CultTech Summit - Successful world premiere for the first global summit for culture and technology in Vienna

‘Innovations in the tech sector, above all artificial intelligence (AI), will fundamentally change the cultural sector, which has been relatively unaffected by technological change to date. The emerging field of culture and technology, which we call CultTech, is an excellent economic opportunity for Europe. This development will completely reshape the way we produce, consume and exchange culture,’ explained Dimitry Aksenov, founder of the CultTech Association.

Oliver Holle, founder of the venture capital fund Speedinvest, added: ‘Almost all top-tier venture capital funds invest in culture. Many success stories in business have started in culture, even the biggest in Europe - Spotify.’ 

In addition to the dominant topic of AI and its impact on all sectors of the cultural industry, the CultTech Accelerator Demo Day gave almost 40 startup founders the opportunity to present their solutions to the investors in attendance. The power of the vibrant CultTech community was visible through a good mix of startup founders, artists, investors, entrepreneurs and scientists.  

The CultTech Association and Ars Electronica also awarded a joint prize for social projects in culture and technology for the second time at the summit. The winning project out of 147 submissions from 40 countries was the innovative AR game Escape Fake, which was initiated as a citizen project to improve media literacy and is now developing into a global community of educators. 

The summit's artistic programme includes a theatre performance, an electronic music concert and a two-day exhibition curated by the renowned art collective ‘Where The Dogs Run’. 

The first global meeting of the CultTech industry summit has thus achieved its goal of highlighting investment opportunities in the emerging sector and also building a bridge between art, technology and business. 

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