#lift13

[dirksonguer]

It was huge fun. Again. As every year.

[eleonoredelusignan]

"What if, instead, human brains were hacking our technologies?"

- Sebastian Dieguez 

Researcher in cognitive neuroscience, University of Fribourg

Newsweek: icrazy 

Stanislaw dehaene - cultural recycling

[swissusability]

How to create a gamified tax software

I just came back from the Lift-Conference in Geneva where I attended a workshop about gamification. Our group brainstormed some ways how you could make a tax-software a more enjoyable and engaging experience through gamification. Check out this photo of our flipchart:

Thanks to Gregory Linn and Thomas Schinabeck, who were together with me in the group.

[blogdetailsch-blog]

Hashtag

If you want tofollow on twitter #lift13

[sebastienflury]

It's time to lift up your startup!

Once a year, more than 1’000 people from every corner of Switzerland and abroad gather in Geneva for 3 days at Lift Conference. In contrary to purely startup events like Next Berlin, Dublin Web Summit or LeWeb, Lift is also focusing its efforts on discovering new trends and helping you to transform them into opportunities.

From 6th to 8th February 2013, Lift13 will present you a wide and interesting program, comprising workshops (like the memorable “Hacking Venture Capital” by Fred Destin back in 2010), main stage sessions, speed dating, a startup competition and the amazing cheese fondue-dinner (more than 600 people eat a traditional Swiss fondue, talking about tech and innovation…).

The ladies behind the event (Sylvie, Abir and co) are actively engaging Lift community: everyone had the possibility to suggest a workshop idea he would organize during the conference. The selected workshops will be published soon (on 16th November).

The sessions will be articulated around challenging the present to reinvent the future. As we live in an era of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, we have to find new methods to plan an unpredictable future. How can we manage that and adapt to an increasingly changing environment? A vast panel of top speakers will present their views, but the definitive program is currently not disclosed… We still have to wait a bit ;-(…

For the second year, Lift Conference is also organizing the “Röstigraben Express” for German-speaking Swiss participants, who will have the opportunity to gather and network already during their travel by train!

As every good conference, there’s again a startup competition: the AlpICT Venture Night. With a revamped concept (a first round of teasing quick pitches during the 2nd day and Venture Night finale participation when selected by the public) and an international jury panel of entrepreneurs (but who are they?), the winner will get… a bit of fame (pitching in front of the audience + a covering on Swiss television) and some consulting credentials from Accenture and OSEC. Great, but as an entrepreneur, I feel it misses one important point: a financial grant! Where is the cash?

This year, every innovative IT startups from across Switzerland (not just French speaking part) can register to the Venture Night (until 20th of November 2012). Selected startups will be get 3 preparatory coaching sessions, a stand at the conference and a ticket “(prized at more than CHF 1’500.-). So even if you wont infuse cash in your startup, worth the effort of taking your chance to participate!

If you don’t want (or are not eligible) to pitch the audience, you still have a chance to showcase your products or technology by registering for an exhibition space. Years over years, the companies presenting their know-how and demonstrating their innovative technology alongside the conference bring a tasteful impression to every Lift participant. By the way, I’ve gotten a special discount for 10 startups: you can get a 15% off on the startup package (exhibition space + 3-day pass) by entering the code “aSTARTUPOLIC201312”. The package seems to expensive for your company? Use the available mean at your local Economic Development agency (by experience, I can tell you they’ll be happy to subsidize half of your costs…)!

And lastly… I’ve managed to get a discount of 15% for all of you (even if you have no startup) on 20 3-day tickets (first come, first served)… so you can spare almost CHF 150.- by registering here and entering the code “aSTARTUPOLIC201312”. What are you waiting for?

Lift Conference is definitely important in term of networking. I’ve been attending since 2009 and always enjoyed it. There is simply no single other event in Switzerland where you can meet most of the local digital startup scene! And moreover, there are plenty of foreign rockstars who attend (think that Robert Scoble was there in 2010… or Vint Cerf in 2009! And I’m missing the names of the others!).