WTF is TOA?
Let’s keep it simple.
TOA — short for Tech Open Air — is a 4-day festival focusing on the intersection of technology, music, art and science held in Berlin, Europe’s startup capital.
Starting on Tuesday, July 11, and ending on Friday, July 14, it’s a unique two-day conference alongside four days of complementary satellite events — and it all finishes in true Berlin style with a huge party!
TOA kicks off on the Tuesday evening with what we call Satellite Events — over 200 workshops, networking parties and inspirational discussions held at various locations around Berlin. Hosted by companies, communities and individuals, Satellite Events happen on all four days and are open to both TOA attendees and the general public — and most are free!
On Wednesday morning, TOA’s two-day conference at Berlin’s historic Funkhaus begins.
At the Funkhaus, you’ll find two main parts to the conference: our stellar line-up of talks, panels and interviews, featuring 200 of the world’s most inspiring speakers; and our Haus of Tech exhibition hall, where the likes of KPMG, Airbus, Red Bull, and Google will be mingling with 150 of the hottest startups in Berlin’s ecosystem.
The speakers are carefully chosen and their talks curated to deliver a very different experience: at what other conference would you get to hear from a cyborg activist, the former Vice-Chancellor of Germany, the head of Search Design at Google and a man who wants to stop us from ageing?
Finally, amongst the conference’s 20,000 attendees will be 500 of the world’s top investors — including partners from nearly 100 venture capital firms.
To cut a long story short: TOA is just as much a place to do business as it is somewhere to be inspired by the entrepreneurs, artists, and scientists aiming to change the world.
When the two days of our conference wrap up on Thursday evening, our satellite events continue right up until Friday night, when our huge closing party marks the end of the sixth iteration of what The Next Web calls “Europe’s coolest technology conference”.
But why is TOA a thing at all? Well, as the 21st century progresses, technology — a transformative power that disrupts entire industries and touches every angle of life — needs to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues.
How are we going to make our lives more autonomous, more connected and more sustainable? How will the cities of the future work? How will we deal with rising inequality? And what will the solutions to these problems look like?
At TOA, you’ll get answers to these questions.
Rather than moulding speakers and ideas into one standard format, we provide a distinctive platform for others to build upon. And that’s the point — our goal is to connect, grow and inspire the human spirit.
So, if you come away from TOA even a little bit more prepared to go and grapple with the ideas that are going to change the world, then we’ll call that mission accomplished.
Maybe it’ll inspire an idea that’s going to upend an entire industry — and we’ll see you speak at TOA next year!
TOA tickets are selling fast — and the price increases on June 30th, so get your ticket now!
– By Edmund Heaphy
Originally published at blog.toa.berlin on June 7, 2017.
