photo by sdufaux
Attending a conference for the first time is always like joining a new family. They are really close and you feel like an outsider. It depends on the spirit of the conference and your own motivation, if you can get in easily or if you remain on the outside. After 1,5 days of Lift10, I think I can share some (very subjective) observations of the Lift family. But remember, this is Berlinblase, don’t take it too seriously…
First thing you notice is the very posh appearance of the audience, especially for a tech conference. Almost everybody whom I’ve talked to and who’s here for the first time, was wondering about that. We have all kind of assumptions on why that is. It could be the general sense of fashion in Switzerland and the close-by France. It could be because there are a lot of researchers at this conference who are used to a more formal appearance at their conferences. But the most obvious explanation is that their are just a lot of corporate people and not a lot of geeks which seems pretty strange for conference with a reputation like Lift. The introduction round at the workshop I attended this morning supported this point. Another evidence: with almost 1000 participants, the Twitter stream for #lift10 is relatively quiet.
Nevertheless, this family can have a decent feast for real. The big Lift fondue is an amazing experience. The whole conference comes together to break bread and and enjoy tons of melted cheese until no one can move anymore. I shared my pot with Gianfranco Chicco and Kitty Leering from PICNIC and Mark Jensen from 23company. We had a blast, sharing stories and enjoying the company. And the other tables seemed to share the mood. The room was buzzing … and later on aching from all the cheese cooling in stomachs, getting heavier and heavier.
One of my favourite things to do at conferences is to just sit or stand beside groups and just listen in. This hallway conversations usually give you the best impression of the overall atmosphere of an event. At Lift, I don’t always like what I’m hearing. I measure the seniority of a community by its ability to make fun of itself because you need a lot of maturity to consciously know about the flaws and quirks of your topics of interest and then joke about them. Most conversations, I’m following here at Lift seem to lake a good dose of humour. Everybody is taking themselves very earnestly. Conversations are heavy with buzzphrases like “disrupting businesses”, “reinventing the future” or “revolutionising media”. And it’s good that people want to make a difference in the world. But the use of buzz phrases like these shows a certain absence of reflection of what we are actually talking about. But if we poke wholes into these phrases and make fun of them, we can let go of the pressure to “invent the future” and approach it playfully. The lack of humour is sometimes also very present in the Twitter stream from Lift where some have to constantly make sure that everybody gets that they are smarter then everybody on stage. I think the Lift family would profit a lot if people would just get over themselves and just lighten up a bit. It makes you so much more fun to hang out and have good conversations with.
Anyhow, the most amazing part about the Lift family is its diversity for sure. If I take a quick look around, I see very young students and grey eminence, business people and scientists, artists and organisers, locals and visitors from all over Europe and beyond. This also provides for a very diverse program and a lot of left-field inspiration. I really believe that amazing ideas can come out of Lift because there’s so much possibility to hear something completely new. It’s a remarkable achievement of the organisers to keep the diversity and not have the conference captured by one group.
So, the lack of humour makes me reluctant to join this family full on. But the diversity of it will make me come back, no doubt.
Update: One big thing I forgot to mention is that this might just be the tech conference with the highest rate of women which is really awesome. There are lots of women in the audience and on stage.
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