WTF is Amsterdam Tech?
You enquired us what this AMSxTech is all about, glad you asked! We’re this gezellig bunch of cheeseheads, with the most badass flag in the world and a bold vision:
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is our one big campus, the canals, the internal parks, the cycling and pedestrian friendly public spaces. That’s where we live, work and thrive.
If you want to hustle get on a city bike, if you want hustle more get a custom racing bike. This is the place where you run a red light, fast.
We are comfortable in English, or a combination of this American English what we learned when we watched cartoons as kids. It’s our main language, since we were the capital of the world. I mean, this capital of this small country was once the capital of the effing world!
The place where Heineken was first brewed, where we impact the consumer and health tech industry with Philips. Hey we even invented the first global central bank! Pioneering cross continental air flights with our Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM), not to mention Royal Dutch Shell.
Don’t talk to us about our Double Irish Dutch sandwich tax heaven, oh we just did. It’s a great place to be for any kind of company, really. We’re blunt about it, we have social ventures ánd weapon system companies stationed here.
XXX
The exponential, multiply that to anything, into the unknown, from there go anywhere to find treasures on the map and beyond.
The X is the Wildcard*, any generic parameter or character in almost any coding language, the unknown asterisk that points to anything.
X is as a crossroad. Lifestyle meets tech, science meets society, where we cross-pollinate on the cutting-edge tech and art.
The Netherlands is in the business of exponential export of knowledge. People come here to learn and go back smart-assed. Education and knowledge is the backbone of our natural resource poor country.
In Amsterdam there’s the Internet eXchange, a crossover going from here beyond to the America’s and Europe, peering around the globe.
The XXX represents the three dangers of Old Amsterdam: fire, floods, and the Black Death. That theory however has no historical basis, but we like it, it’s edgy and dangerous, so let’s stick to that story.
The X is freedom, free and outgoing. It’s everything and with that nothing (yet). We are free to give it any meaning, as long as it’s exponential.
Technology
Wooden tools, Stone devices, forging fire, technology goes way way back. It’s the science of craft in greek slang.
We have lots of science here in 020, multiply that to anything and get a sense of how things evolve here.
People say war drives technology, we’d rather say love drives technology, we are positive that technology can impact and do more good than bad.
We like to apply science and technology at our universities, on our campus, connecting everything by just jumping on a bike or the computer, the bicycle for the mind.
The sex industry drove the internet, actually the .XXX was meant for Amsterdam long before porn, not until we got our .Amsterdam.
We are tool builders, we impact the world, we live in Amsterdam.
Grand culture, liberal art and craft meets science on a bicycle, that’s AMSterdam x Technology.
Join us in the AMSxTech community and get your conference ticket, just click ❌❌❌
We’re still on Facebook. You too? Let us know if you’re coming to the conference, or considering ;-) and join our meetups/beerups, so many good call to actions which one should you press and tap?! Go all in!
Stay tuned for more announcements.
Every week or two we update you on our Medium, you can start following us below to stay in the know. Become part of our close knit Slack community and/or follow us on Twitter.
