A few thoughts:

1) There is no lack of creative capability in China, or Asia, there is clearly a lack of communications between the organizers and their "target"

2) The site is blocked in China

3) If they are trying to attract Chinese talent, or Asian talent in general, why is the website only in English?

4) What is the pull for Asian talent? Their models are very different and the fastest growing market already.

5) None of their partner are Asian, so perhaps they should find a firm (Baidu, NTT, Nintendo, Alibaba,etc) other who are creative companies and would send their people to speak about trends..

6) Why is this post titled China's Creative Deficit? At the least it should be entitled open invitation to Asian firms to participate in LeWeb '03.. and perhaps you might consider something like LeWeb lacks communication skills..

Just some thoughts.

r
www.allroadsleadtochina.com

@r

Thanks for your comments.

1- Yes, clearly there is a lack of communication between the organizers and potential speakers of interest in Asia. The failure is clearly in finding these companies and great presenters. They seem to be hard to find.

2- Yes, the site being blocked in China does not help. (It is on the Moveable Type platform, I think.)

3- Why is the site in English? Because that is the language of the conference.

4- What is the pull for Asian talent? Good question! Be interested in any thoughts on that. Even beyond Le Web, I know that it has always been difficult for conferences outside of Asia to attract Asians. Are Asian companies more inwardly focused?

5 - "None of their partner are Asian, so perhaps they should find a firm (Baidu, NTT, Nintendo, Alibaba,etc) other who are creative companies and would send their people to speak about trends." Yes, good point.

@r

Actually, on reflection, I disagree on point 5.

Speakers from by big companies that are sponsors tend to be dull and only deliver marketing messages.

Who are the lively and creative speakers about technology from Asia who are able to enthrall a room?

Thomas

1) Their inability to communicate is actually what is preventing them from finding these firms. It is not that these firms do not exist.

2) Moveable type I don't think is the problem (Treehugger is still live), it is their ISP that probably is.

3) If you are looking to attract Asian talk, you need to speak to them in their language. Some of the most successful people I know in China can say very little in English, and their primary source for information is in Chinese.

4) The draw for Asian talent would obiously be case-by-case, but I would say (1) meet investors (2) meet peers in the space (3) see best practice ... and I am sure there are others.. but that gets back to context. China has a well oiled investment machine and a Chinese person needs to go no further than the Bund right? with all the blogger/ web 2.0 events already held in the region (in their language), why go to France? and 3.. if you are the country with the largest base of internet users, and your firm is catering to the 1.3 billion users (potential users), you are not necessarily going to look in France for best practices (what does a European know about tunneling through GFW?)

5) sorry, I did not mean a passive partnership (logo swap), I meant an active partnership that created a channel for the message to reach target users.

Note, I am not an internet person in China, I am just a blogger with a background in strategy, but for me it is pretty clear that they just expected people to show up without doing and real work to attract them, and that is not going to cut it. Perhaps they should contact Kaiser, and work out a basic strategy that would include flying over some prominent / respected players who will plug the conference, get their friends to go, find speakers for them, etc.

Thoughts?

R
www.allroadsleadtochina.com

@R

Thanks for your thoughts.

The idea of a conference like Le Web is an idea exchange along the lines of TED. Some headline participants have included top tech people along with some politicians like Shimon Peres and Nicolas Sarkozy.

While people attending may find funding or business partners (many people do), the thrust of the event is a marketplace for ideas and exchange of experiences.

Fluent English is really a necessity to take part fully in such discussions and debates.

To hold an audience of 2,000 in the era of Twitter, you really need to be a top-flight presenter. The TED Talks are a good reference point.

As for finding these people, I am hoping our conversation will help!

this one was not so interesting. but on average, most of these tc short interviews are pretty good.

@gao zhi

Thanks for the feedback.

I'll aim to raise my standards ever higher!

Comments/suggestions on the overall video format and interview style very welcome.

Thomas

Far enough, and like I saud I am just a blogger :)

But, if English presentations are a requirement, then I would just say they are simply getting what they are putting into it. if they seriously wanted to attract the talent in terms of audience or speakers, then they need to change their approach.

It is pretty clear that the Chinese either don't see any value, or are unable to see the value.

either way, was a good back/ forth, and I hope to see a day where even TED & Techpop will have speakers from China. I love both sites, wish one day to give my own pitch there, and they are both lacking Asian representatives.

R

@R

Yes, but why are Asian representatives lacking?

For a part of the world that benefited greatly from globalization and the opening of world trade, Asia still seems quite inwardly focused.

I am not saying that Asia is uniquely inwardly focused, but as you say, the lack of Asian representation is quite striking.

Thomas

I'll repeat - The Chinese either don't see any value, or are unable to see the value.

1) You need to create a message that is in their language and speaks to them on their level. Chinese language is a must for this

2) Why should Chinese find this interesting? Why is TED or Le Web important to an Asian audience. Like you said, there is a lot that Asian representative can say, and bring to the conference... but what can they take away

I am really not trying to play devils advocate or over simplify/ complicate, but if I am telling you the most relevant thing your ears have ever heard in a language you don't understand, then you are obviously not going to know that it was the most relevant thing your ears have ever heard.

It is about providing a value proposition, and one that is presented in a way others see it. If there is no perceived value, then either their isn't because the product is junk.. or it is because the value proposition is junk.

Either way, it doesn't indicate a lack of Asian creative talent.

gotta tie it off here. happy to discuss offline.

R

> Who are the lively and creative speakers about
> technology from Asia who are able to enthrall a room?

Isaac Mao is the only one that comes to my mind.

@Micah

I know Isaac, but have not seen him present. Thanks for the suggestion!

@ Thomas Crampton

I second @ Micah's suggestion of Isaac Mao. He is a thought leader in the Web 2.0 / social media space in China and a quality speaker...full of insight.