“Lift is about stepping out of your comfort zone and discovering new areas”

Lift is a conference that is „a bit different“ compared to other tech conferences. What is the idea behind Lift? Why is it different?
Lift aims to bring together innovators from around the world for three memorable days of inspirational speeches, interactive workshops, informal networking and knowledge sharing. Over 1000 participants - from entrepreneurs to senior managers, engineers to scientists, researchers to artists - gather to learn about key trends and share the knowledge and experience that fuel innovation. The specificities of Lift are in its program design - where the community suggests 50% of the content - its diverse audience and its highly interactive format.

Lift is a mixture of hands on workshops and speeches by people with new and exceptional ideas. How do you think can small tech companies benefit from speakers such as Kate Darling or Régine Debatty?
Hearing about projects that are at the intersection of art, science and social issues as covered by Régine Debatty can be enriching in itself. It’s all about stepping out of your comfort zone to hear and discover what’s happening in other sectors.

What can participants expect from the new break-out sessions?
The new format aims to offer a more interactive experience to the participants. The idea is to break the rhythm of long speaker sessions and allow more interaction between the speakers and the audience. We will also offer a larger choice of workshops and masterclasses, from a very hands-on format where they will build something, to a panel format where they will be able to ask questions and exchange directly with the speakers.

Do you think that participants of Lift Conference do need some openness to make most out of the conference?
Indeed, we encourage the participant to attend the breakouts that are the least obviously related to their main activities.

Would you say that Alp ICT Venture Night is a highlight of the conference? Why?
The AlpICT Venture Night is indeed one of the highlights of the event. We will have on stage a selection of Swiss entrepreneurs who are working hard to prepare their presentations. It’s a great way to discover new projects from all around Switzerland. The upcoming edition will focus on women! We want to showcase more women ICT entrepreneurs and so we hope to have a 50/50 gender ratio.

“Tech conferences” are usually addressing IT companies only. What about Lift? Do you think Lift is attractive for life sciences and microtech start-ups too?
Definitively. One of the ingredients of Lift’s magic sauce is the transdisciplinary approach: in its program, its speakers and its audience. Innovation is not about one sector, innovation happens in this transdisciplinary approach.

Entrepreneurs are going to conferences for meeting new people. What kind of people can start-ups meet at Lift?
They will be able to meet other entrepreneurs, potential candidates, business partners, investors, mentors, clients, journalists, etc. You really get to meet all the stakeholders of the start-ups ecosystem.

Lift is a huge conference. Can you give some advice for networking?
Lift ambiance is in general quite relaxed and the people who come to Lift tend to be open minded and ready to meet new people. Just come relaxed, mingle and don’t hesitate to actively participate in workshops, which is a good place for interaction.

Breaks are a great moment for meeting interesting people; don’t hesitate to walk to and talk to participants around you.  Lift experience, the exhibition area, is also a good place to connect, as you will test prototypes with other people. Great icebreaker! We will also have a Lift app, which should be a good tool to identify and connect with the people (NDLR: the app will be available to all registered Lift participants, on Android and iOS, around mid-January).

Tickets for the conference aren’t cheap and neither are hotels in Geneva. Do you have some tips for start-ups for saving money?
Housetrip and Airbnb offer quality and reasonable housing options. We also have special rates for start-ups so they should reach out to us!

Startupticker can offer reduced tickets for Lift: You can get a 15% discount on all startup packages (CHF1'403 instead of CHF1'650). Just write to news@startupticker.ch for the code.