For some reason this “web” conference has been transformed into a political rally.
- First, this morning Shimon Peres shows up to talk about world peace.
- This afternoon, out of the blue, we’re supposed to welcome Nicholas Sarkozy (UMP).
- And equally unexpected we just had a political statement by his political counterpart François Bayrou (UDF)
This bothers me a lot:
- Loic Lemeur might have political ambitions, right in time for the French Presidential race, but that does not mean he has to turn a conference about technology and social software into a political forum
- I have tremendous respect for Mr. Peres, but this is not the time nor place to have this kind of presentation.
- I did not pay over €600 (fee/hotel/travel) to come and listen to self-involved French politicians talk about why they want to run for president
- The whole conference scheme has been changed and compressed for allowing hours of (for most of us) irrelevant monologue
- Loic was proud that 55% of attendees were not French, but then he gives the stage to French candidates speaking French
I’m pissed off, and I’m certainly not the only one!
Related posts:
- LeWeb3: the Babel effect I went to see the movie “Babel” recently, and I...
- Off to LeWeb3 I’m leaving for Paris with Clo and Fre to attend...
- LeWeb3: a dozen Belgians in Paris Le Web 3 has just passed the 400 attendees,...
- Web 2.0 conference in Brussels The guys from Shoob are organising a Belgian Web...
- Le Web 3 in Paris Based on the excellent experience of last year’s Les...
That’s very right and I think that your last sentence sums up the idea perfectly
“I’m pissed off, and I’m certainly not the only one.”
I agree with you, it seems that this conference has been transformed into a political forum.
Finally I’m happy I didn’t went there
I completely agree and also feel betrayed in some sort of way. And other people I spoke to, are not feeling comfortable with the way it’s developing as well. Really strange & cynical stuff that is happening here…It’s as if this conference is “the launch platform” for Loïc into the political sphere. Sad, for us…
You are basically right, but we have to admit too that preparing such a huge conference in just 50 days is not so easy. The level of people coming and the level of people giving speaches is quite high. It is a pity Loic hurts it because he is a french man and there are elections next year. What i think Loic should do for next year’s conference is creating a committee of people from different countries which decides on the program.
Le Meur bosse pour l’UMP.
Ceci explique cela.
Le Meur works for UMP.
This explain that.
That’ all folks.
Le truc le plus fou que j’ai pu retenir de ces 2 jours est ce fantastique vidéo clip réalisé a base d’images volées sur google earth, pas un seul bloggeur n’y a loupé, certains le passant en boucle sur leurs laptops, la musique est absolument géniale !!
http://www.flavorjenkins.net/video.html
http://www.scoopeo.com/blogs/le-coup-de-gueule-contre-leweb3-et-loic-lemeur
And now Sam Sethi’s being fired from TechCrunch UK & Ireland by Michael Arrington, over a negative post he did on Le Web 3 … Wow …
Amaai as we say here in Belgium…
I thought of coming but then decided that this conference was not really my place as I need to “evangelize” according to my job description at IBM and all people there are already convinced of the impact social media have.
On the other hand I feel I missed something now… Or is that cynical ?
I heard voices rising for a real European conference on social media… Anyone interested ? I am…. But then one with real case studies, not hype. One that would speak to the “non initiated” as well as the “converted”. Would that be possible ?
Of course, such a conference would need to be organized in Brussels