make meaning
Martti Ahtisaari put it extremely well in his DLD10 talk with his son, Marko Ahtisaari, about equality in society. He said that “we men have to recognise how much is lost when everyone isn’t allowed to do what they are cabable of doing”.
Think of things differently – every fear/threat is also an opportunity in itself.
Fantastic talk between the two gentlemen, watch it for yourself.
This is something I talked about in Paris as well. Seems like there is a real market for this as Michael Arrington is also worrying about the perfection of their wifi in next year’s TC50. My point was that since there is always talk on the internet after a conference (pick a place and theme with more than 1000 members) how the internet connectivity sucked, that someone set up a company who would guarantee connectivity for a much above market prices.
This is something we think about a lot at TechCrunch, because so many conferences have bad connectivity, and we need to make it perfect at TechCrunch50 next year. There’s a real business here if a large company can get it right and is willing to put a guarantee in place to conference organizers. They can charge almost anything – I’m sure Loic would have paid €200,000 if that’s what it took to get proper Internet for attendees. If they can build a reputation for reliability, and are willing to back up that reputation with a liquidated damages clause for failure in the range of, say, 5x the fee they charge, then I imagine every conference that could would hire them.
It’s a simple business idea: build a company around guaranteeing internet connectivity in large conferences. You can have your own gear, cables, etc., put a little bit of magic into the connectivity and guarantee that the internet works – I’m sure this future company would become world famous and a trusted brand globally within a year.
Image: Travelin’ Librarian CC:BY-NC
I was in Paris this week for the LeWeb conference. There has been a lot of talk on the web about the conference itself. As Loïc writes in his blog, not all of the logistics worked out as expected; the internet was down (or extremely slow) for the most part of the conference, the first day in the main hall was very cold as one of the industrial heaters broke and during lunch time there wasn’t enough food for everyone.
Serious issues indeed, nevertheless – the conference whose theme was love was in my opinion a success in many ways.
Let me explain in a few words why. Europe is a lot more fragmented as a market place, compared to the US. The reason is relatively simple. We have a lot more different and more distinct cultures that still hold on to their traditions. This brings in many difficulties in sharing ideas and meeting new people – something that is crucial in many senses for taking those ideas to the next level.
LeWeb tackled that in bringing many people together from different parts of the world to network, share ideas and discuss how we can make our world a better place to live in – through new services and innovative solutions. The reason why I really like Le Web is the personal relationships Loïc brings in to make the event a success. LeWeb is always full of bloggers, thinkers, entrepreneurs and investors from America who bring in a boat full of new ideas to challenge our way of thinking. Something to keep us on our toes and not get too comfortable.
There’s definitely a lot to do in terms of making entrepreneurship thrive in Europe. We’re not that far behind the US here, but behind nevertheless. With conferences like these we are taking those steps to narrow the distance. Looking at the ecosystem as a whole, we shouldn’t be too concerned with 2 days without being fully nourished nor having to network in a slightly cooler environment – or actually having the internet down to enhance physical contact and networking with one another.
Last, but definitely not least – I’d like to thank my partners at Gyllene Skor for understanding my quick visit to Paris in the face of an unsurmountable amount of client work. They are an excellent bunch of professionals to work with.
Update: Seems like Michael Arrington of TechCrunch was along the same lines as my post – from the other side of the table of course.