Ard Boer is a Chief Scientist and co-founder of New Music Labs, a Groningen-based company that specializes in developing creative concepts for the music industry, executing viral marketing campaigns, and creating full-blown artist websites and apps. He has worked with notable names such as Within Temptation, Sony Music, Universal Music, and Excelsior Recordings. Ard is also a co-founder of the popular pop festival, Into The Great Wide Open, which has been sold out every year since it began in 2009. Ard has a background in Bedrijfskunde, Art Studies, and General, having studied at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Before co-founding New Music Labs, Ard worked as a Freelance Innovatieprogrammeur Innofest at Innofest Nederland, and as a Manager Noorderslag Interactive at Eurosonic Noorderslag.