First things first: I'm very very happy I went to Le Web 3, the experience definitely provided a lot of food for a lot of thoughts (well, the trip was also a good source of the traditionally type of food).

This was obviously Loïc's show, and I agree with Hugh when he says "Loic likes entrepreneurship and politics, perhaps even more than he likes the geek-techie thing", so this is what we got and more or less what I was expecting.

Imho the main issue with these conferences is always the program. For the third time we saw a bunch of speakers more or less thrown on stage to do their own things. Some were good, a few were great, some were pretty boring. Selecting the speakers and then working with them should be the top priority for Le Web 4, accepting Dave's help would be a great starting point. Also I think that speakers should be more engaged in the overall conversation, this year we saw a little too many "stars" leave the place after their speech.

The party at the end of the first night is not a good idea, several people lost the beginning of day two because they overslept.

Personally I was inspired by three speakers: Hans Rosling, Shimon Peres and David Weinberger. Alone they were worth the trip.

I found the "political side" of the conference quite interesting. Not the candidates per se (like most of the others I did find Nicolas Sarkozy quite annoying), but the idea of presidential candidates coming to Le Web 3 is interesting. My impression is that it was more about Loïc showing us to them than the other way around.

Several hints suggested that there's more to come, the beginning of some kind of "blogger movement" which should united those of us who like to deal with a "complicated world". There are interesting times to come.

Tags: leweb3