I spoke at the LIFT Asia the other day. What is LIFT? If I have to put it in two words, I would say LIFT is "Europe's TED". Speakers talk about some big picture things - For example, Sarah Marquis shared her experiences of covering thousands of miles on foot - she walks across continents, on bare feet, alone. I was totally captured by her stories, and I think choosing her as the closing speaker was a very good choice as she traveled through a totally unplugged world and therefore can give a nice contrast to a generally techie conference.
Anyone who's been part of LIFT will instantly fall in love with it. In an unexplainable way, the conference carries European flair. (Perhaps the invariable presence of the arts?) The venue, ICC, was totally over the top and the Jeju Island is more beautiful than some of the best spots in Asia you may know. The food was lavish, and the networking opportunity was simply great. I was genuinely impressed by the event. Laurent (LIFT founder) and his company did a heck of a job, and I find myself already looking forward to the next year.
I gave a talk titled "The Future of Social Media." I expect the video will go up soon, so I'll try and put a link to the video later on. After the talk, the feedback was very positive - but in the meantime I'm afraid my talk could have been a tad too specific (rather than being high-level and conceptual, that is, "TED-ish"). I would like to take this opportunity to thank Laurent and his team for having me and for all the hospitality they showed to me.
