It started with a single tweet when TechCrunch Europe Editor in Chief Mike Butcher asked for German bloggers to cover Next2010 in Berlin, Germany via Twitter. I volunteered for the job and ended up writing five articles at the conference. Here is a collection of my contributions.

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The Erasmate.com team is competing with several other but has a great opportunity to score first place as they are currently on 2nd or 3rd place and only a couple of votes from slam dunking this.

How can you help?

In order to get the 35k they need the most votes on the initiative’s website (LIOF Yeah)

1. Go to www.erasmate.com/35k - Just vote for them by
2. Press the grey “Stem” button,
3. Put in your name
4. Put in your email address
5. MOST IMPORTANT: You will get a mail from “SoapBox” in which you will have to click the confirmation link!

Unfortunately, the voting-website “SoapBox” is currently only available in Dutch. Please make sure you click the link as the team lost some valuable votes already to this.I am personally supporting these guys and with your help they might make it to number one. I would highly appreciate it if you would invest about 2 minutes of your time to support young talent.

Also, feel free to forward this to as many people as you like. I know the team works very hard and they appreciate your help a lot! Many thanks from my side already for your support!

Host of the event was Mike Sigal who did a great job leading startups, pitchers, judges, and audience. His main point in giving feedback on the pitches really stuck with me as he told us about a PepsiCo CEO. The CEO responded to the interview question “What is the single most important activity that you do” by saying “I spend about an hour a day on improving my communication skills”. Mike stressed the meaning and possible payoffs of doing this and said that he also believes that this is a crucial point for startups. Communicating what you do, who you are, and where you want to go are the most important activities when seeking investors, supporters, and customers.

Winner of the Amsterdam edition of the Pitch Slam is the website TinyPay.me (www.tinypay.me). CEO Richard gave a pretty cool and super-natural pitch which you can see here. Their concept is that you can sell anything via Facebook or Twitter without having to sign up for another service. Instead you can use their site to create an ad in about one minute and use your social media profiles to make people aware of your offers and let your friends help you promote your item. When you sell your item the purchase and deal is done through PayPal and TinyPay.me gets 5% of the sales price. In essence this allows you to sell something online without going through the hassles of eBay. If you like the concept you can become a fan on Facebook.

The value of the whole event was also driven by the enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and likable set of judges who gave great feedback on all pitches. This was particularly interesting since it offered direct insights into how a VC (a couple of them are investors) and market experts look at startups and what good and bad points they see immediately. In order to make results and feedbacks comparable on a global scale every Pitch Slam uses the “G/Score” to evaluate ideas. As the letter  G might indicate it is a product of Guidewire Group and explained in detail on their website. Basically it tries to capture the most essential business dimensions of a startup and rate them on a 1 (worst) to 4 (best) scale. The score is intended to give a rough overview of a startup and help external parties to make a decision on whether or not it is interesting for them to talk to that startup. Looking at the “cheat sheet” that was passed out to everyone I found the criteria quite objective and well-chosen.

In general I can only recommend that you go to one of the other Pitch Slams that are still to take place in Europe until the end of April and then in the US in early summer. Check out the schedule here.

One of the most interesting speakers of the day from my perspective was Markus Kucborski from Vodafone. He is leading the Social Media department within Vodafone that tries to leverage new technologies and incorporates them into Vodafone activities. He gave a rough overview of how Vodafone is doing it and the slides of his presentation can be found here. Following his presentation he gave a workshop about the actual incorporation of social media in larger companies. I found it funny that the format that he said he was used to (rather barcamp style) did not really correspond with the format that a Maastricht business student would be used to (totally über-formal consultant or financial service company style that just makes me smile every time I see it). Content-wise it was a little similar; business school questions and answers to (business) problems that are not meant to be solved this way. The main question that Markus brought up was how to measure the involvement in social media. This goes back on his efforts to find a social media “currency”. The basic idea behind it is how to measure in monetary terms what is going on online. You can find Markus’ presentation here.

The panel discussion was very lively as 9 panelists faced 10 questions in a little more than an hour. I had the feeling, however, that everybody made good use of their time. I realize that every single question could easily spark a month long discussion and it would have been fun to go into a little more depth. The input from the different company representatives mostly related the question to their efforts and activities. I kind of did the same by offering a start-up perspective on things. The use of social media of a start-up works a little different for team and company than lets say firm like Vodafone or Axel Springer with tens of thousands of employees… My main point was that through more transparency through social media (profiles) teams have a great chance and opportunity to present themselves to customers and investors alike. Anyone involved in a tech venture will most likely be an avid social media user. After all, these new tools allowed many businesses to thrive, make money, and create jobs.

Summarizing, I can say that the conference was well organized as almost all segments started on time and the selection of speakers was diverse, thus interesting. The team did a great job pulling off a beginners-level-conference on “new” and social media that gave everyone the honest opportunity to find an easy access to the topic. Also I feel the conference employed the right recruiting segments for the students desperately looking for a job in this area. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank 3MA for the invitation to participate in the panel and not mentioning one word of thanks. I had a fun time anyways.

