Henriette Weber

(it’s Thomas Purves’ photo of me on stage at lift08) 

So I have mentally landed from Lift08. It was a great experience. In my opinion the structure and the management of the conference was really spot on! – great work.

So… In my mind I have been thrilled, happy, desillusioned, thoughtful and a thousand other feelings since the lift experience started for me on tuesday where I flew to Geneva.

I will focus on what I took with me from Lift and I will give my feedback on what I think is lacking – especially from last year. If you look at a map of the european conferences – they have really different profiles.  Lift, Shift and Reboot are my favorites. 

Lift because it embraces NGO and development work together with technology – the local/global touch.

Shift because it has the unconference towards it – and it’s like the kidbrother of  Lift and Reboot. it’s basically a conference where you talk to the people you haven’t talked to yet – because it’s not a large conference – it’s something different.(I will say that I am involved in the conference planning).

Reboot because it’s right here in my backyard of Copenhagen and it’s completely wild technologic wise and futuristic in a good way. 

But back to Lift – it has changed dramatically since last year.  In a way I didn’t think it would. There was only one track – I missed the chance to make up my mind about what I wanted to hear.

There was a lot of salespitches going on from stage. 

All the development projects and the cool NGO work wasn’t really happening this year.

So in an overall way ( well I still love the conference and you should all come next year) – I had the feeling of Lift becoming professional – and if it does that – I am not really interested anymore.

In the wrap up of the conference it was said that ” we are no longer just kids”. And it made me wonder what we where then. I honestly hope that we are not about business.

I really really hope that Laurent and the team will think twice about loosing the kids. The kids are the reason why I am there – and without them it would be a completely different experience.

I don’t want to have more business-y professional hot shot conferences that costs a fortune.

I want to play and think and wonder. I want people to not teach me about the internet but about what I can do with it. I already know the mechanism of the  internet.

So this year was fine – but I am hoping that Lift is not turning into too much of a business - you will loose a massive audience ( and the factor of cool geeks )

So I was thinking that the unconference would have been appraised this year – but instead you had a  stage monologue (and a participatory back channel that went wild with crazy ideas).

For my own personal contribution : I did a 5 min open stage which I think that people where happy about. Well I knew they where. I would totally talk in front of 600 people everyday if it meant I would get 5 + hugs from strangers. the video of my talk will be up here when it is done.    

So great work and great conference – but I miss the twist