NEXT 2010 - August 30 - September 3

NEXT is an annual Innovation Lab feature event about what's next on the technology radar. Inspiring international speakers and mindblowing technology are NEXT trademarks - and has been for the past 6 years.

Starters

Nordic Exceptional Trendshop 2010
NEXT 2010 is part conference, part exhibition, part cultural and social event. Concurrent with the renowned international cultural venue - Aarhus Festival (Århus Festuge) - NEXT 2010 offers boosts for mind and matter.

NEXT 2010 is not about the next big thing, it is not about how to bounce back, see the other side or catch the next wave. Predictability is paused.

NEXT 2010 is about the smallest thing, it is about new lanes, fresh dimensions, dawnings. NEXT 2010 airs a range of change breakers that define new business areas, new user mindsets, new tech paths. Initiators that will shape the spaces of time ahead. Starters.

Sign up for NEXT 2010 now or read on.

Exhibition

NEXT 2010 exhibitions run concurrent with the conference and in the below mentioned  categories. As always it is a unique opportunity to get hands-on with astonishing emerging technologies from R&D departments, creative technology groupings, and prototype labs from around the world.

The five different NEXT tracks are distributed on four venues smack in the center of Aarhus; Bruuns Galleri, adjacent to the central station will carry the IT and Health tracks, Green happens in the town hall park right next to the Food track. Finally, the Design track will be located in Aarhus Kunstbygning, a center for contemporary art.

Check out the NEXT no.6 (2009) exhibition on flickr, youtube or download the exhibition catalogue (pdf - in Danish).

Conference tracks

The conference track will be divided into five intimate and limited access conferences for best audience interaction. Health, Food, IT, Design, and Green are the five categories to be reborn under the NEXT lense over the course of five days.

Five focused all week exhibitions turn conference contributions into concrete evidence and a heavy cultural track in live music, theatre, film and happenings offers all the social space needed for diversions and digestions.

See the speaker list.

NEXT Health - August 30
Tech based welfare is upon us, replacing biochemistry as means to push the end.

NEXT Food - August 31
Going beyond agriculture and haute cuisine, daily grub will face a revolution.

NEXT IT - September 1
Internet became cloud and then what? Digital living is a whole new game.

NEXT Design - September 2
DNA, nano, stem cell and self assembly. When we can design/do anything, what will it be?

NEXT Green - September 3
What is greentech beyond CO2? The bio-craze will soon outdo IT in scientific pacing.

NEXT Step

We are (always) looking for sponsors, partners and affiliates who wants to join our universe of the exceptional minded.

Whether you want to take part in the conference and sponsor an international speaker who will give additional presentations in your organisation or display your own innovations in the crowd pleasing exhibition, we have designed specific sponsor programmes that will ensure you maximum exposure and exclusive benefits during the five day NEXT.

Please get in touch with Head of Conceptualization Mads Ellegaard for further details on the sponsor programme.

Last year companies like TDC, KMD, IKEA and Philips partnered with NEXT.

Media coverage

NEXT is traditionally quite the media darling and every year we welcome both the local, national and international press alongside social media bloggers and podcasters. At NEXT we count over 100 press clippings from publishers like:

A couple of headlines:

Computerworld: Fremtidsteknologi kan modeleres over en spætte
AOA: Tilbage til fremtiden i bæredygtig ligkiste
Politiken: ...og så var der fri leg bagefter
TV2 Beep: Se fremtidens gear, grej og gadgets (video)

Memory Lane

Missed NEXT no.6? Take a trip down Memory Lane and (re)discover the spirit of NEXT no.6 where great speakers like Jeff Howe and Pablos the Hacker and technologies like Microsoft Surface and Remote Impact kept everyones heads boggling.

Get the highlights at flickr, youtube, check the speaker list or download the exhibition catalogue (pdf - ind Danish).

A few words from friends of NEXT

Brian Cox (British BBC TV host, celebrity and chief scientist af CERN/Large Hadron Collidor):
"NEXT was a unique and exciting experience. Aarhus is an excellent place to bring people together to talk about the frontiers of knowledge; not too big and not too small, and that's a great description of NEXT. I met many stimulating (and useful!) people and heard some amazing talks."

Adam Greenfield (Head of Design Direction for Nokia, Internationally acclaimed Author, Critical Futurist):
"At NEXT I expected to encounter novel viewpoints, trenchant arguments, insightful projects and friendly faces, and was not in the slightest disappointed. What I wasn't necessarily expecting was how perfectly scaled the event was. In a Goldilocks world of conferences either too small to be worth your while or too vast to see and hear everything, NEXT got it Just Right."

Regine Debatty (blogger/editor at WeMakeMoneyNotArt):
"In an ideal life, we would all have time to read long reports about the state of the research on stem cells or of copyright in Brazilian music, we would never forget to check out gadget blogs from entry one to entry 76 every single day and we would get to meet the scientists, trend-hunters, robotic experts and culture-shakers that are shaping the world of tomorrow.

In real life, we can still register for a crash course in innovation. It takes place each year in Denmark, it lasts just a couple of days and it's called NEXT."

NEXT in neighbourship with Aarhus Festival

NEXT 2010 will be held concurrent with the cultural and massively popular event Aarhus Festival. This year celebrating the theme 'Neigbours' which fits the partnership with NEXT pretty well.

Aarhus Festival is among the largest cultural events in Scandinavia and showcases both local, national and international artists. Aarhus Festival is highly esteemed and recognized both in Denmark and abroad.

The programme encompasses various forms of art such as dance, theatre, exhibitions, opera, sport, children's entertainment and a varied programme of music.

For 10 days every year in August - September the streets and alleys, clubs, stages, galleries and museums of Aarhus are teeming with entertainment and events.

Aarhus Festival official site.