The 10,000 talented minds expected to congregate at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport this summer for Campus Party will have a grand mission – to retype Europe’s new source code and help make the continent a better place. The occasion marks the first time the world’s largest global technology festival will touchdown in Germany, with the inventor of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee among the high-profile speakers.
Programmers, gamers, bloggers, developers and even astronomers will descend on the historical former airfield from August 21-26 clutching laptops and sleeping bags to enjoy 600 hours of talks, discussions and workshops across nine stages. The content will be split into 24 different subject areas including entrepreneurship, social media, gaming, development, robotics and design.
The event will be hosted by Futura Networks and Telefonica along with its commercial brand O2. With the attendees staying on-site, there will also be multiple challenges and competitions along with ad-hoc events planned by the participants themselves that continue deep into the night.
In edition to Berners-Lee, Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho will also be speaking at Campus Party Europe. More names will be released in the coming weeks.
And you could grab a free ticket to the event by taking part in TheBigThink challenge to come up with ideas for the European digital agenda. The best 5,000 entries will be chosen and their creators invited to attend Campus Party Europe for free, including transportation, event tickets and accommodation – dubbed by organisers the “biggest mobilization of geek talent in the history of Europe.”
Every idea from TheBigThink will be a starting point for a debate and filter process that will conclude in a ceremony with Neelie Kroes, vice president responsible for the digital agenda at the European Commission, which has partnered up with Campus Party Europe.
The event’s co-founder Belinda Galiano said: “From the moment we saw the former airport Berlin Tempelhof we knew in a second, that it was the ideal place for Campus Party Europe. To know that thousands of campuseros will unite at this historical place, known worldwide as a symbol of freedom, helps fulfill a dream that began with the first Campus Party in 1997.”