Media information Join Us in Uncharted Waters European Forum Alpbach 2016 New Enlightenment | August 17 to September 2, 2016 Principal Partners 0 Media contact & accreditation Stefan Kranewitter | +43 1 718 17 11 25 | [email protected] | www.alpbach.org Updates and hashtag #efa16 Regular updates and information on the European Forum Alpbach 2016 can be found on our website www.alpbach.org and on our social media channels Twitter (@forumalpbach, #efa16), Facebook (facebook.com/forumalpbach) and Flickr (europeanforumalpbach). Live Stream: www.alpbach.org Our web stream, provided by the Austrian Lotteries, will broadcast debates from the Congress Centre Alpbach from 17 August 2016 onwards online at www.alpbach.org. Images for Editorial Use Images of conference events in 300 dpi quality are available at www.alpbach.org/presse. A comprehensive image archive can be found on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/europeanforumalpbach Press Centre at the Congress Centre Alpbach During the Forum, the Press Centre will be located in the Congress Centre Alpbach (Alpbach 246, 6236 Alpbach). The press area will be open daily from 17 August from 9am until the close of the day’s events. About the European Forum Alpbach First held in 1945, the European Forum Alpbach was the first political and intellectual event to take place in a German-speaking country. Today it is one of the leading interdisciplinary platforms for dialogue in the academia, politics, economics and culture in Europe. Through its activities and events, the European Forum Alpbach seeks to promote a democratic society equipped to meet future challenges. Cooperation network with international partner organisations Alongside our principal partners BMW, Fabasoft, the Province of Tyrol, Austrian Lotteries and Swarowski, and co-promoters such as the Austrian Institute of Technology and Radio Ö1, the European Forum Alpbach is supported by over 100 other partner organisations. These include international academic partners such as the French École Nationale d’Administration, Sciences Po University in Paris, the University of Cambridge, the Falling Walls Conference, the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce and the Woodrow Wilson International Center. 1 Media contact & accreditation Stefan Kranewitter | +43 1 718 17 11 25 | [email protected] | www.alpbach.org DATES 2016 Symposia August 21–23 Health Symposium www.alpbach.org/med August 24 Higher Education Symposium www.alpbach.org/edu August 25–27 Technology Symposium www.alpbach.org/tec August 28–30 Legal Symposium www.alpbach.org/law August 28–30 Political Symposium www.alpbach.org/pol August 30–September 1 Economic Symposium www.alpbach.org/ecn September 1–2 Financial Market Symposium www.alpbach.org/fin September 1–2 Built Environment Symposium www.alpbach.org/blt Seminar Week and Alpbach Campus Courses August 17–24 Seminar Week Professional Programme on Facilitation and Participatory August 17–20 Leadership August 17–22 Alpbach Summer School on Entrepreneurship August 17–22 Professional Programme on European Health Care and Social Systems in Transitions August 26–28 Professional Programme on EU Decision-Making and Negotiation August 27–29 Professional Programme on Strategies of Influence August 17–September 2 Alpbach Advanced Course on European Integration Tyrol Days August 20–21 Tyrol Days/Opening Ceremony Congress Center Alpbach Culture August 17–September 2 Music, Film, Photography, Cabaret, Literature Special Programme August 24 Alpbach Open Space August 25 Falling Walls Lab Austria August 26 Ö1 Children’s University & Junior Alpbach August 25–26 Innovation Marathon August 27 Speakers’ Night August 28–30 Alpbach in Motion September 1 Science Slam 2 Media contact & accreditation Stefan Kranewitter | +43 1 718 17 11 25 | [email protected] | www.alpbach.org Making the New Tangible The crises in the European Union, the global movement of migrants and digitalisation are the themes at the heart of the European Forum Alpbach 2016. Under the general heading of “New Enlightenment”, national and international speakers from academia, politics, economics, culture and civil society will open up constructive approaches for the 21st century. From 17 August to 2 September, 5,000 people from academia, politics, economics and culture, including 700 young scholarship holders, will enter uncharted waters at the European Forum Alpbach. Events kick off with the Seminar Week, followed by one to three-day symposia on health care, education, technology, law, politics, the economy, the financial market and the built environment. Over 200 events, from breakout sessions to open space debates to plenary discussions, enable participants to get on the