Technology Horizons 2014 Conference
Open Cities: How the Maker Mindset is Reinventing Urban Life
On October 2-4, 2014 join IFTF’s Technology Horizons program for Open Cities: How the Maker Mindset is Reinventing Urban Life, an interactive conference and public festival. Our 2014 annual research conference will take you on a journey into the heart of maker and open city culture in San Francisco and around the world, with insights from our Maker Cities game and immersions in Mexico City, Shenzhen, and New York City.
A first for IFTF, the conference will culminate with Open City/Art City, a day-long public festival in partnership with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
What is an open city?
Over the last decade, a culture of makers, empowered by new production technologies and driven by an open source ethos, have reimagined the way that physical objects are created and distributed. Now, makers are bringing that same mindset to the urgent challenges in our cities. In these Maker Cities, citizens and startups are a force alongside government and industry to develop and improve our urban infrastructure and build entirely new systems that touch nearly every aspect of civic life. But that is just the beginning.
Over the next decade, the amount of free and valuable urban data will increase. An array of grassroots economies will take hold. Social media will empower citizens to self-organize and coordinate activity in new ways. Goods and services will flow through smart networks. And most importantly, populations will push their municipalities toward transformation. Maker Cities will quickly become open cities. Characterized by shareability, equity, participation, imagination and adaptability, these Open Cities are transforming our expectations and experiences of what life in cities can be.
About the event
The three-day event is rooted in IFTF’s year-long Maker Cities research and insight. It will explore the technologies, communities, and values of Open Cities—and the systems, information, and people that will make them.
October 2 (members only)
What drives makers and bottom-up efforts in the global epicenter of innovation? Get an insider’s look with IFTF staff on one of five immersions through San Francisco’s makerspaces, incubators, and labs. We'll dive deep into the culture of innovation across several tracks: food, manufacturing, sharing economy, coordination economy, and workforce. The day will end with an evening roundtable and reception to kick off a cross-sectional, multi-stakeholder conversation about the future.
October 3 (members only)
This conference will highlight IFTF’s Maker Cities research from around the world, focusing on maker and technology interaction, the evolution of city services and systems, and forecasts for the future of cities in the next decade.
October 4 (free and open to the public)
Open City/Art City, a free public festival in partnership with Yerba Buena Center for the Arts that gathers IFTF research, artists, thought leaders to engage the public through a creative and generative weekend that looks at how we transform a city.
Event Details
When + Where
October 2-4, 2014
San Francisco Bay Area
How to Attend
Day 1 & 2: Become a Technology Horizons member.
Day 3: Free and open to the public with RSVP!
Contact Information
For more information about these events, contact Meagan Jensen (mjensen@iftf.org). For more about the Technology Horizons program, contact Sean Ness (sness@iftf.org).
Curious about Technology Horizons?
- Find out more about the program
- Download the 2014 research agenda
- Check out previous years' research
