Fellow Traveling Geek Evan Spence has posted a pretty good piece about LeWeb, which we attended earlier this month in Paris. LeWeb is one of Europe's top tech conferences and is organized by San Francisco-based Loic and Geraldine Le Meur.

Ewan writes:

Le Web 2009 was like a diamond, a few flaws but on the whole brilliant and sparkling and deserving of its place in the Conference Crown Jewels of tech land.

...cards on the table, I think that the Le Web from 2007 is still the Le Web to beat...

...Le Web is probably only second to SXSW in getting that certain cross section of people into one place. The true value of any conference is in the networking and Le Web delivers that both in those who attend and the time and space that you can find to interact.

...For Le Web 2010 I would not allow a speaker (or a host of a fireside chat) on stage if they had appeared in 2009...This would at a stroke force speakers to be found from new sites, companies and people with different views than who we heard this year. And many many more Europeans on stage please!

...I felt like I was back at University being lectured rather than watching presentations and panels at a web conference. Where was the encouragement to have a two way conversation? ... Why were there no questions from the audience?

...I abhor the idea of "fireside chats" in a program. If you have to bring back Marrissa Mayer and Michael Arrington ... then rather than an almost scripted talk, send Michael into the crowd to take questions from the audience to the Google VP. Same goes for any of these softball opportunities.

... The event could be so much more, and I hope that a bit more swashbuckling, danger and risk are present in the 2010 event.

You can read the whole post and more points from Ewan here:

Thoughts on Le Web 2009 : Ewan Spence's All New Musings.