Amsterdam, 15 March 2012 -- PICNIC, one of Europe’s leading creativity and innovation platforms, announced the main theme for all of its 2012 events yesterday at an official event for sponsors and strategic partners. The theme is “The Rise of New Ownership: the shift from top down to bottom up”.

It also announced a new location for the PICNIC Festival which will take place on September 17 and 18: Amsterdam’s new EYE Film Institute. The Institute, which will open in early April, is located behind Central Station on the other side of the harbour. PICNIC will be one of the first international festivals to be hosted there.

The Shift from Top Down to Bottom Up

Citing Alvin Toffler's 1990 book "The Powershift", PICNIC is focusing on how connected technology is empowering people to drive change on a personal, business and global scale. While the Internet has increased our knowledge of issues we care about and social media is providing us with a sense of agency, a new notion of ownership has emerged.

This mega trend unfolds against a backdrop of rapidly declining trust in the traditional institutions and businesses that held the our world together, including governments, financial institutions, health care and education. People are taking matters back into their own hands, resulting in iconic examples of self-organization including the Arab Spring uprisings but also the growing demand for transparency in the form of open government and open democracy. Civilians in Greece, UK and France are bypassing financial institutions by setting up local barter economies. DIY culture is emerging everywhere we look: from quantified self in health care, to the growing popularity of DIY design and production platforms, and the exploding number of amateur content production and distribution platforms.

PICNIC events in 2012

Participants from the Netherlands and around the world will explore this shift during the PICNIC Innovation Mash Up event (May 15, Amsterdam), the PICNIC Festival 2012 (September 17 and 18, Amsterdam) and PICNIC Creative Business Club events held throughout the year. The events will put participants in touch with experts, thought leaders and the disruptors leading this counter movement and challenge them to develop their organization’s response to it through keynote presentations, co-creation workshops, interactive demos, hackathons and devcamps, and active matchmaking.

For more information, contact:
Deborah Carter
Director of Marketing, Sponsoring and Partnerships
PICNIC
Tel. +31 6 57 999 346
Email: Deborah@picnicnetwork.org