Les Blogs 2.0 preliminary program

Introduction

Why have we started to organize the Les Blogs conference ?

A frustration. I have always been so sorry that there were not enough cool conferences around the Web generally in Europe. If you are European, you have to go often to the US to meet the key players and network with the movers and shakers. I am not saying there are none, but not enough, and there was no international event around blogs.

A new World is here

Don't you feel the rules and our world are changing ? Don't you feel changed by what many people call the Web 2.0 ? We believe as most of you that the way we work, the way we learn and teach, the way we interact with one another and more generally our expectations and relationships to other people, the institutions, the business world and politics are changing dramatically.

It is not only about blogging, it's about changing the way we think

What defines this new way of thinking and acting ? Difficult to say, let's try to define it together. I would say that transparency, openness and collaboration are the key values that drive this phenomenon. It is not only about blogging, not only about social software and other tools, it is much broader. Of course bloggers are at the forefront of this way of life: unformal, friendly, no powerpoint and no ties...

Let's define together these new values and understand :
1. How they challenge the corporate world
2. How they change the media landscape
3. How they bring more democracy in politics
4. How education evolves
5. What are the tools used and how we can all best benefit from them
6. Where we are going in the near and longer term future

If the first edition of Les Blogs was a successful gathering of 250+ people from 25 Countries, we would like that the second edition on December 5th and 6th translates into something more concrete.

Of course we will be there to meet each other, have fun and business, but we could also build together a collaborative document on a wiki that helps everybody better understand what's happening and help change a bit our World using these tools in the best possible way.

Everybody is welcome to join and just listen and network, however as I see that hundreds of posts were posted during the first edition and more than 2000 pictures posted on Flickr, we could may be also use our willingness and energy to share with everybody to try to build something together, as we started on the European Blogosphere Wiki.

If you wish, you can enter the conversation and contribute to the Les Blogs companion wiki it is just starting.

The idea is to go through these six questions together both speakers and participants. Every participant can contribute to the panel before the session on the panel to help build the conversation.

After brief introductions, our panelists will engage with the moderator, each other and the audience to discuss the topics on the wiki.

Program

Welcome to this second edition of Les Blogs.

Loïc Le Meur, Guillaume du Gardier and Elisabeth Albrycht

Monday, December 5th

How is blogging challenging the Corporate World ?

9h30 - 9h45
Opening Remarks: Loïc Le Meur, France

9h45 - 10h30
Naked Conversations: Robert Scoble & Shel Israel, USA 

10h30 - 11h
Networking break

11h - 12h
How is blogging affecting corporations ?

• Philippe Borremans, IBM, Belgium
• Georges-Edouard Dias, L'Oreal, France
• Michel-Edouard Leclerc, France
• Adriana Cronin-Lukas, U.K.
• Martin Varsavsky, Fon

12h - 14h
Networking lunch, sponsored by Fon

How is blogging and citizen publishing changing the media landscape ?

14h - 14h30
A global perspective : Asia, Africa, Middle-east getting together with blogging

• Ethan Zuckerman Global Voices co-founder
• Sokari Ekine – GV Africa Editor
• Neha Viswanathan – GV South Asia Editor
• Haitham Sabbah – GV Middle East Editor

14h30 - 15h30
Citizen Journalism and mainstream media, moderated by Thomas Crampton, International Herald Tribune

• Rebecca MacKinnon, Global Voices, USA
• Joël de Rosnay, Agoravox, France
• Marcel Reichart, Hubert Burda Media, Germany
• more speakers to be announced soon

 

15h30 - 16h
networking break

16h - 17h
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Social Media and more broadly, Web 2.0, have seen a flurry of activity over the past 18 months: startups creation, VC financing, mergers and acquisitions, established players jumping in the fray,... This panel, made up of key witnesses of the Web 2.0 phenomena, will take a retrospective, and sarcastic, look at key trends in this "frothy" market, and where it might go from there.

