Viktorija Balodis

Gene editing, designer babies, cure for cancers or novel foods and materials? These are just few of the promises of modern Biotechnology. And none of this would be within reach today without brave explorers that are willing to pick up the torch and take the risk. This is a new breed, part Scientist and part Entrepreneur, these are the heroes pioneering the future.

How do you start? What should you do to transform your science and research into a success? What are the mistakes to avoid? And most importantly, where does the capital to start such a venture come from?

For many starting a Biotech company is a dream and yet some fail or are daunted by the threshold to get into the industry. But in this century this has changed, and tonight you will hear how.

For this special event we invited guest from London that will share his best kept secrets. Steven O Connell witnessed in first place the pearls and pitfalls of starting a biotech company and helped spur innovation that is reshaping food and healthcare. Currently working at the accelerator RebelBio, he has kindly agreed to join us and share with us the tricks of the trade and best practices to unleash the power of biotechnology.

Time schedule
19:30 doors open
20:00 introduction
20:15 the Conversation Starts
21:00 Q&A
21:30 Wrap-up

About Steven O Connell:
Steven O Connell is the Associate Director & Programme Manager for RebelBio.
Cited by Philip Hemme, CEO of Labiotech EU as “European Biotechnologies Biggest Rebel” Steven helps early stage synthetic biology & biotechnology companies develop in Cork, Ireland by running an intensive but rewarding mini-MBA style programme to de-risk these ventures.
He holds a BSc Hons in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from CIT and an MSc in Biotechnology and Business from UCD & the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. Steven has business development experience with startups and established companies giving him a unique perspective on how to help develop early stage biotech startups.

AI holds a big potential in learning and development: global classrooms, adaptive learning, personalized tutoring to name a few. From the other side, the use of AI technology for learning raises lots of question, concerns and ethical dilemma’s.

What constant monitoring, analysing and feeding ‘right’ information will do the development of the individual? What will be the role of educators, if we rely more on machines as educational resources than on teachers? How can we avoid technology addiction and obsession?

In this session, we will talk about the questions we need to ask today about the implications of moving to AI driven learning.

Our learning initiative Think Future Today is the result of many conversations we have when talking about preparing for the future. Every time we hear different questions, concerns, ethical dilemmas and challenges the advancement of technology and AI brings. We decided to create a space to explore them and develop the future literacy skills. We want to challenge preconceptions, uncover different perspectives and implications of using technology and AI in various areas of our life. We invite you to join the discussion and learning on subjects that are highly relevant for our future. In the end, we want to THINK TODAY what FUTURE we want to be part of tomorrow.

This event is free of charge, but we have a limited capacity, so please register ONLY if you are SURE you will be joining. We close the registration as we reach the maximum capacity.

Interested to talk about AI driven education? Join us! http://bit.ly/tft2018

For this event you need to have an Eventbrite ticket. To participate in the swimming contest you have to register separately.

Sign up your swimming team now: https://goo.gl/forms/eLMwgevb1VmrlvuL2

And get your event tickets via the Eventbrite ticket link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/5-years-inalab-tickets-46181214255

No swimming team yet? No worries, just sign up and we will hook you up with one! You don’t want to miss out on these awesome prizes. Scroll down for more info about the swimming contest.

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Dearest A Lab Members, Partners & Friends,

We have a BIG celebration! Our 5th anniversary is coming up on Wednesday July 18th – and we are putting our love and sweat into organizing a great day for our members, neighbors, partners & friends!

So, what can you expect?
After having a bite of our birthday cake and putting on your party hat, you’ll be ready to start the day with an Open House, where you can explore all the Labs in the building. Join your A Lab Members around and be inspired by your fellow A Lab Members. We’re not telling you how, but you will know when it’s time for the big spectacular opening of the event: get your duckface out for a group photo with all 250 A Lab members and see our two new exhibitions: OOG, an artwork that will be installed on the facade of A Lab, and the Flags of Peace by A Lab Member Trapped in Suburbia, in our indoor garden. After this, it's party time!

•• Party Day ••
10:00 Family celebration in A Lab Labs - A Lab Members only
15:00 Walk-in #inalab: everybody welcome!
16:00 Official opening with two expositions OOG & Flags of Peace and group photo with 250 people!
17:00 Big Ass Swimming Contest (sign up now: https://goo.gl/forms/RrVMtvRtgAFa9aMT2)
18:00 Food & Drinks & Surprise acts
20:00 More drinks / Music / Party (and perhaps some inflatable crocodiles)
23:00 The End (…legally we have to put this in the program because of security, but let’s see how this ends...)

Be there, don’t be square, bring your swimsuit and some inflatable buddies so you can make even more Noord history with your swimming team! Happy birthday to all of you & us!

Don't forget to SIGN UP your swimming team (https://goo.gl/forms/eLMwgevb1VmrlvuL2) and click that ticket button to get your ticket before they are all gone! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/5-years-inalab-tickets-46181214255

•• A little bit of history & future ••
For those of you who are thinking ‘Why the heck do we have a swimming contest?!’: our annual swimming contest in the Buiksloterkanaal (right from our building) is an homage to the history of this area. Back in the day, even before Shell R&D took over the place, Amsterdam had its first outdoor swimming pool of Amsterdam North in the IJ water, the Obelt swimming pool. This revolutionary public space brought together people of various backgrounds as it allowed for example even women to swim and have competitions there as well. Really unusual for that time as the newspapers tried to ridicule the women’s contests (what would Ranomi Kromowidjojo say?!). Back then the swimming pool brought Amsterdam together in Noord, now A Lab brings people (like you!) together in Noord, even from a wider range of backgrounds than we could ever imagine, and hell yeah we are proud of that!!

