NOAH Berlin 2016

Published in

Nationall

5 min readJun 19, 2017

NOAH is a very unique event that I’m honoured to cover twice a year, both the London and Berlin editions.

Each version has it's own merits, as each one draws a slightly different crowd and therefore, slightly different expectations and outcomes.

In addition to a number of notables in the tech industry that I normally see at these types of events, NOAH is special in the fact that the team manages to attract more than a few high level players, both from the tech sector and outside, to make for a pretty powerful mix. I mean, when was the last time I got handed the opportunity to photograph Henry Kissinger and Sir Rudy Giuliani discussing politics over dinner?!? That’s the power of NOAH.

NOAH is also quite unique in the fact that Marco and his team pack more content on one stage than you can shake a stick at. I’m not kidding, starting at 8:30 in the morning, and running until 7:20 at night, approximately every 10 minutes, you have a new speaker. … and they’ve added two more stages this year.

What this means is that participants can pick and choose what talks/sessions they want to check out, while utilising other times to set up meetings, network, or, when the Berlin weather cooperates, simply enjoy the sun.

This year, I’m focusing on the main stage, and have marching orders to capture every single speaker that gets mic’d up. If I’m counting right, that means 62 speakers on day one, and 71 speakers on day two. #whoa #challengeaccepted.

Again, with this much action happening, there’s no possible way one person could/should be expected to consume all of this content, and I think the way the NOAH team sets things up is one-of-a-kind and offers a different experience than the seasoned “Event Junkie” is used to.

Oh, and there’s one more thing … I’m pretty sure that Bayer’s Chief Digital Officer, Jessica Federer is the only person on the planet that could get me to do a selfie like this with. She’s awesome.