Open Stage

Open Stage banner

The open stage is made up of presentations that are proposed and delivered by the Lift community. This year we want to change the direction of these presentations slightly by focusing on the passionate lives you guys lead. The proposals won't be up for vote online, but will be selected by the Lift Team (we are developing a new system to create more coherence and relevance within the sessions).

A Day in the Life of...
The "A Day in the Life of..." series is based on the paradox that although the Lift community consists of hundreds of people who have fascinating skills, job descriptions or hobbies, hardly anyone of us knows what everyone is actually DOING all day long.

Lift 10 Open Stage will feature seven attendants who will take us on a short tour d'horizon of what their days look and feel like. You might walk us through your typical work week, bring with you & explain your favourite tool or showcase your craftsmanship. All this can be work-related, but does not have to be (just in case you want to talk about fly-fishing!).

As an example we might...

  • see what a Manchester-based urban planner actually does when creating a new "master plan"
  • realise what it means to be an ethnographer for a telecoms company in Poland
  • get a glimpse of the duties a press officer of the World Economic Forum has to perform
  • finally understand how to prepare the best ever cup of coffee

This is your chance to talk about what you know and love best - give us an idea of what the Lift community is made of!

The rules
We provide a framework for the open stage because we believe that focus breeds creativity. Here we go:

  • Everyone who attends Lift 10 can hand in a proposal
  • Please understand that we are not looking for commercial pitches or business presentations.
  • There are 8 slots available spread across the 3 conference days
  • Speakers may use keynote/powerpoint or video (or just themselves)
  • If a keynote/powerpoint deck is used it should have 10 slides, 30 sec each. no clicker
  • The duration of the talks is strictly 5 minutes
  • Your proposal (which you can enter below) does not need to be the final presentation but should contain enough copy and visuals to transport your idea
  • We encourage you to bring in your own personality and make the proposal as documentary, observational and authentic as possible
  • You may include real objects to bring your day, profession or passion to life
  • The deadline for proposals is April 5th Submissions are now closed
  • The Lift team will select the 8 speakers and announce them around April 12th
  • All finalists will meet during a short workshop on Wednesday morning (May 5th) to get to know each other and to do a quick rehearsal of the presentations
  • If you have any questions or comments about this year's open stage, please e-mail us at openstage@liftconference.com

    Good luck and see you soon in Geneva!

    The Lift open stage team