This week will take place the Lift16 conference in Geneva (see also last years' entries: Lift15, Lift 14).

Selected sessions:

Blockchain Technology Beyond Bitcoin - From art to science, law, politics and innovation, what unexpected and disruptive opportunities does the blockchain technology open? Since its open-source release in 2009, the blockchain has expanded from a public ledger recording money transactions for Bitcoin into an accountability system with features for performance, anonymity, storage and smart contracts. What lies beyond the distributed and trusted protocol that runs the most used decentralized cryptocurrency in the world? This session will explore the realm of possibility for the blockchain, beyond Bitcoin.

Enter the Anti-Disciplinary Space - Our world is complex. How are we to tackle problems that only get harder? Complex questions require the know-how from different fields, cultures and perspectives. We need to collaborate and experiment in-between and beyond set boundaries until new ideas emerge. Putting designers, artists, technologists, and researchers together in a ‘free space’ is a great start. Though, we need people who do not fit in any box - strange animals if you will - who are able to change the way we look at things. Who are these adventurers who challenge our concepts of creation and what can we learn from them?

Selected breakouts:

Deep Dive into the Blockchain - During this two-hour hype-free workshop, experts will take you through the pros and cons of the blockchain, and demystify how this technology actually works, before digging into how smart contracts will eventually be enforced in the physical world. Keeping the techno-jargon to a minimum, Clement Epie and Stephan Tual will take you through the advantages of Blockchain over existing technologies, what could potentially be replaced by blockchains, its future prospects and market impact as well as which industries could be disrupted first. Following up will be Christoph and Simon Jentzsch going into how exactly the Blockchain functions, how to write smart contracts, as well as give you an overview of the various tools available today to build on top of Blockchain technology. We will keep a pragmatic approach, covering for example how you could use the Blockchain to directly rent your apartment or office space, without third parties. Finally we'll have an extensive Q&A exploring the pros and cons of this new technology, where it makes sense to use blockchain, where it doesn't, and touch on questions of standardisation, regulations and what could bring blockchain to the mainstream.

Sustainable By Design: implementing new performance metrics for innovative projects and enterprises? - How to reorient corporate activity and innovation towards sustainability? Can we natively measure financial performance together with environmental performance? What new, accessible and common indicators, accounting methods and tools, and reporting mechanisms can we design to help in that process? This workshop, co-designed by the Transitions2 network and the MIT Climate CoLab, invites participants who believe that environmental and economic performance should now be measured simultaneously and given a similar importance - and are interested in discussing how this could be achieved in real life. Its concrete outcome could be the launch of one of the Climate CoLab's "contests", harnessing the collective intelligence of thousands of people from all around the world to create, analyze, and select detailed proposals to make innovation "sustainable by design".

The Creative Power of IMPROV-Theatre! - IMPROV-Theatre is a fun way to boost your creativity by making full use of your body, voice, mind, soul and your emotions. IMPROV enables you to reach new levels of Out-of–the-Box ideas AND experiences by one simple rule: radical acceptance! There is no “NO”! EVERYTHING is allowed and expandable!. This workshop gives IMPROV-Newbies a chance to learn a whole set of practical techniques and exercises which provide for exciting and creative trips into a world of instantaneous new stories, amazing plots and pure playful joy. And also experienced IMPROV players might learn a few new tricks. Enjoy a fresh unobstructed view on multiple realities. Fun guaranteed!

Bringing Narrative into Science Education with Virtual Reality - Dive deep into the field of Science Storytelling with Neal Hartman and several participants of the Storytelling Science VR Hackathon, recently organized by CineGlobe in partnership with Festival Tous Ecrans and supported by the Lift. Behind all good communication, and therefore education, lies good storytelling; this workshop will show how this rule applies to science as well, and give examples of great science storytelling projects. Hear from participants of the VR Hackathon how they approached the challenge of bringing narrative into education of a scientific nature, and then brainstorm your own science-education narratives in groups guided by the creators. The workshop will also discuss some of the ins and outs of making VR projects for immersive headsets like the Oculus Rift.

See you there!