• Om Malik, USA
• David Hornik, August Capital, USA
• Tristan Nitot, Mozilla Europe, France
• Jeff Clavier, Softtech VC, USA

17h - 17h30
How blogs influence politics ?

• Davide Casaleggio, Italy, for the blog of Beppe Grillo, Italy
• Thierry Solere, France, Boulogne Billancourt vice city major, France

17h30 - 18h00
Blogs and education

• Eric Briys, Belgium, Cyberlibris
• Ewan McIntosh, Scotland U.K., University of Stirling
• Carl-Frédéric De Celles, iXmédia, Québec

20h...
Networking dinner & party in Paris.
Sponsors and venue will be announced asap.

Tuesday, December 6th

What are the tools used and how we can all best benefit from them ?

9h30 - 10h00
Mena Trott, co-founder, Six Apart, USA

10h - 11h
RSS Panel moderated by Elizabeth Albrycht

RSS is the enabling technology for participatory communications,
providing syndication for blogs, wikis, podcasts, videocasts, etc. This
panel will discuss the best ways to use RSS, both to publish and
subscribe to information.

• Fergus Burns, CEO, Nooked, USA
• Scott Rafer, Chairman, Wireless Inc, USA
• Dana VanDen Heuvel, Pheedo, USA
• Steve Olechowski, COO & Co-Founder, FeedBurner, USA
• Greg Reinacker, NewsGator Technologies, USA

11h - 11h30
Networking break

11h30 - 12h15
Podcasting, Photo & Video Blogging, moderated by Neville Hobson

With the ongoing improvment in high speed bandwidth, especially the new
3G networks being deployed in Europe, early adopters are beginning to
jump on the photo and video bandwagon, adding graphics and short videos
to their blogs, and even creating pure video blogs. This panel will
highlight some of these early uses, discuss the challenges and, as with
the preceding panel, talk about ideas for future video technologies.

• Bertrand Lenotre, Podemus, France
• Jian Ni, Senior Business Development Manager, Nokia Lifeblog, Finland
• Olivier Dufour, Founder, Skema, France
• Roy Lindeman, Partner, Readspeaker, Sweden
• Gabe McIntyre, Xolo.tv

12h15 - 14h
Networking lunch sponsored by Hubert Burda Media and Skype

13h45 - 14h15
Richard Edelman, CEO Edelman

14h15 - 14h45
How to socialize in the year 2055: Anina, France, Marc Canter, USA, and Hugh MacLeod, U.K.

14h45 - 15h45
Tracking/Listening to the Online World moderated by Guillaume du Gardier

No one can afford to be blind and deaf in this new online world. Our
panelists will discuss the current state of the art for tracking what
is happening in the blogosphere, giving tips and advice on how to keep
up with the rapid changes in technology.

• Mark Rogers, CEO, Market Sentinel, UK
• Salim Ismail, CEO, PubSub, USA
• David Sifry, CEO, Technorati, USA
• Yann Motte, VP Product Management, Yahoo! Europe, U.K.
• Mark Fletcher, Founder, Bloglines, USA

15h45 - 16h15
Ben Hammersley, Italy

Eight ideas that will really revolutionize the 21st century (and why blogging isn't one of them)

16h15 - 16h45
Networking Break

16h45 - 17h30
Closing session: the future.

• • Reid Hoffman, USA, Linked In
  • Yat Siu, China, Outblaze
  • Jason Calacanis, USA, WeblogsInc
  • Marko Ahtisaari, Finland, Nokia

Comments

[Rodrigo Sepúlveda Schulz]

What an awesome program! everyone should sign up for the conference!

[Shelley]

So, I guess women in Europe don't weblog? Or is it you're not interested in connecting with women in Europe?

