Program: GO Group Workshop 2020 in Roskilde
How can festivals make a difference?
As organizers of festivals and cultural events we have a possibility to use these as platforms to create a better future. By engaging an audience and testing new sustainable innovations for the next generations, we experiment with changes that can have an impact in the world.
We want to investigate and share innovative ideas, new methods and key insights in making festivals a driver of a sustainable future. This is why Roskilde Festival is co-hosting this year’s GO Group Workshop.
The workshop is in Roskilde on March 30th and 31st 2020. And this is our program.
Opening speech: How can we use our festivals to make a difference?
By: Signe Lopdrup | CEO, Roskilde Festival (DK) With over 15 years of experience in the culture, music and festival industry on CEO and board level, Signe Lopdrup is one of the industry’s most experienced figures. Her knowledge about and passion for music, culture and festivals brings high ambitions as well as a strong believe that attraction is best secured through curiosity, changeability and challenges – from both within and outside a cultural organization. Signe’s efforts have resulted in strong attitudes towards Roskilde Festivals non-profit profile and have given strength to a community that exist all year round and culminates at the festival once a year.
Workshop: Jumpstart of the most civic engaged generation ever seen!
How can festivals give young people a voice in the world? How can festivals encourage and inspire to engagement and change? How do we create more engagement, WOW and diversity? Which elements can we implement to create a platform for civic engagement? Let us make the world a better place! At Ungdommens Folkemøde (Youth Democracy Festival), we give young people a democratic jumpstart. We provide them with the sense of having an important and useful democratic voice – and the confidence in believing that it matters. Through this, we contribute to the most civic engaged generation ever seen. Our core values for doing so are: Engagement, WOW and Diversity. We give tools and ideas of how to create more activities that generate these values! We will generate concrete ideas and aspire to inspire. Working with how you can engage more young people at your festivals and encourage by giving them a voice in society, politics and in general. The workshop incorporates conversation menu’s, locates the reasons for why young people do or doesn’t engage, creates concrete ideas in groups and presents your findings – We will dream big, and try to implement it!
Facilitated by: Katrine Solvig & Emilie Torp | Ungdomsbureauet (DK)
Ungdomsbureauet is a visionary NGO working with civic engaged youth. Through several events and projects driven by young people, they contribute with new knowledge and discussions of young people’s possibilities to make changes. They ensure that young people have a voice in society. Every year they host a youth democracy festival (Ungdommens Folkemøde) where 30.000 young people take part in democratic meetings, lectures, workshops and debates. Emilie Torp is in charge of youth networking and engagement and works with Ungdommens Folkemøde. Kathrine Solvig is a project associate at the Youth Democracy Festival
Workshop: Creating experiences for the audience of the future
With our festivals, we intentionally and unintentionally curate experiences and interactions. These include music, friendship, lifestyle activities, brands and different causes that tap into the emotions like belonging, happiness, love, inspiration and creativity but also frustration, sadness and anxiety. Are we as organisers aware of this power? And does the audience think we understand them and their needs and expectations? Do the younger generations have different needs than the ones we already know as our audience? Do we understand the younger motivation or are there a need for changes? In this session we will dive into this topic and include both young festival audiences as well as input from organisers and a start-up that are developing solutions for the audience.
Facilitated by: Linnéa Svensson | Green Events Foundation (NO)
Linnéa Svensson has more than 20 years of experience with production, sponsorship and sustainability for events and festivals, including 10 years for the Øya Festival, Tons Of Rock, MiniØya, Oslo Studentfestival and Roskilde Festival. She is a mentor for sporting, cultural and urban placemaking events in production and implementation of sustainability measures and corporate partnerships.She programs conferences in areas of the music business and urban development e.g. by:Larm and Oslo Urban Arena. She lectures the topic ‘Event management’ at the Norwegian Business School. Linnéa Svensson is a co-founder of GO Group, is a certified Eco Lighthouse consultant, facilitates the ISO 20121 management system and is an assessor for A Greener Festival. And the author of the Sponsorship Handbook for Live Music Organizers (NO) and Environmental Handbook for Sporting Organisations.
