AND& summit & festival
and& is a one of a kind summit & festival on the intersection of health & tech & creativity, shaping future city life. The biennial event is bound by the desire to make cities of the future a better place to live in. On this first edition in 2018 we challenged +200 world-class thinkers, inventors, entrepreneurs & artists of all backgrounds to explore the intersections of health & tech & creativity to help understand & anticipate the future we live in.
Among the 180 speakers were Daan Roosegaarde, Stefan Sagmeister, Lucy McRae, Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro, Shigeru Ban, Carlo Ratti, Sophie Vandebroek, Andrew Keen, Carla Camilla Hjort, Steven Keating, Johan Thijs, Duco Sickinghe & many more. and& immersed the city of Leuven with innovation, technology, arts & creativity and programmed multiple side-events targeting specific audiences often in partnership with national or local key stakeholders.
The opening night offered high-end momentum for the local authorities & client Leuven MindGate to showcase their ambitions. The startup demo day & scale-up forum (invitation only) then again brought together the cream of the crop of Belgian startups (38) & scale-ups (17) presenting their businesses to an audience of (inter)national investors, CEO’s, media & entrepreneurs.
During and& play over 3000 children, teachers & parents were able to experience the world of innovation, technology & creativity. Through workshops and installations they learned more about drones, robots, VR, 3D scanners and much more. The event was made possible with the support of over 35 partners, companies, schools active in the worlds of STEM, education & innovation.
Influenced by conversations with institutes from the art world, tech world & academic world, Samir Bantal curated a series of artistic interventions in the public space that critically responded to a new reality, constantly challenged by the digital world. Invited artists were AMO, Harry Nuriev, Studio L A & Dries Depoorter.
The tech expedition presented multidisciplinary projects combining next generation technology with refreshing creativity. An intervention-filled parcours connecting 4000 visitors with immersive, high-tech experiences.
The music program brought together the ones with the playful nature, the avant-garde and they who are exploring new trends in electronic and dance music. Among them were Bicep, Joy Orbison, Jlin, Laurel Halo, Kelly Lee Owens, Jordan Rakei, Dengue Dengue Dengue and many others.
and& was 4 days & nights of inspiring talks, avant-garde music acts, a tech expedition, art interventions in public space & so much more. and& united people, offered a tipping point for new ambitions and empowered Leuven MindGate’s identity & true purpose.