[Franck Mahon]

I don't undertsand your comment Shelley. In the program I can find 3 european women who will talk or, even better, moderate.
Adriana Cronin-Lukas,
Elisabeth Albrycht
Anina
(Rebecca MacKinnon, Dana VanDen Heuvel and Mena Trott don't count, they're from the US, sorry ;)
Don't forget that Elisabeth Albrycht is also organising this conference.

PS: We're really interested in connecting with women in Europe... ^_^

[Anon]

Does anyone actually believe this is anything except a Six Apart hosted event? And, how is it different than any other blog event. Same people. Same topics. Ok - we get it. Blogs are important. Web 2.0? Are you serious?

[Net]

Looks great!

[Techreview]

What about inviting web 2.0 start up companies ?
What about flock, zvent, netvibes, rolo, rememberthemilk ??

Are you guy's one year late ? Web 2.0 is on the eyeballs you should invite theses guys, not the same big corp telling us what we already know !

best
bren

[Nancy White]

I want to gently and hopefully constructively chime on the gender diversity of your speakers. 6 women and 42 men. Yet who make consumer decisions? Who are starting more businesses? Who are changing the face of work in many sectors. Who are ripe for the blogging meme?

Women.

There are fabulous women doing work in Europe. There are a bunch doing work in education and blogging in the Netherlands, Italy and UK. With inclusive workforce and working with cultural diversity all over Europe. With communities and NPOs.

The issue is that women presenters are harder to find because of a variety of issues. One of which is they don't go to/hang out at conferences as much as the early adopter/in crowd. Their networks are probably not the same as yours. But they have amazing things to say.(I sent you some names as examples a couple of weeks ago.)

It is very difficult to program a conference that fights against the norms of big names which draw. People have to trust YOU that YOU are bringing good people and you are out there finding the voices who we have not heard. It is more work.

But it is worth it.

Did you know a recent survey in Portugal suggested that more than half of Portuguese bloggers are women? Yet at the conference announcing this in Sept, few speakers.

There is a real disconnect. People like you and other visible players can help reconnect. If you need help next time, ask some of the folks like the board of advisors for http://www.blogher.org how to reach out. It is DOABLE and powerful. It does, however, ask us to step out of our comfort zones and take a risk.

Hey, if you want to do a panel on the power of women blogging... there's still time!

Leaders take risks. And they develop trust in their audiences who are willing to take that risk with them.

[charlie]

Mobile Panel suggestion for Les Blogs 2.0 preliminary program

If the organizers are thinking of a Mobile Web 2.0 sort of session (they should), there are some people I can recommend (other than me - I'm disqualified).

- Dave Harper, WINKsite (Scott Rafer is talking about RSS)
- Debi Jones
- Shawn Conahan, Intercasting Corp
- Ni Jian, Nokia (what's he doing on a video panel?)
- Christian Lindholm, Yahoo!

;-)

cross posted on http://cognections.typepad.com/lifeblog/

[Marc Canter]

I am extremely upset that there is no panel on "the meaning of life while smoking a joint and blogging" - afterall Paris is the town of Baudelaire - and if he can "Get Drunk" - and have Hashish Clb - then why can't we legalize Marijuana?

And if Picasso and Braque could drink their Absinthe all day long - then why don't we discuss the influence of canabis on the blogosphere?'

Just kidding - looks like fun! Anina has promised to send me to a good restaurant. I am hoping to be able to 'pie' Loic.

[Frank Meeuwsen]

Maybe a strange question, but how is the situation with all the riiots going on in Paris compared to the venue and hotels where we stay? Since I need to make reservations early, I am a bit reluctant at this period of time with all the problems in the Paris' banlieu's (spelling OK?). Can you give us some information on that?

[Elizabeth Albrycht]

The problems in Paris right now are virtually all in the suburbs, with little happening in the center city. There have been no problems that I am aware of in the area where we are planning the event. I wouldn't worry about booking your trip.

The only concern right now is the train to the airport, which goes through the areas that are having troubles. Taking the airport bus or a cab keeps you on the freeway and out of any problem spots.