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

Enjoy and pass the word :)

Here is the day I just had:

• 8h: Meeting at Hotel Intercontinental to hammer out last minute details with a LIFT partner
• 9h: Meeting to prepare press conference
• 9h45: LIFT08 press conference starts, we welcome around 15 journalists, more than twice the number of people who showed up for LIFT06.
• 11h30: Press conference ends, I open my gmail to find 55 messages
• 12:30: lunch
• 14: Final meeting at the CICG to check everything is fine.
• 15h30: Interview on World Radio Switzerland, followed by a meeting to review potential stories in the program.
• 17h: Email and accreditation of journalists.
• 18h: LIFT Nouvo debate starts, third time I talk about LIFT in public, I try to avoid repeating the same stuff all over again.
• 20h30: I listen to my voice mail to find the RSR calling for an interview. I call back and it’s (fortunately) too late.
• 20h45: Cool, we have 499 participants! I update the website with the latest info (workshops, venture night, etc…)
• 22h: Review of the program before it goes to print.
• 0h43: Still reviewing, train tomorrow at 8, and I just thought I would blog this just to show what kind of work it takes to put together LIFT. And I am only one member of a team of 25 people.

Have a good night :)

The LIFT08 open program needs you! We received a record number of propositions for the different formats, and now is the time to filter the good from the, well, less good ;)

Cast your votes folks, this is your event.

Pass the news around you :)

Check this one out to get the latest LIFT08 news.

I have been podcasted by Thierry Weber at Leweb3 and we discussed LIFT08 (in French).

We talk about the European alliance, the new formats, why the entry price went up (Thierry told me I never really explained why, sorry about that I will do an english video one of these days), and reveal one of this year’s coolest activity: the fact that we will write a magazine at LIFT with content created by the participants. Live. You will leave the conference center with 8 (yes EIGHT) editions of a LIFT magazine that will be printed rightat the conference and contain, among other things, your blog posts and pictures.

Glenn O’Neil analyzed the effect of LIFT on networking.

Quite self-explanatory right? More info on the conference blog.

One of the pleasures of running conferences is that you can invite people you were looking up to when you were younger. Bruno Bonnell, founder of Infogrames, is a legend of French entrepreneurship I was watching on TV when I was a teenager. I’m glad and proud he will give his first speech in years at LIFT. Thanks to him for coming and congrats to Nicolas Nova for this great addition to the impressive program.

Being a conference organizer changes your whole attendee experience when you go to an event: you have a different look on things, especially on the tiny logistical details who are details to the public but crucial decisions to the organizer.

One of the areas where I still hadn’t made a decision for LIFT08 was badges. It might sound exaggerated but badges have a huge impact on attendees experience, because they are the main “navigation tool” and therefore impact the quality of networking.

As usual there are pluses and minuses:

At LIFT07 we had a logistical problem (actually the Swiss post did) and the badges arrived only on the second day. It took many attendees out of their comfort zone and triggered a few negative comments. On the plus side it created a nice ambiance where you had to rely on your usual judgment to network. This person looks nice and smiles at me, let’s meet (regardless of whether the person is a CEO or not). Less badges equaled more serendipitous encounters.

So I proposed to turn this accident into a feature, making NO badges on purpose. But the idea was not very well welcomed by the team who argued that badges are an indispensable part of networking at conference. We’ll see, and yes I’m speaking about that so you know that this blog’s readers opinion and experiences are more than welcome on the topic.

We saw more than 30 persons register for LIFT08 in the past 24 hours as the early bird price comes to an end on Friday at midnight. Get your ticket for 650CHF (390€, 570$, 280£) instead of 850CHF before it is too late.

Register now and join the 230+ persons who already registered.