Par : FrF.Kmeron, 14-01-2010 - 14:07

I didn’t knew it yet, but 2 full beautiful days were in front of me. 2 days at LeWeb, the 1st european internet conference. 2500 people, 50 nationalities, 1 medium : Internet. I’m not from that world, you know, entrepeneurs, trying to put some money in a startup and all, people reading daily chronics of Techcrunch, i’ll probably cross some millionnaires, web evangelists or huge internet star, but i would probably not recognise half of them… I was there for the people, to meet friends, to be somewhere i don’t belong but i’m damn happy I had access to this out of the time Bubble.

Went before the 2 insane crowdy inspiring days to come, to see the venue, get my pass to not wait too long tomorrow morning, and try to destress a little bit. The way I am,….it’s not my job at all, but bc i like doing such things, it just grabs my nerves.. « will i be able to provide something remotely interesting » « What if i dont know what to shoot » « What if im badly spotted »… well… we’ll see… in the meantime, the place is just actually huge wow!

The main room will be for most of the people the place to be, but the ground level will be where you’ll be networking and make the ticket all of sudden totally worth it, theres also 2 workshop places, one for ‘practical’ conferences (@paypal and all) and one more for the startup competition. Crossed the pass of @loic (one of the big internet guy, hosting the event, the one that created @seesmic like 2 years ago, and where i did make awesome friends that are still in my daily 2.0 life.. meeting some again here during #leweb made one of the reasons i wanted to come) and @geraldine, the other half behind the event, the one that allowed me to get here to be one of the official photographers down there, via twitter, in like 2 hours between the « does anyone know enough @loic or @geraldine for asking them if they need a photographer » and the online checking after a couple of emails, awesome. the theme of this year is « the instant web », totally into it even if we’re 2 months away to the first speaker, but damn i love this technological era!

And there i’ve been asked to go to the VIP/Speakers diner later that day, that would be held in the TF1 building (french will undertand that..). So well, went to the rendez-vous point to get in the bus to get there,  in front of the official 4 or 5 stars hotel of LeWeb, and get there, in the end, something like 40-50 people are coming on this one (there was 2 bus), and its weird to realise that all of a sudden, this bus is worth billions of dollars.. and i just dont get much of the person that are crossing by to get in, in 2 days, itll be something like « owwww thats the zappos CEO that has been acquired by Amazon for 1 billion, right!’, im just so not a g33k honestly right now, or just the entry 1 nOOb level that’s all…

But i’ve got to say that they are quite open minded actually, on the bus, met @jenergy that will be one of the speakers on the 2nd day, and we chatted for the whole journey (aka « owww parisians traffic jam ill never miss ya »), funny and nice to see that im not as connected as she is, but overall a very nice meeting with lots of talk and exchange, that’s why i also like to discover such a world, bc people aren’t as bad as everyone thinks, there’s some good coming out of it, for sure there is…

Little appetisers, drinks, and an awesome show by the Voile dechire French company…

Time to spread the VIP passes for Geraldine, while getting to eat 2 buffets, wine and all, and im already downloading/working on the pictures, you know, trying not to waste to much time networking, why would i actually bother, im not looking for a VC funding or such, just meeting people randomly, getting the moments to show that yes, it looks like a tacky wanker style everyone is beautiful event, whereas everyone here can come home with something interesting after those 2 days, the core is herem closer to a community? maybe, overall, the idea to move things, learn, discover, try, fail, get up, try again, a fighting spirit in an unknown world for many.

Wednesday morning, first day, already feel vip by already having my pass ahah nespresso is one of the gold partner this year, so free Nespressos for everybody with some croissants and all, kinda french breakfast (missing the bread tho), a shame im not drinking that much coffee, ill probably have enjoyed it as much as all the other persons there ahah did get a backpack special « leweb », no fancy iphone or twitter bird sculpture in it tho :p

Time to try to reach a spot, 1st row actually, far left, perfect to being able to let the laptop process the pics while im going around shooting and meeting interesting people hehe but opening remarks are being held by @loic and @geraldine so ill stay for the moment, waiting for the 1st guest!

And here he is, backstage, looking at the opening remarks. You probably never saw his face, but he’s probably one of the few that litterally changed my digital life, just by co-inventing (not) another social network, Jack Dorsey created Twitter from a pragmatic and empiric issue he had (keeping tracks of taxis and messenger to sum up), and has really revolutionnised internet, more than just « 2.0″,  it’s the real-time and spread factor that makes him the upmost place im willing to loose time (but i’ll get back to that while talking about the best speaker of Day 2 : @Garyvee)

He’s here to present @square, a small device you put on ur #iphone or #android on the jack plug, and that allows you to easily pay with ur credit card in small shops or things like that for example, smart and clever, the demo is actually not working the first couple of times (what we call the « Bonaldi effect » back in France) but it eventually did when connected to 3G (and remember loic asking « gerladine, if u ever heard me, could you take me another card? » while it wasnt working the first times ahah). It can actually be very helpful for a lot of small stores, or people trying to buy in an antic market you know, being able to easily and securely pay amount of money, i say « big up » to that!

