SCHMIEDE HALLEIN Verein zur Förderung der digitalen Kultur is a cooperative prototyping festival between the arts, maker and digital media, a playground where our ideas come to play. The objective is to learn from the process, each other, build trust and find collaborators for the current or future projects. Schmiede does not teach. Schmiede provides inspiration and possibilities. Schmiede empowers this process by bringing together the essentials: space, people, infrastructure, food and freedom to explore. Schmiede is open to everyone interested. Since 2003, Schmiede is the world Smiths (participants of Schmiede) create in late September, on an island in the Alps. Once a year, around 200 people from about 15 nations, peers, artists, experts, and students in their professions and spheres of interest come together in an old salt refinery in the city of Hallein. For ten days they experiment, network and present, to an audience but first of all to peers for feedback.