Good practice:

Festival of the Future, an incentive to focus on entrepreneurs during COVID

Before COVID-19, we wanted to organise a festival-like event where people could choose between different stages, where speakers give a taste of a particular future-related theme. Since we have to organise everything online now, the decision to create the same atmosphere, but in a digital way, didn’t come as a surprise: the last thing we wanted was to create a simple series of webinars.
In several online sessions and testimonies, spread over three days, the problems of tomorrow were tackled to see how future-proof our society and our economy are nowadays. Important topics were: the jobs of tomorrow, the newest technology, sustainable (circular) economy, lifelong learning and digital challenges for people in all age classes. The festival was closed with a keynote speaker and a network session, in which the guests and the speakers could get to know each other and ask more specific questions.
This was an event that wanted to combine both the academic, theoretic approach and a more experienced, practical vision on working in the future. Through 19 keynote speakers, going from professors of the University of Ghent to very ambitious, young entrepreneurs, the public was given a global insight into the problems of tomorrow. This resulted in a very dynamic atmosphere, which is not easy for an online event.
Main beneficiaries were (young) entrepreneurs, municipalities, retail and more generally anyone who is interested in the economy and in what is coming for us in the future.

Every partner had two employees working on the project.
65K: communication, online platform, website, footage, goodiebags (main funding came from the Economy Department, through subsidies, but also ECEF and POM invested in the project)

Some 520 participants joined us on the digital festival ground. A few of them followed the sessions online, most of them watched the videos later.
19 speakers, going from professors to young entrepreneurs, shared their theories and experiences about the problems and challenges the future brings.
The main feedback of the guests was positive: they like this new way of sharing testimonials and getting in touch with entrepreneurs even in difficult times.

Setting up a livestream for a lot of people
Finding a platform. The one we found came from the Netherlands; it might be more interesting to find a more local, affordable alternative
Creating interesting, entertaining videos. It is harder to make people concentrate on online than on offline event

COVID-19 was some kind of a challenge, but the festival setting made the event very flexible. Of course we prefer to organise an event that is both on- and offline, but we had no choice here but to go completely online, which proved not to be a problem. By combining online and offline the event might draw a larger audience, making the concept more attractive. It is very important though to see that an event doesn’t have to be canceled due to unexpected circumstances, as long as the platform and the concept are flexible enough to turn everything upside down without large expenses.