Trapped inside technology?

Beyond big tech: a collaboration with ZEG Storytelling Festival

Programme maker
Anne Grietje Franssen
In collabortion with
ZEG Festival

ZEG Festival is back. With live storytelling, music and conversation, we’ll explore how a handful of tech entrepreneurs have come to dominate the game and what we can do to curb the influence of big tech and their all-encompassing systems.

A small pack of tech billionaires appear to have mistaken our world for their chess board and the rest of us for pieces. Their strategy: raise enough money to move faster than anyone else, capture infrastructure that everyone depends on, become so central the governments react to you instead of regulate you, make the rules and force everyone else to live inside them.

Through live storytelling, music and conversation, this event will explore how technology is rewriting the rules of power, how a handful of tech entrepreneurs have come to dominate the game and what we can do to curb the influence of big tech and their all-encompassing systems.

ZEG Supra
Stay for ZEG Supra: After the main program, experience our twist on one of humanity’s oldest storytelling traditions: a Georgian feast where delicious food is served alongside stories, connection, and dissent.

About the speakers

Natalia Antelava is a journalist, co-founder and publisher of Coda Story, and co-founder of ZEG Network, a global platform for live journalism, storytelling and cross-disciplinary gatherings. An Emmy-nominated and award-winning journalist originally from Tbilisi, Georgia, she began her career reporting in West Africa before joining the BBC, where she served as a correspondent across the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East, Washington and India.

Alix Dunn is the founder and CEO of The Maybe, a critical consultancy, collective, and media studio challenging the power and politics of tech. She hosts the Computer Says Maybe weekly podcast, sits on the board of Foxglove and is an advisor for AI Now and the AI Collaborative.

About ZEG Network

Powered by award-winning journalism from Coda Story, ZEG’s original parent company, ZEG Network unites investigative reporters, artists, activists, and thinkers to explore the stories shaping our collective future. The natural evolution of ZEG Festival, Tbilisi’s renowned storytelling festival, this initiative creates spaces for urgent, cross-border conversations that challenge dominant narratives. Through deep journalism and creative collaboration, we work to amplify voices and ideas that reimagine what comes next for our world.

Speakers

Natalia Antelava Journalist, co-founder and publisher of Coda Story, and co-founder of ZEG Network
Alix DunnFounder and CEO of The Maybe, a critical consultancy, collective, and media studio challenging the power and politics of tech
do 5 nov / 20:00
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