37 countries, 1300 conference attendees, 70+ speakers, surprise visits by Shimon Peres, Francois Bayrou and Nicholas Sarkozy - those would be the obvious highlights of the cool Le Web 3.0 Conference that took place in Paris this week on Monday and Tuesday. For me personally, it was a great opportunity to network with entrepreneurs from around the world, make new friends, discover some cool new companies but most importantly, renew my faith in the global spirit of entrepreneurship.
In stark contrast to the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, where one of the few international tracks was virtually deserted except for 40 or so Europeans, Le Web 3.0 stood out with the diversity and self-depreciating friendliness of the entrepreneurs, bloggers and other people that attended it. Everyone seemed eager to cooperate, learn new trends, share their experiences, and network. The appearance by Shimon Peres, to cultivate a spirit of using technology and the web for peace was really cool.
(photo credit Manuel Diaz)
The unexpected visits of Francois Bayrou and Nicholas Sarkozy drew different reactions from the crowd, as most of the French people in the audience enjoyed a live performance by both, while others left the main conference room for a welcome coffee break as the numerous scheduling changes resulted in the cancellation of all intermissions except a shortened lunch during the second day.
It's impossible to summarize such an extensive conference with merely a single blogpost so I leave you with some of my favorite quotes from Le Web 3.0 and hope to follow up with more detailed coverage later in the week...
[referring to the Web 2.0 conference's poorly attended international session in San Francisco] "European start-ups are not that interesting to the US players due to their small volume, and if they really pick up, there's always the option to buy", Brent Hoberman, LastMinute - UK
"World has two diseases: religion and nationalism", Martin Varsavsky, FON - Spain
"Be the leader in your niche", Cedric Maloux, AllPeers, Czech Republic
"The Internet is very important", Nicholas Sarkozy, Minister of the Interior - France
"Know thy audience", Danah Boyd, PhD Student, UC Berkeley - US
"Democracy gives us the right to make mistakes, but with the obligation to correct them", Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister and current Vice Premier of Israel
