Earth Time Lapse from ISS
The amount of conflict going on in such a small and beautiful place is mind boggling.
The amount of conflict going on in such a small and beautiful place is mind boggling.
**Originaly posted in Quora**
Loic Le Meur the founder of LeWeb conference claims this is the #1 internet event in Europe, yet this event has nothing to do with Europe. Change “Le” for “The” in “LeWeb” and you wouldn’t notice that this conference has anything to do with Europe, its startup scene and the current events going on there.
I admit LeWeb has an impressive list of guests and hosts, but these are the same people who are invited to events such as AllThingsD Conference, SXSW, TechCrunch Disrupt, etc., and this results in no fresh content, and no real news and stories on Europe. As much as I respect US entrepreneurs, US journalists/bloggers and US venture capitalists; I have already heard enough from them. I know their stories on how tough it is to hire developers, how their app gained traction, how Silicon Valley is the place to be, etc. If LeWeb wants to be the European tech conference, give the mic to European entrepreneurs, journalists and VCs. Give them a chance; give them a voice. Make it all about them. I want to hear about Europe not the US. I really don’t know why Loic does not shine a light on Europe, yet he argues otherwise.
LeWeb feels to me as if Loic brought a box of doughnuts from San Francisco to Paris and told everyone these were croissants.
In 2011 Europe has been home to some very exciting news: EU privacy laws, European VCs raising new funds, incubators such as Seedcamp and Startup Bootcamp producing superb startups, eastern Europe consolidating itself as a source of pure talent, the whole copy-cat debate, the ability of European startups to launch internationally from day one, etc. Just read Mike Butcher’s articles on TechCrunch and you’ll see how fascinating European startups are.
None of the above topics are really being talked at LeWeb, yet we do get steamrolled by the same US news we read about every day on the web: Google/Android/China, Facebook/Timeline, Twitter, Instagram, Foursqaure, Flipboard, Rackspace, Accel, Founders Fund, AOL, Microsoft, TechCrunch, CrunchFund… really?! European event?!
In Summary
I don’t believe that LeWeb is a bad event, it’s the contrary; it’s a great tech conference. What I strongly disagree with is how this is being labeled as European, while the vast majority of speakers are based in the US. If LeWeb wants to really support European entrepreneurship it has to make an effort to avoid inviting mainstream US personalities and really focus on the entrepreneurs and startups based in Europe, and debate the issues at hand with them. Doing otherwise further marginalizes those entrepreneurs who already struggle to get noticed on the other side of the pond.
The way I see it is that LeWeb is doing more harm than good to the European startup ecosystem. I can only hope for this to change.
