Recently I interviewed Nicolas Nova, editorial manager of LIFT, at the Mobile City Conference in Rotterdam, NL. The topics covered in this interview are: The future of education and learning, blended-learning, remote-accessed field trips, communication, collaboration, the changing roles of teachers & professors, surveillance, privacy and The Lift Conference. I was very impressed with Nicolas's reflections on the topics mentioned above and I make this interview available to the lift community in order to inspire thought and discussion on the topics Nicolas addresses.

An enhanced podcast can be obtained here: http://www.mamk.net/?p=727

Dave Gray, founder and CEO of Xplane, will be in Geneva to host a workshop on “Making the Complex Clear” on March 18 at Arvetica (full workshops schedule here).

Dave and his company have brought visual techniques to major companies like Credit Suisse, Nokia, Apple, IBM, Bank of America and many more, to help them with topics such as improving strategic thinking strategy development and communication, streamlining change management or clarifying their communications with clients.

In this podcast Dave explains the value of visual techniques for businesses and private banks and outlines what we will be doing during the workshop in March. He particularly stresses that mediocre communications lead to misalignment in management and hence result in poor implementation. Dave invites entire management and project teams to participate in the workshop so that they can directly work on concrete business problems. That’s quite an opportunity to be able to benefit from individual coaching by one of the leading thinkers in visual business communications.

If you are interested in participating in the workshop download the flyer (pdf) and send us the registration form.

We offer a 10% discount on the workshop fee (normal price is 1650CHF) to the members of Lift community (you simply mention LIFT when you register)

Web 2.0 meets Marxist (Foucaultian?) economic theory in the latest video from Austrian subversive art collective http://www.monochrom.at/english/

Sorry it is not possible to embed content, so you´ll have to leave the site
http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/02/15/monochroms-marxist-s.html

Go see for yourself. The are pretty good. And smart. And on-topic.
Enjoy!

Read all about it: I dream of LIFT.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Lift organization team for the amazing job done and the Lifters for the active participation. I also would like to warmly thank the Gebert Rüf Stiftung fellowship program for giving us, poor students of all around Europe, the opportunity to actively participate to this insightful event. Finally a great thanks to the workshop organizers for the enriching sessions.

Keep up the good work, the chaos and the fondue :)

Man, I enjoyed Lift. Sure there were some things I didn't like but overwhelmingly there was lots that I did. And yes, Laurent, I have filled the feedback survey in (mine's the one that asks for beer)

By far the worst thing of all was being at another conference where Pedro was in the same room and yet again we managed not to arrange to meet. Hmmm. That is poor.

Anyway, I've managed to post a few of my impressions over on my blog and I'm sure more will be forthcoming.

But to conclude I wanted to share something random with you all. Don't ask me why...it is random and I know not why. That 'thing' is the content of my *Lift* playlist on my iPhone. I intended to listen to this in the downtime between sessions, on the plane etc but because Lift was so damned good, so damned engaging, *none* of it got played.

But I have to share it. I'm an OCD kind of guy, so you'll notice that this all made up of albums and not random individual tracks.

The Killers - Sawdust
Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
The Beta Band - The Three EP's
The Lemonheads - It's a shame about Ray
Midlake - Milkmaid Grand Army EP
Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanther
Turin Brakes - Dark on Fire
Radio One's Live Lounge Volume 1
Captain - This is Hazelville
The Charlatans - The Charlatans
Clinic - Walking with Thee
Paul Oakenfold - Greatest Hits and Remixes.

That's 201 tracks and 14.6 Hours of tunes that didn't get listened to...if you are remotely intrigued by any of this I recommend you try out Roscoe by Midlake (Trials of Van Occupanther).

-pc.

What makes LIFT so much more that a meeting for techno-visionaries? As a perfect metaphor for Web 2.0, LIFT has succeeded in creating a new community made up of those of us who want to stay in tune with the world & to connect.

I came away from LIFT 07 and LIFT08 with the certainty that the Geneva get-together is not only a thrilling platform for the discovery and confrontation of new concepts, but is also fast emerging as a spearhead for a “New Switzerland”, a place that creates and attracts bold minds.

Laurent Haug – your imagination, zeal and zest are the driving forces of this venture. By merging with the daring inventiveness of Cristiana Bolli Freitas and Laurent Bolli, together you have allowed creativity to flourish, a formidable component to a gathering which might otherwise have been just ... another conference.

Sylvie, David, Sonia, Nicholas(s), Marc-Olivier, Mathias and so many others whose thoughtful dedication brought it all together, you too deserve our thanks!

The greatest compliment we can offer you is to consider that we are all now part of the vibrant community that you have created. Vive le LIFT! And say hello to all our new South Korean friends when you are there…

LIFT 08 was a rejuvenating and enriching experience during which I got to listen to plenty of smart people coming from very different backgrounds. This is probably what makes the LIFT conference a unique happening and demarcates it from many other conferences.

My thoughts are summarized here

voir les images