Sheet 07 · The production
Aboutthesummit
Three days, four rooms, and a rule that something has to get made in each of them.
The story
From a taped-up running order
HALF-LIGHT started in 2024 as a single day in a rented hall: four hundred seats, one stage, a printed running order taped to the door. The people who came were the ones who finish things — the last five percent of a typeface, a design system that survives its third team, a build that ships on the day it says it will.
What we believe
Slides are not a medium. Every room at HALF-LIGHT is set up so something gets made in it: the Stage track bans decks outright, the Studio track caps at twenty-four desks, and the keynotes are timed to the minute because our stage manager has run opera houses.
How it is produced
The summit is run by the Half-Light Foundation, a non-profit in Rotterdam, with a programme committee of nine practitioners who rotate every two years. Speakers are paid. Tickets cover the venue and the crew; sponsors cover the rest and get a room, not a banner.
The call sheet
Everything on this site runs off one document — the call sheet — which is also what you will be handed at the door. Mark it up online, export your day, and it will still be true when you arrive.
In the room
No slides. Something gets built.
Every room is set up so work happens in it — the Stage track bans decks outright, the keynotes are timed to the minute, and the whole thing is lit like the show it is.
What we believe
Three rules we run on
Slides are not a medium
Every room is set up so something gets made in it. The Stage track bans decks; the workshops cap at twenty-four; the keynotes are timed to the minute.
Everyone gets paid
Speakers are paid, the committee rotates every two years, and sponsors buy a room in the programme — not a banner.
The document is the show
The whole event runs off one call sheet, and so does this site. Mark it up, export your day, and it stays true when you arrive.
The edition in figures
1,140
38
24
2 weeks
The archive
Every year since 2024
Silo Hall · Loft 2 · Dock Room · Workshop AThe venue
A grain silo on the Maas
Maassilo is a 1910 grain elevator turned event hall: raw concrete, eleven-metre ceilings, and a dock door that opens straight onto the river.
Maashaven Zuidzijde 1-2, 3081 AE Rotterdam
- Metro D/E to Maashaven · 4 min walk
- Rotterdam Centraal · 12 min by metro
- Schiphol · 35 min by train
On the bill
People who ship
Next
Comeandmakesomething
Three days in October. Star the sessions you want and build your day before you arrive.