Laurent Haug, 32: Founder of Lift Conference

Geneva's technology networking Lift Conference gets underway Wednesday at the International Conference Center. Founder Laurent Haug is a young expat entrepreneur and master of events who likes to connect creative people and spark new social uses for technology. Lift is only one of the many projects he has up his sleeve. Laurent Haug, who founded Lift Conference three years ago at the age of 29, has succeeded in making the event the converging point for many of the leading players in the world of technology. "It's six months of emotion packed into three days," he said.
How a young man who is patently not a geek created an international platform to understand and anticipate how IT influences society is an intriguing question.
Haug, who is French, had no idea where to go for his university studies and ended up in Switzerland almost by accident and has since become one of the country's best ambassadors. He says that Lift is just an accelerator of the energy, innovation and creativity that are already present in this country, but points out that apparently 80% of its companies are run either by foreigners or Swiss nationals with a foreign parent.
“Switzerland’s a great place to become an entrepreneur, but for the wrong reasons,” he told Swisster. Because there are so many obstacles, “if you actually do succeed, you feel protected and things get easier," he said. According to Bruce Sterling, the best-selling sci-fi author and a regular participant in the conference, Lift has built in three years what others build in seven.
In fact, Haug shouldn't even be in Switzerland. When he finished his studies at the business faculty of the University of Lausanne (he candidly admits he was not an accedemic star), the quota of work permits had dried up. Despite this, he secured jobs with a variety of companies, all of which, he says, collapsed when he joined them, including the unsinkable Arthur Andersen. That's when he decided to start his own.
Along with his generation, Haug had fallen head-first into the web. But he felt intuitively that there was more to technology than protocols. He observed that deep social changes were taking place and he decided to connect the people the globe over who were making them. Lift was born.
The Lift program is a captivating balance between the pioneers who develop new technological interfaces and the people who use them in an innovative manner. (See the Swisster article on the conference for further details.)
Haug gives credit to his team and partners, a community of talented individuals who are expected to bring a spark of intellectual and artistic novelty to make the three-day event interesting and memorable. The conference’s creative collaboration with Bread and Butter, the adventurous Lausanne design studio, has helped produce a strong identity and brand. As for the Advisory Board, it is composed of people with a desirable combination of vision and connections.
But Lift is also an experience. An on-going collaboration with artists brings a zest to the three-day event. The 2009 Geneva edition features installations by Think Tank Kitchen Budapest,  MIT media artist, Kelly Heaton and Nabi, a hip art center in Korea.
And now with an autumn edition of Lift Asia that takes place in South Korea – a country that Haug considers to be at the forefront of invention – the Lift community is expanding and may soon also include a Mediterranean location.
In the first three years of its existence, Lift is rivalling other techno-ventures on account of Haug’s quiet magnetism and ability to identify and attract the people, trends, ideas and opportunities that will impact our future. Lift is only one of his many entrepreneurial projects and it is clear that Haug is out to make a difference. But he also wants everyone to have a good time: the Lift fondue party (imagine serving 700 fondues!) on the second evening in Geneva is legendary.
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Geneva's technology networking Lift Conference gets underway Wednesday at the International Conference Center. Founder Laurent Haug is a young expat entrepreneur and master of events who likes to connect creative people and spark new social uses for technology. Lift is only one of the many projects he has up his sleeve. Laurent Haug, who founded Lift Conference three years ago at the age of 29, has succeeded in making the event the converging point for many of the leading players in the world of technology. "It's six months of emotion packed into three days," he said.
How a young man who is patently not a geek created an international platform to understand and anticipate how IT influences society is an intriguing question.
Haug, who is French, had no idea where to go for his university studies and ended up in Switzerland almost by accident and has since become one of the country's best ambassadors. He says that Lift is just an accelerator of the energy, innovation and creativity that are already present in this country, but points out that apparently 80% of its companies are run either by foreigners or Swiss nationals with a foreign parent.
“Switzerland’s a great place to become an entrepreneur, but for the wrong reasons,” he told Swisster. Because there are so many obstacles, “if you actually do succeed, you feel protected and things get easier," he said. According to Bruce Sterling, the best-selling sci-fi author and a regular participant in the conference, Lift has built in three years what others build in seven.
In fact, Haug shouldn't even be in Switzerland. When he finished his studies at the business faculty of the University of Lausanne (he candidly admits he was not an accedemic star), the quota of work permits had dried up. Despite this, he secured jobs with a variety of companies, all of which, he says, collapsed when he joined them, including the unsinkable Arthur Andersen. That's when he decided to start his own.
Along with his generation, Haug had fallen head-first into the web. But he felt intuitively that there was more to technology than protocols. He observed that deep social changes were taking place and he decided to connect the people the globe over who were making them. Lift was born.
The Lift program is a captivating balance between the pioneers who develop new technological interfaces and the people who use them in an innovative manner. (See the Swisster article on the conference for further details.)
Haug gives credit to his team and partners, a community of talented individuals who are expected to bring a spark of intellectual and artistic novelty to make the three-day event interesting and memorable. The conference’s creative collaboration with Bread and Butter, the adventurous Lausanne design studio, has helped produce a strong identity and brand. As for the Advisory Board, it is composed of people with a desirable combination of vision and connections.
But Lift is also an experience. An on-going collaboration with artists brings a zest to the three-day event. The 2009 Geneva edition features installations by Think Tank Kitchen Budapest,  MIT media artist, Kelly Heaton and Nabi, a hip art center in Korea.
And now with an autumn edition of Lift Asia that takes place in South Korea – a country that Haug considers to be at the forefront of invention – the Lift community is expanding and may soon also include a Mediterranean location.
In the first three years of its existence, Lift is rivalling other techno-ventures on account of Haug’s quiet magnetism and ability to identify and attract the people, trends, ideas and opportunities that will impact our future. Lift is only one of his many entrepreneurial projects and it is clear that Haug is out to make a difference. But he also wants everyone to have a good time: the Lift fondue party (imagine serving 700 fondues!) on the second evening in Geneva is legendary.
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Lift tech conference aims to connect and inspire