Anne Jensen | Consultant, former NorthSide/Tinderbox (DK) & FKP Scorpio (DE)
Anne Jensen is an experienced professional within the fields of sustainability and mega-events. As part of the management team at Down the Drain in Denmark, she spearheaded the award-winning sustainability strategy for NorthSide Festival; one of the first festivals to reach the 100% organic food and beverage mark. She has spent the past two years in Hamburg as a director of international brand development for FKP Scorpio. Here, she has worked with the flagship festival Hurricane in Germany and Provinssi in Finland among other things. She also authored an extensive paper ‘Festival of the Future // The Future of Festivals (2019)’ about consumer trends and demands of the future. Most recently, Anne Jensen relocated back to Denmark and is working as a consultant.
Fruzsina Szép | Lollapaooza Berlin, Superbloom Munich (HUN/DE)
Fruzsina Szép is the festival director of Lollapalooza Berlin and Superbloom Munich as well as a board member of Yourope, The European Festival Association. She was the programme & artistic director of SZIGET Festival (HUN), the Hungarian Music Export Office and the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Brussels. Fruzsina now works and lives in Berlin but she is a genuine international soul. She was born in Budapest, grew up in Munich and stayed at many other places in Europe. She started her professional career in the music and entertainment industry at the age of 18. Fruzsina received the European Festival Award for "Excellence & Passion" in 2018 – no wonder as she is one of the strongest voices and most inspiring people on the festival scene today. Whoever went to a festival, which she was involved in, knows what "a festival is more than music" means.
Presentation / panel: How can festivals be a platform for testing and developing innovative sustainable solutions?
How can festivals work together with students to develop and test new sustainable solutions? What are the social and environmental benefits in these collaborations for students and festivals? What are the challenges and difficulties? How can innovative projects make changes in the world when the festival is over? How can student projects live on?
For over 10 years Roskilde Festival has turned into a laboratory where students can test new technologies to make the festival more exciting and sustainable. Festivals can be a platform to investigate the future. Because of its temporality, the festival is a perfect setting to test new innovations that can live on in everyday life. The commitment to make social and environmental changes is the driver for cooperating with students’ projects which results in mutual learning and new solutions.
At this workshop, we will introduce methods for cooperating with universities and schools and discuss the benefits and difficulties that these projects entail, with the following program:
Presentation of DTU Collaboration
How does a festival collaborate with a university? Through this presentation you will get a look into how Roskilde Festival and DTU are working together with students to develop new innovations and scientific knowledge.
By: Birgitte Rasmussen | Roskilde Festival, Student collaboration (DK)
Birgitte Rasmussen volunteers at Roskilde Festival and she has for eight years worked with facilitation of student projects using Roskilde Festival as a Living Laboratory in different educational contexts. In her professional career, she has been Associate Professor and Head of BSc Strategic Analysis and Systems Design in the Department of Management Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark. Her main areas of work are strategic technology foresight, knowledge dynamics and practices and the interaction of science and industry. She has great experience in the co-operation and process facilitation of cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional projects with industry, government and organisations. In her research, she is engaged in the development of theory and methodology for systems design and systems thinking – and how this influences the outcome of cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional collaborations.
Panel conversation
What are the benefits from working with universities and schools from the perspective of the schools, the festivals and the students? How do we make sure that new student innovations can live and create a better future after the festival? What are the difficulties, motives and best practices?
Dig into these questions and ask for yourself when Henrik Bondo Nielsen, Sanne Stephansen and Lasse Skovgaard Jensen takes part in a conversation moderated by Christina Bilde.
Panel participants: Henrik Bondo Nielsen | Head of Safety and Service, Roskilde Festival (DK)
Henrik Bondo Nielsen has years of experience in festival management. As Head of Safety and Service at Roskilde Festival, he contributes with insights in logistics, infrastructure and crowd safety management. As a part of his work, Henrik Bondo Nielsen has been a central figure in building close relationships with educational programs, universities and student innovations where students for instance has created different constructions for the festival. Furthermore, he has initiated various collaborations with universities where students have had the possibility to test innovations in real life situations and thereby develop their product or service – for instance in relation to reducing water consumption and cleansing of water waste.
