Lift is a series of events built around a community of pioneers who get together in Europe and Asia to explore the social implications of new technologies. Each conference is a chance to turn innovation into opportunity by anticipating the major shifts ahead, and by meeting the people who drive them.

Table of contents

• Timeline of Lift, see our history in one picture.
• Lift concept, what is Lift?
• By the numbers, the hard facts
• Team, who does what
• Talks, all our talks online and free
• Speaker policy, what we ask from our speakers
• Participant policy, it's not easy to attend either ;)
• Post-conference surveys, what are people saying about us?
• Lift Posters
• Contact us, for all the rest

Timeline

Lift started in 2006 with 350 participants and is now an international series of events.

^{From 350 to 2000+ participants. Click on the image to enlarge.}

Concept

Lift is a series of events built around a community of pioneers who get together in Europe and Asia to explore the social implications of new technologies. Each conference is a chance to turn innovation into opportunity by anticipating the major shifts ahead, and by meeting the people who drive them.

Each event is built around three key ingredients:

• talks and workshops given by some of the moment's brightest and most inspiring people. The program is divided into two parts: the official program (15 hours of talks, managed by the Lift team) and the open program (50+ hours of workshops/talks/discussions, managed by the community via an online proposition and voting system).
• artistic activities created to facilitate networking and to inspire, allowing attendees to network, play, create, and keep their minds fresh. This part of the conference is called the Lift Experience.
• social events where lifters get together around our legendary fondue or a traditional Korean meal.

Lift attendees come from the several different sectors: private (entrepreneurs, managers, investors, researchers), academic (students, professors, researchers), media and art (designers, artists, journalists) and international (NGOs, UN agencies).

Goals

• Turn change into an opportunity
  Change can be a threat if you do not anticipate it in time. By coming to Lift you will get a preview of the big changes that will impact you, your job, your organization, and your life... enabling you to prepare for what lies ahead.
• Inspire
  Like some of the world's most creative organizations, we believe that one of the best ways to generate new ideas is via cross-polinization, a horrible word for a fundamental truth: you will get more inspiration from an event featuring speakers from diverse backgrounds that at a professional convention where everybody basically agrees on everything. Come and listen to ethnologists, entrepreneurs, artists, designers, or even the Vatican webmaster. They all have ideas that you will be able to reuse in your daily lives!
• Connect
  What use is an idea without the people behind it? Usually not much. At Lift we focus on bringing together all types of participants, whatever their background and role in the event may be. We treat everybody the same, and this creates amazing networking opportunities, and lets you meet the people behind the great ideas.

Values

Since the creation of the conference we subscribe to a certain set of values. The most important ones are:

• Independence
  Lift is an independent organization. Our editorial team is completely separate from our partnerships team. If a speaker is on stage it is because we think he/she is relevant, not because we received a payment or sponsoring. You cannot pay to speak at Lift, and pitches are not allowed with two notable exceptions: non-profit organizations are allowed to promote their projects (Amnesty International at Lift06, Wikipedia at Lift07, and WattWatt at Lift08 and Lift Asia 08), and during the open program pitches are allowed if voted in by the community. We also do not get commission from the hotels/restaurants/airlines that we recommend - so you can be sure we are recommending the best, and not those who give us more money.
• Diversity
  Lift is committed to bringing you diverse points of views, and we try to invite speakers from all continents as well as a large number of women speakers.
• Openness
  Lift is flat, open and collaborative. We treat everybody the same and ask our guests to act likewise.

Locations

Lift has grown from a local conference into a series of events happening in:

• Geneva, Switzerland
• Jeju, Korea
• Marseille, France

We are always open to new adventures, and if you would like to run a Lift in your country please get in touch with us!