Now the most important thing his once again the social aspect, moreover 1 cent per transaction while be given to a non governemental association of ur choice (eg charitywater), seems stupid, but in an era is all about how much money you gonna get at year+2 , well, kinda love the open mind and will to do better things with better and modern instruments, trying, little by little to help those who arent much fortunates, yes, it sounds like a fairy tale, doesnt mean we cant try \o/  so well, even if glinches for the « see its easy….er….easy… er….well » overall a first kick to get what’s LeWeb, a geekie community happy to see the happy few that are making today’s internet, and sometimes with clever things to say (therefore us happy to hear it, but not all the time the case, if i may confess)

And wonderful and unbelievable thing is that @jack, with his 1 593 859 followers actually replyed me for the B&W photo i tweeted  him, seems nothing but gosh thats the exact reason why nowdays is such an incredible era, the possibilities are endless, and oftenly internet things are bringing good things IRL you know, its just not only « out there » it does convert sometimes into opportunities, relationships, discoveries physically and all

It was time to go out and wander around, just trying to get whats actually all the fuzz about this 2000 euros ticket entrance conference, and its quiet obvious, like online, everything here goes fast, you randomly meet someone that recognise you just by your avatar, or ask for you twitter name to try to find back the photo you just took, that is a world i dont always get, especially when people are talking about things that arent even possible to translate  » well you know by using the API to get a proper GUI, you can totally reinvent the concept of the SNL » yeahhhhh yeaaahhh wellllll…..

Front row are people like Jeff Clavier (famous VC) or Scoble (famous blogger) : the people you pretty much want to be able to pitch if you have an internet service to sell you know… and what the image i had « i just quite dont get it how this one is more important than this other one, why are they so ‘the right people’ in this world, by blogging things that aren’t always true for me, but everyone agrees all the time, and they’re all friends all together and all.. this seems so untrue or so, i get it, but wow, its the same for some -ok only one actually- , i just dont get why hes supposed to be one of the « influent » bloggers ». i swear, weird feeling, even never had names like Chris Pirillo and all, probably crossed him several time, but im not that of a connected techcrunch guy so well, dont get the name, dont get the face, yes, lots of them are « casual nobodys » you know…

But I can confess i did misjudged them, in the end of the 1st day, everyone’s leaving, ill see Scoble talking to a random guy, that politely ask « sorry, could you have just like 5 mn to talk », and they actually went to sat 3 meters away to talk… ok… well… after all… so that’s whats incredible in here, opportunities, to see friends, people, met, talk, learn, price is super expensive but (this year) it’s warm, wifi is great, drinks available, it’s for sure not my bubble, but feels happy deep inside that someone trust me enough to give me the possibility to be there and live such things, yes, always the same speach about being grateful, but come on, what can i expect, it’s just fun, i’m glad all those things are happening, bc i’m mainly not asking to, and in the end, im just happy to be one of the happy few living that much so quickly, « if everything’s fast, then nothing’s fast »

Tired, focusing, snapping, I’m really glad @tybo let me get his nikon D700 for the whole days, the camera i’m dreaming off and i won’t have before a looooong time, but damn it’s nice, you know, proper weight, incredible speed and image, buttons everywhere to not ever miss a shot if ur a lil’ bit technical, properly a dream for a photographer, a dream worth the ticket to get in LeWeb, but a dream nonetheless (but one day i’ll get a client paying me enough to get it.. one day itll be mine *wayne’s voice* )

Crossing the father of the Creative Commons (all my photos are creative commons shared, you know!), YouTube (we all know how much youtube changed our daily world right?), seems not much, but actually its a lot to consider to be 6 feet away for people that, just by having an idea, a concept, a provider, a service, changed the game, or at least how its played, but once again, the speaker that really inspired me the most the 2nd day talks way much more about that than i am right now honestly, we’ll get to that, in the meantime, randomly bumped into friends, twittering all day long, exchanging, learning, some talk really are great, some other are pretty much their brand talking about their brand, or that they will now provide « this and that » to the users… not my cup of tea, but i still gets why some are willing to say this is a great event..

The opposite side is also understandable, i get why people can hate such event, people just talking about virtual stuff, trying to raise money, to come with a concept that need some big firm to help, but once again, the great thing is that everyone succeeds in finding what they want here, just listen, just talk, just meet, just open ur eyes and take snaps, im happy here, everything makes it totally worth it, you earned or not to be there, but you are in the middle of a tech conference that litterally sum up what is the digital world nowdays,  techie goldenboys but with a open mind ^^

Time to close the day, and decide to go grab a bite with some of the friends down there, and thats where the magic happens, me, from brussels, @veniale from paris, @kdfa from the east of France, @WhitScott @anitale & @Jyamaski from San Francisco, and we all met online, while beta testing the « seesmic video » site back in the days (back in the days = litterally 2 years ago, which is quite a lot in fact for a website), and that is just the beginning, tomorrow will be a very very inspiring day on so many levels, can’t wait!

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