lift06

Jean-François was a member of the original CERN team that invented the WWW a few years ago. He presents his new project, the vizta.com website.

Matt Jones, designer at Nokia, speaks about the opportunities to design mobile games based on physical activities, motions and mobility.

Because of a technical issue, the sound starts around 13 minutes. Sorry Matt, and sorry to you all for that. That speech - voted one of the top 5 talk at Lift06 - is worth watching even if it is only for the final 10 minutes that have sound!

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

Somebody suggested we add a "lift by the numbers" section on the site's about page, and I decided to act on this recommendation as it gives an perspective what has happened in the past three and a half years.

4'000 attendees from 60 countries.

8 events held on 3 continents in 3.5 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 in 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.

Link

LIFT is about teaming talented observers, explorers, and builders with people whose work depends on understanding current challenges and creative solutions presented by emerging technologies. Attendees will face cutting edge business models, bold predictions, radical thinking -- ideas to inject into their own part of the planet.

LIFT has a simple goal: connect people who are passionate about new applications of technology and propel their conversations into the broader world to improve life and work.

The event will be held at the Geneva International Conference Center. It is organized by a group of Swiss practitioners with the guidance of a wise advisory board.
Who will talk?

Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow, Robert Scoble, Euan Semple, Bruno Giussani, Xavier Comtesse, Régine Debatty, Anina, Jeffrey Huang, Matt Jones, Chris Lawer, Hugh Macleod, David Galipeau, Aymeric Sallin, Paul Oberson, Jean-Luc Raymond and a ton of other amazing people.

Complete program is available here.

What are we going to talk about?

LIFT is organized around five major topics, or tracks.

• Big ideas » From co-creation to citizen journalism via the copyright-less economy, technology and communications are changing the rules. Big ideas are those that concern us all.
• Design » Design is about making the life of people better. We've invited designers from across the spectrum of design, from strategy to pixels, from screens to devices, from business structures to experiences.
• Emerging technologies » From RFID (the identification chips embedded in all objects) to nano tech, we are going to discuss technologies that are just starting to create an impact on our world. Folks from the labs are going to take off their white coats and tell us what's coming.

We added a new feature which allows you to see the archived pages of all past events.
Lift06, Lift07, Lift Asia 07, Lift08, Lift Asia 08, and Lift09 (the list is getting quite extensive!), all the pages are now migrated and accessible via a drop down menu. You can navigate each event's pages by using the links that will appear on the right.

You can now see Lift06's program and participants, the Lift07 experience (formerly known as Lift+), or the first ever Lift Asia homepage.

You can always easily guess each edition's web location, it is either /liftxx, /lift-asia-xx or /lift-france-xx where xx is the last 2 digits of the edition's year. Yes, easy.

When

2006, February 2 and 3 (that would be Thursday and Friday)

Where

The conference will be held at the International Conference Center (CICG) of Geneva, Switzerland. Ranked number one in the 2005 Mercer World-wide quality of life survey, Geneva is the city where the web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee 12 years ago,

Maps of Geneva

• CICG Access Map (shows local area)
• Interactive Map (showing CICG location)
• Walking: map of Geneva showing pedestrian times
• Geneva Transit Route Maps

How to get to Geneva

From Switzerland: you would be crazy not to take the train, but if you persist get a map.

From France: try the TGV (click here to book your trip with the SNCF) or try to catch a plane if you come from Paris (click here to see a timetable of flights from Paris to Switzerland).

From Europe: we have a great airport in Geneva so you should easily find reasonably priced tickets from Easyjet, Swiss, Air France, British Airways, Fly Baboo, Virgin Express or any other airline.

You might also want to check the online travel agencies to have an overview of the available flights: eBookers, STA, Carlson Wagonlit and all the others.

For a complete schedule of flights going to/leaving from Geneva check the airport's page. This might be a good start to check who is flying to your place and then book your ticket directly from the airline.

