Business: Writing for TechCrunch Europe

Posted by admin on May 30, 2010 in Entrepreneurship & Business | 2 comments

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.

Next10: plista expects new funding round, launches one-click ad creator

Next10: NextWidgets announces new side tab e-commerce widget

Next10: Memonic wants to kill “copy-paste”, closes Angel funding

Next10: Fishlabs to move into mobile MMOGs, Series B round planned

Next10: Tariq Krim talks up new version of Jolicloud based on HTML5

Have fun reading! If you are interested in tech, startups, or the latest news from the industry I encourage you to subscribe to TechCrunch and TechCrunch Europe. It’s the destination with the most comprehensive coverage in English you can possibly get.

Comments are very welcome!

Conference: Recap of IC2010

Posted by admin on Apr 7, 2010 in Conferences | 1 comment

On March 18th I was invited by Maastricht University’s study organization 3MA to participate in a panel discussion about „New Media“. I took the opportunity to take part in (almost) the whole event to get an impression on who would be sitting in the panel with me. Quite interestingly the new media conference was partly what I expected and partly very surprising. I was expecting that the only conference in recent Maastricht conferences or events history dealing with media would place an emphasis on using the new technologies when promoting the event. Unfortunately, there was no Facebook fan page to become a fan of to follow updates, nor a Twitter channel of the event to build up interest among followers. If you were not studying at Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics there was no way that you would hear about this event. With ticket prices at 12 Euros you would think that pushing sales via absolutely free channels would be in the interest of the organization. As for the audience I was expecting students totally emerged in tech so there would be a room full of people using twitter to spread the news about what they saw and experiences or some live-blogging going on From the approx. 150 people in the room 3 were using twitter. This included me and the speaker mentioned below (After that I didn’t dare to ask who runs a blog). With all the tools available I found it rather disappointing how little use was made of them from organizers, as well as participants. Of course the recruiting aspect of the event comes into play here but I believe that you should walk your talk and not try to please a (media) employer if you don’t “live” media. It is going to show sooner or later.

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.

Conference: What to expect at IC2010?

Posted by admin on Mar 14, 2010 in Conferences | 0 comments

A couple of weeks back I was invited to speak on a panel at IC2010 and I am very much looking forward to the event. Although, I am not really sure yet what is expecting me I am quite happy to be involved at an event at Maastricht University again. The marketing and strategy study association 3MA is not only the host of the Maastricht Marketing or Consultancy Day but also host of the “International Conference” with yearly changing topics. While all other events have quite the similar content and topic every year the “International Conference” is rather diverse in topics.

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.

Conference: TEDx Berlin 2009

Posted by admin on Dec 7, 2009 in Conferences | 0 comments

On the 30th of November 2009 I was one of the lucky ones to attend the first-ever TED-related event in Germany. TEDx Berlin was organized by German communication agency red onion around Stephan Balzer and took place at the Grand Hyatt in Berlin. Stephan Balzer was also the moderator of the event and did a great job guiding through the day. The location was also a great choice as it (apparently) offered all its services for free to the event and the layout of the hotel and its facilities supported the collaborative character of the event.

The event was organized meticulously and it was just a great pleasure to be guided through the day. The choice of speakers and their stories was phenomenal as the list was quite diverse, some talks were in a sense complementing, and the whole atmosphere was very stimulating.

The balance between talks and opportunities to talk to the speakers and other participants was excellent. Frequent coffee breaks and a very nice lunch gave everyone the opportunity to network.

My Favourite Talks

Till Behnke – The Web of Trust

Till Behnke’s presentation about the web or trust was another great example of how web technologies (being very intangible) can solve a very pressing and devastating issue like poverty or lack of access to resources (being very tangible). His website is achieving this through matching supply and demand. Mr. Behnke told the audience about his younger years when he made the transformation from an up and coming rugby player to corporate player to internet entrepreneur.

