With the commissioning of Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BER), the process of change in the airport region in Brandenburg, southeast of Berlin, will accelerate. This creates new opportunities and challenges for the Kommunale Arbeitsgemeinschaft Dialogforum (KAG DF), which brings together municipalities, districts and Berlin boroughs in the airport region as well as the airport company and the Berlin Airport Development Corporation as members. To reposition itself for these changes, KAG DF decided to develop a new communications concept and an exemplary culture of participation in the airport region.

Together with KAG DF and with the involvement of regional stakeholders, the nexus Institute develops a strategic communication and participation concept with the following objectives:

  • increase the understanding of problems for each other among all parties involved;
  • strengthen the intercommunal dialogue
  • to promote the formation of public opinion
  • Intensify citizen participation in the development of the airport region
  • to transport the opportunities of the large-scale project BER deeper into the society as well as
  • identify options for crisis communication.

The communication and participation concept for the dialog forum thus represents a new beginning for communication and participation in the airport region. It is intended to serve as a basis for the dialogue forum to take further concrete steps to implement good and efficient internal and external communication and public relations, and to involve the region’s residents, the general public and other stakeholders.

In addition to an in-depth analysis of the existing communication and participation practice through interviews and document analysis as well as the existing landscape of actors, a strategy workshop as well as an action workshop with members of KAG DF and other relevant actors will be conducted in order to develop a common mission statement and the strategic basis for internal and external communication and participation in the region as well as to set up an action plan with concrete, coordinated measures, communication elements and participation formats.

Duration: 09/2020 – 03/2021
Client: BADC GmbH / KAG DF
Team: Sabine Schröder (project management), Dr. Arnd Hofmeister, Vanessa Kügler