MozFest 2021: Amsterdam hosts most successful edition ever of the tech and AI festival

International tech event Mozilla Festival came to Amsterdam for the first time in March 2021 and right away experienced its most successful edition ever. The focus this year was AI in our daily lives. What better place to choose than Amsterdam, the thriving tech and AI hub of Europe. Amsterdam Convention Bureau (ACB) supported this huge event, with a record of more than 9,500 participants from nearly 90 countries.

MozFest: one of the largest international tech events

MozFest is a 12-day festival for, by and about people who love the internet. World-changing ideas and technologies are presented during exhibitions, presentations and interactive sessions. All discussing and shaping the future of a humane internet.

What makes the annual festival truly unique? The whole event is put together by the participants themselves. Thousands of technologists, activists, entrepreneurs, academics and artists identify and address the most pressing internet problems and work together on solutions in almost 600 sessions, with special attention to the digital culture of the host city and lots of ‘local flavour’ added to the mix. 

Artificial Intelligence

This year, the focus of the 11th edition of MozFest was AI in our everyday lives and the data that powers it. Some of the main topics were, for example, algorithmic bias, privacy, online disinformation, data stewardship and how to build a healthier internet and a more trustworthy AI. 

Amsterdam: a complete AI ecosystem

As a thriving tech hub and living lab for people-centered and responsible AI, Amsterdam is the perfect location for ambitious and pioneering tech and AI events such as MozFest. In December 2019, a group of academic, medical and other organisations in Amsterdam announced the launch of AI Technology for People. The initiative is designed to help the city develop and deploy responsible tech in the field of AI. Projects focus on strengthening the AI ecosystem and work on AI solutions in three domains: business innovation, citizen support, and health. 

The initiative encourages collaboration with leading institutions around the world, as well as public partners and members of the business community. The knowledge institutions are investing €1 billion over the next ten years by setting up research programmes, attracting top scientists and educating students with state-of-the-art knowledge of AI. 

Evidently, MozFest could not have chosen a better event location than world-leading AI hub Amsterdam. 

“Tremendous support” from Amsterdam Convention Bureau

Although MozFest was virtual this year due to COVID-19, Amsterdam Convention Bureau supported the event in creative ways. We created a physical marketing campaign, showing ads on 250+ MUPI/Abris throughout Amsterdam. We created online visibility in the UIT-agenda (the national events calendar) and through articles on Iamsterdam.com. We organised a digital tour for the MozFest team to get to know the city, and we were able to connect the festival to knowledge institutes, scientists and AI-related businesses within the local ecosystem.

The MozFest team speaks of “tremendous support”, adding “we can't wait to get our feet on the ground in Amsterdam next year!”. Mozilla Festival will return to Amsterdam in 2023 in its original hybrid form. Amsterdam Convention Bureau and the City of Amsterdam are ready to welcome them and offer our full support and knowledge to help make the next edition just as successful!

Find out how the Amsterdam Convention Bureau can help plan your next event. Or contact us directly at: meetings@iamsterdam.com or WhatsApp +31 (0) 682747079.