(For a German summary on what happened so far, see DonAlphonso.)

One week after the LeWeb3 conference that draw a LOT of criticism, Loïc Le Meur is responding to critics. He sent an email to all registered participants (I suppose) that is 800 words long. It points to a blog post where he posted the same text, plus, “for those who care to read more”, an additional 5500 words.

The funny thing about it is that Loïc, lead blogger for a whole nation, does not behave “bloggish” in any way. He kept silent for a whole week, he didn’t post comments to other bloggers’ posts (other than calling Sam Sethi an asshole, of course), and now his long text reads: “I was right, and you are just too stupid to understand. Plus, I received some positive feedback!”

Since he has written so much, it’s hard to post come crisp responses. So let’s just look at a few passages.

Criticism focussed on the politicians I invited at the last minute. (…) Perhaps speakers were moved from their planned time, panel or duration, but if we bloggers and technology entrepreneurs cannot be flexible, who can?

No. I just stayed away from the politicians’ speeches. Not because I’m not interested in politics, but because I thought it wouldn’t be worth the hassle. When Loïc announced in the morning of day 1 that Shimon Peres would speak first thing on day 2, he added: “There will be a lot of security, so come early”. So I thought: This is probably going to be a mess. I will just stay at the hotel longer (with the benefit of a working Internet connection) get some work done and watch the webcast later (it turned out later that it was a live cast only). No big deal. No reason to complain for me.

The problem was that the whole program was completely shaken up and there were no updates, so nobody would ever know who was on stage next. And this event wasn’t just taking place inside the main conference hall, but there was a little exhibition (with Microsoft, Google and others), the startup presentations, and the “networking areas”. So based on what would participants decide when to go back to the conference hall?

The program on the website was never ever updated, I checked it frequently. If bloggers can’t update a website during a conference, who can?

Thank you to our partners who made the entire conference possible in just 6 weeks.

Well, I don’t care at all, if it was 6 weeks, 6 days or 6 months. When I get there, I expect everything just to be ready. This was release 3, right? So you guys should know by now how much time it takes. If you need more time, start earlier.

It seems many do not think that much that the keynotes and panels sucked that much (talking about the request that videos are not online yet).

Remarks like this are scattered all over the text. Loïc is deparate in finding prove that many people liked many things about the conference. That is typical self-defending behavior, but it is also just sad. There were so many blog posts where people listed pro’s and con’s.

I will do better next year and will appreciate your help.

I was thinking about posting ideas for improvement next year. It would not be that difficult: Continuously update the online program. Put screens in some places outside showing a live image from the stage and the program. Get a grip on the WiFi problem somehow (we have some discussion going on in another conference blog), maybe by blocking ports or providing cable connections in another area to some people with needs for large bandwith. Have somebody blogging about the conference during the conference to be able to catch up on what you missed.

Now that I read Loïc’s post, I just think I wouldn’t go. I can hardly see from his reponses that he thinks there is any room for improvement.

Isn’t it ironic that it is a Blogger who apparently is so much detached from his audience?

Tag: leweb3