ECHN is happy to announce the dates of our annual meetup of the creative hubs community under the BAUTOPIA umbrella. However, this year is special. It is the network’s first festival in the true sense of the word, spanning three days - across multiple parallel events and venues. Join us in Athens this October!
Following the successful Hubs Meetup in Silandro (Italy) in October 2025, a year later, between October 7th and 9th 2026, European Creative Hubs Network will be presenting our very first festival in Athens, Greece. BAUTOPIA is back!
This year’s focus is on the notions of sustainability, but this time with a slightly different edge. Under the title CREATIVE AGENCY: Sustaining Culture & Creativity in the Age of Intelligence, creative hub managers, CCSI stakeholders, artists, creative professionals, students and the general audience will explore sustainability only from the environmental standpoint, but also the sustainability of creative professions in the face of multiple crises, the technological challenges posed by the use of AI in creative processes, and the impermanence that many creative professions will be facing in the period ahead of us.
Over three days, we will share insights into how to claim our own and our collective agency, coming from academics, designers, artists, technologists, thinkers, and doers, including more than 100 representatives of creative hubs from across Europe.
Each of ECHN’s annual events, whether a meetup, conference, or festival, is co-hosted by one of the network’s member hubs. This year, BAUTOPIA is hosted by BIOS in Athens, Greece, which also serves as the base of ECHN.
BIOS is a cultural organization that actively shapes the conditions for contemporary cultural production, creating spaces where new ideas, practices, and communities can emerge. Operating across a network of interconnected venues, BIOS has developed a distinct urban ecosystem for culture and creativity. Its flagship space on Pireos Street laid the foundation, followed by Romantso as a hub for creative entrepreneurship, Latraac as an experimental hybrid of sport and culture, and more recently PLEX in Kerameikos, a space dedicated to artistic production and exchange.
With the new festival format, ECHN will align with a wide range of partners in the hosting city, and produce a number of satellite programs and events, thus attracting both the professional and the general audiences. Expect inspirational keynote lectures from some of the leading creators, researchers and managers, as well as a multitude of panels, workshops, participatory sessions, performances, exhibitions and music programs. ECHN will, as usual, hold its annual General Assembly within the event, and a series of sessions aimed at its members and building the capacities from the within, as well as other invite-only events for stakeholder networking.
The first exciting keynote speakers are already being confirmed, but we will not reveal them just yet. Follow ECHN’s social media channels to find out the latest BAUTOPIA news, and expect the initial program to be announced, and pre-registrations to open before the end of June.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS & JOIN US IN ATHENS THIS OCTOBER!
Visit the official Bautopia7 website for more information.
