republica '09
5 April 2009
There is a lot of talk about the republica ’09 and rightly so. It was an immense achievement and everybody should be thankful to Markus, Johnny and the rest of the team for their effort to create an outstanding and important event like this in Germany. Let’s be frank: it’s not like we actually have that many alternatives.
There are some, yes. Next 09 will be pretty good, I guess. But just take one small look at the price tag and you will find a substantial difference between these two conferences. Same goes for the Digital, Life, Design, which is invite only.
With republica 09 we’ve got more than enough for our money and everybody should keep that in mind. And it’s not only the money thing. People like Cory Doctorow or Lawrence Lessig aren’t coming to any conference and the fact that they did talk at republica 09 is a rating all by itself.
That being sad, I do think, that the republica could have been an even better experience than it was.
I’m comparing every conference with the best conference that I know and that’s the reboot. The reboot will be in it’s 11th run through when it will start this year in June. The conference itself will be a two day event as always, but for the first time the Kedelhallen will be rented for the duration of five days and we expect that other, different kind of events will be held in the proximity of reboot11. Still, the conference itself won’t really grow (at least, that’s what I’m hearing). It will be at it’s maximum for the last few years and that a number something around of 600 participants. Visionaries and people with great intellect will attend and as always Copenhagen will be a very inspiring place to be.
And that’s where republica and the reboot drift apart. The lack of inspiration is my largest problem with this year’s republica. We had some great speakers here, but most of the speakers didn’t give a glimpse of the future, but actually analyzed the now. Don’t get me wrong, it is important to talk and influence the current situation, there is enough work to be done. But it’s the idea about the future that tends to drive people and get them passionate about the thing that they do not the analyses of the current situation of social networks.
The idea of reboot is to invite people and help them reboot their minds. That’s one approach for a conference. I think, that the future republica does need a special goal. What do you want that people will do after they attend the republica? What should happen after they leave? What will be done until the next republica?
Thanks for this balanced view, Igor. I couldn’t make it to re:publica’09, so I can’t judge on this event. I do think, though, that you raise a good question on these kind of gatherings in general: what can we expect of them?
Clearly, for you it’s inspiration as you get it out of the future talks at reboot, a conference that has engraved the experience of new beginnings in its programmatic title. You know that I can totally relate to that. We have suffered enough from thinking that is only absorbed by the next fiscal quarter.
However, others will be inspired by the fact that the shift we have been talking about for years is now finally happening, even in Germany. I can relate to that, too. Let’s be happy about it and deal with it.
As far as I know, re:publica organisers invited guests to help them shape the agenda (as it should be good practice in preparing a social media conference). So, if “shift happens” was their choice, the focus on the presence rather than the future wasn’t only a fair but a mandatory thing to do. And, I would also argue that ten years after the Cluetrain Manifesto was crafted, it was high time, too.
— Georg Kolb · Apr 6, 10:28 AM · #