By the numbers

“Torture numbers, and they'll confess to anything.”, Gregg Easterbrook

• 4,000 attendees from 60 countries.
• 10 events held on 3 continents in 4.5 years
• 2 million visits and 13.5M page views on liftconference.com per year (full stats)
• 450+ articles and interviews in national (TSR, Bilan, RSR, Swissinfo) and international (BBC, CBC, BusinessWeek, FastCompany, Wired, AFP, Europe1) media
• 200+ talks available free on video
• 5000+ members in the Lift community
• 180+ speakers from more than 40 countries
• Lift@home events happening in Toronto, Tokyo, Barcelona, London, San Francisco, Brussels, Barcelona, Zurich, New York, etc.

Team

The event is organized by a team located in Switzerland and Korea, with the help of an international advisory board.

Producers

Laurent Bolli, Art Director, from our design agency Bread and Butter
Sue Choi, Lift Asia project manager
Yves Cretegny, CEO
Laurent Haug, founder & president
Nicolas Nova, editorial manager
Sylvie Reinhard, head of operations
Steven Ritchey, editorial advisor and star moderator
Sarah Suter, event manager
Channy Yun, Asia editorial advisor

Advisory board

Julian Bleecker, Nokia Design
Bruno Bonnell, Robopolis
Pierre Chappaz, Wikio
William Cockayne, Change Research
Xavier Comtesse, Avenir Suisse
Bruno Giussani, Writer/blogger/entrepreneur
François Grey, CERN
Jeffrey Huang, EPFL
Daniel Kaplan, FING
Beth Krasna, independent board member
Jaewoong Lee, Founder of Daum
Joanne Lee, writer and entrepreneur
Bernard Rappaz, TSR
Bruce Sterling, Writer and futurist
Jasmina Tesanovic, Publisher and Filmmaker
Guido Van Nispen, Veronica

Hall of fame:

These people were involved in Lift and left to pursue glorious careers and projects all around the world!
John Staehli, Raluca Dan, Cristiana Bolli-Freitas, Marc-Olivier Peyer, Jean-Daniel Sciboz, Nicolas Dengler, Roberto Ortelli, Victoria Visser, Ellen Wallace, Nicholas Wolff.

Talks

Lift talks are available for free at videos.liftconference.com.

^{Cory Doctorow at Lift06}

Speaker policy

We have a certain number of principles guiding the invitations of speakers. Here are the most important ones:

• Speakers are asked to focus on the sharing of ideas, and not to present any commercial pitches.
• Our editorial team is completely independent of our sponsoring team. Buying stage time is not possible at Lift.
• We once heard someone say that "Lift is the conference where speakers create their own slides". That is because we ask our speakers to give a talk they have never given elsewhere, thus ensuring that fresh ideas are presented to the audience.
• Lift speakers are not paid to speak. They travel to the conference to share their passion about what they are doing, and to meet amazing people.
• We never invite the same speaker two years in a row. Sometimes, the speakers who came up first in the post-conference survey are invited back the following year but in a different capacity (on a panel, to run a workshop)
• We ask speakers to be present for all three days of the conference. We try to avoid inviting speakers who will only come for the duration of their speech, as Lift is first and foremost about creating networks between participants.
• In the interest of all the participants, we are pretty strict about the time allotted to presentations and will as smoothly as possible cut a presentation that goes beyond the time limit.
• Speakers agree that their talk will be filmed and put on Lift videos for free download and viewing.
• We try to pay for plane tickets and hotels for speakers who need assistance and do not work for large organizations who can cover the cost.
• Despite the fact that it is not always an easy task (think about obtaining a Swiss visa for an African speaker, for example) we put a lot of effort into creating a program that reflects the world's diversity.

Participant policy

Participating in Lift also comes with a few rules. Lifters agree to:

• come and participate with an open and respectful attitude, especially towards foreign ideas and cultures.
• provide constructive feedback at the end of each event to allow the format to be improved for the next edition. Many of the innovations you see in Lift (open stage, questions system, venture night, etc.) are direct results of the feedback we receive. Tell us, we care and listen!
• follow the no-promotion policy by not trying to promote oneself via questions and not bringing marketing material to the conference. Lift's non-commercial ambiance is appreciated by all. It is a fragile and precious asset, and any aggressive/pirate marketing tactic will be counter-productive as our community will not appreciate it. Smile, show others why you are relevant, that's the kind of promotion that works at Lift.
• make sure they are allowed to publish the material they capture at Lift before publishing it. Be aware that some speakers ask us - very rarely - not to put their slides or talk online. We live in an era of transparency, nobody can control their content, bla bla bla we know that. But it does not cost much to respect a moral engagement towards someone who worked hours to show you their ideas.

