-->

LeWeb 2007 - Thoughts and Questions.

Loic Le Meur asks ‘Will you be able to stop yourself going to LeWeb3 in 2007?‘ I think the question needs spun round to read something like this; ‘How can I, Loic Le Meur, convince you to come to LeWeb in 2007.’

I would point out here that my case is a bit more unusual that most of the attendees that were at LeWeb in 2006. As a speaker that lost their first speaking slot, subsequently moved into a different panel at short notice (see previous posts here and here), I was unhappy at the time, and time has not significantly dulled that feeling.

Le Meur’s closing comments of “I wanted to take risks” and “I would do it again” are appauling. To take the conference so far away from what every delegate assumed it to be, into a way for Loic to place his political friends in front of the technological elite of Europe (and you can bet that this is the angle the news and Spin Doctors will take) is in my opinion shameful, disrespectful and dishonest. I had to really work to raise enough of a budget to get to this event, so close to Christmas (to the point of staying in a six bed dorm at the nearby Youth Hostel). Flights into Paris from Edinburgh are not cheap, and I’m out the best part of £200 overall. Add on top of that 400 Euros for the conference ticket that others paid, and it’s an expensive event.

The decision to attend any conference is always a finely balanced decision - it’s a traditional cost/benefit argument. Knowing who is going to be at the conference is a large factor. Knowing what the format and content is going to be is another. I have three things that would need to be addressed by Le Meur before I could consider costing out another French trip.

A Programming Committee
A lot of the decisions leading up to LeWeb3m, and on the day, were made solely by Le Meur. I’d like to see a program committe to help find new talks and interesting content (Dr Hans Rosling was a success, but did we really need to see Dave Sifry’s Technorati Powerpoint again?), to help avoid personal bias and favours, and to provide more collective input.

Deliver What You Promise
It’s not an un-conference. No bits of paper and late program changes. Once you’ve got speakers and events locked in, then they stay locked in. If there is a pressing need to change at short notice, then by having the aforesaid committe to hand, personal bias and interests can be minimised.

Much better infrastructre on the ground.
It might be the standard call after a tech conference, but a good Wi-Fi conenction, with a good upstream and downstream to the real world is requried. Power sockets liberally placed around the hall as well are a must. And not everyone can survive on ‘exquisite cuisine.” Let’s have a decent supply of tea, coffee, water, juice, high carb cakes, snacks, and so on throughout the day.

I shall watch the feeds, the blogosphere, and the event blog over the next few months to see if I can be convinced.

April 25, 2007; Daily Links;

Possibly Related posts:

If this is your first time here, why not consider subscribing to my RSS feed?

Comments

One Response to “LeWeb 2007 - Thoughts and Questions.”

  1. Tom Raftery on April 26th, 2007 16:39

    Seconded!

    I think Loic’s arrogance was astounding at Le Web 2006. He decided unilaterally to completely change the focus of the conference on the day after many people had signed up to and forked out good money on flights and accomodation for a different conference.

    He failed to apologise to the attendees and he failed to re-imburse people for what amounts to false advertising (advertising and selling tickets for one conference and then delivering another).

Leave a Reply