Things didn’t start too well when my taxi didn’t arrive and I missed the Thalys to Paris. I eventually got there at the end of the third session, by all accounts a rousing presentation on globalisation by Hans Rosling, I was a little bemused when Loic asked the crowd to give a standing ovation, perhaps spontaneous appreciation wasn’t enough :). It turns out the agenda after this became a moving feast… Three heavyweight politicians muscled in and presented their wares to an increasingly frustrated crowd of bloggers and business people. Shimon Peres (I am not kidding), Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Bayrou where there. It is great that politicians understand that the blogging world is influential, but I suspect this rather bizarre speaking list for a web conference was more an indication of Loic’s political ambitions. I wonder though do the politicians underestimate the negative potential of this influence?

During the first day, I also heard a group of the bigger players share their vision. Certainly content is important, it was mentioned 652 times (guestimate), I also chuckled when one of the panel said it was “all about the people”, I fully expected someone to say “let’s not forget the children”. Thankfully not.

The Netvibes party was fun. It was suggested that the money people would have spent on drink that night (there was a free bar) covered the cost of the event itself… I of course remained mainly in control but did “throw some shapes”. Vpod.tv asked me some questions at midnight, I am sure this will not be my finest moment…

On Tuesday the presentation by Danah Boyd was really great. (By the way she loved the event). I really learnt something about the social make up of Myspace and the factors that aided its success, clearly she is an academic who can put across a message with passion and knowledge. By the way online norms are Persistance, Searchability, Replicability and the Invisible Audience, I will remember this… Also some good statistics by Ipsos, which I will post later, it was also good to see David Sifry present, although the content was like the blog (which by the way is a standard bearer for blogosphere information).

In conclusion, it was a mixed event with questionable agenda, but there is a real need for this type of “social web” conference. Do I think less people will come next year? Absolutely not… Controversy is as strong a selling point as ever and frankly it wasn’t dull! Really good places to see discussions on this topic are at Tom’s blog, (some of the comments defend Loic), Peter Forret’s and at Nicole Simon’s blog

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