Just before Christmas 2009 Egid van Houtem and myself got word from the TED organization in New York. TEDxEutropolis was officially licenced. Right there and then we said to ourselves that TEDxEutropolis should become truly Eutropolitan, travelling the different cities in Eutropolis.
And so we did. After the first edition in september 2010, Hasselt was so kind to host TEDxEutropolis 2012. Organized by SocialBeta in co-creation with Creative Class and the Interreg IV-A project Creative Drive. On the 4th of February the Muziekodroom was the place to be for all Eutropolitan enthousiasts.
Nicole Maurer reading from the Eutropolitan
Although the weather was not our best friend, speaker Valerie Frissen got ill after a seven hour drive, everything else was set. We had an amazing line-up of speakers who all reflected on the Eutropolis. In one way or another. Along came the Null Stern Hotel, photographs of the Yakuza by Anton Kusters, Mattijs Maussen‘s opinion on how to become Cultural Capital, Jihyun Ryou on life without a fridge and many more inspiring ideas.
But TEDxEutropolis did something more to leave behind a footprint. First of all, the Eutropolitan was published. Eutropolis can never be a city if it hasn’t a proper newspaper, we thought. The newspaper celebrates and critizes the Eutropolis exactly 20 years after the Maastricht Treaty was signed.
Out now
Also Betawerk, the office that designed the TEDxEutropolis website, released a TEDxEutropolis installation profile for Drupal. Meaning so much as making it easer for fellow TEDx organizers to develop a website with the Content Management System Drupal. Giving something back to the TEDx and Drupal community. Because in the end it’s our pleasure to be part of the global TED community.
TEDxEutropolis was trending for while. An event held in Belgium becomes trending in the Netherlands. Truly Eutropolitan, borders don’t matter.
Finally, here’s an overview of pictures, tweets and other stuff people had to say about TEDxEutropolis:
- the story of TEDxEutropolis on Storify
- a selection of the images that photographer Frederico Ilec took
- fashiondesigner Branko Popovic’s blogpost
- a blogpost from Tjeu Seeverens on Valerie del Re (the Alderman of Hasselt)
- celebrating inspiration from the Eutropolis, a blogpost from RedZezel
- “ideeën doen grenzen vervagen“, impressions by webdesigner Geert Bollen (updated 8th of February)
- Max Huijgens on how ideas can make borders fade (updated 8th of February)
- TEDxEutropolis speaker Anton Kusters on his experience (updated 8th of February)
Thumbs up to the people who made TEDxEutropolis 2012 unforgettable.
the audience of TEDxEutropolis 2012
Nick Steur on TEDxEutropolis 2012
Jihyun Ryou on TEDxEutropolis 2012
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