Latest news about the Lift conference

Profiles publication starting

Laurent Haug — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:03:08 +0100

As you might have noticed we started to publish the speakers profiles, a tradition we started at Lift07 with the idea of allowing participants to preview the speakers they want to focus on during the conference.

This year the profiles will be published by Benedikt Foit and we added a little something new: participants profiles! We have amazing people coming to the conference, giving workshops, speaking at the open stage, or simply attending, and we decided to profile some of them. Lift veteran Tom Hume, who attended every edition since lift06, has the honor to go first, with more profiles coming at the pace of one every four to five days.

Important: We are not accepting further program suggestions!

Laurent Haug — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:53:25 +0100

I would like to pass a very important information today: we are closing program suggestions. Here is why.

We created program suggestions in 2006 because of a simple fact: most of those attending the conference also deserved be speakers. Over the years we have been very happy to hear all suggestions from the community, and even created the open program to give you more access to presenting (currently open program is 36 slots of more than 50 hours while official program is 20 slots and around 10 hours).

As Lift grows, gets covered by the BBC, BusinessWeek, and hundreds of blogs, we are getting EVERY DAY a number of suggestions equivalent to the number of speakers slots FOR ONE EDITION.

This results in a very frustrating situation: we have to turn down 99% of the propositions simply because we have no room! And very good people, with very good propositions, who took one hour of their time to create a nice pitch, these people end up feeling left out (and it's not funny nor easy for us either).

Open Program stays unchanged, based only on suggestions!

To end this situation we decided to stop accepting propositions for the official program. The open program will be where the community can speak, you make your propositions (workshops, open stage, discussions coming soon), you vote, and this should be a much more effective system.

Last year 100% of workshops propositions were accepted (and we even added 4 slots this year!), these numbers going down slightly to 60% for open stage and discussions. That is a better mechanism: those who take time to propose somethings end up being rewarded for their effort more often.

Video: Urban mobile multiplayer gaming

Laurent Haug — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:14:23 +0100

Jury Hahn is the co-founder of MegaPhone, a gaming company based in New York which makes real-time multi-player games on cell phones. Jury explains the potential of mobile gaming, and how phones can allow rich public interactions. She then demos MegaPhone's gaming platform and Lift participants go wild and play against one other :)

I have no idea why Google put me in the video thumbnail, if someone knows how to change that I'm happy to hear your solution :)

Join our Dopplr group

Laurent Haug — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:05:44 +0100

We have a Facebook group, we have a Flick, a Google account for our videos, and now our collection will grow with the beautiful Dopplr (created by Lift's friend and past speaker Matt Jones) where we now have a group thanks to another former speaker, Greensboro-based futurist Scott Smith!

Join us on Dopplr!

3 super-early bird tickets remaining

Laurent Haug — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:12:04 +0100

After yesterday's newsletter, the last super early bird tickets are selling very quickly. As I speak there are 3 remaining (out of 50) so if you want to attend Lift for only 650chf (that's a bit less than 550$) go to amiando.com/lift09 now!

First newsletter sent

Laurent Haug — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:51:26 +0100

If you have an account on our website you will receive the first issue of our newsletter! After not really using email to keep in touch with our growing community, we decided to send a couple of updates every year, mostly to announce each event and keep you guys informed of the changes that we make to the format of the conference.

We hope you like this new way of passing information to you, and you can subscribe or unsubscribe on your account page, by clicking on the "My newsletters" tab.

Last but not least, our Google Group is now closed after a few years of great service!

Lift 09 Intern wanted

Sylvie Reinhard — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:43:12 +0100

LIFT is recruiting! As the events grow we need more and more talented individuals to join our
team. For Lift 09 we are looking for a motivated and reliable intern who wants to gain insights and valuable work experience in all aspects of the event management of one of the most innovative international conferences.

For more details please download the job description. Contact us if you are interested, and please forward this opening to your friends!

Lift09 @ International Conference Center (CICG)

Laurent Haug — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:16:47 +0100

Every year a couple of attendees get confused by the different locations the conference happens at. Traditionally we organized the workshops and the conference at different locations. This is now over, we will be every day at the CICG, and all the logistics got much more simpler :)

And open stage too!

Laurent Haug — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:53:53 +0100

The website is getting in full Lift09 mode now that the Open Stage propositions are also open. Open Stage is where you get 5 minutes slots on the main stage. You propose, the community votes, and we hope to have surprising performances and presentations complementing the main program.

It all happens on liftconference.com/lift09/open-stage or via the most magical link of all: contribute!

Lift 09 workshop propositions now open

Laurent Haug — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:29:45 +0100

Workshops are a key part of the Lift program, one of the moments of the conference completely managed by the community. This year all workshops will happen at the CICG (no more multiple locations!) and we will try to increase the number of available spots (by maybe shortening the workshops as we have been asked in the post conference feedback).

More information on liftconference.com/lift09/workshops.

PS: Every year early propositions have double the votes of late ones... Moving early is a very decisive advantage.