Communicorn Conference at Leuphana: Shaping change together

What if we shaped change together? The Communicorn Conference on 16 and 17 September 2025 at Leuphana University Lüneburg will address this question and create concrete beginnings to answer it. Over two days, innovators from business, science, civil society, administration and politics will discuss community-oriented visions of the future, test methods for further developing their projects and learn about places of change that are already bringing their visions to life. Participation is free of charge.

The term Communicorn is a combination of ‘community’ and ‘unicorn’. The latter describes highly funded start-ups in the tech industry. The compound word, on the other hand, focuses primarily on collective success and a socially and ecologically sustainable approach. ‘In start-up projects, we are seeing a growing interest in focusing more directly on community in order to increase the impact of the entrepreneurial venture, rather than just focusing on big money,’ says Prof. Dr. Steffen Farny, expert in social innovation and entrepreneurship at Leuphana.

From crafts to media to agriculture

The aim of the conference of the same name is therefore to build communities that jointly shape social innovation and sustainable change. The focus is on solidarity-based, public welfare-oriented approaches – beyond competition and profit maximisation. Whether in workshop discussions on six core areas of coexistence (local government, food and agriculture, media and journalism, youth and education, climate protection and energy, crafts and technology), in interactive methodology workshops or when visiting places of change in Lüneburg: participants will see concrete examples of how collaborative economics and sustainable innovation are already succeeding today – and how they can be further strengthened. In a pitch corner, they can also have their own ideas professionally recorded.

Highlights include keynotes by Kübra Gümüşay, author of ‘Sprache und Sein’ (Language and Being) and initiator of the feminist co-creation space ‘eeden’ in Hamburg, and Prof. Pablo Muñoz, expert in social innovation and entrepreneurship. On the afternoon of 16 September, participants will visit WerkStadt Lüneburg, the Commons Centre, the Oberschule am Wasserturm secondary school – all places that are taking change into their own hands with innovative ideas.

• When: 16–17 September 2025
• Where: Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Universitätsallee 1, 21335 Lüneburg
• Registration: https://eveeno.com/communicorn-konferenz-2025
• Further information: https://www.leuphana.de/kooperationen/innovation-communities/social-innovation/communicorn-konferenz.html

The Communicorn Conference is organised by the Leuphana Social Innovation Community, which is funded by the federal-state initiative ‘Innovative University’ as part of the TrICo project. The community has secured the Future Social Entrepreneurship Education Network (FutureSEE), the neue gesellschaft and the Social Entrepreneurship Alliance Hamburg as partners.