Posted: July 6th, 2009 | No Comments »
Our focus is turning to Korea as Lift Asia is now only ten weeks away. We are working hard to make the conference more interesting and accessible than ever, two mandatory conditions to convince some of you to come with us in that unreasonable adventure.
The courageous who followed us lived one very special moments, when a handful of foreigners share a unique experience at the other side of the planet. As travelers know something unique happens this situation, connections are easier, have a special flavor.
Let me point to a few things here, as coming to Korea is easier, cheaper, and more relevant that you might think.
Now it is time for me to take a few days off, before hitting the road again and attend TED Global. After Oxford I will fly back to Korea, to continue testing the local food, and work on my guide skills for when the Lift delegation lands in Seoul.
Posted: June 23rd, 2009 | No Comments »
Great conference. Need to catch up several weeks of sleep :) The videos are being uploaded so check them out, we now spread them to Vimeo, Dailymotion, or Blip almost any platform you like!
Here is the best talk of the conference, at least if you believe the audience’s feedback. When we tried to stop Gunter as he was beyond timing, we almost had a rebellion in the room. A rebellion minus two persons, the speakers who had to take the stage after him ;)
Great, great talk, amazing guy, I got to meet him during Sunday’s brunches, and several projects are already being discussed…
Posted: June 18th, 2009 | No Comments »
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/_JAxp5Bmisk" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
It was fun to capture a few images. Let’s see if I can get better at this.
Posted: June 7th, 2009 | 2 Comments »
In ten days I will be in Marseille for the first ever Lift France, an event we decided to co-organize with the Fing less than five months ago. It was quite a risky bet in these troubled times, but it is paying off: we have our most coherent and well built program ever, discussing a fundamental shift in society: how our relationship to objects is going to change in the near future, both because they will join our computer networks and because we will be able to influence them like never before. Sensors networks, open source objects, fab labs, home production, many many big changes ahead.
John Thackara, Edith Ackermann, Bruce Sterling, Dennis Pamlin, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet , Euan Semple, Philippe Lemoine and many more speakers.
Marseille is a city buzzing with ideas and creativity, and we will showcase more than 20 projects selected by Axelle Benaich, Eleonore de Lusignan and Laurent Bolli for their originality, and the fact they will make you think out of the box. Twenty is double the amount of projects we usually show, they were so many good propositions that we decided to integrate more than usual.
Eggregor 8 by Antonin Fourneau, what happens when 8 people play the same character in a game?
Magic’Sense by Olivier Eschapasse, Cyrille MICHAUT and Patrick Zucchetta, when the bar helps you connect with others.
Open-Source Washing Machine by France Cadet, Hélène Berger and Morgane Rebuffat, how recycled materials can be turned into a cheap and effective wash machine.
The Green Watch: City Pulse by Thierry Marcou, what happens if we all had a watch reporting on air quality?
Then there is the open program where we had to close submissions two weeks earlier than we usually do after being overflown with quality propositions. There will be workshops about marketing, art, hacking, fund raising, innovation in Africa, education, many topics proposed and moderated by the participants themselves.
Finally, we will be at an exceptional location at the Palais du Pharo, and carefully prepared social events will make sure everybody has a good and productive time, a must to reach our goal of creating new contacts and ideas for the 500 expected participant, among them ten of the most influential bloggers who were invited through a partnership with the OIF.
Our venue: the Palais du Pharo.
First conferences are always special, unique adventures where a new community is born, where a special energy shows up like last year at Lift Asia. Ten days to go, it will be hard to wait…
Posted: April 21st, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Check out this interview made with Jonathan Marks where I discuss the immediate future of Lift. I think the life of a conference organizer is to always be mediatized at the peak of their fatigue, and looking back at these pictures I am really happy I finally took a few days off.
Now back in the plane to speak at Interfacing innovation about the social consequences of innovation.
Posted: March 23rd, 2009 | 2 Comments »
What happened in the sotware industry – young guys waking up with an idea, ending up changing the world from their sofa like it happened with Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc. – is now happening in the tangible world. Things like Arduino are enabling hackers and creators all around the globe, and what was possible with software (easily assemble code to create new applications) is now possible with objects (see Youtube for examples).
Lift France 09 will talk about this fundamental shift with a program centered around three main topics:
Changing Things: Towards objects that are not just “smart” and connected, but also customizable, hackable, transformable, fully recyclable… Towards decentralized and multipurpose manufacturing, or even home fabrication…
Changing Innovation: Towards continuous and networked innovation, emerging from users as well as entrepreneurs, from researchers as well as activists…
Changing the Planet: Towards a “green design” that reconnects global environmental challenges with growth, but also with human desire, pleasure, beauty and fun…
Link
This will be an exciting conference (first events are always special) and tickets are selling at only 350 euros until March 25, with 40 tickets reserved for students at 100 euros. Check the conference venue, buy some sunscreen, and prepare to meet amazing pioneers and creators on June 18-20 in Marseille!
Posted: March 12th, 2009 | No Comments »
Thierry Weber stopped me for an interview at Lift09, to discuss the development and the future of Lift, the Marseille edition, how we position ourselves towards other events, the challenges we face, and more. See the interview on Culture Pod, a nice 9 minutes updates on where we are heading.
Posted: March 4th, 2009 | No Comments »
Lift09 is over. The talks are watched all around the world. I am experiencing the typical post-lift syndrome, a surge of creativity (I am writing down new ideas every 5 minutes), extreme fatigue (as all the viruses I fought during the preparation are now catching up with me), renewed curiosity and energy to move to the next level as I gather participants feedback and thank yous. I was super happy with this edition: we managed to reduce the budget and still do a better event.
Everything was not perfect of course, but it was better than the previous edition, one that was rated excellent or good by more than 90% of participants. Some of the speakers who give 50 talks a year told me this was the best conference they had ever seen (thanks Ramesh!), and I already have some ideas on how we can make Lift better next year. We will adapt a few things, but… I will wait until all the surveys have been taken to discuss this.
Photos by Sampo, Guido, Nukeador, Mrtnk, Laurent Bolli, Stephanie Booth, David Roessli.
It is not yet time to rest for me and the team. We have Tim Berners-Lee coming to town (a project that started when I invited him to Lift09, he could not come but proposed to do a special event) then Lift Marseille. Vacations will be early April…
Posted: February 26th, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Follow all the talks and more on tsr.ch/lift.
So far so good. We have 800 people at the conference and already some great talks this morning!
Posted: February 15th, 2009 | No Comments »
We have less than 100 Lift09 tickets remaining. Every year we can not accept all those who wish to attend so you have been warned. Good thing we might soon announce a third event somewhere in Europe ;)
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