This year’s topic is: The Changing Face of Media: A Burden or a Gift”. As someone who is definitely in love with all the new tools that are coming out to make our life easier I don’t really see the burden in any new technologies. Maybe someone can explain this to me at the conference. Overall the lineup of companies indicates that there will be just companies using, developing, or supporting tech and its going to fun again to get in touch with some corporate techies.

Since the event is also a recruiting event I hope that the focus is not drifting away too much from the topic of new media and technology towards job hunt. The program seems to be densely packed which should yield some intense content. I am definitely looking forward to it.

Some good and bad

Just recently I have seen some great examples of how companies could use “new” technologies such as Facebook or viral advertising. One company I did not expect to have a solid new media strategy and perfect execution is Nespresso. The team at Nespresso shows with every move that they have fully understood how to use Facebook and how to interact with their customers through this channel. Their fan-page counts a whopping 242k fans and was Nespresso’s place of choice to announce the release of their new commercial with George Clooney (another great move). It is by far the only coffee-related Facebook fan-page that yields an incredible 1600 comments on the question which capsule color will be the color of this year’s Limited Edition. The almost 4k “Likes” to the question which “pure origin” capsules people like indicate a huge brand interaction that comes almost for free. The use of Facebook is free to anyone and maintaining a fan-page doesn’t take a huge team. Another aspect of why this is also very rewarding for Nespresso is the immediate feedback they get to their campaigns. People on the fan-page are most likely also customers so the quality of the answers is likely to be high due to authenticity and honesty. This approach saves Nespresso a ton of money every day. Not only are they able to track the results of their campaign they can also get in touch with the customers for free.

A perfect example for a company which did not understand social media at all is probably German sports-clothing manufacturer “Jako“. The company actually decided that the best strategy against bloggers who don’t write positively about their products is to sue the hell out of them. This has earned them the reputation of worst embarrassment on the web.

My assumptions:

• The mind is stronger than the body. If you can control your thoughts then you can control your body.
• Jet lag is 90% mind games.
• You are in charge of yourself.
• You are sitting relatively comfortable in your seat (remember John Wayne: no whining).
• You don’t hate flying.

So here are some recommendations:

• As soon as you sit in the plane set your clock to the time of the destination. Do this preferably before push-back so you can spend the time taxing to the runway staring at the new time and internalize it. This means that you tell yourself over and over what the new time is. This might creep the person next to you out but it will help you focus on what comes next.
• Once you have “understood” the new time act accordingly. If it is in the afternoon then the meal they are about to serve will be you dinner. Tell yourself that it is dinner and that you are going to sleep afterwards. A glass of wine might do the trick to get you in the right sleeping mood. (Drink responsibly – alcohol up there is much worse than on the ground). Plus, don’t forget to drink as much water as possible.
• Only sleep on eastbound travels. If you are flying against the sun (e.g. Europe to Asia or US to Europe) try to get as much sleep on the plane as possible. Buy a very comfy sleeping mask and good earplugs. Trying to fall asleep at least for a short time is very important for your body as it will make it easier to fight through the next day. Even if you only fall asleep for a very short time this will help you tremendously. The more you sleep on eastbound flights the better you will be able to perform in the next 2 days. If you are up for it you should get a business class or first class ticket.
• On westbound travels you should try to stay up throughout the whole flight. Keep yourself busy with movies, magazines, books, and whatever you can get your hands on. Going back in the galley to start a conversation with someone might also help to kill time. This has been more than interesting for me as the people you meet have great stories to tell. Flight attendants are also up for a nice talk as usually their job is rather uncommunicative. When you touch down stay up as late as you usually would. The last couple of hours are usually quite intense but very necessary to help you adjust as quickly as possible
• As soon as you arrive at your final destination start eating the next meal (e.g. if you arrive around morning hours eat breakfast). This is one of the most important points. The convince your body of the new time (you have looked at the watch a couple of more times) you have to give it something to work with. In this case its food and lots of water. Even if you don’t feel like eating at all bypass that feeling and chow down some food.
• Mentioned above is one more very, very, very, important point: drink lots and lots of water. Sitting in a plane for a long time will drain your body of any water in it and to make sure you feel well drink as much as you can.
• This might sound weird but as soon as you arrive at home or the hotel take a shower. This will not only make you feel better but will signal your body that its clean and ready now (this might be for going to bed or starting the day).
• In the coming days try to have the same routine as always. This means: regular meals, sleeping times as always, and lots of water. Also, try to look at any watch as often as possible.

I hope these small recommendations will help you on your next journey. Let me know if you have some additions or feedback.

I am a huge coffee-lover and I enjoy my espresso wherever I can. I am not necessarily a huge fan of the chain but I want to thank Starbucks for “conquering” this country with its stores. Whether to fight jet lag or just to give you this boost in the morning Starbucks has never let me down. The quality is good and the complementary Wi-Fi lets me stay in touch with the world. It feels like walking into the Embassy…

Beijing Shopping Malls

Looking at all the other stores here I can also understand how Starbucks could grow this quickly here in China. Walking into an average upscale mall in Beijing will mostly yield the same result; You will be able to find anything from super upscale like Hermes, Burberry, Gucci, Prada, to more mainstream things like H&M, Jack Jones, Zara, etc. Interestingly the domestic brands seem to strongly orient themselves on the “Western” brands but without looking like cheap imitations. There are some very interesting clothing stores that are (apparently) Chinese but could actually also work in Europe. The “new” Chinese consumer seems to enjoy spending his money on these consumer products. Another indicator is the sheer size of the cosmetics departments in malls.

