Tech Open Air is an annual interdisciplinary technology festival that takes place in Berlin, Germany. It started in 2012 as the very first tech festival organised through crowdfunding. The festival has developed into a well-known tech conference in and out of Europe. The main concept behind Tech Open Air is to bring together the areas of technology, music, art, and science by providing a platform for multi-disciplinaryknowledge exchange, collaboration, and development. Tech Open Air is organised every year in June or July and gathers a number of influential speakers, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, start-ups, and attendees from Germany and 55+ other countries.
2017
The TOA17 Festival took place between the 11–14 July 2017, remaining for a second year at former GDR Radio Station, Funkhaus Berlin. 2017 saw the Satellites program extend even further with kick-off events taking place on the Tuesday before the Conference. TOA Conference also expanded further with a brand new 4500qm exhibition hall "The House of Tech". This unique TOA style take on a traditional expo hosted brands such as Facebook, Google, Samsung NEXT, as well as a host of Europe's leading startups. Over 6,000 people attended the conference, where the 200+ speakers included Adam D'Angelo, Richard Sharp, Richie Hawtin, Mate Galic, Erika Lust, Hector Ouilhet, Imogen Heap, and Yaël Eisenstat. 2017 was also the inaugural year for TOA Music Fest which took place on the last night of the festival with over 2000 people in attendance. The night featured live performances from Machinedrum and Schwarz Don't Crack, as well as DJ sets from the likes of Blaenk Minds.
2016
Tech Open Air held its fifth edition on 13–15 July 2016, with the conference taking place at a new venue, Funkhaus Nalepastraße, over the first two days. In 2016 the TOA satellite programme expanded to occur over the whole of 15 July as well as on the evenings of the conference. In total 177 satellite events took place in Berlin across three days. The TOA conference hosted 166 speakers and included keynote talks from founders and entrepreneurs such as Yancey Strickler, Luis von Ahn and Cindy Gallop. In addition to the talks, attendees were able to take part in a number of different formats such as Pitch-nic, Music Meets Tech, and a Reverse Pitch where investors were able to pitch their investments to promising startups. In total, 11,221 people attended TOA from over 40 countries. Speakers included Mathias Döpfner, Catherina Fake, Luke Woods, Dominik Richter, Katie Dill, Daniel Barenboim, Gabriel Flateman and Susan Danziger.
2015
Tech Open Air 2015 took place July 15–17, 2015. The "Unconference" as well as more than 150 satellite events across Berlin were the main components of the festival. The programme invited the event attendees to experience engaging talks presented by over 110 professionals, as well as interactive panels, art installations, live music, and networking opportunities. Satellite events provided an opportunity for Tech Open Air attendees to fully immerse themselves in the Berlin startup culture. One additional format of the "Unconference" was a networking session called Back to the Future: Enterprise Meets Startup which inspired and encouraged cross-industry collaboration; the Pitch-Nic ; and the Hardware Pitch where six hardware innovations pitched their ideas on stage. The 2015 edition was attended by over 5000 people from various industries and nations. Around 150 media outlets were involved in this year's event including the Wall Street Journal, BBC and TechCrunch. The list of speakers included Mike Butcher, Chris Barton, Christoph Keese, Niklas Oestberg, Robert Gentz, Greg Dybec, Assaf Biderman, and Dirk Ahlborn.
2014
The third edition of Tech Open air took place in 2014 and included more than 100 speakers and more than 2750 attendees. The programme also included the first ever Design Slam in Berlin, start-up battles, collaborative workshops and live music. One of the hot topics discussed at the event was wearable technology.
2013
The second edition of Tech Open Air included 85 speakers, more than 2000 attendees and 50 satellite events.
2012
Tech Open Air's inaugural event took place in 2012 in Berlin. The first edition included nearly 60 speakers, 850 visitors and 23 satellite events.