trail of a “New Enlightenment”, turning the village in the Tyrolean mountains into Europe’s summer dialogue capital. With the new conference rooms in the expanded Congress Centre Alpbach, visitors to the Forum will literally find themselves on new ground and will be able to take advantage some of Europe’s most cutting-edge digital acoustics. On the Trail of a “New Enlightenment” The European Union is facing one endurance test after another. “The overemphasis on national interests is just one indication of many that history does not change for the better on its own. It requires energetic people who choose not to take a step back into national isolation but to seek out new, constructive paths”, explains Franz Fischler, president of the European Forum Alpbach. “In many areas of society we can observe the falling away of old certainties and the growth of scepticism. We therefore invite those explorers to Alpbach who will counter this doubt with bold concepts. We want to learn from their fresh ideas”, says Franz Fischler. Programme focus: The Future Role of Europe in the World Instability in the Middle East and its far-reaching consequences present the European Union and its members with a series of challenges. The Political Symposium turns its attention to Europe’s foreign relations, first and foremost the EU’s new foreign and security policy strategy, which is currently being developed by Federica Mogherini, the EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Key negotiators, among them special advisor Nathalie Tocci and Mogherini’s head of cabinet, Stefano Manservisi, present this strategic reorientation in Alpbach. High-ranking diplomats such as Robert Cooper from the UK and Walter Stevens, Chair of the EU’s Political and Security Committee, examine the implications. Heads of renowned European think tanks such as Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, Heather Grabbe from the Open Society European Policy Institute and Jan Techau, director of Carnegie Europa, put this future foreign policy strategy’s potential under the microscope. 3 Media contact & accreditation Stefan Kranewitter | +43 1 718 17 11 25 | [email protected] | www.alpbach.org In order to meet local challenges and support the efforts of Austrian communities to integrate refugees, the European Forum Alpbach is organising what is now the fifth network meeting for mayors. 100 community leaders from across Austria will arrive in Alpbach to swap their experiences and know-how on integrating asylum seekers. Programme focus: The World in Bits and Bytes Our society is caught between blind faith in technology and resistance to progress, between technological possibilities and how they are interpreted. Orientation based on the latest findings is provided here by a range of experts and critics: Leory Hood, the multi-award winning immunologist and holder of the American National Medal of Science gives an outlook on a health system in which bits and bytes now fuse with DNA and proteins. The Higher Education Symposium is opened by Alan I. Leshner, former CEO of the renowned US journal Science. Hungarian big data analyst Albert- László Barabási and the American Ray Dorsey, Professor of Neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Centre, present their work at the Technology Symposium on a care app being developed with Apple to research Parkinson’s disease. Cesar Hidalgo, a complexity researcher and director of the MIT Media Lab, demonstrates at the Economic Symposium why classical methods in economic research have long become obsolete. Günther Oettinger (DE), EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, explains how he hopes to strengthen digital entrepreneurship in Europe. At the Financial Market Symposium, Jutta Steiner, a leading developer of bitcoin software, describes why this technology has the potential to radically alter world of finance, while Aquiles Almansi, a financial sector specialist at the World Bank, presents new approaches in cyber security. Creative Thinking: Our Common Mission “Breaking open fixed categories is in the DNA of the European Forum Alpbach. The Alpbach Symposia are open spaces at which the curious, the explorers from all areas of society can raise and discuss ideas and potential solutions”, says Philippe Narval, Managing Director of the European Forum Alpbach. How can we translate the achievements of the Enlightenment into new times? What are the intellectual tools with the potential to develop into the big ideas of the 21st century? Hundreds of pioneers and discoverers from academia, economics, politics, culture and civil society will present their projects and initiatives in Alpbach: as part of the Alpbach-Laxenburg Group, American