Lutz Leichsenring

Lutz Leichsenring is an entrepreneur, consultant, keynote speaker and night time economy, -culture and -community activist. He is also the founder of the Creative Footprint, and one of the world’s leading authorities on protecting creative industries.

Lutz teamed up with former Night Mayor of Amsterdam Mirik Milan in 2017 to form cultural vibrancy and night time consultancy, VibeLab. Along with Mirik and researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, Lutz conducted the Creative Footprint Project in Berlin (2017), New York (2018), and Tokyo (2019).. In 2020 Lutz initiated nighttime.org to inform how Covid-19 effects the nighttime economy globally. To re-envision urban systems to coexist with the threat of COVID-19, alongside Mirik Milan, Michael Fichman, Andreina Seijas and Diana Raiselis, Lutz was developing a global nighttime recovery plan to utilise case studies to present workable solutions for cities of many sizes, geographical and economic contexts, and the multiple models of nighttime governance.

Lutz's efforts also lead the Berlin Senate to legalize commercial-free open air events in 2016. In 2017, the Berlin Clubcommission received €1 Million in funding to provide noise proofing to venues in Berlin.

In 2015, Lutz founded Berlin-based talent recruiting company, young targets GmbH, with Deutsche Hochschulwerbung and long-time business partner, Marco Herzog. Helping businesses attract skilled talent, young targets organizes recruitainment events like hackathons, bar camps, and escape games. young targets also collaborates with Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V., CyberForum e.V. and SIBB e.V. and received the Human Resources Excellence Award (2016) for developing the first mobile escape game as a recruiting event.

In an effort to combat gentrification, Lutz was the spokesperson of the East Side Gallery protests alongside Roger Waters and David Hasselhoff in 2013.

Lutz serves as a voluntary member of the Creative Industry Committee of the Industrie- und Handelskammer (IHK) Berlin, Berlin's Chamber of Commerce. He was also an elected member of the general assembly of the IHK (2012–2014). In this position, Lutz initiated a working group between members of the Creative Industries Committee and the City Development Committee, to bridge the gap between interests of Real Estate companies and entrepreneurs in music and art.

Lutz serves as Spokesman and Executive Board Member of the Clubcommission Berlin e.V. on a voluntary basis (as of 2009). Within this role, Lutz supports music and nightlife culture in Europe. In 2011, he helped initiate the MUSIK2020BERLIN campaign which resulted in the formation of the Berlin Musicboard - where Lutz is also a voluntary board member (since 2017). As Spokesman for the Clubcommission, Lutz organized awareness campaigns for the Knaack club in 2010 and Klub der Republik in 2011. He also spoke out against the German performance rights association, GEMA in 2012.

As an event promoter and music festival organizer, Lutz produced club nights and festivals for SWR3 Radio and BigFM Radio and worked with artists like Blumentopf, and Romanthony (singer of Daft Punk). From 2002 to 2009, he created and managed the event series nach-kult-tour in the region of Karlsruhe. Lutz also works as a restaurateur and club operator. From 2004 to 2010, he was a shareholder of the Havanna Music Club at Kulturzentrum Tempel in Karlsruhe and the Lieblingsladen restaurant in Bruchsal.

With the launch of nachtausgabe.de in 1999, Lutz started his nightlife professional career alongside partners Marco Herzog, Sven Schäfer, and Mirko Holzer. Funded and supported by EXIST funding programme BMWi Gründerwettbewerb Multimedia, nachtausgabe.de GmbH received 50,000 Deutsche Mark and 1st place at the n-tv Wirtschaftswoche Unternehmershow in 2001, and was a CyberChampion finalist in 2006. In 2003, nachtausgabe.de GmbH opened an office in Berlin.