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.

The LIFT Think family continues to grow: after Marc Laperouza, the Near Future Laboratory and John Staehli, Jean-Henri Morin joins the ranks of the LIFT authors. A Swiss and French national, Jean-Henry is based in Seoul where he is associate professor in information systems (MIS) at Korea University Business School since 2006. He is specializing in Digital Policy Management (DPM), a hot and important emerging issue for the digital world.

Read Jean-Henry’s first post here: Do we need to take a step back and rethink IT research ? Services Sciences may be part of the answer

What is moving. Me, the background, or both? Answer towards the end of this week’s LIFT08 video update ;)

Then jump on the occasion to present it at LIFT08! For the first time we will hold a venture night, and with the whole LIFT community in the room, some of the world’s best media outlets and people like Pierre Chappaz or Robert Scoble in the jury, your projects could really get a kick in the r*** à la cocomment (story here).

It’s easy, it’s simple, it’s free, and it even gets you a pass for LIFT08 if your project is selected. Propose your startup now!

I love the new visual identity. Wait until you see the poster in high def, you are probably in it if you attended the conference in the past.

My favorite designers you guys rock :)

Nicolas Nova and I sat down with Jacques Magnol of Geneve Active to discuss LIFT08 during a 40 minutes interview. If you speak French and want to learn more about the 2008 programme click on the button bellow.

Download the mp3 file.

Things are moving, as in really moving, on the LIFT08 front. The event is getting bigger and bigger as we welcome more partners, speakers, participants, etc… A quick roundup if you haven’t checked the conference website in a while:

• We added two events to the agenda of the conference: a sustainable development night and a startup contest.
• Bruce Sterling, Pierre Bellanger and Paul Barnett joined our already impressive programme. Bruce opening the conference with a 30 minutes address on the state of the Internet will surely be one of the highlights of the conference, don’t be late!
• We have 120+ registered participants which is the most we’ve ever had at this time of the year.
• I saw the new brand and poster, it looks fantastic and will become one of the most viral posters ever. But I can not say more now, the bread and butter folks are still putting the finishing touch to all this.

If you have three minutes I did a small video for the LIFT08 facebook group that you can also see on Youtube here.