And&: technology, culture and economy combined in one mind-blowing festival

No matter how busy you are, do try to find the time to come to Leuven in the first days of May. Because from 2 to 5 May, the first edition of and& will be taking place there. And what? And&. And why? Because this may become 2018’s most important event in Belgium.

What makes and& so special then? It is a (for Belgium) unique combination of artistic and cultural performances, technology insights, and innovative perspectives on topics such as creativity, health and the future of city life. Over one hundred speakers and artists will explore the interaction between business, technology, art and society in order to spur creativity and innovation in all of the areas mentioned above.

Entering a new dimension

When we heard of this initiative, we were in the middle of some out-of-the-box brainstorms as well. Although our own customer event, SAS Forum, was still hugely popular - attendance and appreciations kept growing year after year - we felt we needed something else in order to fully realize our objectives. These objectives include, among others, to reach out to the outside world and take an active role in our society, the same way that our technology plays an increasingly important role in the improvement of society and our daily lives.

SAS Forum was a success for our inner crowd and we could have continued this success for several years, to everybody’s satisfaction. But both within and outside of the marketing department, there was a growing feeling that we could do even better. We wanted to replicate this success for a much bigger audience, including people we have never reached before.

When we heard of this and& initiative by the city of Leuven, we immediately understood that it could be the ideal way to reach this goal. and& explicitly aims at tearing down the borders between technology and daily life, between technical innovation and artistic creativity, and so many more. This gets really close to SAS’ ambition of creating technology and helping to provide the right insights that lead to a better world.

Join us

DJ’s such as Joy Orbison and Bicep will alternate with artists such as ‘body architect’ Lucy McRae and renowned speakers from the business and technology world such as Peter Hinssen, Sofie Vandebroek and Duco Sickinghe. Together they will create a unique cross-fertilization of genres, insights, points of view and entertainment in various venues across the inspiring city of Leuven.

SAS has decided to act as a main sponsor for this 4-day event, and will also actively participate in the activities with the and&+ experience, hosting our own track of sessions and speakers in the M museum, showcasing some of the most exciting examples how analytics can help us improve the city, our lives and the entire world, and much more.

So do join us on this exciting event, this fascinating journey along various innovative artistic, cultural and technological insights. It will be a rewarding, inspiring and - hell yeah - downright fun experience! Get in touch, so we can secure your tickets with a nice discount.

For a brief impression of what you can expect:

For the entire experience: we look forward to seeing you in May!