You guys and girls have helped A Lab grow into a place where people are open minded, inclusive and inquisitive. A space where the members and visitors are naturally curious to hear about what you do. Collaboration all over the place and new creative experiments are started everyday! That is the special sauce we make together in this building and hopefully can keep stirring in the upcoming years.

🎉Onwards to the next 5 years! 🎉

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•• Instructions for swimmers••
- Register your swimming team here: https://goo.gl/forms/eLMwgevb1VmrlvuL2
- Put on your swimsuits before arriving at the swimming contest
- Pickup your swimming team start number at the main entrance of A Lab, where you’ll receive the exact time that you have to splash into the water
- Make sure you are ready to dive in at the assigned starting point on the jetty
- Always listen to the instructions of Team A (Superhero) Lab. You will recognize them by the matching outfits
- You can shower at ClinkNOORD afterwards, but make it a quick one! Follow the signs outside & inside their building. And keep it clean, guys
- and of course... HAVE FUN! 💦

Visit A Lab during the Wemakethe.city and ROEF festival for a program about citizens and the future. In A Lab we try to find out what crossovers between for example journalism and blockchain, music and robotics, games and art mean for the future in our building, a ‘broedplaats’ community of 300 creative, innovative and social relevant Members. For WeMakeThe.City we will research what humans mean for the future and what the future holds for us:

• 17:30 kickoff of the night, make sure you are there on time!

• celebrate the official opening of the photo exposition 'Buurtbanden' by Rufus de Vries where you can get to know the different citizens and neighborhoods of Noord

• participate in the dance performance about autonomy ‘Walkie Talkie Wilderness’ by inclusive dance school Misiconi Dance Company (http://misiconidance.nl/)

• think about and discuss the future of cities with AI, drones and self-driving cars during Think Future Today #3: The Vulnerability of a Smart City organized by 361degrees LAB. RSVP for this activity by attending the Think Future Today facebook event!

• enlarge your city view & knowledge and call with other cities Groningen and Limburg to get inspiration in the activity 'Small Stream Media' by VersPers

• last but not least, you get the chance to discover the future of food with our vertical farm grown salad hosted by OneFarm!

-- About WeMakeThe.City --
WeMakeThe.City is the festival that aims to make the city better. Already on the 5th edition, the festival will investigate important urban issues about Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and respond to many questions that everyone has on the future of our city. The program is very diverse, with dozen locations spread over the city, you can attend lectures, film screenings, exhibitions, shows, city expeditions, games, workshops, expert meetings, interviews, labs, workshops and many more. Visit their website for more information: https://wemakethe.city/nl

Amsterdam Biolabs organises Plastics + Worms = ♥, an evening tackling one of humanity’s biggest challenges: plastic pollution and Nature’s struggle to feed it back into the cycle.
Plastic is everywhere. From the dawn of 20th century considered to be a blessing, it has now become one of the biggest threats to animals, humans and the whole biosphere. Because plastics are everywhere: our streets, our oceans and inside of our bodies.

But nature always finds a way. Can plastic, once a synthetic human creation, become part of nature, and are there solutions to the plastic threat? Life appears to have adapted to the plastic in the environment and now feeds upon it, and if this is nature's course, shouldn't we be supportive by facilitating plastic-degrading species, or even creating new life forms that can exploit plastics? A new ecosystem is forming where humanity and nature intersect. The Plastisphere.

** Programme **
Let's explore the plastics, humanity and the Plastisphere. We will investigate how these new organisms are feeding on our problems. Amsterdam Biolabs will host a live demonstration of thousands of larvae feeding on styrofoam. Get up close to biology in action!

Pei-Ying Lin, artist and designer, will talk about the “MASS - bloom explorations” project, for which she collaborated with choreographer Tina Tarpgaard and others. In a plastic dome a dancer was moving in between 100,000 meal worms, eating exclusively white styrofoam objects.

More speakers To Be Announced.

The event is free – please make sure to reserve your ticket via eventbrite.

** Amsterdam Biolabs **
Amsterdam Biolabs is a space for curiosity-driven research and invention around the life sciences, bringing together changemakers and society. Amsterdam Biolabs is located in A Lab, where it hosts monthly events. It is co-founded by Federico Muffatto and Roland van Dierendonck.

Automation is fast taking over work tasks and disrupting different professions. 800 million jobs will be automated by 2030. 50% of work tasks can be automated using the currently existing technology. We already see robots and AI taking roles of teachers, therapists, lawyers, doctors, drivers and even catwalk models.

Some experts believe that the development of the emotion recognition AI, machine learning, advanced robotics make it only a matter of time till technology will excel in skills and abilities that were considered to be strictly human.Are there jobs a smart technology can't do? And are the jobs we don't want the smart technology to do?

Our THINK FUTURE TODAY series are born from many conversations we have when talking about the development of skills of the future. Each and every time we hear different questions, concerns, ethical dilemma’s and challenges the advancement of technology and AI brings. We decided to create a space to talk about it with each other. Not expert focussed, but reflection and dialogue driven. In the end, we want to THINK TODAY what FUTURE we want to be part of tomorrow.

This meetup is free of charge, but we have a limited capacity, so please register ONLY if you are SURE you will be joining. We will use English for the introduction, but you will be able to speak both English or Dutch during the discussions. http://bit.ly/tft2018