Just adding my voice to the chorus of disapproval. Le Web 3 has been hijacked from within. I didn’t pay to hear a party political broadcast by french politicians. I’m not a french citizen so I don’t care. Much is made of the 36 countries attending Le Web but Loic Le Meur has used this international audience to invite french presidential candidates to speak.
I didn’t pay €359 for this. Loic appears to be on a massive ego trip. Internet connectivity was non-existent for yesterday – today it’s better but frankly, internet connectivity is something you should pay special attention to at an event called ‘Le Web’ attended by bloggers.
Loic even had the gall to complain about lack of blogging – “Give us a connection” yelled members of the audience. Apparently it fell on deaf ears.
I won’t be coming back.
Can I get a refund ?
[update] By tuesday afternoon, there were a few photoshopped alternative LeWeb3 logos floating about. I didn’t stay to hear Loic’s closing remarks and the hall was more than half empty by the time the Startup awards were announced. Jan told a story during his presentation and it obviously made an impression on the judges. Joe’s putplace.com presentation was really compelling (you wuz robbed Joe ! robbed!).
On the plus side, I finally got to meet Nicole Simon, Jan Blanchard and Paul Walsh and a few others. Jan took us to a fantastic restaurant on Monday night – thanks Jan – local knowledge comes in handy ;-)
[update] PXN8 made it into Le Monde. Result !
[update] Sam Sethi has been fired by Michael Arrington. Sam’s post I thought was fair and balanced. Connectivity sucked. The presenters were glib and meeting with other attendees made it worthwhile. Sam just told the truth and got fired for it – way to be “ethical” Mike !
Sxoop Journal 
It is really shitty to hear it Walter. Was there at least networking opportunities?
Ah, what a shame. Who did the politicians speak instead of? Were their slots just cancelled?
I’ll be blogging in exactly the same tone later.
Overall rating – very poor.
But I’m sure Loic is well on his way to a seat in l’Assemblée Nationale.
Networking opportunities were ok with the usual scale issue but it was pretty hard to do it at the party/disco when you have to scream into people’s ears. At one point I considered writing a card which said “are you an investor?” or “êtes-vous un investisseur?” and holding it to my chest.
Food was great tho!
[…] So Le Web est mort, vive le replacement. So a London Gnomedex or a Dublin “Na Blogs”? First things first should be a massive discount for anyone that suffered through Le Web. Now’a the opportunity to do it right. […]
Sorry to hear it Walter. Mercifully I was too busy to go.
Congratulations for the paper in “Le Monde”, this is great – if you need a translator to sign deals there, give me a call!!
I agree with you on the conference, i first thought inviting politics at the last minute was a good idea as one of the subject to be dealt with was: “Bloggers, the 5th power, how blogs influence politics”. So having the future French president coming for a talk was adding to the discussion. However I was very dissapointed with the format and content of what was said. First it was all in French, second there was no discussions and finally it was too obvious that they used the stage and the audience to be seen on traditional medias. ahhhh!! In general I think the format of 3/4 people sitting in confortable chairs having a chat in front of 1000 people don’t work. Unless the people on stage have something very special, it gets boring very quickly! On the plus side, it was good to meet up and I enjoyed the meal and night out.
It is very sad to hear this. I was not there – lucky me… – but some friends have reported me the very same shameful outcome… we should somehow try to avoid this kind of episodes. I am thinking to some sort of self regulation of these events, or separate venues (a real technical one and, if necessary (and apparently it is…) a political/social where votes/consensus seekers can enjoy the praise and shaking hands game…
However, by the way, I love your application and very recently I wrote about it in my blog.
Good luck.
Guy