One of the best conferences that any entrepreneur or tech enthusiast should attend each year is LeWeb. Organized by Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur and his wife Geraldine, this isn’t one of those conferences that you’ll find here in Silicon Valley. No, on the contrary, LeWeb is a great technology conference held each year in Paris, France. The goal is to help connect the European tech community with the American community and help foster innovation, ideas, and to share with one another and build a bigger and better industry.
Last year was LeWeb’s tenth year in existence and each year gets better and better with famed, acclaimed, and criticized speakers attending to offer their insights to the eager crowd. Attendees last year got a chance to see fashion designer/photographer Karl Lagerfeld, Google’s Eric Schmidt and Marissa Mayer, Sean Parker, Kevin Rose, AirBnb’s Brian Chesky, Spotify’s Daniel Ek, Evernote’s Phil Libin, Flipboard’s Mike McCue, Instagram’s Kevin Systrom, Virgin Galactic’s George Whitesides, Ben Parr, Shervin Pishevar, Leo Laporte, and many other great speakers. You can view a bunch of videos from last year, including a wonderful recap one on their conference page.
But after ten years, what could make LeWeb want to change their format? Well it wasn’t that it needed to gain more attention–the conference was sold out last year (once again) and has become so prominent that people outside of the tech scene are noticing. Why, last year, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, invited some attendees and speakers to the presidential palace along with Mr. and Mrs. Le Meur and honored them for their work and steps to improving the “digital economy”. So what’s the news that has people talking about LeWeb this year? Well for the first time ever, the conference is hitting the road and setting up shop in beautiful London, England this summer. That’s right…get ready, London! Not only is the city playing host to the biggest international sporting event, it will also share the spotlight with one of the biggest European tech events of the year! What possible venue could contain this conference? Mr. Le Meur posts that it will take place in the historic building of Central Hall Westminister, near Big Ben.
Tickets are now on sale for this new conference scheduled for June 19-20 in London. But don’t worry, you’ll still be able to go to Paris in the winter because LeWeb is still going to hold its traditional winter event (December 4-6) this year. Or, if you really love LeWeb (who doesn’t?), you can purchase a package deal for both the London and Paris shows. Two conferences, two great cities, and two times the great number of speakers and knowledge shared.
Cheers!
Photo Credit: LeWeb 2011 main stage demonstrating Flipboard on the iPhone via Ben Jeffreys/Flickr
