I would like to pass a very important information today: we are closing program suggestions. Here is why.

We created program suggestions in 2006 because of a simple fact: most of those attending the conference also deserved be speakers. Over the years we have been very happy to hear all suggestions from the community, and even created the open program to give you more access to presenting (currently open program is 36 slots of more than 50 hours while official program is 20 slots and around 10 hours).

As Lift grows, gets covered by the BBC, BusinessWeek, and hundreds of blogs, we are getting EVERY DAY a number of suggestions equivalent to the number of speakers slots FOR ONE EDITION.

This results in a very frustrating situation: we have to turn down 99% of the propositions simply because we have no room! And very good people, with very good propositions, who took one hour of their time to create a nice pitch, these people end up feeling left out (and it's not funny nor easy for us either).

Open Program stays unchanged, based only on suggestions!

To end this situation we decided to stop accepting propositions for the official program. The open program will be where the community can speak, you make your propositions (workshops, open stage, discussions coming soon), you vote, and this should be a much more effective system.

Last year 100% of workshops propositions were accepted (and we even added 4 slots this year!), these numbers going down slightly to 60% for open stage and discussions. That is a better mechanism: those who take time to propose somethings end up being rewarded for their effort more often.