PICNIC Festival 2012 in Numbers

 

Amsterdam's PICNIC Festival, the largest European platform for innovation and creativity, was officially sold out for two days straight. PICNIC welcomed 3000+ participants from across the world to participate in the discussion of ‘New Ownership’ and how connected technologies have created empowered and engaged citizens. People are increasingly in control of deciding what they want and need and this is powering the shift from top down to bottom up.

 When asked how people can take more ownership of their lives, PICNIC Festival speaker Tim O’Reilly shared, “…I would like to quote the writer Robert Louis Stevenson: ‘our greatest duty is the duty to be happy’. So, whether you are an individual or a company thinking about how you can benefit your customers, the one thing people can take home is ‘How do we improve the lot of the other people in our lives?’”. Tim nicely summed up what he, the other speakers, the attendees and the PICNIC organization believe – that bringing and sharing is the key to true innovation, whether it be in business or our personal lives.

What did it take to organize PICNIC Festival 2012? We have collected some figures representing what went into organizing and promoting PICNIC Festival, decorating the EYE Film Institute, welcoming attendees and planning activities during the event.

Check out our interview with PICNIC's Kitty Leering here.

PICNIC Festival 2012 visitors

3000+ visitors over 2 days

100+ journalists & bloggers

Attendees from 30+ counties, including visitors from across Europe, the UK and North America; plus representatives from as far as China, Brazil, Australia, Costa Rica, United Arab Emirates and South Africa

Visitors meet an average of 9 new contacts, plus 11 existing contacts during the festival

 

The Festival program

107+ speakers,

65+ sessions (Lectures, Workshops, Labs & more)

54+ growing creative businesses at the Marketplace

1 theme: ‘New Ownership: The Shift from Top Down to Bottom Up’. 5 sub-themes: Fundamentals, Business, Health, Media, Government, Education, Sustainability,

 

Prize money from international competitions

Total of € 700,000 awarded by Postcode Lottery Green Challenge

Total of € 120,000 awarded by Vodafone Mobile for Good

Formal sponsors & partners

9 sponsors (including National Postcode Lottery, Waag Society, Vodafone, University of Applied Science (HvA), UPC, AKQA, TNO, Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce, Syntens)

82+ total media, content, service and event partners

 

Promoting the event

1-year-old website by Yoomee, with approx. 40,000 monthly visitors

10,500 Facebook followers

12,600 email subscribers

6,000 Twitter followers, resulting in PICNIC trending number 1 (twice) in Italy and the Netherlands

50+ original campaign posters designed by international artists and agencies for the PICNIC Collaborative Campaign Competition

 

 

Building PICNIC at EYE Film Insitute

3 days to construct (started 14 September)

2000 cardboard boxes folded

7 kilometers of PICNIC tape

A team of 50 to oversee the construction (10 members of the PICNIC team and a production crew of 40 from Livetime)

During the event

50+ volunteers to help run the event

2700 packed PICNIC lunchboxes (not to mention catered lunches, lunch meetings, and crew lunches)

 Finally, there are 120 scheduled ferry trips per day to transport attendees from Amsterdam Central Station to PICNIC Festival 2012.