Campus Party is rapidly gaining traction in Germany’s mainstream media, with a press conference this morning showing just how much interest there is in the week-long European tech festival outside of the tech world.
Representatives from Bild.de, Welt Online and Zeit Online amongst others were all in attendance at the conference, which featured Campus Party co-founder Paco Ragageles and Nicolas Zimmer, the state secretary for economics, technology and research in the Berlin Senate.
Berlin’s emergence as one of Europe’s hottest tech hubs is starting to produce far-reaching effects on the city as a whole, attracting young, creative types and seeing the Senate increase its presence in the tech scene. The choice of Berlin as the host of Campus Party in Europe is a manifestation of this – something that the press has been quick to point out.
Nicolas Zimmer said: “Campus Party Europe in Berlin is good for the economy of Berlin. The festival gives us a great opportunity to inspire young people from around the world about Berlin, a hotspot of the digital economy. Participants with an entrepreneurial spirit have an excellent place here to turn their ideas into reality.“
Kicking off in two weeks, the festival will attract 10,000 Campuseros to Tempelhof Airport armed with laptops and sleeping bags. Campus Party will feature over 500 hours of content, with lectures, competitions and workshops across five days in subjects as diverse as bionics, gaming and social media.
Some 450 speakers include Sir Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, as well as many other industry leaders.