Definitely the most thought provoking event we have ever been to. The organising team have managed to create a real sense of community over the years–something that few conferences can ever hope to achieve – that made everyone feel like part of the family as soon as they walked into the beautiful Chateau, where the event was hosted. A great starting point for Yasmo Live to bring everybody even closer together.
I7 focuses entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and society. As entrepreneurs ourselves, a lot of the panels and speeches really hit home. From sculptor Jean-Pierre ‘I feel like a duck in a shoe shop’ Rives urging us to retain the freedom and creativity that gives our companies the edge, to Mimis Michaelides, MD of Performa, explaining why we should ‘reward success, celebrate failure, but punish inaction’. The prize for most outlandish statement probably goes to Capgemini’s Pierre Hessler though, who after explaining that in order to conceive a company properly entrepreneurs needed to seek the help of a sexologist, went on to add that what is really needed to establish a company is a good psychologist ‘because everybody loves innovation but hates change.’ Good job Yasmo has a resident psychoanalyst then!
But even better than the panels was the fact that we enjoyed our biggest delegate uptake ever. I7 people just got it. We were humbled by their embracing of our technology and their enthusiastic feedback. Here was a real accomplishment of the mission that lies at the heart of our company: satisfying people’s need to belong to a community and to engage in the warmth of face-to-face interactions, without having to go through the awkward, sometimes insurmountable, initial introduction phase. We’ll definitely be back next year, if they’ll have us that is!
We would like to extend a special thank you to Jean-Bernard Guerree, founder of the i7 Summit and managing director of Avise Partners, Joshua Bower Saul, VP Europe, Patrick Consorti, Market Development and Flavia Fontana Giusti, programme coordinator at Avise Partners for making us all feel so welcome; and a very special kudos to Jacques Collin and his team who manage the exquisite Chateau Les-Fontaines.