The State of the World at Night
24Minutes Podcast
Season 1, Episode 14
Jul 20, 2022
Guest: Mirik Milan, Co-founder and Partner, VibeLab
As Amsterdam’s Night Mayor from 2012-2018, Mirik Milan played an instrumental role in the reshaping that city’s nightlife scene. Today, Amsterdam has one of the most vibrant and economically robust nighttime economies in the world.
His innovative position has now been replicated in more than seventy cities.
Today Mirik is co-founder and partner at VibeLab, a European-based consultancy. VibeLab supports creative communities around the world and helps them better understand the value of vibrant life at night.
VibeLab has been most defined by seven major projects, some in collaboration with other partners:
- Creative Footprint, a sociocultural initiative that maps and indexes creative spaces to measure the impact of nightlife and cultural activity.
- Global Nighttime Recovery Plan, a collaboration of over 130 practitioners and experts from seventy cities. The resulting document provides guidance for a safe and feasible post-pandemic nighttime economic recovery worldwide.
- Voices of Creatives, a study providing empirical evidence on the impact of Covid-19 on the culture and creative industries. This research focused on Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Senegal and South Africa.
- NACHTdenken (“night thoughts”), a 48-hour hackathon to produce innovative business ideas to save and strengthen German nightlife.
- Global Cities After Dark, a Sydney-born forum. Global Cities brings together nighttime stakeholders, artists and policymakers to shape the future of nightlife.
- Future of Nightlife, a global night culture research project. In it, industry visionaries, creators and leaders provide inspiration and insight into the possibilities of post-pandemic celebrations.
- Nighttime Governance Study, the first qualitative study of night mayors around the world.
- United We Stream, a cultural streaming and fundraising platform. The platform broadcasts music performances from cultural spaces affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Listen to our 24-minute podcast with VibeLab’s Mirik Milan to get an update on the State of the World (at Night).