Having visited South Africa and having seen its beauty and foremost its devastating problems he decided to attempt to change something about it. He started off with organizing some volunteers for a housing project but was never quite satisfied since he could not find access to a larger lever that would really move things. When researching opportunities to raise money he was shocked by the amount on in-transparency in most charitable organizations. His project betterplace.org is giving people with lack of resources access to people with resources. They are “merely” matching people with projects to people with money and the desire to invest it in charitable projects. I enjoyed his presentation a lot since the level of energy was very high. Till Behnke was not really talking just about a problem but more a problem that he made his own. The level of pure passion to talk about this topic was very inspiring.

Ralf Schmerberg – Who is Independent in the 21st Century?

What I liked especially about Mr. Schmerberg’s talk was that he showed some vulnerability and shared some very personal thoughts. He talked extensively about his “past” life in which he was part of a corporate machine that he started to hate more and more. Finally, he broke out of it and changed the direction of his life. Instead of using his energy to promote and sell products in large amounts he dedicated more and more of his time to “independent” (film) projects.

An interesting approach that his projects take is to not pay anything. According to Mr. Schmerberg this works out perfectly. The idea is simple: They don’t pay themselves, external service providers, and they also not sell their movies. He made the comparison of what would have happened if they tried to sell their latest documentary. Had they tried the traditional channels he claimed that they might have sold 50k copies of the film but instead they made it available online and had 4m views in a very short time. Overall, Mr. Schmerberg’s message was to really think about how independent you are from people, money, ideologies, and preconceived opinions.

Peter Eigen – Grand Corruption & Petty Corruption – Fighting them Through Civil Society

Mr. Eigen was the most inspiring speaker of the day for me personally. Having worked for the World Bank Mr. Eigen told stories about facing grand corruption and his deep desire to stop it. In other words he said that corruption is in many developing places the root of all evil and rather culminates problems than to solve them. He named corruption as prime reason for poverty since corruption creates inefficient and economically unjustifiable situations.

He founded Transparency International with this dilemma in mind and formed the hypothesis that corruption could only be fought through the formation of a civil society. Mr. Eigen went on to explain this: The backbone of the idea is that corruption is criminalized (in many developed nations this is apparently still not the case) and society itself is the driving force behind an enforcement. In other words corruption becomes socially unacceptable and is not tolerated at all by the citizens. This is especially important in developing nations as this would prevent waste of public money.

One of the most remarkable things about Mr. Eigen’s talk was that he spoke from decades of experience. His service in the World Bank gave him a great look and perspective from the inside that he generously shared with the audience. Also his level of passion for the topic and clarity with which he presented made is a pure pleasure to listen to him.

My Favourite Video

One rule a TEDx event has to apply is to show a certain amount of videos of the “real” TED conference in Monterrey. The team of TEDx Berlin presented a great choice of videos: David Logan’s “Tribal Leadership”, Pattie Maes’ “The 6th Sense”, and “Hans Rosling’s “The Best Stats You’ve Ever Seen”. I knew Hans Rosling’s and  Pattie Maes’ talk already and they are more than a must-watch.

The talk given by David Logan is very inspiring and fascinating since he shows how our society (or better: all societies around the globe) actually work like tribes. His main point is that we all live and work in tribes and that we are part of many tribes.

You can find the video here: David Logan on Tribal Leadership

(At this moment TEDx Berlin has not yet published any pictures or videos – I will add them when they come online eventually.)

So would you go again?

It was the very first TEDx in Germany and I will try to attend all the upcoming TEDx events near me. The level of inspiration is overwhelming and I can only recommend it to anyone who is interested beyond whatever it is they are doing. Luckily, the organizers announced that in about 6 months they will try to realize TEDx Hamburg which I will try to be a part of as well. Thank you for the great event!

