Events

The Lift Conference

The first Lift conference edition was created in 2006 in Geneva; it has since become one of the leading European digital innovation conferences. It attracts innovators from around the world for three memorable days of inspirational speeches, interactive workshops, informal networking and knowledge-sharing. Over 1000 participants - from entrepreneurs to senior managers, engineers to scientists, researchers to artists - gather to learn about key trends, to share the knowledge and experience that fuel innovation.

Other Lift Productions

To leverage our extensive innovation event experience, we curate and co-produce events for and with partners. Since 2006 we have organized and supported over 30 events around the world. The event formats vary from half-day workshop sessions to 3-day conferences and festivals. Our role includes program curation, speakers sourcing and coaching, workshop animation, moderation and event promotion. Visit our services page to learn more about the Lift projects portfolio.

 

Upcoming events

Lift Conference 2014

Feb. 5-7 2014   |   CICG, Geneva, Switzerland

Lift Conference is one of Europe’s key events about innovation and digital technologies. It features a special blend of inspiring speeches by some of the world’s best speakers, truly interactive workshops, exhibitions of interactive media projects and prototypes to play with …and the legendary Fondue!

Open Knowledge Conference

Sept. 17-18, 2013   |   Geneva

 

Lift co-produces the 2013 Open Knowledge Conference (OKCon), presented under the patronage of Federal Councillor Alain Berset, member of the Swiss Government.

The world’s leading open data and open knowledge event, OKCon is the latest in an annual series run since 2005. Last year’s installment in Helsinki had more than 1000 participants from over 50 countries and was largest event of its kind to date. Previous speakers have included inventor of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Hans Rosling of Gapminder, Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive, Ellen Miller of the Sunlight Foundation and other major figures in the open knowledge community.

Learn more about the 2013 edition. 

Past events

Lift Conference 2013

Feb. 6-8 2013   |   CICG, Geneva, Switzerland

Thank you so much for joining the 8th edition of Lift in Geneva. Over 1000 participants coming from 30 countries, including 70 journalists and bloggers came together to share, connect and create new opportunities. We had a wonderful time and we hope you enjoyed it too, and left inspired and lifted!  Let's follow-up on the ideas that came out of Lift13 and make innovation happen now.
  • Lift13 Recap

Lift in France 2012

Sept. 27-28, 2012   |   Marseille, France

This 4th edition of Lift with Fing was openend by Fleur Pellerin, French Minister in charge of SMEs, Innovation and the Digital Economy. It was different from previous ones: Participants were invited to take part in a new kind of foresight exercise. The 2-day event featured talks and a giant co-creation workshop about digital disruptions.

The outcome of the workshop will be published soon in form of a report here: website Questions Numériques.

  • Douglas Edric Stanley
    Artist / Professor of Digital Arts, École Supérieure d'Art d'Aix-en-Provence
  • Fleur Pellerin
    French Minister in charge of SMEs, Innovation and the Digital Economy
  • Gudrun Pétursdóttir
    Chairman of the Icelandic Constitutional Council
  • Honor Harger
    Digital artist and curator, Director of Lighthouse
  • Nigel Thrift
    One of the world's leading human geographers and social scientists
  • Lightning in the Age of Cloud Computing

Swiss-Korean Innovation Night

Apr. 18, 2012   |   Seoul, South Korea

For our 4th Lift event in Korea, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Presence Switzerland mandated us to curate a event in Seoul, taking place prior to the 2012 Expo in Yeosu. The mission was to celebrate innovation and create and reinforce bridges of friendship between Swiss and Korean pioneers. It connected up-and-coming leaders, artists, researchers and young professionals, presented prototypes and exclusive demos of state-of-the-art projects. The projects were presented in a very unique setup, including live interviews by MCs, to stimulate the networking between Korean and Swiss participants.
  • Swiss-Korean Innovation Night, curated by Lift

Lift Conference 2012

Feb. 22-24, 2012   |   CICG, Geneva, Switzerland
   

 
  • Lisa Harouni, CEO Digital Forming: "Mass customisation and 3D printing"
  • JP Rangaswami, Chief Scientist Salesforce.com: "Technologies vs people"
  • Hojun Song, Artist: "The Open Source Satellite Initiative"

Lift in France 2011

July 6-8, 2011   |   Marseille, France

   
  • Geoff Mulgan, Chief Executive NESTA: "Openness and collective intelligence, its prospects and its challenges"
  • Juliana Rotich, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi Inc.: "Ushahidi: Powered by Open Source"
  • Jonathan Kuniholm, PhD Candidate, retired Marine Corps Officer: "Open Prosthetics, where it comes from, what it changes, what it means for all of us"

Laboratoire des Nouvelles Lectures

Apr. 30 - May 2, 2011   |   Geneva, Switzerland

        

Robolift@Inno-Robo

Mar. 23-25, 2011   |   Lyon, France

    

Lift Conference 2011

Feb. 2-4, 2011   |   CICG, Geneva, Switzerland

      
  • Ben Hammersley, Editor at Large Wired UK magazine: "What does the internet bring to the concept of a country?"
  • Don Tapscott, Chairman of the think tank Moxie Insight: "MacroWikinomics"
  • Kevin Slavin, Co-Founder and CCO of Starling: "Those algorithms that govern our lives"

Lift in France 2010

July 5-7, 2010   |   Marseille, France

    

  • Adrian Bowyer
    Senior lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Bath
  • Anab Jain
    Founder, Superflux
  • Ivo Gormley
    Filmmaker and anthropologist, Think Public
  • Michael Cross
    Freelance journalist, The Guardian
  • Sam Pitroda
    Adviser to the Prime Minister Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations, Indian Government

Lift Conference 2010

May 5-7, 2010   |   CICG, Geneva, Switzerland

    

Lift in Asia 2009

Sept. 17-18, 2009   |   Jeju, South Korea

   

  • Chul Shin
    Robot Movies Producer, South Korea, CEO, Shincine
  • Dong Hyung Lee
    Co-founder, Cyworld
  • Jinho Hur
    CEO of the second largest social network service in Korea, Neowiz
  • Minsuk Cho
    New Generation Architect, Founder of Mass Studies
  • Suman Park
    Founder of me2DAY

Lift in France 2009

June 18-20, 2009   |   Marseille, France

   

Lift Conference 2009

Feb. 25-27, 2009   |   CICG, Geneva, Switzerland

    
  • Vinton Cerf, Vice President Google, Internet Evangelist: "From the Jurassic Era of the Internet to its Futures" (FR)

Lift in Asia 2008

Sept. 4-6, 2008   |   Jeju, South Korea

   

Lift Conference 2008

Feb. 6-8, 2008   |   CICG, Geneva, Switzerland

  

Lift in Asia 2007

Sept. 12, 2007   |   Seoul, South Korea

   

Lift Conference 2007

Feb. 7-9, 2007   |   CICG, Geneva, Switzerland

  
  • Jan Chipchase, Principal Scientist Nokia Research Center "Literacy, Communication & Design"
  • Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology Newcastle University: "How kids teach themselves"

Lift Conference 2006

Feb. 2-3, 2006   |   CICG, Geneva, Switzerland