40 persons came tonight to the informal LIFT08 kickoff, and it was great to feel the event getting to life. The conference is now three and a half months away, and the first twenty speakers have been announced.

Here are the information you missed if you weren’t part of the lucky few who could attend:

• Again, LIFT will be 3 days, with small tweaks in the concept. The first morning will be dedicated to workshops, with the afternoon being for either more workshops or an unconference (I need your help on making this decision folks, what do you prefer?). Thursday and Friday will be the typical conference days, with 20 minutes keynotes, self-organizing informal discussions (during the breaks, in a nice sofa area), open-stage talks (but in a different format, 3-5 minutes slots for high impact presentations), and of course artistic activities with experimentation, audio experiences, installations and of course photo taking!
• We are also working on a start up night with one of our partners, stay tuned it could be a really nice addition to the conference and would happen the day before or on Wednesday.
• The program is out, and it features the usual mix of big names and surprises. All the details are in Nicolas’ post on the LIFT blog.
• The price will go up slightly, and will include the fondue. I am not yet opening registrations because I want to fine tune the early bird system. Idea: pressure people to register early! As you know LIFT is non-profit, so the money we get goes to the event. And making 20% of the turnover in the last week isn’t good because we don’t have time to use that money effectively.
• There is a new website, and it now has community features like buddy lists and friends invites. We will add more things in the
  coming months - Marco Peyer is in charge of that - and I reminded everybody that people who attended LIFT07 already have an account, and that the community blog is here to post ideas, projects, interesting videos, speakers propositions, etc…
• LIFT is going to Asia, and is now part of a European alliance. I already spoke about that extensively, but it’s worth mentioning again :)
• Most of the 2007 partners will be with us again in 2008, with 1875 finance, the Gebert Rüf Stiftung or the University of Lausanne already committing for the next edition. We are still seeking new partners so pass the news around you!
• You will have many opportunities to participate to the success of LIFT, namely:
  • By contributing to the community blog to pass good ideas and projects around
  • Propose a workshop, a discussion or an open stage talk
  • Help us with trend spotting, by proposing speakers or topics for the next editions (we will soon launch a “suggest” tool on the website)
  • Being your old friendly, open and creative selves as usual :)

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