LeWeb, Non; Reboot, Oui (or is it "Si"?)

The title demonstrates my lack of depth in French grammar, but more importantly my opinion about where the most critical event is for web technologies and culture in Europe. It's not LeWeb, SixApart's apparently failed effort to repurpose the former Les Blogs conference into a larger scope, treating the web in general.

Tom Morris has collated a number of damning posts about the LeWeb disaster:

[from Tom Morris: Tuesday, December 12, 2006]

[Some selections from Tom's excellent digging.]

Tom Raftery: "What really annoyed everyone was the fact that the conference was completely hijacked and changed from a conference about new web technologies into a presidential campaign for the next French election. Two of the candidates, Nikolas Sarkozy and François Bayrou were parachuted in to the conference schedule at the last minute, displacing other speakers."

Nicole Simon: "If you have an audience like this and a standing like this in Europe for this conference you invest some time in making the the program. This obviously has not happened. Which is why i have an amount of political content i never wanted to see nor wanted to attend and everything else got pushed aside because of that - without me having really a choice through this... Loic Lemeur has sold out his european peer group for some cheap headlines in french politics - if at all. He has destroyed trust and confidence in a way I have never seen this before."

Adam Fletcher: "Theres a lot of negativity around le web today, the conference room is half empty and people seem more than a little disgruntled". Also: "So alot of time is wasted pimping the panelists companies rather than engaging in discussion".

David Weinberger (who speaks later) on Sarkozy: "I feel like i've been lectured by a guy who has no actual understanding of the Internet."
Shane Richmond: "On the other hand there are plenty of people here who see today's appearances as a cynical political exercise that has derailed the conference. Loic's employers, Six Apart, apparently make a lot of their money in France selling blogs to politicians so perhaps there is an explanation in there somewhere... Many delegates are angry that, having spent a lot of money to come here and talk about the web, they are watching political broadcasts instead"

Dieter Rappold: "I am disapointed. I am disappointed of you, this conference and I will never attend LesBlogs/LeWeb anymore - But as I imagine you won't give a damn, as you don't give a damn about your audience as it seems."

James Higgs: "In theory, Le Web 3 was supposed to be a place for the people on the bleeding edge of European Web 2.0 innovation to come together and discuss the way ahead. Instead, it has turned into a parade of politicians, product anouncements and a complete lack of any type of disagreement or debate... Despite all this negativity, there has been one big positive. I must say that the food has been extremely impressive."

Sam Sethi: "The speakers are all saying the same old thing and nothing new... Overall the event feels like it has run its course just like the Web 2.0 conference earlier this year. Le Web 4 will be a hard sell, certainly as far as I am concerned"

Ivan Pope: "I don't know how much rumbling of discontent there's been - but frankly I didn't pay my conference fee to be pitched by politicians. I think the organisers should put their egos away and resist the blandishments of all politicians". And more: "Same old same old. Same old stories, same old corporate speakers. And same old friends of the organisers. It's like a love-in for a closed circle, with no fresh thinking or any challenge to the status quo."

Adam Tinworth: "Here we go, another session about the death of Old Media, with four new media types and a single old media chap as the chair. And precious little revealing content."

Stephanie Booth on Twitter: "I wonder what on earth is going to happen to LeWeb3's program now that politicians and the mainstream press have taken over."

The reality in that Reboot is the place that all of these folks should have gone, or more accurately, should go, since it is coming up in May. I will be attending again, and speaking. I also totally enjoyed SHiFT in Lisbon, back in September, which will certainly repeated. And, while I haven't attended in the past, I will be going to Lift in Geneva, this February, and where I will be speaking.

With three conferences like that, why did SixApart (or Loic Lemeur) decide to dilute what had been a relatively successful blog conference into a mishmash?

I feel for the folks that went, and hope that they will be able to get rid of the negative experience there by attending one of these other, excellent web conferences.

[pointer from Josh Hallett]

tags: reboot, leweb, lift, shift

Comments

[Ivan Pope]

Just to clarify - the main conference was fairly rubbish, the Startup room was a disappointment. The food was cool and the people were brilliant. Haven't networked with such pleasure for years. Excellent. Now, all we need to do is work out how to flip these events inside out so the people (who lets face it bring the UGC that makes the event work) are the core and the organsiers egos are the periphery (or should we say the peripherique). Anyway, I' ve signed up for LIFT and look forward to meeting you all there.

[Tech Bee]

Hello from Paris. It's "oui" in this case...You're welcome.