Sanne Stephansen | Head of Sustainability, Roskilde Festival (DK)
As Head of Sustainability at the Roskilde Festival Group Sanne Stephansen facilitates the integration of sustainable solutions in the entire organisation by keeping focus on long term and life cycle perspectives to supplement the visible and short-term solutions. Before joining the Roskilde Festival Group, Sanne headed the team that opened 'Rub & Stub’, Europe's first eatery dedicated to fighting food waste. In 2018, Rub & Stub created a once-in-a-life-time experience at Roskilde Festival when 2.000 people Stage Dining in front of the iconic Orange Stage – a fine dining experience based on surplus food. From 2007 to 2018, Sanne was leading different parts of the voluntary organisation behind Roskilde Festival working with projects within art, activism and social sustainability.
Lasse Skovgaard Jensen | DTU Entrepreneurship (DK)
Lasse Skovgaard Jensen is an engineer and holds a Ph.D. in engineering design and product development from the Technical University of Denmark, where he is currently employed as a Senior Entrepreneurship Scout. Lasse has been part of the collaboration between DTU and Roskilde Festival since the partnership was formalized in 2010. Currently, he is responsible for collaborations at the festival. He is interested in technologies, phenomena and trends that transform our society and the conditions for doing business. Privately he has a passion for wooden Scandinavian sailboats and DIY culture. He is a member of the Copenhagen based yacht club ‘Sundet’ and actively race regattas in the Danish keelboat class X.
Moderator: Christina Bilde| Head of Corporate Communication, Roskilde Festival (DK)
Christina Bilde has years of experience in strategic development and implementation, strategic communication and development and activation of strategic partnerships, especially in the field of sustainability and value-based partnerships. In her role as a responsible for parts of Roskilde Festival’s non-profit and sustainability activities, she has taken part in developing platforms for networking and cross- cutting collaborations with a wide non-profit focus. She is experienced in connecting cross-cutting partnerships and to engage and involve partners under aligned themes as well as manage and guide partnerships in collective concept development and methods of user involvement and engagement. Due to her experiences in developing partnerships, she has solid insights in joint developments processes in cross-cutting partnerships and different means and methods in active participants, youth engagement and collaboration across different actors. Amongst many examples of her work with strategic partnership development, she has been involved in: “The meaningful young life”, “Equality”, “Orange Together” and “Solidarity”.
Showcases - An innovative experience:
Get a closer look into the different student projects. Students who have been working with Roskilde Festival will join the session and show us their own innovations.
Showcases facilitated by student groups
Have a look at various DTU projects that was carried out at Roskilde Festival 2019. Three of the student groups will present their project detail and give insights to how a student project can be carried out and contribute to a better festival.
Frederik Jensen | CEO at VOLT (DK)
It all started back in 2012 when 3 students from DTU had an innovative solution to lift the festival experience. Volt has since then been using Roskilde Festival as a playground for innovations and is a good example of a study project that leads to social change. By now Volt has been helping on more than 300 festivals around Europe and are taking great responsibility in lifting social events, caring for the community and enabling guests to let go of their worries.
Frederik Jensen will take us through Volt’s journey of how an idea in a camping area at Roskilde Festival can become a successful business.
Keynote speech: Escaping or transforming everyday life? The changing functions of festivals in society
Festivals have long been associated with freedom and visions for a better future because they exist outside the daily routines of work and bureaucracy. But is this still true in today’s booming international festival landscape? If so, what kind of freedom and potentials for change do festivals afford?
Which functions do festivals have in cultural and economic life? Have these functions fundamentally changed in recent decades?
By: Fabian Holt | Associate professor at Roskilde University (DK)
Fabian Holt is a scholar of music, culture and society with an interdisciplinary grounding in the humanities, music studies and sociology. He teaches in the Department of Arts and Communication at Roskilde University and has held temporary positions at the University of Chicago and Humboldt University of Berlin. He is the author of ‘Genre in Popular Music (Chicago 2007)’ and ‘Everyone Loves Live Music (Chicago 2020)’ and founding editor of the book series ‘33 1/3 Europe (Bloomsbury)’.
Workshop: Trust the audience – possibilities and effects of being a good host
How can culture be a part of the essential setup at an event? How can we work with our role as a host in a positive way to engage and develop a culture that supports what we want?
