Working for a small EU financed project (i will not tell which one) i was sent to the 2008 ICT in Lyon last week to represent the project. Even thought i have seen some exhibitions before, i was really surprised …
The exhibition was larger than anything i had seen until now and the audience was quite different. Aimed at the european research community, it is meant to connect scientifics and thus accelerate research and coordinate the development in choosen areas. This is achieved through a series of speeches, networking sessions, social events and the exhibition itself.
Whereever you look: hordes of security and service personal, beautyful women, between armadas of buisinessmen and ambitious researchers. The smell of arrogance is in the air and the feeling arises quickly that this community prefers to stay amongst themselves. Thinking of the decent cathering, the massive security and the sophisticated demos, one gets a relatively good idea on how the 50.5 billion Euro, the European Comission invests for FP7 in the comming 5 years are spent …