The iPhone App post inspired me to share some of the blogs I read on a daily basis. At the opening of the academic year 2009/2010 at Maastricht University Dutch entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs said: "Dont read the news, read stuff from the source as it happens." His statement made me think about the power one has in being up to date. Since technology and entrepreneurship are two fields that I like to be up to date. Here are some of the blogs that I can only recommend reading: Entrepreneurship

• Retire at 21 - Offers some very nice interviews with young tech entrepreneurs and a nice brag list of the top earners
• FastCompany - The online content is just as great as the magazine content and I like to use the feeds to forward stories that I found interesting.
• Young Entrepreneur - Great content for up and coming businesses from the perspective of young entrepreneurs and those who want o become such.
• Inc. - Another great magazine with terrific content to stay ahead of the business game.

Technology

• Scobelizer (Robert Scoble) - Best tech blog with a personal opinion touch. Robert's content is always great and informative.
• Mashable - Just the greatest resources on social media developments, rumors, and trends. Also, I like the format and the writing style.
• Silicon Alley Insider - Great news resources to see what is going on at the "other side". Very informative and often funny content.
• Wired - My favorite geek, gadget, and geniuses magazine. That is all.

People

• Marc van der Chijs - Marc is - among many things - the co-founder of China's largest video portal. I really like how he is using Twitter and his Blog to keep people in the loop on what he does.
• Jason Calacanis - Jason is probably one of the most respected people in internet entrepreneurship. He is one super active internet entrepreneur and I like everything that he is involved in.
• Paul Graham - Paul is the co-founder of Y-Combinator, an incubator that has brought up more than 140 start-ups.
• Matt Mullenweg - Matt is the founder of WordPress and a true tech-startup idol of mine. The projects that he is involved in are awesome and inspiring.

The Software I Use Most of the blogs I read through RSS feeds. My favorite prog here is NetNewsWire for Mac. I love the Google Reader sync ability so I can the exact same feeds on my iPhone and PC. The program works just fine on all three platforms.

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!

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)

Just this week I visited ATEC (Aachen Technology and Entrepreneurship Conference) with distinguished members of Momentum Maastricht. The event took place at Schloss Rahe, which was a great choice for this event. The Maastricht delegation was especially invited by the organizing team of AC.E as part of a cooperation of the ATEC and the Maastricht Week of Entrepreneurship. The conference offered many workshops, lectures, presentations, and opportunities to network. A participant could chose between three tracks, namely Mobile Technologies, Automotive, and Energy. The Mobile Track I chose the mobile track and had the opportunity to hear and get to know a very interesting speaker and personality, Prof. Dr. Jan Borchers. His presentation about usability and how the topic should be approached by companies, especially engineers, was funny and very well structured. He gave great examples of Dos and Don'ts when designing a new product and showed the audience some hilarious product design disasters. It was a very valuable speech since he showed the different perspectives (R&D, production, marketing, sales, user, etc.) on product design. Overall, I enjoyed his restless enthusiasm for the topic and the way he talked about it.  His presentation was definitely the best of the track and possibly one of the freshest of the whole ATEC. One version of his presentation is available at his departments website. Other speakers of this mobile track included a representative from Metro AG, who showed a new concept that Metro wants to implement in their stores which makes the consumer's cellphone center of the focus. With an everyday mobile phone customers will be able to scan their merchandise and use a quick check out. In essence a system that Albert Heijn uses in its stores but instead of the "Albert gun" the cellphone will do the job. Another presentation was given by a representative of business consulting firm McKinsey & Co. about mobile trends - yes great consultant charts that left no doubt that the proper resources like Gartner, Datamonitor, etc. were harvested in countless hours of all-nighters... To give some credit, it was very informative though if you spoke consulting. The fourth speaker was an entrepreneur (the first and only one in this track) who presented the history of his chip manufacturing business and had the great ability to convey some entrepreneurial spirit to the group. He shared his experience and gave some great advice on how to get started and how to fight the fear of going on "alone" if you are a non-business student. His presentation had among all the highest perceived value since it was as real-life as it could get and very personal. The interesting thing about the conference was the schedule. The morning kicked off with the workshops without one real word of welcome (we were greeted very nicely though) and only after lunch the opening ceremony began. This had an up and down side. The good thing was that you started off immediately after you arrived but the downside was that without the opening ceremony in the morning the feeling of a united conference start kind of got lost. The location and the students organizing the event did everything they could to be very hospitable but to me a conference should start with everybody and should end at some point with everybody. Maybe this is just a matter of habit, nevertheless, quite noteworthy. StartUp MeetUp In the morning I participated in the StartUp MeetUp session which brought together four founders and their start-up story. Here is my twitter feed from that session to give you an impression of what was said:

Just heard a presentation of Felix from #conangel cool iphone app for conventions and fairs - def. bright future, great job #atec09

Just checked out the iphone app from @conangel after hearing a pres from founder Felix. Awesome tool that every event should use!#atec2009

Joerg Meyer of EUtech biz advice: have fun at work, watch for quality, watch your liquidity, choose your own project, think longterm #atec09

Claus Overbeck from RedTeam Pentesting talking about his biz: playing the bad guys (hacking) and getting payed for it - awesome!#atec2009

Sven Wilhelm from #collectiveiq: you dont have to be an IT guy to run an IT company, find great support, think about your biz model#atec2009

The AC.E Invitation The organization of the whole event was remarkably well done. The subscription online was easy and quick and the day itself was perfectly executed. At this point I want to thanks all the people over at AC.E - who invited us - to make this such a special, meaningful, and informative day. The Highlight The highlight of the day was probably the speech done by Microsoft Germany CEO Achim Berg, who presented some of the latest Microsoft brew, which will hit the markets very soon. The focus of their R&D seems to go further into the direction of artificial intelligence and cognitive learning. He showed some videos and figures which paint an interesting future.