Looking from different perspectives – such as safety and service - we will explore relevant projects and leanings from major events to see how audience behaviour impacts the event and how a basic trust in the audience can lead to positive changes.
We will investigate what a strong culture can do for an event. What does it mean when you lead the way and show the audience that they are a part of something much more than a music event?
Facilitated by: Sofie Dahl | RF Experience (DK)
Sofie Dahl is employed as Crowd Safety Manager in RF Experience (Roskilde Festival) and works with both planning and safety operations at events of all sizes – as well as being advisor for organisers and festivals. She worked as Dansk Live’s representative in a work group tasked with the challenge of developing a national framework for safety plans including event risk assessments and emergency plans. The guidance was published by the Danish National Police in 2015. Sofie holds a FdA & BA (Hons) degree in Crowd Safety Management from Bucks New University.
Workshop: Is this the real life? The learning dimension of the festival world
European festivals bring together millions of young people. Our events are adventure parks of personal experience and broadening consciousness. We will learn about the different form of learning (such as formal, non-formal and informal) and apply those and key competences to the festival world. We will talk about festival values and responsibilities as well as the way we communicate them and make them tangible. We will present a case study and validate what we worked out before. And we will start creating own ideas and approaches together, discuss opportunities and threats. We gathered three experts from different fields who all approach the topic from various angles: One of the leading experts on Youth Work, learning mobility and non-formal education. An award-winning artist and storyteller who creates electrifying experiences. And Europe’s leading festival networker on social responsibility.
Facilitated by: Sebastian Fleiter | Atelier Fleiter & The Electric Hotel (DE)
Sebastian Fleiter works as an artist, designer, entrepreneur and consultant in a variety of contexts. After training as a stage designer in Cologne and London, he studied Fine Visual Arts and Visual Communication. Atelier Fleiter, founded in 2007, specializes in communication concepts and projects that address the physical phenomenon of electricity. His mobile showcase project The Electric Hotel has been on tour through the international music festival scene since 2011. Fleiter also travels the world as a coach, workshop leader and Think Tank member focusing on the subject of creative industries – always oscillating on tensions between politics, economics, art, engineering and philosophy. Among others for the Competence Center Culture and Creative Industries of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and as Global Art Director of the UN-registered global think-tank The Diplomatic Council. Fleiter has won many awards including creative pilot of the Federal Republic of Germany with the design award in gold.
Holger Jan Schmidt | GO Group & Take A Stand (GER)
Holger Jan Schmidt is one of Europe’s main networkers on festivals and sustainability. He is co-initiator and steering committee member of the think-tank GO Group and the anchorman for green issues of Yourope. Holger is project manager of the international Take A Stand initiative and campaign for the music sector- to create a movement encouraging social cohesion in society as well as promoting awareness and tolerance. He looks back at more than twenty-five years with two of Germany’s biggest festivals, RhEINKULTUR and DAS FEST. Holger wrote: “Sounds For Nature guidelines for environmentally friendly events”, is a lecturer for “Sustainable Festival & Event Management” and a performing and recording musician as well.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgehan Şenyuva | Middle East Technical University (TUR)
Özgehan Şenyuva is an Associate Professor in the International Relations Department at Middle East Technical University, Ankara, where he works extensively on youth, public opinion, Turkey-European relations and the politics of European football. He has extensive experience in international research projects as a main contributor and principal investigator such as “FREE: Football Research in an Enlarged Europe”, “SAHWA - Researching Arab Mediterranean Youth: Towards a New Social Contract” or “FEUTURE – The Future of EU- Turkey Relations: Mapping Dynamics and Testing Scenarios”. He worked for more than two decades as a youth worker/trainer and comes from the field of learning mobility. He is a steering group member of the “European Platform on Learning Mobility” and member of the “Pool of European Youth Researchers of the European Commission and the Council of Europe”. He has published numerous research and opinion articles, book chapters and a book on youth work and learning mobility. Most recently he has contributed to the two Youth Knowledge books: “Thinking seriously about youth work and how to prepare people to do it” and “Learning mobility, social inclusion and non-formal education”. He is a regular keynote speaker in numerous international youth events and leads training sessions and workshops e.g. at the European Academy on Youth Work in Slovenia (May 2019) or Regaining Europe Conference in Leipzig (March 2019).