How to come to the conference center

The center address is:
CICG
17 rue de Varembé
tel. +41 (0)22 791 91 11
fax +41 (0)22 791 90 64

To come with the public transports (TPG):

Take tram 13 or 15, direction Nations and get out at the last stop.
Take bus number 8 and get out at Appia UIT (it's much closer).
Take bus number 5 and get out at Varembé.

For maps try map.search.ch.

Laurent told me tonight that it’s quite possible to walk from hotels in the area of the main railway station to the CICG. this map of Geneva showing pedestrian times might help; Laurent’s instructions were to simply follow the tram line.

Where to sleep

To connect to Geneva’s official hotel booking system, click here.

Most hotels in this list are offering a special price and 10 to 15 minutes max from the CICG. Please say you are coming for the Lift conference and be sure you get the price displayed here. In case you have any problem scroll down to the page bottom and contact the organizers!

Currency note: As of Nov. 1, 2005, 1CFH = $0.77US = 0.64 euro = $0.91CDN

Youth hostel

City Hostel
1 Bed in a 3 bed dormitory CHF 28.00 (US$ 23.93 / € 18.42)
1 Bed room (single) with tv(CHF 63.00 (US$ 53.85 / € 41.4)

1 star hotels
Hotel St Gervais (95CHF)

Hotel Cloche (unknown price but nice situation)

2 stars hotels
Hotel Bernina (From 140CHF, in front of the Train Station)

3 stars hotels

Hotel Capitole (from 169CHF, free WIFI)

Hotel Admiral (from 149CHF, free WIFI) - transit | placemark

Hotel Cristal (156CHF, WIFI)

Hotel Eden (180CHF, WIFI but not sure it is free)

Hotel Strasbourg & Univers (150CHF, WIFI but not free)

Hotel Suisse (155CHF single, 195CHF double, WIFI but not free)

4 stars hotels

Hotel Capitole (219CHF)

5 stars hotels

Hotel Intercontinental (from 270CHF, WIFI but not free, 5 minutes from the Conference Center)

More hotels on the Geneva Wikipedia page

What to do before the event

There will probably be some events organized by and for all those coming to the conf early. Watch this space for more information (and add your events or propositions here, the edit button is on the right of the page.

Until January 29, 2006

Painting Exibition @ Le Musée Rath, Geneva

From A. Renoir to A. Kiefer - Artists’ Vision on Richard Wagner

Press release

From November 3rd, 2005 to April 3rd, 2006

The lifes of Einstein @ Le Musée d'Histoire des Sciences, Geneva

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of the discovery of the theory of Relativity, the Museum presents, an experimental device that allowed verifying the initial theory and boards of a comic strip that redraws the life of the Genius

From November 19th, 2005 to March 12, 2006

The Myths of Dürrenmatt @ La Fondation Bodmer, Geneva

A presentation conceived by Mario Botta himself, a labyrinthe of drawings and of manuscripts, The Myths of Dürrenmatt (Minotaure, Pythie, Midas, Achterloo), we dive into the black visions of one of the major writers of our time. Some engravings of Picasso on the Minotaure will be disposeed in counterpoint.

From November 17th, 2005 to February 2, 2006

Landscapes A, gardens of speed @ Musée de L'Elysée, Lausanne

A contemporary photographic project that is a reflection on the constitution of the landscape, it’s transformation and it’s reconstruction « These gardens are most of the time inaccessible, or remain invisible because of the speed of the vehicles.

What to do after

Ski. You can not escape it.

Here are some links to the greatest ski slopes around:

in Switzerland:

Les Diablerets, with it’s Glacier.

Verbier, nothing more to be said...

Villars, Nice and Cosy.

Crans-Montana, Glamorous and sunny

in France:

La Clusaz, a 45 minutes car drive from Geneva. Be sure to eat at L'Arbé, one of our all-time favorite.

Chamonix, maybe the greatest ski of your life.

and for the Jet-Setter in you:
Courchevel and Megeve.

Travel info: To get there, you can either use the train, or the Bus.

