KEY INFO- Dates: 24-26 Sept, 2020
- Location: Antwerp,
Belgium - Fields covered: graphic
design, illustration,
typography, photography,
3d, animation, film,
fashion, architecture,
product design, retail
design, experiential design - Confirmed speakers:
Hattie Stewart, Lottie
Nieminen and Hisham
Akira Bharoocha - Year founded: 2016
- Attendees: 3,000
usbynight.be
you’re most interested in. We care a
lot about bringing in role models that
people can connect with and give
them superpowers.”
A design and creativity festival
turned into a unique nocturnal
experience, spanning over three nights,
Us By Night combines speaker talks
with an endless night-market of live
art, happenings, stalls and parties.
Rizon’s secret to keeping it fresh? “By
passionately investigating the industry –
non-stop! We’re always on the look-out
to find rough diamonds; people with
great work and a genuine story that
you haven’t seen before anywhere else,”
he explains. “It’s sometimes a risk, but
you’ve got to trust your instincts. The
highlights from the last edition were
most often the unexpected ones.”
GO BEYOND THE BASICS
OFFSET Dublin co-founder Lisa Haran
says they generally don’t accept speaker
proposals or reply to speakers who do
the circuit regularly. “It’s a gut instinct
that’s worked for us well over the years,
so we’re sticking with that format,” says
Lisa. “We love to showcase the people
who you might not have heard of, but
whose work you know well, such as
Dan Perri, title designer for Star Wars:
A New Hope. We also invite speakers
who simply wow us when we first
discover them, like stop-motion
animation and director Kirsten Lepore.”
With over 2,500 attendees each year,
OFFSET has become one of the world’s
most inspirational, educational and
vocational conferences for the design
and creative industries. “We celebrate
design in all its forms and invite
everyone to participate. Just as our
pool of speakers come from a variety of
creative industries, so do our audience
and this multi-disciplinary curation
creates an openness to look beyond
your own world and find inspiration in
the approach of others,” says Lisa.
“I can’t think of a better way to clear
out the creative cobwebs than to go to a
US BY
NIGHT
Us By Night is a unique nocturnal
experience in Antwerp, Belgium.
Combining an inspiring lineup of speakers
across two stages and an endless night-
market, visitors can expect local street
food, art happenings and even some
fluorescent ping-pong.
More than 70 artists from all around
the world gather in Antwerp each
September to share their stories and
inspirational insights with over 3,000
people. “Last year we scheduled Hassan
Rahim initially at the Living Room stage,
a more intimate stage at our Night Market,
because he had never given a talk before,”
says Us By Night’s founder Rizon Parein.
“Over time and texting with him I was
charmed by his personality, little details,
but most probably his honesty and humour
told me I had to take the risk and bump
him to the main stage. When the schedule
went live, he freaked out! But his talk
turned out to be for many the highlight of
the event, which made it so memorable.”
Last year the event relocated to
Waagnatie Expo, an enormous riverside
space. “The Us by Night venue exists out
of two big concrete warehouses, divided
by a huge wall,” says Rizon. “The doorways
between the two spaces are slightly
poorly positioned, which limited us in
the scenography and forced us to use
expensive, illogical solutions. At some
point we just asked if we were allowed
to make a six metre-wide hole in the
centre of the wall. We had nothing to lose
and it was probably a cheaper solution
than the measures we were looking at.
The owners of the building were like,
‘Finally, someone asks...!’ That was a fun
little victory. Our new scenography will
be bonkers!”“US BY NIGHT IS NOT JUST A CONFERENCE,
IT’S SPENDING A NIGHT OUT LIKE YOU HAVEN’T
EXPERIENCED BEFORE. IT’S WILD AND UNUSUAL”
RIZON PAREIN, FOUNDERUs By Night makes the most of Waagnatie Expo’s huge floor space.KEY CREATIVE EVENTSPHOT
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