PICNIC Festival ’12 will be a two day, international gathering dedicated to exploring the theme “New Ownership: the shift from top down to bottom up”. This theme will be explored through lectures, specials (interactive discussions and debates) and co-creation workshops/labs which focus on developing concepts, prototyping, tinkering and plain, old playing around. Other activities will include interactive demos, hackathons and devcamps, matchmaking activities and the Marketplace, which showcases promising entrepreneurs and start-ups from the Netherlands and other European countries.

At the Festival, everyone will become an active participant. Competitions such as the Dutch Postcode Lottery’s Green Challenge, challenges, networking and unexpected stunts will keep things interesting. Speakers will guide students. Designers will meet businesspeople. Hackers will collaborate with artists. The combinations are endless.

The PICNIC Festival will attract approximately 3500 participants from the Netherlands, Europe and around the world, including journalists and bloggers.

Now entering its seventh year, the PICNIC Festival is a multidisciplinary and cross-sector gathering, attracting participants from the creative industries, business, government, non-profits, higher education and knowledge institutes. We welcome professionals from a wide range of fields, including but not limited to technology, design, life sciences, financial services, logistics, food and agriculture, entertainment and communications and branding.

EYE Film Institute

The EYE Film Institute is located behind Central Station across the IJ in the iconic white building created by Delugan Meissl Associated Architects. PICNIC will be one of the first international festivals to be hosted at the new institute.