Housing and Construction

The developments here in Beijing reminded me of the things I saw in Brazil in 2008. I bet a lot has changed there as well since then. In Brazil it seemed that the first money people made went to consumer products, plastic surgery, cars, and apartments. 30-year-old women wearing braces was nothing rare or looked down upon. Pretty much all advertisement on TV was about cars, and most billboards in town were advertising newly built apartment complexes. The same can be found here. There are new apartment complexes everywhere and each and everyone is out doing themselves with the formulations of how great and life changing this building is going to be. These are some pictures from one of the new properties nearby.

I am wondering why they cut the words off like this? Is it to grab attention because its off or is it because someone thought you can just do it this way?

The Breasts (and eyes, and lips, and face, and teeth, and, and, and)

A proof for the fact that more and more people are coming into money is advertisement for enhancing surgery. Riding in a cab I found this wonderful ad for breast surgery. I find it very funny how nicely they put things in these ads.

Beijing Kempinski Lufthansa Center

On a different note I can only recommend a visit or stay in the Kempinsiki Hotel Beijing Lufthansa Center. It is simply a great spot for chilling out, recharging your batteries, getting great Illy coffee, and stable internet. The hotel is said to be one of the best in town and simply by walking in any doubts about this should be wiped away. In addition if you feel like having any German sausage, cheese, or bread the Kempi Deli will fulfill any of your culinary wishes. The deli serves anything German and I simply another great “Embassy” in a culinary sense. Apparently the place is also well received by the more affluent locals as the place was packed with Chinese people enjoying a Laugenbrezel with Kochschinken. Overall the place is fantastically decorated and now for Chinese New Year they have put up this enormous tree.

If you are planning to go to the Great Wall the Kempinski also has a fantastic resort called the “Commune by the Great Wall”. If you have a couple of minutes on your hand you should check out the website. The Resort is also featured in pretty much every guide.

Beihai Park is really a refuge in this super busy town. The entrance fee of just 15 Yuan (1.5 Euro) is absolutely worth it. You get access to the entire park, which is built around a huge lake, and all temples on park property. Since it was freezing cold in the past months the lake was still frozen completely. In summer time I was told the lake is filled with Lotus flowers and I can imagine how relaxing a walk must be there in summer.

Lonely Planet iPhone App Beijing

On this trip I used on of the Lonely Planet iPhone apps for the first time and due to the steep app price of 12.99 Euros my expectations were incredibly high. So far I can say that I am very happy with it and it has been giving me exactly the information I was looking for when I needed it.

The content seems to be the same as the print version. The GPS supported “around you” feature lets you see what interesting sights, restaurants, places, etc are close to you without using a data connection. At 10 Euros per MB (via T-Mobile Netherlands) I am quite happy about that. I will try some of the other city apps when I get there. Since the apps can be updated easily the content will also change with every new release of the print version.

Appshopper has more detailed information on this.

The Downsides

In contrast to these very nice experiences I had to realize that there are also some things here that really bug me. I have yet to find out if it is a cultural thing or a Beijing thing or just because I am a foreigner. On many occasions it seemed impossible to get even the easiest things done. Nothing is ever possible, nobody knows anything, and mostly with a big smile you will be told that the option or thing you are looking for does not exist only to find out a couple of minutes later that it is indeed possible and the usual routine. This happens everywhere from taxis over to restaurants, and even prestigious 5 star hotels. It seems to be common practice to send you to as many other people as possible to get your question answered. This reminded me of my army time where you would also have to go from office to office since everyone wanted to avoid having to work at all costs.

The Cars

Another thing that is quite sad but nonetheless massively amusing is the car brands that you can find here.  This is a shot I took of a car that reminded me of the Tata Nano but the Logo looks more like Bentley. Other cars look just like their Western “counterpart”. In addition to that you can find many Western luxury cars here like the just-released BMW X6 or the Mercedes S600. Porsche Cayenne turbo seems to be a popular car too, as is the Audi A6 or A8. The last two seem to only sell as the Long-version, as the number of Audi A6L and A8L is just mind-blowing. Beijing resident and Dutch photographer Tom van Dillen captured this phenomenon as well and his pictures are really interesting.

For New Years Eve we went to Tiananmen Square with the expectation to see something but nothing spectacular happened there. More spectacular was the cab ride home as it gave you a great impression of what is must feel like to drive through downtown Baghdad. While all kinds of things exploded left and right from us the cab driver carried on driving with a calming nonchalance.

Going through town is absolutely mind-blowing as you can see and experience the break-neck speed of development that everyone is talking about. This city of 15.5 million is simply one of the most fascinating things I have seen so far.