More than 400.000 people viewed the livestreams of The Next Web 2018

The Next Web was once again a giant spectacle. We Are Live was proud to have been a part of it with 39 crew members, 26 cameras and more than five kilometers of cables to broadcast this large-scale festival in a unique manner. And we have reason to be proud, as this was the sixth time that we were entrusted with this duty. That’s why we were able to hold our heads high as we went to work preparing the stage direction across eight podiums. The goal was to let whoever was interested from anywhere in the world, be a part of the event through the livestream. In that way, they could have the best possible experience no matter from where they were watching.

Crystal balls for everybody

The Next Web Conference has grown over the last 12 years into one of the biggest tech conferences in Europe. This year the previous editions were once again outdone as Amsterdam’s Westergasterrein was transformed to a Valhalla for tech lovers. Outfitted with comedy, art, music and entertainment, the Next Web has morphed from a conference into something akin to a festival. This year, 15,000 visitors of more than 3,500 companies from across the world came together there. Speakers of big companies like Google, Microsoft, 9Gag and Nike inspired marketing managers and decision makers. The event even built a special three floor high ‘pitch tower’ for 250 selected startups. To give the diverse audience an overview in the gigantic offering of the tech experience, the conference was divided into: The future of work, music, and marketing and artificial intelligence. In this way, people could locate each other quickly and could easily find what they were looking for.

Live spectacle from the main stage

The main stage was built up inside a giant former gas tank. Here, Ron Faris of Nike and Netta Selene of Airbnb presented their keynotes - amongst other industry leaders. By placing 12 cameras around the stage we offered a unique experience to the audiences watching the event live online. An absolute highlight during this 360° experience was the World Final of Chivas Venture. Every year Chivas organizes a competition for social startups around the world and it was here in the gas tank that they announced this year’s winner. The cherry on the cake was the rapper and producer will.i.am who, as the chairman of the jury, chose a winner from among the five finalists. After his speech, during which the superstar thanked Chivas for realizing the importance of boosting these kinds of initiatives, the winner was announced. ‘Change Please’ trains homeless people to become baristas and helps them to find jobs and a place to live. In order to help make their project a reality, they received €350,000.

will.i.am: ‘The superstars of tomorrow are going to be founders of companies that solve tomorrow's problems.’

Over 400,000 viewers watched the show live; We Are Live was responsible for the technical aspects as well as directing the video. We also made use of live editing so that the highlights of the event could be collected and offered across the world the very same day. In this way, viewers don’t need to dig through hours of video content but can instead choose from the highlights. Though admittedly, even those keep growing as year on year the event keeps getting bigger and better.