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Top 10 Creative Events & Conferences in 2021 – Selected

Top Creative Events in January

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ESNS 2021

January 13-16, Virtual Event

#festival #music #media #digital #community

Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) is a non-profit, European artist only, 100% showcase festival and music conference.

By day an international music conference takes place in the conference centre, with 150 panels, keynotes, interviews, workshops, dinners, pitches, parties, presentations and meetings on the latest developments in the European and international music, media, production and interactive industry.

By night, during the two showcase festivals, musical talents have the chance to present itself to an international audience of music lovers and professionals.

CTM Festival 2021 Transformation

January 22-31, Berlin, Germany (Hybrid)

#festival #film #music #art #design #culture #change

The annual CTM Festival is a music and visual arts event held in Berlin, Germany.

The 22 year-old festival stands out for its conscious pairing of daring artistic content and adventurous club experiences with an in-depth discourse programme, framing today’s sounds and music cultures within a shifting, hybrid global society.

Most Contagious America 2021

January 27, Virtual Event

#conference #marketing #branding #advertising #creative

Most Contagious is the flagship event series of Contagious, delivering vital advertising insights and trends to help you hit the ground running in the year ahead.

For the first time, there will be a Most Contagious APAC edition for the Asia Pacific audience on 24 February 2021.

Top Creative Events in February

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IFFR 2021

February 1-7, Rotterdam, Netherlands (Hybrid)

#festival #movie #film #cinema #production #international

The 50th-anniversary edition of International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will take place in an hybrid and extended format in 2021.  The festival will be held in two parts – 1 to 7 February and 2 to 6 June – connected by a series of events in between.

Six festival days will be dedicated to IFFR’s main competitions – the Tiger Competition, Big Screen Competition and Ammodo Tiger Short Competition – as well as the Limelight lineup of avant premieres, and a fully online edition of IFFR Pro Days for industry professionals.

Pause Fest 2021

February 3-5, Virtual Event

#festival #creative #innovation #business #digital #diversity

Pause Fest 2021 is a festival for business and creativity and brings diverse intelligence together to fuel the next generation forward. Hear from the world’s leading minds in a high definition transmission of the future.

The event creates a culture for creators and innovators to come together and share their projects, knowledge, passions, and insights openly, freely, and generously for the benefit of the entire community.

Avant Première Music + Media Market 2021

February 14-18, Vienna, Austria (Hybrid)

#tradefair #conference #culture #tv #film #media #production #music

Avant Première Music + Media Market is a trade fair, market place, conference and networking event for music + dance films. As the meeting place for a specialised industry, it unites 600 international experts + decision makers from major public + private broadcasting stations, streaming + VOD platforms, distribution + film production companies and performing arts institutions.

This year’s edition will be held in a hybrid format. The on-site event will take place at Austrian Federal Economic Chamber in Vienna, Austria. At the same time, all participants will have online access to the entire screening + conference programme.

MuseumNext Digital Summit 2021

February 22- 26, Virtual Event

#conference #museum #digital #transformation

The Digital Summit is a one-of-a-kind event sharing insightful talks, actionable ideas and unexpected connections to help you to do your best work.

In a year when digital has played a vital role in museums speakers will offer pragmatic, real world insight into how they overcame the challenges of pivoting to digital.

MPTS Virtual Preview Festival 2021

February 23-25, Virtual Event

#festival #media #broadcast #technology #production

The Media Production & Technology Show is the must-attend event for the media and broadcast industries.

MPTS Virtual Preview Festival provides the industry with an opportunity to engage, connect and learn before the actual live exhibition in May.

Covering all aspects of content creation, including pre-production, production, post and distribution, MPTS is your opportunity to discover current and future trends impacting all areas of the broadcasting industry.

Top Creative Events in March

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ILMC 2021

March 3-5, Virtual Event

#conference #entertainment #music #festival #creativity

ILMC is an annual gathering of professionals involved in the global touring, festival and live entertainment industries.

This year’s edition will take place online, with three full days of networking, meetings, keynotes, events and showcases. For this virtual edition, and for the first time, ILMC will be open to both members and non-members to register.

Forward Festival 2021

March 12, Munich, Germany (Hybrid)

#festival #creativity #design #art #photography #communication

Forward is all about connecting, exchanging and being part of an exciting experience. Within six years, the festival has become a platform for the entire creative industry.

This year it’s about to be more interactive than ever before, for the first time ever Forward Festival Munich is going to be hybrid.

SXSW 2021

March 16-20, Virtual Event

#festival #creative #film #music #art #culture #technology

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference & Festivals celebrate the convergence of the interactive, film, and music industries. Fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW is the premier destination for discovery.

Featuring a variety of tracks that allow attendees to explore what’s next in the worlds of film, culture, music, and technology.

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Events 2 days ago

Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

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New Materials 3 days ago

Lios Group, the Irish startup behind SoundBounce, was a winner of JEC Composites Startup Booster 2018, and has been making significant strides since taking home the award.

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New Materials 1 week ago

Tree Composites aims to accelerate the energy transition with innovative composite joints.

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