Lake Geneva region (GenevaLunch) – This week’s business buzz, in the Lake Geneva area:
Le Richemond has new manager
Patrick Mossu has taken up the post of general manager at the five-star Le Richemond hotel in Geneva. The Rocco Forte hotel, built in 1875 across from the Brunswick Gardens, is one of Geneva’s landmark hotels. It was closed for 20 months for a complete renovation before opening again in September 2007.
Mossu has moved from the Kempinski Grand Hotel Geneva, which as general manager he opened in 2007. His move to the Richemond cements his return to the Lake Geneva area, where he grew up, and where he attended the Lausanne Hotel School before working in several leading hotels around the world.
Lift Asia looks at the post-web browser future
Lift Asia is gearing up in Seoul, South Korea and organizer Laurent Haug, who started the very successful Geneva-based Lift conference series, notes that going there from Geneva is surprisingly affordable: CHF2,000-2,500, flight and hotel. The conference raises an important question: what happens after the web browser? At the end of a decade during which the Internet revolutionized our lives and organizations, the network is now moving beyond the computer screen, invading objects, cities, toys, cars or medical devices. Where will the next big changes happen? What are the world’s most innovative people working on right now?
Now I phone, now I don’t
iPhones, the long wait: according to Le Temps, those who ordered but do not yet have their iPhones, either through Swisscom or Orange, will have to wait at least two weeks longer, with neither company giving a precise delivery date, nor are they saying how many they sold.
Put that in your pipe – but don’t smoke it
The Bloomberg Initiative, announced in New York last week by Bill Gates and New York Mayor Bloomberg, is accepting grant applications until 13 August: "proposals must focus on achieving policy change that will lead to substantial reductions in tobacco use. Grants are funded in the amounts of US$10,000 to $500,000." Grants have already been given for a number of projects in Asia and some in Africa.
Olympics fun online
The Olympics have
just become a lot more fun. The staid old site of Lausanne-based IOC
has had a makeover, unveiled Monday evening for the Beijing Summer
Games. It’s far easier to navigate than the old site, but it also offers a wealth of sporty things to do, from playing an official Olympics mini-game against other online players from around the world to getting tips from personal trainers on a variety of subjects. Even the old standbys, such as looking up world records and getting explanations about sports, have been brightened up.
[Update, Friday 11 April: check out Le Temps's photo gallery of the musicians]
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The official programme for the largest pop-rock music festival in Switzerland is now out. The Paleo music festival will include artists like R.E.M., Manu Chao, Mika, Ben Harper, Massive Attack and Vanessa Paradis among others. The 33rd festival takes place 22 to 27 July 2008 will also feature music from Brazil during the six-day programme, which in 2007 pulled in more than 225,000 fans for over 120 concerts. Tickets go on sale Wednesday 16 April.
Lausanne, Switzerland (24 Heures, Fre) – Lausanne is gaining a reputation for being a tough town in which to go club, affordably, according to one 23-year-old whose Saturday night adventures are recounted by 24 Heures.
[Ed. note: GenevaLunch is carrying a series of articles on the Lift08 conference: articles on Lift08]
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – "Games are about ‘me’," believes Robin Hunicke, electronic game designer and artificial intelligence expert. As part of a panel about the future of the online gaming industry at the Lift08 Conference in Geneva, Hunicke calls games "beautiful," "amazing" and "magical."
Photo: Robin Hunicke on the stage’s large screen at Lift08.
Future games should be designed to make the user feel special and connected to a community, loved, Hunicke said. Games should make users feel "like they’re living".
According to Hunicke, the social networking site Facebook should be an inspiration for the future of online games. "Facebook is about me, and not about all of us," Hunicke said. "Facebook makes me feel like I matter." Gamers, Hunicke believes, want to feel at the centre of the world created by the game.
On the non-human side of gaming, Bruno Bonnell, founder and former CEO of the gaming company Infogrames says that entertainment will involve robotics in the future. "When you see a robot, it’s almost like a fantasy," Bonnell says. People want to interact with machines. He predicts that In the future our homes, cars, and workplaces will house numerous robotic devices with which we will carry on conversations, and which will follow our commands.
[Ed. note: GenevaLunch is carrying a series of articles on the Lift08 conference: articles on Lift08]
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – "In years to come, you may get into your taxi in Geneva and it’s going to be driven by a neural-driven robot," says British neuroscience researcher Kevin Warwick, who in 2002 plugged himself into the Internet as part of his research investigating the boundary that separates man from machine.