Weather

• Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology

Weather.com 10-Day Business Travel Forecast for
Geneva

• CNN 5-day forecast

Contact

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you need more information:
info@lift06.org

LIFT06
Ballpark SARL
4 av. Jules Crosnier
1206 Genève

The organizers consist of an advisory board and of a bunch of young and unconscious guys trying to create an event out of nothing. Meet your hosts.

The fingers (the younger and unconscious guys)

• Laurent Haug, it's all his fault.
• Nicolas Nova, in charge of speakers.
• Steven Ritchey, in charge of speakers.
• John Staehli, in charge of so much we don't have enough space to list everything.

The head (the advisory board)

• William Cockayne, Associate director, Stanford Humanities Lab
• Xavier Comtesse, Avenir Suisse
• Bruno Giussani, Writer and futures researcher
• Jeffrey Huang, Associate professor, Harvard Design School
• Beth Krasna, Independent board member (BCV, COOP, ETH-Rat, Raymond Weil)
• Bernard Rappaz, Editor in chief, TSR Multimedia

To contact the organizers send an email to orga@lift06.org

The following people are helping us tremendously with the organization of the conference: Bread and butter, Jean-Daniel Sciboz, Marion Haug, Alisha Henry, Fabienne Masserey, Roberto Ortelli, Shujaparvez Shaikh, Alejo Duque, and all the others we are forgetting.

• Aram Armstrong, Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Milan | thefarwest
• Alexander Wiethoff, interactive lighting design
• Hayat Benchenaa, Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Milan | website
• Olivier Berthoud SDC
• Peninah Goldman, New York City
• Pascal Betz, Downside

Download the program in PDF for better reading!.

A conference about new technologies and people

About

LIFT is a conference about new technologies and people.

LIFT is about teaming talented observers, explorers, and builders with people whose work depends on understanding current challenges and creative solutions presented by emerging technologies. Attendees will face cutting edge business models, bold predictions, radical thinking -- ideas to inject into their own part of the planet.

LIFT has a simple goal: connect people who are passionate about new applications of technology and propel their conversations into the broader world to improve life and work.

The event was held at the Geneva International Conference Center. It is organized by a group of Swiss practitioners with the guidance of a wise advisory board.

Who talked?

Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow (Electronic Frontier Foundation), Robert Scoble (Microsoft), Euan Semple (BBC), Bruno Giussani, Xavier Comtesse (Avenir Suisse), Régine Debatty (WMMNA), Anina, Jeffrey Huang (Harvard), Matt Jones (Nokia), Chris Lawer (OMC Group), Hugh Mac Leod (Gapingvoid), David Galipeau (UNAIDS), Aymeric Sallin (Nano Dimension), Paul Oberson (DIP), Jean-Luc Raymond (Microsoft) and a ton of other amazing people.

Complete program is available here.

Program

LIFT was organized around five major topics, or tracks.

Big ideas » From co-creation to citizen journalism via the copyright-less economy, technology and communications are changing the rules. Big ideas are those that concern us all. » more

Design » Design is about making the life of people better. We've invited designers from across the spectrum of design, from strategy to pixels, from screens to devices, from business structures to experiences. » more

Emerging technologies » From RFID (the identification chips embedded in all objects) to nano tech, we are going to discuss technologies that are just starting to create an impact on our world. Folks from the labs are going to take off their white coats and tell us what's coming. » more

Global Solidarity » Geneva is not only the place that saw the web come to life. It is also a major humanitarian center of excellence with hundreds of organizations having their headquarters around the lake. We invited speakers representing this constantly evolving field, in which solutions to complex problems don't merely improve lives, but save them. » more

Internet » Last but not the least, the spine of all of the above. It gave many of us our careers, our passions, and it sustains much of our daily life. We are inviting speakers who are pushing the evolving definition of what the Internet is and can be. » more

Videos

All the talks are available here.

^{Robert Scoble on "Participating in the new business conversation"}

Pictures of the atmosphere

More pictures