Mirik Milan: The State of the World at Night

07/20/22 • 24 min

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).

24HOURNATION
24HourNation provides free webinars, a podcast, and news for nighttime economy supporters. In addition to our Nighttime Economy podcast, please follow us on:

His innovative position has now been replicated in more than seventy cities.

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).

24HOURNATION
24HourNation provides free webinars, a podcast, and news for nighttime economy supporters. In addition to our Nighttime Economy podcast, please follow us on:

Previous Episode

Gray Hardaway: A New Private Sector Model for Safety

What if your nighttime business or event was able to summon an off-duty police officer or armed and trained guard as needed?
While out at night, what if you as an individual could also get peace of mind, deescalate a situation or receive protection from harm as needed?
And what if this was all available to you as a phone app?
With the option of getting an officer-on-demand or scheduling a plain-clothes or uniformed officer for an anticipated need, will Secur do for public safety what shared-ride services did for on-demand transportation?
Let’s find out when we spend 24 minutes with Gray Hardaway, Co-Founder and CEO of Secur.

24HOURNATION
24HourNation provides free webinars, a podcast, and news for nighttime economy supporters. In addition to our Nighttime Economy podcast, please follow us on:

Next Episode

Alby Bocanegra: Global Strategies and Collaborations

Pioneered by Mastercard, City Possible is a new model of public-private partnerships that brings together a united private sector to work with cities and communities to solve system-wide challenges.

City Possible believes that, by co-developing, piloting and scaling solutions, it can strengthen the new triple bottom line: people, cities and businesses.
“We can create solutions to uplift all segments of the community by putting people at the center of design,” Mastercard states.
As a part of its City Possible initiative, Mastercard has also assembled an impressive international team of nighttime economy stakeholders. This 24-Hour Cities Network is helping design and create solutions in the areas of nighttime governance, public safety, mobility and economic development.
What could this mean for your city’s nighttime economy? Spend 24 minutes with M. Alby Bocanegra, Vice President for Mastercard’s Global City Partnerships.

24HOURNATION
24HourNation provides free webinars, a podcast, and news for nighttime economy supporters. In addition to our Nighttime Economy podcast, please follow us on: