The TT Laan will once again turn into a testing ground for green and social innovations during the last weekend of June. At the TT Festival, Innofest invites five companies to test their ideas among the festival visitors.
“We are really looking forward to the fact that entrepreneurs can test their innovations again for the ninth time,” says Cher Osinga of Innofest. “We want to interactively involve visitors at the TT Festival in research in order to improve the ideas.”
One of those innovative ideas that the organization is looking forward to is the circular material research From Poop to Stage Light, by NHL Stenden. “From Wildlands in Emmen, they managed to convert poop from residual electricity into a light point for a lamp and outdoor lighting,” says Osinga. Plastic waste and vegetable waste can also be used for this.
The good thing about these and other innovations is that they respond to themes that play a role in Drenthe, Groningen and Friesland. For example, cycling home safely in the dark at night. “In the North you still see little outdoor lighting, also because the costs for municipalities are high.” This innovative idea may soon provide a solution for residual waste.
“The great thing is that new innovations keep coming from entrepreneurs from the Northern Netherlands,” says Osinga. “That makes the TT Laan so powerful every year.”
Another innovative project taking place on TT Laan is called Jamr. Two and a half years ago during Eurosonic in Groningen, one of the co-founders came up with the idea of rolling out an app that brings together all live music.
“It’s a kind of Netflix or Spotify for live music,” says Sander van der Kolk of Jamr. “You get a kind of timetable on your phone with all the performances that can be seen somewhere during the weekend. Whether that is in Vera in Groningen or in the Nieuwe Kolk in Assen.”
The founders are now also in discussions with the bigger names in the Dutch festival landscape to merge these programs into their app. And even beyond national borders, the app already maps live music performances, for example in London.
“We are going to expand it into a global platform,” says Van der Kolk ambitiously. But even though the co-founder dreams big, he mainly wants to be there for lesser-known names. “We especially want to make the small artists visible in the smaller venues.”
It is also important to identify what visitors to live music events prefer to be presented with, in order to then offer the most suitable music program via the app.
“We want to test how that works,” explains Van der Kolk. “It will be similar to how dating apps work.” For example, you will soon see artists on your screen on the TT Laan that you can swipe to the left if you don’t like it, or to the right if you do like it.
“We would also like to appeal to visitors at the TT Festival,” says Van der Kolk, “so that we can understand what they most need at a festival. We want to continue to improve together with the people at the TT.”