Last year Lift and AlpicT partnered to organize a venture trip in Korea. We helped emerging start-ups from Western Switzerland such as Poken, Arimaz, KeyLemon, Secu4, Lighthouse, Pixelux to develop and promote themselves. They had the opportunity to meet-up key people in Korea, potential clients, suppliers, partners, or investors and show their project during the Lift conference in Jeju.

In the context of Lift Asia next fall, we renew this partnership for the "Asia Venture Trip 2009" in Seoul and Jeju between September 14 and 19. The project targets entrepreneurs based in Western Switzerland (Vaud, Valais, Geneve, Fribourg, Bern, Neuchatel, Jura) in the field of information and communication technologies and with a strong focus on interactivity.

More details and information can be found in the documents below (in french):

I received several questions about the number of attendees at Lift France, mostly because on the pictures the room seem to be quite empty. Truth is, we had 900 seats and, even with 500+ attendees, it gives the auditorium an empty feeling. But thanks to Tristan Nitot - who asked the audience to stand up - we have some pictures showing how many people were indeed in the room.

^{500 persons seating.}

^{Now please stand up.}

Next year we will also work on concentrating the audience more in the front rows. The power plugs were not enough of an incentive this time, we'll come up with better ideas.

KLM has an amazing offer, flights to Seoul during Lift Asia 09 at less than 700chf! Book your flight now if you are traveling from Europe, the offer works until July 6th!

I checked with Zurich and Geneva and for once the prices announced are the prices you get :)

We have teamed up with the organizers of Blogtalk to synchronize the dates of our Asian events. So if you travel to Korea in September you will be able to attend two great conferences in four days. This should make your trip more productive and unforgettable!

We will soon add combined tickets for both events on the registration page, stay tuned.

John Thackara, director of Doors of Perception, gives a provocative talk about the role of design in finding solutions to the ecological crisis. After inviting us to avoid terms such as "future" or "sustainable" as they maintain a certain distance to the problem we face, he shows a rich set of projects he participated in. He makes the important point that the resources to be put in place already exist and that they might not necessitates complex technological developments.

You can easily republish this video on your site! Just copy the code below and paste it in your blog.

The Fing teams shot several interviews during Lift France, I paste a few below and you can find many more on Dailymotion.

Peter Nou captured the atmosphere of a typical Marseille street party, what a shame I missed that one :)

If you have some Lift France videos please blog them or email us on info at liftconference dot com so we can publish them here!

Ivo Naepflin is our "official photographer" since lift09, following us across the world to shoot pictures of the conference. He is posting his work under a Creative Common license on Flickr.

It's amazing how empty a room of 900 looks when "only" 450 persons are in it. Next year we really have to do a better job at concentrating participants in the first rows... The laptop power plugs was not enough of an incentive this time ;)

Michael Shiloh did a tinkering workshop in which participants built a chain reaction contraption out of junk. See the video below!

Several pictures are also available on Flickr, browse Lift's photostream from here.

Update: here is another video with more explanations on the workshop:

Tickets for two events are currently on sale, both with special prices:

Lift Asia 09 @ 295CHF

Jeju Korea, Sept. 17-18, 2009

The dates are now set, we found an ideal solution to host another Lift in the magnificent Jeju ICC and are eager to share an exceptional moment surrounded by the breathtaking natural wonders of Jeju Island! We lowered the entrance ticket to make the conference more accessible to those who will have to travel from Europe and USA, and you can grab your pass for Lift Asia 09 for less than 300chf (195€, 270$, 350k KRW) until August 1st, 2009.

Register for Lift Asia 09.

Lift10 @ 550CHF

Geneva, May 5-7, 2010

Tickets are selling at 550chf (360€, 508$, 650k KRW) until June 29! Last year's tickets sold for 950chf so you get a 40% discount if you buy your ticket now. Tip: by selecting bank transfer payment you can actually pay several weeks after buying your ticket. You still get the super price but you have a bit more time if your cashflow need a breather.

Register for Lift10.