Conference: Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship 2009 – The Conference

Posted by admin on Dec 1, 2009 in Conferences | 2 comments

On 20th of April 2009 the Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship 2009 started for the very first time and I was one of the lucky ones to attend the premiere. The overall intent was to promote the entrepreneurial spirit at Maastricht University since it is still a topic that plays a rather small role. There is a newly created Master program done by the Department of Organization and Strategy but the driving force behind the topic is the Maastricht Center for Entrepreneurship.

The week started as a “joint venture” of the MC4E and a group of very motivated and eager students. The wealth of ideas by the students and the strong support by the center were amazing when I witnessed it the first time at a meeting about the week. Having this strong team definitely made the event the success that it was. The “week” was able to draw some top-notch speakers, entrepreneurs, and interested students to Maastricht, which enabled everybody to experience the topic of entrepreneurship first hand.

“The Four Day Workweek”

In contrast to other events the “week” really was almost a whole week. The event was kicked-off on Monday with an introduction to the topic and a rather diverse offering; workshops, interviews, lectures, and networking sessions just to name a few segments. In the morning a keynote speech was delivered by professor for entrepreneurship, Head of the MC4E, and CEO of Maastricht University Investment Fund (UM Holding), Prof. Dr. Jan Cobbenhagen.

He talked about the importance to recognize entrepreneurial opportunities everywhere – not just in business – to make the world a better place. He immediately convey his enthusiasm for the topic onto everybody. This was especially valuable for all students that came to explore the topic for the very first time.

My Favorite Speakers

On of the most interesting speakers for me personally was Mark Korzilius the founder of German restaurant chain Vapiano.

Vapiano combines freshly made authentic Italian cuisine with semi-fast-food approach of delivery. There is a video (only in German) that describes the concept very well. Mr. Korzilius’ speech was remarkable since he also added personal side notes, which allowed the audience to look behind the scenes concerning Mr. Korzilius’ approach to business. He told the audience not only about Vapiano’s great success but also how he decided to sell the long-standing family business (150 years!!!) and end the family tradition to the displeasure of many. Mr. Korzilius made it very clear that some decisions are very hard to make. Furthermore, he gave some real life, applicable business advice like not to conform too quickly to advice of other but always to ask for it. His main mantra for managing a firm is to believe in your ideas and be very attentive when people tell you that something is not possible – according to him if people bash your idea you are on to something.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxjPVQdwNEc]

Dieter Stempel was another business person who definitely left an impression with everybody.

His casual and light-hearted style of talking about his business certainly reminded or showed everybody that business is serious but it does not mean that you have to let it get to you. His main advice was to go out in the world and find something that you are convinced of and that you have a passion for before locking yourself up in a 9 to 5 job in which you cannot grow personally and professionally.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJeWnZw3ayM&feature=related]

My Favorite Workshop

I have never seen fellow students more moved by a workshop or presentation before in my time at Maastricht University and other universities. The workshop done by Boris M. Riek about life and entrepreneurship challenged the participants to re-think what they know, assume, and learned.

This exercise was very intense in the way that a lot of people were confronted with their own assumptions and the finding that maybe often there is more to it than what things seem at first sight. Although this might sound very basic and straight forward it is for sure easier said than done. The highlight of the workshop was the ripping of a student’s 50 Euro bill by Mr. Riek just to show how much “value” we attach to a piece of paper. For me personally this went hand in hand what Mr. Korzilius said about finding new ways and doing things that everybody opposes. To explore new opportunities one has to go beyond what one knows and feels comfortable with.

So, would you go next time?

I can only answer this question with a crystal clear “YES”. Since the 2010 edition of the event is already in preparation I am very much looking forward to it. This time the students are actually organized in a newly created organization called Momentum Maastricht. The team now counts more members than ever before and I am certain that it is going to be a valuable event for everybody. For that matter Momentum Maastricht also has a cooperation with both, prestigious and longstanding “Idealab” from German WHU and RWTH & AC.E’s tech-oriented “Aachen Technology and Entrepreneurship Conference”.

(Photos: courtesy of Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship 2009)