Markt der Zukunft: The future is now!

This “festival of innovation” was the result of a campaign by the radio station “Ö1” that called for innovative ideas for a better future. The best and most promising ideas were presented at the festival, which took place on October the tenth and eleventh of 2020 in the modern art museum “Kunsthaus” in Graz. Instead, the “friendly alien” was transformed into a futuristic fairground where even Marty McFly would only have been a pale youth with a junk car.

For the project, which was launched under the direction of Birgit Lunz and Wolfgang Schlag, both from Ö1, a total of over 40 different entrepreneurs and inventors from all over Austria gathered to present their future projects. These were projects on the topics of ecology and climate protection, nutrition and sustainable agriculture, new social and educational models and alternative economic and work models. In addition to the project presentations, the MDZ was also a crowd puller because of the artistic exhibitions and the expert talks.

The magazine for the market of the future, which was available for free on the days of the exhibition, was developed because of the interplay between our bachelor’s degree programme “Journalism and Public Relations (PR)” and the institution “Design and Communication”. The process of creating the magazine had to happen while the students were working at home due to COVID-19. According to one of the editors in chief of the project, Christina Harrich, realizing the project was much more difficult because even the editorial meetings had to be done online.

Still, the final product is worth a look. Not only were many visitors of the event enjoying it, but everyone who had worked on the project. “When it was finally finished, after seemingly endless copy-editing, we were all very happy!”, said Harrich.

Although the circumstances were difficult, “Markt der Zukunft” was a big success. Many visitors gathered to join the discussions, admire the fascinating ideas that were presented or just enjoy some of the artistic aspects of the event. It is unclear if more events like this are planned, but it seems likely.

Written by Dominik Blümel, Julian Gimplinger and Laura Rattensberger, students of the bachelor’s degree programme “Journalism and Public Relations (PR)”.