***The expert meeting is fully booked.***

9 am - 6 pm / Friday 16 October 2009 / Studio K / Timorplein Amsterdam

Eighty experts from different international industries are invited to participate in the StrangerFestival expert meeting. It is a working conference for policymakers, cultural institutions, media-makers and educational professionals, all of whom want to learn and share knowledge about how video content made by young people can be used to achieve their own goals.

The starting point of the 2009 expert meeting is young people’s frames of reference and their perceptions of digital content. Youngsters are experts of their own life. They find their own way in the digital world. They discover themselves and formulate their own needs. Young people create their own future out of the many possibilities the Internet offers.

These new developments offer all kinds of openings for people to share their views and opinions with the rest of the world. This benefits not only young people, but also those who find it difficult to reach and deal with the younger generation, providing them with a chance to discover exactly what this generation has to offer.

While young people can adjust to change easily, established industries and institutions have difficulties grasping new notions of how to communicate, and share information and knowledge. Although StrangerFestival’s main objective is to give young video-makers the opportunity to show their work to a broader audience, another important goal is to help ‘older’ industries to work with this material.

That is why StrangerFestival is holding an industry meeting at which the current debates concerning this live issue can be aired. The conference will be held for four different spheres: education, (mainstream) media, policymakers and cultural institutions. All of these ‘industries’ have to deal with a changing technological environment. In the expert meeting, we will think about these changes with a strong focus on everyday practices.

The main question tackled by the expert meeting will be: How can different industries use online audiovisual content produced by young people?

PEOPLE & PROGRAMME

The response to our invitation for the StrangerFestival Expert Meeting was extremely positive. More than 80 enthusiastic professionals from media, politics, culture and education said yes. We are looking forward to a lively, brain-picking, and eye-opening day!

Host of the day
Tanja Jadnanansing from the Dutch public TV station NOS will be your host for the day.

Inspiring keynote speakers
We are happy to announce two international key speakers who will stir up debate and share insights on the topic:
-Charles Leadbeater (UK) [tbc] is a leading authority on innovation and creativity. His most recent book, We-think, explores the new phenomenon of mass creativity exemplified by websites such as YouTube, Wikipedia and MySpace. He will take us on a trip into the web 2.0 world and
-Tom Palmaerts (B) is partner at Trendwolves, a renowned organisation specialised in European youth trends. Tom just got the TrendWatcher Of The Year (TWOTY) Awards 2009 for his strong matchmaking between youth-culture and trend-watching.

More inspirors
-John Newbigin (UK) is a freelance journalist and renowned cultural industries consultant. He is also Chairman of the 24 Hour Museum and board member of First Light, which gives young people between 5 and 18 the opportunity to make films. He will reflect in the outcomes at the end of the day.
-Frans Jennekens (NL) is Head of Diversity at the Dutch public broadcaster NPS (Nederlandse Programma Stichting). Frans is also member of the commission of NPO (Nederlandse Publieke Omroep) that wants to reinforce diversity and to connect with young and ethnic audiences. He is chairman of the Intercultural and Diversity Group of EBU (European Broadcasting Union).

Following the Video republic
Last year the European Cultural Foundation commissioned the renowned think-tank Demos (UK) to carry out a research project. This research gave a revelatory insight into what is going on in the virtual world and how this relates to work in the worlds of culture, media and politics. In this report, called ‘Video Republic’, recommendations were made for ‘grown-ups’ to make a more meaningful connection between ‘messy’ video expressions and the day-to-day business of decision-making.
We have planned an interactive and very practical day. The goals of the expert meeting are to create momentum, offer network opportunities and make practical recommendations that follow on from the ‘Video Republic’ research.

Download the full report Video Republic here.

Contact puck@eurocult.org for more information.