Post-conference survey

Every year, an independent company (Benchpoint) runs a satisfaction survey on the participants of the conference, published in total transparency on the conference website. Here are the past surveys:

• Lift10 survey: 72% of the attendees who participated in the survey rated Lift10 in general as good or excellent. While the workshops were higher rated than in previous edition, there was a drop of satisfaction regarding the presentations. The key benefits of Lift are “Networking”, “Meeting new people”, “Discover interesting perspectives” and “Social events”. 76% of the survey participants plan to attend the next Lift edition.

  Report slides on SlideShare.

• Lift Asia 09 survey: 71% of the attendees who participated in the survey had a good or excellent overall appreciation of Lift Asia 09. The venue quality, the administrative handling, as well as the program quality and the social events were the most appreciated elements of the conference. The best rated formats were the presentations. 84% of the survey participants would recommend Lift Asia 09 to a friend.
  Report summary slides in PDF




• "Lift France 09, with Fing" survey: 90% of the attendees who participated in the survey had a good or excellent overall appreciation of Lift France 09. The venue quality, the administrative handling, as well as the program quality and the communication from Lift were the most appreciated elements of the conference. The best rated formats were the presentations and the Lift Experience installations. 94% of the survey participants would recommend Lift France 09, with Fing to a friend.
  Report summary slides in PDF (576kb)




• 2009 survey: 90% of attendees had a good or excellent overall appreciation of Lift09 with “networking”, “learning” and “exchanging” mentioned as the greatest benefits of participation. The majority of attendees agreed that Lift09 provided them with interesting information and influenced their opinions on the usage of emerging technologies. 98% of attendees met new people at Lift09 with most people meeting between 1 - 10 persons.
  Full report in PDF (600kb)




• 2008 survey: "89% of attendees had a good or excellent overall appreciation of
  Lift08 with "networking", "learning" and "exchanging" mentioned as the greatest benefits of participation. The majority of attendees agreed that Lift08 provided them with interesting information and influenced their opinions on the usage of emerging technologies. 96% of attendees met new people at Lift08 with most people meeting between 1 - 10 persons. Key quality factors of Lift08 were rated by attendees with "networking" and "administration" rated higher than "programme quality" and "venue". The most popular presentation selected by attendees was "Cyborg" by Kevin Warwick."
  Full report in PDF (340kb)




• Lift Asia 08 survey: "92% of attendees had a good or excellent overall appreciation of
  Lift Asia 08, with the social activities, presentations and networking being the most appreciated elements of the conference."
  Full report in PDF (396kb)




• 2007 survey: "83% of attendees had a good or excellent overall appreciation of Lift07 with “networking” or “learning” mentioned as the greatest benefits of participation. The majority of attendees agreed that Lift07 provided them with interesting information and influenced their opinions on the usage of emerging technologies. 96% of attendees met new people at Lift07 with most people meeting between 1-5 persons."
  Full report in PDF (340kb)




• 2006 survey: "Lift06 was assessed as a big success by most attendees. 93% plan to attend Lift07. According to the attendees, Lift06 was successful in providing information and influencing their attitudes about emerging technology. One third of attendees saw the main benefit of attending LIFT06 as networking and are looking towards more facilitated networking at Lift07. The quality of the presentations varied considerably for many attendees and a different selection process may be appropriate for Lift07. In terms of the conference format, attendees suggested more interactive sessions and workshops around the conference. Lift06 was successful in connecting people and provoking ongoing discussions amongst attendees and beyond the conference. "
  Full report in PDF (720kb)

Lift posters

You can find an archive of the Lift posters here.

Contact

Anything else? Contact us!