Glenn Manoff is Director of Social Business and Sustainability for Telefonica. His flagship project is Telefonica Think Big, a €150 million programme fostering a more entrepreneurial Europe via large scale programmes supporting young people, digital skill creation and digital start-ups. Outside of work, he’s passionate about music, sport and community action.

Here, he tells us about Campus Party Europe in Berlin where 10,000 young techies and Internet innovators will come together for a week to take on a single mission: to retype Europe’s source code.

Are you a passionate programmer, gamer, blogger, developer or amateur astronomer that wants to change the world? If yes, then you’re probably a campusero and you should make sure one event is on your calendar this summer: Campus Party Europe, when from 21-26 August, 2012 the first edition of the world’s largest global technology festival is coming to Germany. At Campus Party Europe in Berlin 10,000 talented minds all equipped with laptops and sleeping bags will gather at the former airport site of Tempelhof for a 24-hour-a-day exchange of ideas and views on innovation, creativity, science and digital entertainment – you simply won‘t find more brilliant young minds under one roof anywhere else. The event will be hosted by Futura Networks and Telefónica and its commercial brand O2 and is under the patronage of the European Commission.

600 hours of content on nine stages

The festival offers more than 600 hours of talks, discussions and workshops in 16 different content areas which are divided into 24 subject areas such as entrepreneurship, social media, free software, gaming, development, robotics, design and many more. The main mission of the attendees will be to write Europe’s new source code and help transform Europe into a better place. There will also be multiple challenges and competitions on-site and ad-hoc events planned by the particicipants themselves that continue deep into the night. In this first edition in Berlin two international innovators and thinkers of culture and history will take the stage, the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, known as one of the fathers of the Internet. Additional speakers will be announced in the coming weeks. Previous big names have included former US Vice President Al Gore, scientist Stephen Hawking and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

TheBigThink: How Thousands Across the European Union Will Attend For Free

Before the event even begins, TheBigThink challenge will call on ideas for the European Digital Agenda and the best 5,000 entries will be chosen and their creators invited to attend Campus Party Europe in Berlin completely free, including transportation, event tickets and accommodation. The thousands of winners will arrive in Berlin by bus in what we believe will be the biggest mobilisation of tech talent in the history of Europe. Every idea from TheBigThink will be a starting point for a debate and filter process that will conclude during the event in a ceremony in which the ideas will be presented to Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission and responsible for the Digital Agenda. Campus Party Europe in Berlin is under the patronage of the European Commission.

“In Berlin we expect thousands of technology enthusiasts will come from all over Europe to participate and we want to harness this concentrated power of expertise and talent to create projects for a better world,” Campus Party co-founder Paco Ragageles said. Co-founder Belinda Galiano added: “From the moment we saw the former airport Berlin Tempelhof we knew in a second that it was the ideal place for Campus Party Europe. To know that thousands of campuseros will unite at this historical place, known worldwide as a symbol of freedom, helps fulfill a dream that began with the first Campus Party in 1997.”

“We believe the power of ideas and innovative approaches to technology can transform Europe’s social and economic future for the better,” said José María Álvarez-Pallete, CEO of Telefónica Europe. “One goal of Campus Party Europe in Berlin is to reinstate the region as a global leader in technology. Campus Party represents just one delivery mechanism for Telefónica Think Big – a series of 2015 commitments to promote entrepreneurial spirit in Europe.”

How can you participate?

1) Think about the best idea for the European Digital Agenda, can you fit it in a tweet? Great. Otherwise, write a short blog post explaining your idea or record a video and upload it to YouTube, Vimeo, etc.

2) Between May 15th and June 30th tweet your idea, with the geolocation option on, in which you must include:

  • General hashtag #I4DA
  • Specific hashtag about the category of your idea:
    • #YouthEmployment
    • #AgingWell
    • #Entrepreneurship
    • #Health
    • #InternetRights
  • A short description of your idea
  • If your idea doesn’t fit in 140 characters you can also provide a link to a blog post or a short video explaining your proposal. The most important universities from each country in the European Union will be responsible for choosing the best ideas and will select the 5,000 campuseros that will take part in the biggest tech movement in history. Every idea submitted will be a starting point for a debate and filter process that will conclude in a ceremony at the event in which the ideas will be presented to Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission who is responsible for the Digital Agenda.

Campus Party is the largest global technology festival where innovation, creativity, science and digital entertainment come together. For one week, 24-hours-a-day thousands of campuseros (hackers, developers, gamers and techies) equipped with laptops camp on-site surrounded by a unique environment where talks, workshops, competitions and hackathons take place simultaneously. Since 1997, Campus Party has grown into a global community of more than 180,000 young, passionate technologists throughout Europe, USA and Latin America that collaborate, learn and promote innovation. Currently, there are annual editions taking place in Sao Paulo (Brazil), Bogota (Colombia), Valencia (Spain), Quito (Ecuador) and Mexico City (Mexico) in addition to special European, Millennium and Ibero-America events. The festival in Berlin will be the first Campus Party to be held in Germany.

For more information: www.campus-party.eu or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @campuspartyeu