Ifest, TED & PopTech

I haven't had the opportunity of attending the iFest gathering that recently took place in Barcelona and that Alfons Cornella and his team put together, but from what I have read and watched over the web I have some comments to provide.

iFest is defined at their website as "A gathering of 400 people in Barcelona to exchange their ideas, hybridize projects and connect each other to accelerate business growth through the effective use of innovation. During two days, more than 30 speakers as well as thinkers and doers from business, entrepreneurship, creativity,art, marketing, science, technology, and social innovation from all over Europe, Japan and the US shared their unquiet minds and cutting-edge knowledge to ignite new projects to boost competitiveness of companies and people attending the event."

For the last few years I have been attending PopTech! in Camden, Maine and have been following closely TED. iFest is pretty much a combination of those two, so nothing new on that area (some people will refer as just a copy. A copy of content and format).  The same applies to PopTech: some people that PopTech! is just a copy of TED but on the east coast of the USA vs. the east coast.

That kind of comments, I personally believe, are unfair. First because neither TED and/or PopTech are patented products neither you can block ideas from traveling. These events are not just the content and the format but also the location and the people that attend it. That mixed combination is what makes these events unique and special.

Congratulations to my friend Alfons for all he's doing. Congratulations to those who had the opportunity to attend. I wish that the flow of ideas and communications do not keep itself just for the two days of the event but for the whole year, until next time.

My humble advise is to keep it under control. TED has become so big that participants are not longer that but spectators. I appreciate, at PopTech, the opportunity to interact with other attendees, with the speakers as well as the tools to keep it alive during the other 362 days of the year (blog, email, podcasts, etc.). Please make sure that iFest keeps itself that way.