From 24 to 26 September, Creativity and Innovation Will Reign in Amsterdam

Amsterdam, 27 May 2008 – The programme of PICNIC’08, the international event on media, technology and entertainment, has been revealed. PICNIC takes place in Amsterdam on 24, 25 and 26 September this year. The main theme, ‘Create the Future’, brings together a conference featuring a host of renowned international speakers with a wide range of results-oriented seminars and workshops. The full programme is available at the updated website, www.picnicnetwork.org.

The PICNIC Conference
The PICNIC Conference is the heart of PICNIC. The theme this year is ‘Collaborative Creativity’. Within culture, science, media and technology, there is a worldwide trend at the moment of groups of people finding new ways to work together. New connections between organisations and their clients, between groups of creatives, and between friends, families and groups of Internet users have led to new forms of creativity and innovation.

A lineup of top international speakers will present new and connective forms of intelligence and creativity. They include thinkers like Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody; Charles Leadbeater, author of We Think; and Jeff Jarvis, author of What Google Would Do. There will also be entrepreneurs like Kevin Wall, who brought the world into action with the Live Earth concerts; Loic LeMeur, who will give his video service Seesmic its Netherlands launch at PICNIC; and Rafi Haladjian, who will present Nabaztag, his online smart rabbit service. Investor Esther Dyson will highlight the business side of innovation. Speakers like IDEO’s Bill Moggridge, the designer of the first laptop; Philips Design director Stefano Marzano; and Nokia’s Young Hee Chung will discuss mass user design processes. And collaborative creativity plays its part in the music industry, too: Pim Betist of Sellaband will talk about encouraging listeners to invest in bands, and conductor Itay Talgam will show how collaboration works in creating music. For more information on the PICNIC themes and speakers, visit the PICNIC website.

The PICNIC Specials
The PICNIC Specials are focused seminars, lectures and roundtable discussions that dive deeper into the PICNIC themes. These include data visualisation, mobile services in Africa, open content, and the integration of games and social networks. The Specials attract thousands of people, and media labs, research groups, professional associations, cultural networks and innovation departments actively take part, sharing their latest insights. Further information on the main themes, the confirmed Specials and PICNIC partners can be found on the website.

The PICNIC Labs
PICNIC inspires creatives and innovators from all over the world to come together and share ideas, vision and information. New contacts are established, and ideas and formats are refined into sustainable and creative innovations – especially at the PICNIC Labs. These practical workshops, demo sessions and master classes challenge you to re-imagine your business, develop new products and services, refine ideas and formats, and come up with creative business concepts. Products and services developed here will get feedback from experts, and a selection will be demonstrated at PICNIC. PICNIC Labs are developed with a series of partners, from corporate partners to speakers, media labs to expert groups. Possible Lab themes include RFID, augmented reality and data visualisation. A complete programme will soon be published on the website.

The PICNIC Green Challenge
For the second year, the PICNIC Green Challenge, fuelled by the Dutch Postcode Lottery, is calling on creative, innovative minds to come up with concrete solutions to fight climate change. Anyone with a good idea for a product or service that reduces greenhouse gas emissions in a consumer-friendly way is invited to enter the Challenge. The winner will receive a €500,000 prize to help bring his or her product or service to market. Sir Richard Branson will serve as Chairman of the Jury.

Costs
A PICNIC Conference day ticket costs €595 plus VAT (lunch included) and includes access to the PICNIC Conference plus any Specials and Labs registered for. A full conference ticket costs €1245 plus VAT. A Specials day pass includes access to all Specials and Labs taking place on the day of validity and costs €95 plus VAT (lunch included). Participation in each Lab is subject to a selection process. Register for PICNIC on the website.

PICNIC is an annual international event organised by the Amsterdam Cross Media Week Foundation. The third edition, PICNIC’08, will be held at the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam.