The 4GAMECHANGERS festival is a three-day peek into the future as it is, as it may be and as it could be given the right people, attitudes and actions. Armed with a courtesy pass for the 2024 event, your intrepid travel writer went to see what you find inside the venue.
- Spirited programme & audience
- Remarkable diversity of speakers, panelists and exhibitors
- Information, inspiration & entertainment
- See also:
The cool & the curious
(I got a lanyard with my name on it. It’s the little things)
When you reach a certain age, you can rage against change much like the long-defunct organisation of cinema orchestras, who once wanted the abomination known as “movies with sound” banned.
Alternatively, you can face up to the wild water rapids of life. (Or, if you’re me, take off your socks and shoes and paddle delicately in the shallow parts of the torrent.)
But change is not entirely random, and the 4GAMECHANGERS festival brings together folk seeking to guide their and society’s future into a better direction.
I’ve covered the concept and broad contents elsewhere, but how does this festival of the (digital) future feel on the ground?
That this was no ordinary event became apparent before I even got inside: a giant truck from the state broadcaster parked out the front and an x-ray security check before you reach the ticket desk.
Inside, it was clear we’re not in staid coffee house Vienna anymore. The place buzzes with the shiver of anticipation. And quite a community of people wander the aisles of the exhibitor booths or sit in the audience at talks and panels.
The young, the experienced, the curious, the successful, the hopeful, the cool and the trying-hard-to-be-cool. Serious looking folk with laptops and school-leavers with a hesitant self-confidence.
(I found Beau Lotto’s keynote speech powerful and intriguing; press photo © 4GAMECHANGERS)
You can split the event into three broad parts.
Let us begin with the food court, with street food tending more toward the gourmet end of the spectrum.
It pleased me to see a longer queue at a vegan truck (where I enjoyed a lovely plant-based kebab) than at its meat-heavy neighbour. Apt, given the role of meat production in making our future even more challenging.
And plenty to drink, some of it provided free by the owner brands themselves. I scored two free KitKats, too…yay!
Then you have what is labeled as the entertainment court.
I moved swiftly through the 4LIFE Area, dedicated to “…lifestyle, well-being, and self-care.” Partly because lifestyle is something only other people have, but mostly to avoid giving in to temptation: the Schofrulade frozen fruits with chocolate looked disturbingly tasty.
Elsewhere you had an eclectic mix of exhibitors that often seemed unusual and unexpected bedfellows.
(The main stage and audience; press photo courtesy of and © 4GAMECHANGERS)
Global brands like main sponsors Google, Nespresso and Magenta, but also small startups and social organisations. Here a vegan cheese producer, there the Austrian police. Tax advisors, the Austrian Paralympics Committee, business and job seeker services, bike rental, and more.
Many offered some form of entertainment…a rodeo bull, a VR car race, screen-based fun and similar. Not to mention, for reasons yet unknown to science, a large number of places giving away popcorn. (I’m not complaining.)
The overall ambience is one of earnest positivity: a fine antidote to the pessimism that pervades much of modern life. A sliver of hope in turbulent times…so leave your cynicism outside at the security check.
And then you have the panels and talks, of course…perhaps the raison d’être of the event.
Some took place on a small “silent stage” where you borrowed headphones to listen.
The heavy lifters, though, appeared on a stage in a giant auditorium that filled an entire hall of the Marx Halle venue. You could borrow headphones here as well to listen to English translations of any German-language talks.
That main 4GAMECHANGERS stage made quite an impression, the whole area bathed in coloured light. And live acts (often by performers normally encountered at giant music festivals), video segments and “gamechanging moments” filled gaps between keynotes and panels.
(Strong media interest from the national broadcaster)
The programme took up an entire 20-page booklet, which tells you something about the breadth of topics covered by the often international speakers and panelists. From the power of curiosity to compostable coffee capsules. AI to the American elections. Synthetic foods to sustainability.
One half-hour period I experienced, for example, included:
- A short interview with Marco Fürst and Marco Waltenspiel, who’d flown under London’s tower bridge in wing suits just four days earlier
- A goosebump-inducing rendition of the Sempre Libera aria from Verdi’s La Traviata by Hila Fahima, accompanied by Kristin Okerlund on piano
- An intriguing keynote speech by neuroscientist Beau Lotto on dealing with the uncertainty of life, as a result of which I immediately bought his book (which he did not even promote)
Here is the heart of 4GAMECHANGERS.
Forget the free chocolate and coffee, the futuristic products and services, the networking and the vegan burgers.
Revel, instead, in a chance to learn, become inspired, hear different points of view, enjoy accomplished performances, and expose yourself to far more impressions than you can ever get from within your own bubble. I hope to go again.