, project funds and EU funds.