A few weeks ago, the very first OuiShare Fest in Paris gathered over 3 500 people from across the globe interested in, advocating and living the collaborative economy. Sad yet happy that it is over and was such as success, we now look back on three inspiring days of learning, connecting and playing. During this festival, which was collaboratively organized and co-designed with our community, 700 international professionals gathered for two days of keynotes, panels, workshops and open sessions about the collaborative economy at the Cabaret Sauvage in Paris. On the third open day, over 3 000 visitors passed through the Cabaret to discover the collaborative economy through a variety of in and outdoor activities, catering to all ages, such as disco soupe, trade school, an upcycling art gathering and a t-shirt printing workshop. http://youtu.be/kXXPbkdKB7M Other highlights of OuiShare Fest included the Wikihouse, the first FabJam, a satellite event in Brazil, the OuiShare Fest Awards and an evening workshop on Thursday night called the public policy jam. This workshop gathered speakers and partners of OuiShare Fest to discuss opportunities and issues of public policy and the sharing economy. You can read about the outcomes of the workshop here. For more in-depth insights on OuiShare Fest, read what Shareable,Meedabyte
, FT ALphaville & El Mundo (Spanish), and La Tribune (French) had to say about it, or check out our reviews of day 1 and day 2.
The sense of optimism amongst the crowd was intoxicating. There was a distinct feeling that as the old economy lagged, this mysterious collaborative economy thing was booming like never before. -- Izabella Kaminska, FT Alphaville
What we liked most
Even though it's hard to chose, we asked the team and here are the top 5 things we liked about OuiShare Fest:
1. You
What made OuiShare Fest unique were the people. It brought together such diverse, but at the same time likeminded people from all over the world in one place. This made for some great encounters and rich conversations. "Everyone was there, from business oriented people to moneyless guys like Elf Pavlik or Raphael Fellmer" - Cristobal Gracia "I didn't have a single boring conversation" - Albert Cañigueral
2. The Spirit
The atmosphere was very different from other professional events. Everyone's good mood and optimism were a source of inspiration. Take a look at the countless pictures, videos and tweets on the OuiShare Fest blog and our special live reporting site to experience the spirit of the event. "Things weren't taken too seriously, the element of fun and play was always present." - Juho Makkonen
3. Intense MPRL
We finally got to meet so many people we have connected with online in real life! OuiShare Fest was an opportunity for intense MPRL (meeting in real life) and created links between on and offline relationships.
4. The Content
The program was filled with content that was practical and applied to real life cases. The favorites: Michel Bauwens (P2P Foundation), Dale Dougherty (Make) & Alastair Parvin (Wikihouse). The good news: you can watch all sessions online! Since we had sessions in three different rooms simultaneously, we made sure to capture all of them on video and are now uploading them on our Youtube channel. Many are already available, but stay posted for more in the next weeks.
5. The Volunteers
OuiShare Fest would have never happened without the incredible dedication and motivation of all our volunteers, who came from near and far to give their passion and energy to make this event happen. Thank you! "The impossible is possible with the right team" - Jusytna Swat And my personal favorite: "Changing the world while doing the dishes." - Edwin Mootoosamy And not to forget, on top of our volunteers, we had a great team that worked on this event for several months. Would you like to be part of it next time? Since many OuiShare Fest attendees asked us how they could get involved in OuiShare in the future, you can read how below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lNouPufudU&feature=share&list=PL8Bt3EbdmpKNIMxFrgrVlqMTsXOD6LqEL The best way to start is to come to an event like OuiShare Fest (or any other event) to meet members of the team in real life (an important principle laid down in our values). You can find out when the next event in your region or city is taking place by joining your local Facebook group or getting in touch with your local OuiShare Connector (who is basically an active member of OuiShare who is building the community in one region). If there is a specific topic you are interested in, we also have vertical groups for topics such as mobility, finance, education, food, policy and many more. See a full list of all our groups here on Facebook. If you join a group, it is important that you introduce yourself there, so everyone in the group knows who you are. This is a crucial ingredient to keeping our groups active. But always remember: we're in permanent beta. OuiShare is an ongoing experiment that is made by its participants. If you have any questions or you need help getting involved, don't hesitate to reach out to anyone from the team and we will be more than happy to help you.
See you next year?
If you missed OuiShare Fest this year, don't worry - since it was such a success, we're definitely having another one! And lastly, one last big thank you goes to our co-organizer La Fonderie, our partners La Poste, La Banque Postale, Google and all our other partners, volunteers and speakers who helped us make this event reality![mudslide:flickr,0,ouishare,72157633450773582] Photo Credits: Flickr Slideshow images by Sandrine Landrix Header image by Stefano Borghi