I am in Paris for LeWeb08. The theme of this year's conference is Love and how apropo for this city and more than 1600 attendees who are representing their companies in full force--expressing their love for creation, innovation and--yes, success.
The event is held at the new "One Hundred and Four" conference center this year. So new in fact that the walls still need painting and the toilets need seats. It is cold in Paris to start with but, today especially, it was even colder with wet snow coming down outside the large windows while inside the venue, the low heating (if there was any) made it extremely hard to keep warm.
But even without the weather, it was far from a smooth start: There was no wireless in the morning and the wired connection was spotty throughout the day, some people's badges were lost and the modern plastic chairs and white school-tables were uncomfortable making it tough to spend a full day sitting down. Food and warm drinks are essential in the cold, and maybe that's the reason they were consumed so quickly and gone.
So the conference was not perfect on its first day, but interestingly enough, if you really think about it--so is love. Whether it's two people finding their way to one another or two guys with a technology, floundering as they try to search for their path--it is rare that it all works smoothly early on. I mean, as people, we come wired like two separate machines, it is only natural we would need to adjust and learn the other's ways--maybe read a manual if there is ever one. And as we get older--letting another person in, compromising our space, learning to communicate--finding a way through the many mitigating factors of making relationship work can be extremely difficult.
But this--this LeWeb--despite what you might think, is love one hundred percent. Over 1600 participants from around Europe and the US were present--many of them startup founders and CEOs who came for the two days despite the economy. David Weinberger spoke about leadership and love. Itay Talgam talked about the non-verbal communication between an orchestra conductor and his musicians--making us stand up and sing and playing videos shot during concerts clearly demonstrating...well- love. Helen Fisher spoke about the physiology of attraction, Yossi Vardi told Kara Swisher he's opening a new startup: website for the dead ("we user-tested it and users had no complaints"), and Paolo Coelho (ohhh...Paolo Coelho, my most powerful inspiration when I was 16) spoke about his love for writing and love for readers, and love for technology and for living one's purpose.
It wasn't easy to get through this first day--for both organizers and participants--and it was not flawless, by any means. But at the as the session closed, people went and got dinner, and many found their way to the MySpace party where Geraldine and Loic Le Meur, LeWeb founders, welcomed everyone and graciously engaged in conversations despite the long day and preceding weeks.
People talked and mingled under the bright chandelier, some even danced, letting the challenges of the first day become a memory far away--its precious knowledge not lost. New connections, new inspirations, and a lot of geek and startup talk and we were all happy to be there. We now know a little better what to expect and what tomorrow will bring, we figured out the way of the Metro and the space configuration and the temperature and yes, more of us are bound to wear hats. We love what we do, we love meeting others--and tomorrow, we'll get back to the One Hundred and Four to enjoy more of the magic that comes with love for everything innovation and making it big. We're getting through it, you see, and in the end, we will leave having experienced the magic of like-hearted alchemy and the amalgamation that takes place when passionate people seek each other as part of their personal path to making a difference and to creating something new.
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