Cities of Things

Back in November 2014, we organized the first Dutch chapter of ThingsCon in Amsterdam, after the inspiring first Berlin edition in spring 2014. After 4 years in Amsterdam, 4 in Rotterdam en 2 Covid editions, we decided to go back to Amsterdam, and also go back to Volkshotel, to mark our 10 years celebration!

Our theme for this edition: Generative Things
The inspiration for this year’s conference is the transformation of the new generative artificial intelligence in our digital lives to the physical world, the objects we use, and the places we live. What will be the physical realization of the “generative twin intelligence”? What will it mean for makers and designers of these things? How will ethics play out, and what new models of use and trust will emerge?

The program is ready. Check the latest confirmed program here. They are all inspired by this theme.

• Workshops and talks
• Exhibition with the best work
• Specially commissioned exhibition

On the latter:
We want to create an exhibition commissioned by ThingsCon to explore the next decade of living with things. We hope to inspire designers and makers of future things. We like to explain the context of an experience that ignites debate and critical thinking by engaging our community through speculative objects and things.

Our program:
🎓 <strong>Thursday</strong>: long-form workshops for even more in-depth knowledge exchange and interacting with peers.
🎉 <strong>Thursday evening</strong>: celebrating 10 years of ThingsCon with special evening program with inspirational talks, music, and drinks
🎤 <strong>Friday</strong>: the good old mix of inspiring keynotes, short project-pitches, 2-hour workshops, exhibition, and meeting each-other.

This year, the regular price for one day is <strong>100 eu</strong>, and the full conference pass is <strong>175 eu</strong>. The ticket includes entrance and catering on the conference days. You are also invited to join our special Thursday evening program.

https://thingscon.org/th-ngs-2024/registration/

On 5 September, ThingsCon will team up again with the Human Values for Smarter Cities project to organize a Salon linked to the research project. This time, we are guests at Marineterrein in Amsterdam. We focus this meetup (and workshop) on participatory design for machine learning.

Don Quichot in the Smart City?
In this ThingsCon Salon, we will explore the changing roles of designers in contemporary developments involving human values and smart city technologies. As Kristina Höök and Jonas Löwgren suggest, when faced with a complex sociotechnical fabric that includes AI, designers should consider their work as “interventions into ongoing transformations over which they have limited control” (Höök & Löwgren, 2021). What implications do this statement and our experiences in state-of-the-art participatory design projects have for our work?

Workshop 16:00-18:00
We will start with a workshop in which we redesign an existing enforcement computer vision system with AI, not by focusing on efficiency or effectiveness. Instead, we focus on AI that helps improve citizens’ opportunities to prevent making mistakes or making appeals.

Mapping Use-time Contestability Loops
The workshop runs from 16:00 to 18:00 and will be dedicated to a workshop shaped and moderated by Kars Alfrink, a postdoctoral researcher at TU Delft, specializing in contestable AI. The workshop has limited capacity.

Meetup 19:00-21:30
After a break for drinks and food, we will continue with the evening program from 19:00 to 21:00. Three speakers will discuss the workshop results and share their thoughts on the topic.

• Evelien Zengerink from the City of Amsterdam Computer Vision team
• Vera van der Burg, PhD at Delft University of Technology in exploring AI as tools for self-reflection
• Geke van Dijk, strategy director at STBY, a pioneering service design studio

The ThingsCon Salon will take place on 5 September 2024 from 16:00 to 21:30 in Amsterdam Marineterrein. We are guest at AMS Institute / Responsible Sensing Lab.
(Kattenburgerstraat 5, Building 027W, 1018 JA Amsterdam)

Please RSVP via these Meetup-pages:
– workshop (+ meetup) (limited capacity 20 participants)
– meetup only

Join us on 15 December for our annual ThingsCon event powered by CLICKNL. Participate in interactive sessions, be inspired by the keynotes, and view the thought-provoking projects in our exhibitions. And most of all, meet each other!

True to ThingsCon mission, we focus on a theme that we feel resonates with current developments and discussions that explore and promote the development of fair, responsible, and human-centric technologies for the IoT and beyond; our current working theme is <em>‘Un</em>/i<em>ntended Consequences’</em>. Read more on our website.

Friday 15 December will be our main conference day. With a mix of: interactive sessions, inspiring keynotes, pitches from the community and an inspiring design exhibition.

• Opening and closing keynote by Maria Luce Lupetti (TU Delft) and Bas van de Poel (Modem)
• 12 interactive sessions in two rounds
• Short project pitches
• Exhibition with the best design student work and case-studies from practitioners.
• Meet fellow participants during lunch and breaks, ending with drinks

Find more details on the program page!

IoT has a fluid state now; as we live and interact in an increasingly connected reality. We also see this evolving into new extremes, such as the discussions about Web3, the metaverse, and digital twins. At ThingsCon we feel the need to extend this discourse into understanding more about what is the real//real and what is virtual//real. 9 & 10 June the ThingsCon will meet again in person after two online editions in Rotterdam to exchange the latest insights and mark this new reality.

ThingsCon is Europe’s leading conference about the future of hardware, connected devices and Internet of Things (IoT). We aim to foster the creation of human-centric & responsible IoT.

This year we are organising the 4th Dutch edition of the conference on November 30th & December 1st 2017, at the Volkshotel. We value ThingsCon as a platform for the community of designers and makers and, even more than before, we like to offer the chance to apply for a talk or session. Just like the 2016 edition of the conference, we will focus on the right mix between inspiration and in-depth sessions.

This year we have almost 30 sessions and 10 keynote speakers. Several of the sessions specifically address the topics of the future of smart cities, the role of citizens and things as citizens.