Matthias Burgbacher

Matthias is a sociologist and expert in the field of urban development, participation and facilitation. After studying sociology, psychology and education at Heidelberg University, he co-founded PLAN:KOOPERATIV in 2013, an agency that directs all kinds of dialogue, research and participation processes. Since 2013, he has been researching and teaching at the Department of neighbourhood planning at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and since 2017, he has been a Fellow of the Competence Center for the cultural and Creative Industries of the German Federal Government. In 2017, he founded the Amt für unlösbare Aufgaben (Office for unsolvable matters) in the context of a project with the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWI), which is working exhaustively on the topic of modernizing administration.

References/Awards:

• 2013: award as “Kultur- und Kreativpiloten“ Germany
  link

• 2018: appointment as a Fellow of the Competence Centre for Creative Industries of the German Federal Government
  the fellow-network


• 2018: inclusion in the Business Punk Ranking 2019 in the category Social & Policy: "These ten people are improving our society"   Watchlist 2019 - Business Punk

• 2019: appointment to the Public Participation Section of the association "Mediation and Conflict Management in the Construction and Real Estate Industry“

Web/social media:

1. PLAN:KOOPERATIV
2. Linkedin
3. Facebook-PLAN:KOOPERATIV
4. Facebook-Amt für unlösbare Aufgaben

Ernst Burgbacher

From 1998 to 2013 Ernst Burgbacher was member of the German Bundestag, from 2009 to 2013 Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and Federal Government Commissioner for SMEs and Tourism. Throughout his career, his main focus was on tourism policy, where he gained a high reputation as a recognized expert with much representable success (e.g. abolition of taxes on tips, facilitating the approval of signs advertising sights or scenic views on motorways, strengthening the GNTB, introducing the reduced VAT rate for the hospitality industry). He also worked in the areas of domestic, education and economic policy.

References/Awards:

• Initiation of the German project "Tourism in rural areas” 
• 2009–2013 Member of the T20 (Tourism Ministers of the G20 Member States) 
• Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur 
• Honorary citizen of the city of Trossingen 
• Awards of the IHK Schwarzwald-Baar-Heuberg and several tourism associations

Web/social media:

1. Linkedin