CpeuropeThe chances are, if you’re the type of person who’d attend a Campus Party, you’ll already know what it is. For those of you who don’t, allow us to fill you in. It’s an annual week-long, 24-hours-a-day technology festival, where thousands of ‘campuseros’ descend on a huge venue with their laptops and other gear, camp on-site and do what they do best: get their geek on.


Since the first Campus Party in 1997 was attended by 250 people, its popularity has grown into a global community of over 180,000 campuseros, who flock to the events every year in Spain and Latin America. For 2012, things are getting even bigger – Campus Party is coming to Berlin, with a bang.

 

This year, a colossal site in Berlin (once known as Tempelhof Airport) will play host to 10,000 campuseros and guest speakers such as Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Paulo Coelho, Don Tapscott and Yossi Vardi. Taking place on August 21-26 2012, it’ll boast 16 stages and host 60 hours of content. It’ll be the biggest Campus Party event in the world, ever.

And you could be there.

In a scheme called TheBigThink, Campus Party are inviting tech geniuses across Europe to pitch their ideas on how we can “re-type Europe’s source code.” The best 5,000 entries will be chosen and their creators invited to attend the Berlin event, completely free, including transport, event tickets and accommodation.

If you’ve got a brilliant idea for the European Digital Agenda, here’s how to get involved:

  • If you can fit your idea into a tweet, great. If not, you can write it in a blog post, or record a video and upload it to YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
  • From today (15 May) until 30 June 2012, tweet your idea @CampusPartyEU with the following:
    • General hashtag #I4DA
    • Specific hashtag about the category of your idea:
      • #YouthEmployment
      • #AgingWell
      • #Entrepreneurship
      • #Health
      • #InternetRights
  • A short description of your idea.

The massive task of choosing the best ideas and selecting 5,000 camuseros will be down to some of the most important universities from each country in the EU, with the winners being announced in early July.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to impress them, get thinking and get tweeting – maybe we’ll see you in Berlin…

For more information on Campus Party Europe, take a look at their website.

 

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