Over the course of 5 days, 16,000 people gathered in Techfestival's main area in Copenhagen's Meatpacking district.
Starting a new conversation about technology’s impact on our lives
Together with a small team of technologists, designers and entrepreneurs we started Techfestival in 2017 - a 5-day think tank, festival and conference that invited 16,000 people to critically reflect about technology.
The impact of Cambridge Analytica on the inauguration of Donald Trump in 2016 had profound effects on our relationship to social media and big tech platforms. What was once praised as the future of democracy suddenly got the bitter taste of mass manipulation, fake news, deception and addiction.
At the same time tech conferences popped up in every corner, celebrating a culture of hype towards the race to creating the next unicorn company, billion dollar IPO and globally disruptive platform. Besides nerdy niche circles there was little room to reflect on design principles, ethics and long-term impact of these technologies in our lives.
CPH150, a two-day invite-only unconference that brought together 150 tech leaders.
In order to reach people across all layers of society we designed Techfestival to be democratic and participatory at its core.
Anyone could become a co-creator: communities from around the world applied to host their own formats within the festival, ranging from keynotes, conferences, think tanks and community meetups to dinners, exhibitions and film screenings covering topics such as future living, digital manufacturing, food systems, female health, AI ethics, micromobility, governance, open source and digital governance.
One of 100+ volunteers wearing Techfestival's signature HUMAN t-shirt.
The Food Systems Summit, one of 50 summits organized by co-creators.
Techfestival became a gathering for 300+ co-creators and 16,000+ participants to discuss the impact of technology on our lives. Open and accessible to all, we’re particularly proud that we centred the discussion not only within a small group of technophiles but attracted a broad demographic ranging from nurses and teachers to the inventors of the world wide web.
The resulting Copenhagen Letter – a manifesto for a more humane approach to technology – was signed by over 5000 technology leaders.
hello@co-matter.com
Zossener Str. 41
10961 Berlin
Management Board: Severin Matusek
Court of Registration: Amtsgericht Charlottenburg HRB 195395 B
VAT ID: DE317741247
Last updated: January 21, 2024 ■ 13:34pm