Summer wouldn’t be complete without our annual Innovative Summer tips! This season, soak up the sunshine and get inspired by everything the city has to offer. From exploring the future of energy to dancing on a science museum rooftop, Amsterdam is bursting with opportunities to experience innovation, sustainability, and creativity. Here are six highlights from Amsterdam InChange to help make your summer not just memorable, but also meaningful.
Innofest is teaming up with Kwaku Festival to turn the festival atmosphere into a testing ground for sustainable innovations. For four weeks, Kwaku brings together music, dance, art, and food rooted in the Surinamese community and enriched by influences from the Caribbean, Africa, and beyond. This summer, Innofest will be testing two of its innovations live at the festival. Curious to find out which ones? Check them out on their website.
Experience history and the future on open water. Every five years, the world’s largest tall ships dock in Amsterdam for SAIL: a celebration of maritime heritage and innovation. Due to COVID, it’s now been ten years since the last edition. In August 2025, SAIL returns not only with beautiful ships but also with important themes like the energy transition and green logistics.
Spend your summer evenings on NEMO’s rooftop, where live music meets stunning city views and a dose of science. The rooftop becomes a spot for concerts, interactive exhibits, and inspiring ideas around energy and sustainability. A good mix of culture, curiosity, and summer vibes.
Get active in the climate conversation. Set in the lush botanical gardens of De Hortus, the Climate festival offers workshops, talks, and art installations focused on climate change and ecological resilience. It's a moment to reconnect with nature and find actionable hope.
Reimagine how we power our lives. Hosted by Waag Futurelab, this edition of Waag Open explores the future of energy. You'll go on an excursion to the Buiksloterham neighborhood, where all aspects of the energy transition come to life. Discover how deep the boreholes for thermal energy storage go, and learn exactly where the heat for the district heating system comes from.
Discover how technology shapes conflict. At Pakhuis de Zwijger, this event explores how digital tools and social platforms contribute to modern political violence. Through research and open dialogue, you’ll learn more about the intersection of tech, power, and resistance.
Do you have any other interesting tips? Share them below!
Met trots presenteren we het jaarverslag 2024 van Amsterdam InChange!
We kijken terug op een bijzonder jaar waarin we niet alleen onze programmaonderdelen verder hebben versterkt, maar ook succesvol de transitie hebben gemaakt naar onze nieuwe naam en branding. Daarnaast hebben we nieuwe vraagstukken opgepakt en onze Challenge-aanpak verder ontwikkeld — lerend door te doen, samen met onze partners.
Het samenstellen van dit verslag is elk jaar weer een feest. De verzamelde Challenges en bijgevoegde verslagen laten zien hoe we samen bouwen aan een rijke, diverse broedplaats: een tussenruimte waar innovatie tot bloei komt.
In dit jaarverslag lees je meer over de Challenges van afgelopen jaar, de events die we organiseerden, en de thema’s die we als netwerk verkenden tijdens kennissessies, werksessies, deepdives en Data Dilemma’s.
Hieronder vind je alvast de highlights. Wil je meer weten? Lees dan hier het volledige jaarverslag 2024.
Roboflow is a great tool to help you create computer vision models. This evening is a hands-on workshop: a short introduction, two short use-case talks, and then you’ll start building your own computer vision model with help from the speakers.
Civic Sousveillance
For Tom van Arman from TAPP, civic sousveillance was the motivating use case to start using Roboflow as a computer vision solution. It was used to build this public camera detection app.
A Pragmatic Guide to Roboflow
<strong>Thomas Jongstra,</strong> Data Scientist & AI/Software Engineer at Mind Matter, has written a step-by-step guide for Roboflow that walks you through the full workflow of building your own computer vision model. From collecting and labelling training images, to training the model in Roboflow, and to testing it on your own use case. Thomas will introduce the guide and show some results from the sousveillance project that he worked on with Tom.
DIY Fatbike Detection
Laura Ponoran will share her experience working with Thomas’ Roboflow Guide to develop her own DIY object detection project designed to detect fat bikes, an increasingly relevant issue given their rise in both popularity and safety concerns. With this example, she highlights how accessible object detection systems have become, even for independent users. Laura Ponoran is an AI, Data, and Smart City Research Intern at TAPP, a Smart City Architecture firm. She has previously collaborated with LosAparatos and NDSM on different sensing and awareness projects grappling with modern day problems.
Workshop: Build your Own Computer Vision Model
In the practical part of this meeting, Tom, Thomas and Laura will help you start your own computer vision project using Roboflow. You can check this video for inspiration to come up with your own use case for the workshop.
Please bring your laptop to the workshop, with any images/videos that you’d like to use for your computer vision project. If you can create an account on roboflow.com before the workshop, that would be great!
RSVP here: https://sensemakersams.org/events/
In 2018, the first paper on the Near Future in Cities of Things was published. Seven years later, we took the initiative to conduct exploratory research to reflect on the state of cities of things. Or, put differently: how should we assess the current state of urban robotics and physical AI?
In this interactive event, Iskander Smit will present the learnings from the research, and a panel of four of the approximately 25 interviewed experts will share their perspectives to kick off a discussion led by moderator Monique van Dusseldorp.
The central question is how the developments might impact and inspire the design of future cities, things, intelligent systems, and the interplay between these.
The panelists
Monique will involve other interviewed experts and participants in the event to reflect on the impact of urban robotics and physical AI on the practice of creative industries, design methods, and on relations between humans and AI.
Before and after, there will be space to connect with other participants and explore the current Wijkbots.
Schedule:
15h00 - Doors open, mingle, explore Wijkbots
16h00 - Welcome and introduction to the results of the research by Iskander Smit
16h30 - Introductions of the positions by the panelists
17h00 - Interactive discussion with panel, participants
18h00 - Wrap up and drinks with bites
20h00 - End
If you can only join part of the event, you are welcome to join later.
Find more details about the program on the <strong>Cities of Things website</strong>.
The event is powered by CLICKNL, and registration is free, including drinks.
