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TOA Berlin / Kater Holzig

TOA_image_2Watch out – 1/2/8 2013 Tech Open Air, Berlin’s festival where technology, music and art comes together, is coming back for a second year on August 1 and 2. TOA will return to Katerholzig in Kreuzberg, which played host to last summer’s inaugural running of the international conference-meets-festival, for the first day.

New this year is the focus on science and education. The event will include open talks, panels, workshops, concerts and discussions. The second day will feature satellite events all over the city. Everyone is welcome to set up their own partner event which will be displayed on one common website and app.

TOA founder Niko Woischnik said: “We’re building a platform where movers and shakers from the different industries can exchange, learn from and insipre each and one another. We can all greatly benefit from exposure to eachother and help pioneer the direction of our industries.”

The TOA Berlin team is set to move into Axel Springer’s new accelerator offices soon to start working flat out on the preparations for August.
Europe’s most inspiring interdisciplinary technology festival unveils speakers and partners from all over the world.
The second edition of the annual Tech Open Air Berlin Festival will take place on the 1st & 2nd of August and will boast over 50 satellite events.
Tech Open Air Berlin will transform the German capital for two days, August 1st and 2nd, into a focal point for the European Technology and Creative Industries. On the first day speakers, partners and acts across the fields of Tech, Music, Art & Science will take part in interactive talks, debates and workshops at the “Unconference”. This unique knowledge-exchange driven event will take place at the magical Kater Holzig and the program will include live music performances and art installations. On the second day of the festival, more than 50 companies will host their own so-called Satellite Events, many of which will be housed in one of seven official partner venues. The official closing party will be hosted at Berlin’s startup campus Factory in a building straddling the former Berlin Wall – opening their doors to the public community.

“We are thrilled to have such prestigious partners from diverse industries working with us on the Tech Open Air Festival this year” said TOA Founder Nikolas Woischnik “despite this only being our second year, we have seen enormous growth and are expecting more than 2,000 visitors in Berlin.” A number of major figures in various disciplines have already confirmed their involvement such as Dr. Ijad Madisch (CEO and Founder of Bill Gate’s ResearchGate), Dr. Morton Kringelbach (Neuroscience Professor at Oxford University), Bernd Schlömer (CEO PirateParty Germany), Stefan Glaenzer (renowned angel investor and Founder of Passion Capital), Ferry and Fabian Heilemann (Founders of former Google company DailyDeal), Jens Begemann (Founder of Wooga), Marc Stilke (CEO Immoscout) or Conrad Fritzsch (Founder of Tape.tv). Additionally, there will be numerous installations, i.e. by artists such as Yuli Levtov, Europe’s pioneer in the field of Multisensory Performance. Under the heading of “Reset Tomorrow!” the festival will take a critical look at empowering and alienating effects of technological advancement. As the sun sets on the first day, the festival begins its much anticipated Music programme, which will be held across the Spree river in the FluxBau venue, and presented together with the Berlin radio station FluxFM.

On the second day of the festival, the community takes over with more than 50 self-organised workshops, hackathons, music gigs, lectures and exhibitions across the city of Berlin. The Tech Open Air online platform allows any interested organiser to list their events and distribute tickets. With major corporate powerhouses like Axel Springer, leading institutions like Max Planck Gallery, Klab & Bertelsmannstiftung or Universität der Künste, International conferences like the Dublin Web Summit as well as a host of quality companies from the startup world (i.e. Index Ventures, GoEuro, DaWanda, Elance) the diversity in size and focus-area of the satellite events is fantastic. Over the coming days all satellite event hosts will be submitting their events online and open them for registration. Furthermore, the following partner venues will support satellite event hosts by offering their spaces for free: Betahaus, Mobilesuite, Hotel Amano Group, Agora, Ahoy!Berlin, The Wye and Sankt Oberholz. Two days of knowledge-exchange, inspiration and networking will culminate in the Tech Open Air closing party, which will be organised together with the Berlin Startup Campus Factory.
Tech Open Air is Europe’s first Interdisciplinary Technology Festival. It’s mission is to connect, grow and inspire the tech, music, art and science communities via knowledge exchange and collaboration. With its open format – conference meets festival – Tech Open Air aims to create a platform for different disciplines to build upon with technology being the common denominator that affects us all. Tech Open Air was initiated in 2012 by Nikolas Woischnik (founder of TechBerlin and Ahoy! Berlin) and was the first crowdfunded festival in Europe. The theme of the 2013 edition is called “Reset tomorrow!” and is based upon the concept of Retrofuturism.