LIFT is over. Seven hundred attendees. Three days. Sixty presentations. I am now dealing with the ensuing emptiness, and started digesting some of the most intense days I have ever gone through. I met hundreds of people, entered countless conversations, was stressed, interviewed, photographed, applauded, sick, thanked, pressured, hugged, and even threatened by a guy who had more than abused my kindness at the entrance. LIFT is a roller coaster, where the highs and low come in rapid succession, and when the train stops you suddenly feel empty and bored. I know the team feels the same, and I will quickly schedule a diner to allow us to exchange and sort all of our emotions.

A few days after LIFT, I like to think the event was a success. I say it carefully because I am the least objective person to judge that. Two main reasons: 1) everybody comes to me with praises and thank you, afraid of me breaking their arm if they don’t say something positive ;) 2) as the master of ceremony I am over-exposed to problems and have to deal with hundreds of them that, most of the time, don’t make it to the community, or only to one or two persons. So my perception is somehow very distorted until I get the post-conference survey.

Anyway, I am happy to see that some of the bets we made worked, like the 600 persons fondue or the venture night. Overall I think we managed to keep the spirit of LIFT alive through an impressive growth and a lot of conflicting interests. I see room for improvement in almost every part of the event, but let’s let the dust settle a bit before talking about that.

Thanks to all who made LIFT08 possible! I am working on uploading the videos than will head for a few days of rest.

The TSR is uploading the LIFT08 speeches in almost realtime on nouvo.ch/liftvideo

Enjoy and pass the word :)

I had an interesting conversation with a friend who is the co-founder of an online groceries store that delivers food (real food, « organic » as the Americans would say ;) to the citizens of this country. You go to a website, push a few buttons, and you get your food delivered at home the next day. A simple value proposition, one of the biggest logistical challenge I have ever seen hiding behind it.

At some point he told me this:

« My daughter never went to a supermarket. She is 10 years old and knows either online stores - for basic products - or the farmers’ market – for touching products and have a real shopping experience. »

I won’t argue against the fact he is not representative of the whole population, nor will I try to speculate on how much of this situations comes from the girl’s will to support her daddy’s business ;) But it is an interesting evolution. Never go to a supermarket is now conceivable, and if was not true 10 years ago.

If you visit a Carrefour store in France, you will notice how they are focusing on giving consumers a different experience, branding each section of the shop with extreme care, making it more attractive, different, « authentic ». You can get your aspirins from a lady sporting a white blouse, a totally different experience than getting it yourself from a random shelf.

The future of grocery shopping might be a wonderful, sensitive and spectacular experience on one side, with computers, recommendation engines and home delivery on the other. Does that strike a cord? Sounds an awful lot like Apple stores to me.