Photo: Kevin Warwick with stage large-screen image of his wife’s necklace, wired to his arm, which glowed blue when he was calm.
Sometimes called the "cyborg" (half human, half machine) researcher, Warwick presented his futuristic-sounding research at the Lift08 Conference in Geneva Friday. Warwick works as a scientist and professor at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. He submitted himself to a surgical procedure that implanted electronic chips into his left arm in 1998 for the first time, wiring himself to a light. When he did it again in 2004, he goal was to link his arm to a computer to assess recent technology for use with artificial limbs. Previously, the procedure had only been tested on chickens.
Over a period of three months, Warwick served as a primary research subject, plugging his "external neural system" into a lamp, a wheelchair, and, of course, the Internet. "I had an IP address (Internet address)," Warwick told a rapt crowd that included many technology specialists. Internet spam, luckily, was not a problem. "Our security was that we didn’t tell anyone what we were doing until afterward."
Warwick was not the only participant in the experiment. His wife also had wires inserted into her arm. When she closed her hand, Warwick sensed her movement in his brain. "We were communicating, for the first time in the world, nervous system to nervous system."
Warwick’s wife also wore a necklace that glowed blue when her husband’s nervous signals were calm, and red when his brain became excited, even when they were on separate continents, sparking some comment in her office.
Warwick suggested to the audience that this invention has potential drawbacks. "When I’m excited, she might wonder what I’m doing, and with whom."
Beyond creating a human IP address, Warwick’s research also seeks to predict tremors and seizures in people with Parkinson’s Disease and epilepsy by reading their brain signals. His team is also creating a robot that runs off live neural tissue. The robot builds memories about where those objects lie in order to move around a room without bumping into them. As the robot "brain" builds memories, Warwick’s team studies how memories develop. He believes this could lead to discoveries about the development of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Ed. note: TSR has a lively video about Warwick’s arm and the implant.
[Update: photo and pdf link added, 8 February]
[Ed. note: GenevaLunch is carrying a series of articles on the Lift08 conference: articles on Lift08]
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – "First connect the rabbit, then connect everything else." That’s the simple business principle that keeps Rafi Haladjian moving his charming little digital rabbit, Nabaztag, through the world, hooking it up to lamps and books and more.
The rabbit, created in 2005, is the starting point of French entrepreneur Haladjian’s company Violet. Violet has an equally simple business mission: connect objects. Start with one and connect the other thousands, millions – a rabbit’s work is never done, it appears.
The rest of us have the simplest job of all: love the rabbit. It’s easy to do. In fact, even the web site that encourages you to buy or adopt a rabbit is lovable.
[Ed. note: GenevaLunch is carrying a series of articles on the Lift08 conference: articles on Lift08]
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Socially marginalized people are benefiting from online social networks to an extent never dreamed by the people who designed the systems, Jonathan Cabiria told 700 people at Lift08 in Geneva. "I challenge you to go deeper, go farther" when you create new social network systems, he said to the many programmers and developers who are attending the conference. Lift focuses on the society of the future.
[Ed. note: GenevaLunch is carrying a series of articles on the Lift08 conference: articles on Lift08]
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Our digital identities will become increasingly important to us, says Pierre Bellanger, as we build them into richer bases of information that other people can access. Social networks will grow in the direction of better access to this information so it can be shared with your other social partners.
Bellanger is the founder and CEO of the French media group Skyrock."Physical identity is merging with digital identity, because they are in the same place at the same time." he says. "In the future, your personality will reside in your mobile phone." Bellanger was addressing the LIFT08 Conference in Geneva 6-8 February.
Bellanger started the first radio station in France for 13 to 24-year-olds in the late 1970s. He says that despite being French in a heavily Anglophone Internet world, Skyrock’s goal is to become the social networking site for the world. Skyrock is the number two site in France and ranks 17th in the world in terms of page views, according to Bellanger.
"When you’re a teenager, you’re extremely productive. You’re constantly managing many contacts," he says. Social network systems that reach out to them are currently based on computer portals – large, solid machines. That will change, he argues. In an increasingly mobile world the mobile device, such as a mobile
phone or PDA (personal digital assistant), often serves as as a pocket-sized internet
portal.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Jonathan Buck is a front man for the eminent energy agency, the 100-year-old International Electrotechnical Commission, based in Geneva. He’s the first to laugh that you can’t get much more bureaucratic-sounding than this, especially when you consider that the group is comprised of 200 member nations who set electricity and electronics (electrotechnology) standards.
