700 people? Not a problem or Les Blogs 3.0 seems to have a go

Posted on August 17, 2006 under blog ,

In september I’ll start working on Les Blogs 3 in Paris which should happen in November or early December 2006, stay tuned if you’re interested, let’s see if we get 700 people too (we had 450 from 25 countries last time, full house).

That should not be a problem, given especially the growing interest in markets like Germany as well as a lot of people from outside Europe being interested in the European blogosphere.

Every time in the past when you asked me about Germany and the *sphere, I would shrug and say “forget it” but this year, Germany is *really* catching on. Just some examples:

several German only conferences in this space happening this year
companies like BMW and Mercedes and others do invest hugely in making video- / podcast
major German publishing houses take a huge approach at getting really web 2.0ish throughout their companies (that should make a panel alone)
bloggers as well as video-/podcasters are getting hired into the companies

I am actually considering overthinking my approach to not deal with my home country because they are so much behind. It feels a bit like Germany is jumping from stone age to modern time, leaving out the middle. Very exciting, very cool.

What would I like of Les Blog three?
I think everybody who went to Les Blogs 2.0 will agree that Loic gets torn and feathered if he tries to call that food again. But that set aside one of the reasons a lot of people where not over joyously happy with it was that we where surprised on how far we already had come. The earlier adopters where too far ahead but did not contribute much new to spark the conversation, the more normal people coming where irritated by the geeky crowd. I think we all were a bit irritated by that because we would have expected that level of knowledge by normal people / companies by now, but not back then.

Let me therefore write down a few notes what I personally do or do not expect from Les Blogs 3:

Les Blogs is a name, not a description. I have no problem at all understanding video / audio / mobile being part of Les Blogs besides the blog things.Au contraire, I would be irritated if this was not included.
LB3 will be an industry event where interested parties (non profit as well as profit) will meet experts and suppliers of the different tools and technologies in the sphere, with a European touch. Period. It will not be a sister to reboot / lift / shift, but if at all, it is the industrial counter part to the Digital Lifestyle Day in Munich.
As those people will have different levels of knowledge, it might be worth a look at having workshops / seminars / tutorials the day before like other conferences do as well.
I do not mind sponsors. I will bash sponsors though if they have a crappy presentation on stage with no value for me, gifts with no value for me and alike. This will be a smart crowd, deal with it.
I would not mind if this would take place not inside of Paris as long as we can reach this place with public transportation. It is probably easier for Loic to organize something in Paris, just wanted to say I don’t mind another city which may be cheaper to host it at.
Though shall not even think about putting the back channel on the screen. Who wants to, can join, if it will be on the screen, we will go to a different channel.
It would be helpful to have the date sooner than later :)