PICNIC Festival 2012 casts its Theme: New Ownership

PICNIC has announced the initial line up of speakers and sessions for PICNIC Festival 2012. The Festival will take place on September 17 and 18 at Amsterdam’s EYE Film Institute. This year also sees a Collaborative Campaign Competition for everyone.

The Festival will focus on the theme “new ownership: the shift from top down to bottom up”. Connected technologies are empowering people all over the world to connect and drive personal and societal change. This is happening against a backdrop of rapidly declining trust in traditional institutions and systems of governance.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Tim O’Reilly, CEO of O’Reilly Media and one of the founders of the open source and Maker movements, will talk about the DIY revolution that has emerged and is being powered by platforms such as Make Magazine;

• Doc Searls, journalist, blogger and author of “TheCluetrain Manifesto” and “The Intention Economy: When Customers Take Charge”, will discuss how customers power and its impact on sellers; 
• Bonnie Shaw, Director of Social Innovation at iStrategyLabs, will discuss alternative currency systems and how the sharing vs. owning paradigm is affecting access and consumption;
• George Dyson, a boat designer, writer and distinguished technology historian who will talk about how technology has and will evolve to further empower people; and
• Rupert Turnbull, Publisher of WIRED UK, who will discuss how new ownership is transforming the media landscape.

Sessions

The Festival’s programming will be an eclectic, but thoughtful mix of lectures, discussions, business competitions, co-creation labs, a SME exhibition and matchmaking activities. Highlights include:

• Postcode Lottery Green Challenge, a competition which awards 500,000 euro and expert coaching to the best green business plan;
• Vodafone Mobiles for Good, a new Dutch competition which awards 120,000 euro, office space at Start Up Bootcamp Amsterdam and professional coaching to the best mobile technology companies which improve health and well-being;
• PICNIC Crossover Marketplace, a SME exhibition which will showcase 100 Dutch and European start ups and small companies; and
• PICNIC Academy, a Festival element which will explore the future of education, online learning and the shift towards more participatory learning.

The complete Festival program will be finalized in mid-August.

For more information, visit www.picnicnetwork.org

The PICNIC Collaborative Campaign competition asks you to participate in the design of this years posters. Here you can submit your photo to join the contest. Each week the winner is rewarded a free ticket to this year´s festival.

LABKULTUR.TV is media partner with PICNIC Festival and will cover extensively from this year´s festival. Check our website for the exclusive Series: PICNIC - creative industry trends and like our Facebook Fanpage and follow us on Twitter to gather and gain more information on and about the PICNIC festival 2012 in advance.