Photos: Jonathan Buck, left, with Laurent Haug, Lift conference founder, right.
Stop right there, the light bulb is coming on: these are the people behind the energetic, lively, even "sparky" to use one of their favourite words, online WattWatt community that is turning energy conservation into something interesting and fun. Jonathan Buck’s enthusiasm for the project that was started by the IEC is more than that of your average public relations officer. "What we want it to do is raise the profile of electricity, raise the profile of individuals and hopefully that will feed back" to the standards-setting system.
Among other thing, they want to give away $15,000 to three schools from anywhere in the world as a prize for coming up with "an innovative way to improve global electrical energy efficiency in the world."
WattWatt was created in October 2007 as a result of what Buck calls the "Al Gore effect, with climate change being talked up starting at the end of 2006." Reports that have come out in the past year, in particular the IPCG 2007 report "Climate Change 2007," showed that "if you’re efficient, you can actually have an effect, and what we do, setting standards, helps." The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared the 2007 Nobel peace prize with US activist Al Gore.
The key words are "the individual." You. Me. "It’s all about bringing the individual to the forefront," Buck argues. "We’re trying to encourage the community that breaks the mold. We [the IEC] don’t have an agenda except to help people see that energy is primordial."
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – "I was the only one there recording them talk about those war crimes," recalled Jasmina Tesanovic, a Serbian writer also known as the "Balkan blogger" talking about her wartime online diary.
Photo: Jasmina Tesanovic, left
Tesanovic, wearing a shirt with an image of Che Guevara and seated confidently in front of her MacBook, was part of the opening morning of the LIFT08 conference in Geneva.
Lift seeks to connect entrepreneurs, bloggers, journalists, and investors through exchanges about the
social impact of new technologies. The brainchild of Laurent Haug, a French entrepreneur, LIFT08 marks the conference’s third year. Wednesday opened with a full day of workshops at Unimail, part of the University of Geneva, led by a range of presenters, many of whom have previously attended Lift.
Next to Tesanovic’s workshop was one run by Stephanie Booth, a Lausanne-based web consultant and blogger. She preached relaxed writing styles and interactive interfaces for blogs to a small group who were there to hear about getting started blogging, all seated behind laptops. "Blogs are for ‘now’ content," she explained, "whereas your website is where you put your static content and your thematic material."
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Entrepreneurs typically face two problems, says Didier Mesnier of the ICT Cluster in Geneva. "The classic one is finding solutions that correspond to the reality of what the market needs. But they also need to find a way to put in place business structures that suit innovative companies, in particular getting the pricing policy right."
Photo: Didier Mesnier of the ICT Cluster, Geneva
Mesnier is a former entrepreneur who now works with the ICT
Cluster, housed in Geneva’s OPI (Industrial Promotion Office) which is co-sponsoring a "Venture night" event with the Lift08 conference that begins today, "to put promising ventures in the spotlight."
Eight entrepreneurs will stand before the public in Geneva Wednesday evening to present their young companies. The event, at the start of the Lift conference, gives a welcome boost, feedback and publicity to the company owners, but it is also a sign of how seriously western Switzerland is taking the need to encourage young, innovative businesses in the region.
Of the eight ICT (information and communication technology) companies, five are Swiss, two Italian and one from Russia/USA. Their products and services range from online file-sharing to reducing the costs of realtime video game production. The eight were selected from a starting group of dozens of companies from several countries – Swiss companies were given no special weighting during the selection. They were reviewed by a panel of experts that included Robert Scoble and Pierre Chappaz. Scoble came to fame as Microsoft’s official blogger and Chappaz is a successful ICT entrepreneur who founded Wikio, among other successful companies.
Laurent Haug, founder of Lift, is excited that Swiss companies did so well and that three of the finalists are from the Lake Geneva region because it underscores the dynamism in the area. The "Venture night" event is sponsored by Lift and the western Switzerland ICT Cluster "to put promising ventures in the spotlight," he told journalists at a conference briefing.
For Mesnier, the event is part of larger efforts by western Swiss cantons to acknowledge the value of
know-how," to draw attention to people who have ICT know-how and are trying
to commercialize it. The ICT Cluster is looking to identify good
potential companies and then work with them to "clarify their needs and
help sensitize them to the problem of finding a good business model."
It was organized by cantons Geneva, with Jura, Vaud, Valais and Neuchatel with Geneva given the mandate to run the ICT Cluster. It is financed through a mix of federal funds from Seco, the ministry for the economy, cantonal funds and member companies in the region.
