Why Love Is This Year's Theme at LeWeb: Love and Entrepreneurship are very Similar Obsessions!
Many people ask me why we chose Love as a theme this year at LeWeb so here is an attempt.
-we always have content outside of technology, one of the goals of LeWeb is to take the tech industry leaders outside of their traditional subjects to make them think and react differently, as well as get inspired. Two years ago we had President Shimon Peres and President Sarkozy (with a huge controversy therefore a huge reaction!) and last year Philippe Starck. We were not clearly expressing themes in the program before but they were there: politics as a suprise, controversial them and then creativity through design. Love is clearly expressed this year to make participants think and learn on a topic that is important for all of us. If I remember well Helen gives one definition of love as a mix of intense friendship and very strong sexual attraction so expect Helen's presentation to be controversial too!
-I listened and met with Helen Fisher at TED (see her speech) and Davos (see my interview) and "loved" her speech so much I have read a few of her books and that is how I got the idea of Love as a theme, I wanted to share how brilliant Helen is with all of you and share the inspiration.
-LeWeb is all about love of entrepreneurship, it is a very similar obsession as romantic love. Entrepreneurs are breathing their project and will live and unfortunately often sink when they fail with it.
-The Web itself is all about loving each other as individuals: see how much social software and blogs got us together sharing and mixing in a totally new way. Love always starts by sharing (a moment, a dinner, a party) and then finding that you like each other so much a unique relationship is created. We are doing the same all day long on the web: sharing first, loving after, even if it often ends as serious friendship, no sex :)
-Corporations are forced to love each other as well in this new world: mashups are happening constantly to make better services, nobody can succeed alone. Our public APIs are the conduit for corporate love!
-LeWeb is all about love, participants from previous years will confirm that. I do not know any other conference where there is so much sharing (thousands of blog posts, pictures, videos published live each year) and so much willingness to meet each other during two days. It is also the only web conference where so many countries love each other as we have around 35 countries each year!
Love you all. See you in Paris, the world capital of love.
