New Dutch Wave Brings More Than 50 Partners to SXSW

While Austin, Texas is preparing for SXSW17, the New Dutch Wave adds a host of new partners to the delegation – just moments before departure. Thijs Biersteker, BNN-VARA, Nick Verstand, innogy Essent, Gazelle, AkzoNobel, fashion designer Pauline van Dongen, and Circus Family have been added to the already extensive list of leading Dutch individuals and companies attending SXSW. The New Dutch Wave delegation now includes more than 50 partners eager to demonstrate why the Netherlands’ position in the top 10 of most creative countries is justified.

Aside from the beautiful Dutch Design stand in the Austin Convention Center marketplace, designed by Formnation, Barbarella & Swan Dive will be home to the New Dutch Wave from Sunday, March 12th to Wednesday, March 15th.

The Dutch presence will not go unnoticed. Visitors to the New Dutch Wave house will not be able to miss the Drive In – an installation by the production company Halal – situated in a Cadillac, where a screen will display the diverse work of the Amsterdam company. Riding orange Gazelle bikes through the city center of Austin, the New Dutch Wave will be handing out stroopwafels, made by the Austin-based Dutch company de Stroopclub.

The four days of intriguing panels, discussions, and presentations  – ‘Deep Dives’ into the far-reaching convergence between content and tech –  have four themes.  Every day will end with musical performances by a wide range of artists, bands, and DJ’s, organized with the help of Buma Culture and Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE). For more information and the full schedule of events, see: www.newdutchwave.com

On Sunday, our focus will be on the Intelligent Future, on Monday the Media Innovations will be presented, Tuesday will be themed Experience Design & Design for Society, and Wednesday’s finale theme is Entertainment Meets Tech. Every Deep Dive will be presented by a wide variety of top-level speakers, recent additions being Mediamonks’ Global Head of VR and Talpa’s Head of Strategy Joost Galjart.

On Tuesday March 14th, fashion designer and Wearable Technology specialist Pauline van Dongen will be presenting her “Issho” in the New Dutch Wave house. This intelligent, touch-sensitive denim jacket is tuned in to the wearer’s behavior. Contemporary artist Nick Verstand will also be speaking on Tuesday, discussing his latest piece: ‘Point of View’, a 10-foot tall light sculpture surrounded by 8 speakers, designed to invoke a totally novel sensory experience and prompting us to question what we really see and hear. His installation has been selected for the SXSW art program and can be viewed at the Hilton Downtown (room 412). Artist Thijs Biersteker has an ongoing exposition of his latest interactive installation ‘Plastic Reflectic’, which shows how people’s behavior can influence the development of the plastic soup in our oceans.

Aside from all the tech-trends, there is also an opportunity to relax on Tuesday: the organizers of the dating site and app Inner Circle will be organizing a ‘Singles Only Drinks’ event. On this night, single SXSW17-visitors can use the Inner Circle app to get in touch with one another and meet in real life on the New Dutch Wave house patio.

Wednesday March 15th will be dedicated to games and music. Entertainment Meets Tech will provide a platform for keynotes and demonstrations by Utomik and Illusive Games. Utomik has been dubbed the ‘Netflix of gaming’, and Illusive Games works on gaming-accessibility for everyone, regardless of language, age, or experience. Their ‘Circles’-game went live mid-February on Steam and is quite remarkable: it contains over 90 levels of gameplay – but no text.

Beeld en Geluid will present the findings of an experiment conducted over the last couple of weeks using their COGITCH-algorithm, which computed the ‘hit’-potential of the Dutch Impact artists performing on SXSW. The Dutch Impact Party will take place on this day as well, including the latest addition to their line-up: Grandpa Death Experience.

OPENING BY PRINCE CONSTANTIJN
The New Dutch Wave delegation will be leaving for Austin this week to set the stage for the Dutch creative industry, who will enjoy the limelight for 4 days during SXSW. HRH Prince Constantijn from The Netherlands will open the New Dutch Wave stand on Sunday, March 12th, where he will be the first to experience the Sensory Reality Pod built by Dutch startup Sensiks. Afterwards he will open the New Dutch Wave house with a kickoff of the panna-competition taking place on the house’s patio.

ABOUT THE NEW DUTCH WAVE
New Dutch Wave is a platform for Dutch creativity and entrepreneurship abroad – designed to inspire, connect, and create new business. New Dutch Wave was founded by Corrino Media Group, Wink, and Enterprise Summit, in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Creative Holland, iMMovator, StartupDelta, Buma Cultuur, Amsterdam Trade, amsterdam inbusiness, Rotterdam Partners and the City of the Hague. Other partners from New Dutch Wave are Adformatie, Akzonobel, Backbone, Dept, Dutch Impact, Dutch Media Innovators, Dutch Music Export, Dutchband, Emerce, Faber Exposize, Fonds Podium Kunsten, Formnation, Gazelle, Halal, The Inner Circle, Innogy Essent, Minibrew, The Next Web, Sensiks, De Stroopclub, Superhero Cheesecake, Utomik and The Hup.