Editor’s note: GenevaLunch, a media sponsor for Lift, will be carrying a series of articles on the Lift08 conference beginning today. Also see:
- "Why is GenevaLunch special for us at Lift?" 12 December 2007, Lift blog [update to the figures: GL has now had well over 200,000 pages viewed, with more than 100,000 visitors]
- "Conference network to give Lift08 major boost," 23 October 2007, GenevaLunch
- "Lift08 lines up key speakers," 23 October 2007, GenevaLunch
Venture Night, Wednesday 6 February, open to the public and free of charge, at the Salle Communale de Plainpalais, 52 rue de Carouge, 1205 Geneva.
GenevaLunch articles on Lift08 are all here.
[Ed. note: today, 15 December is the last day for cheaper price earlybird registrations for Lift08!]
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Laurent Haug is sitting with a snappy new iPhone and a sleek Apple laptop, nodding his head enthusiastically.
"This is our third year, this year we are validated. Lift is on the map," he says, looking particularly techie in his glasses and chic clothes. Now in his third year as founder and director of the Lift conferences on technology and innovation, Haug’s project to support innovation and idea-sharing in the technology community is expanding worldwide. Best, he’s just attended a web conference where people mentioned Lift as a place you go to for ideas.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Lift08 conference (see GL feature published 23 October on Lift and European conferences), which expects to draw some 700 people in February 2008 now has an advance list of speakers which includes some key presentations:
Kevin Warwick, a British designer who implanted a microchip in his left arm to better study how the latest technology might help disabled people, and Henri Markram from EPFL in Lausanne, who heads the Blue Brain project run jointly by the polytechnic institute and IBM, will address the February conference.
Lift brings together "observers, explorers, and builders from around the world to discuss the current challenges and creative solutions presented by emerging technologies." (www.liftconference.com)
Warwick and Markram are part of a track called "New frontiers" where speakers will describe how ethical and physical boundaries may be crossed by technological developments. The conference will have eight tracks, or themes.
Other speakers on the partial, early list include:
- Rafi Haladjian, Minitel startups founder and creator of a series of unusual ventures: the Nabaztag, a wi-fi and RFID-enabled rabbit, part of the “Stories” track
- Robin Hunicke, Electronic Arts, an academic at Northwestern University: creating Nintendo-Wi games such as My Sims
- David Marcus of Zong and David Sadigh (IC Agency): how the web is reshuffling work practices, part of the “Web and companies” track
- Heewon Kim, researcher at Yonsei University in Seoul: how teenagers use social software in South Korea, and Marc Laperrouza, EPFL researcher who specializes in new technologies in China: current state/trends in Chinese telecommunications. Both are part of the "A glimpse of
Asia" track.
LIFT expanded to Asia in 2007, hosting an event in Seoul. "A glimpse of Asia" will share some of the highlights from the August Korea event.
The full program is available online on the Lift site.
Lift conference participants
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch, by Ellen Wallace with Julie Schindall) – Lift, whose first two conferences* in 2006 and 2007 on creative solutions and emerging technologies pulled in large crowds, is joining forces with eight other events to form a European network of creativity and innovation. The group expects members to benefit individually from working together but they believe the new network will also strengthen the position of Europe on the global map of innovation.
The events are complementary to each other and their cooperation should improve the quality of conferences for both conference-goers and organizers, according to Laurent Haug, founder of Lift. The alliance will cooperate on joint promotion, coordination of topics, venues and dates, information sharing,
and a joint sponsor approach. Conference-goers will be able to more easily share information and have easier access to important ideas. The conferences themselves will be able to attract larger audiences, says Haug.
For the Geneva Lift08 conference, Haug says there will be 700 people
from 40 different countries. Lift began to expand internationally in 2007, with an event in Seoul, South Korea that served as a precursor to Lift Seoul in June 2008. Haug is also in discussions to expand Lift
to the United States, and he hopes for other locations after that. "We
want connections with everybody, with Asia, with South America," he
says.
The nine conferences which have joined forces:
LIFT, Geneva, 6-7-8 February 2008
Leweb, Paris, 11-12 December 2008
Reboot, Copenhagen, June 2008
Picnic, Amsterdam, 25-29 September 2007
DLD, Munich, 20-21-22 January 2008
SIME, Stockholm, 14-15 November 2007
Kinnernet, Ohalo, Israel, 10-12 April 2008
Aula, Helsinki, June 2008
Blogak, Bilbao, May 2008
