In a classic example of unplanning I decided last Monday evening to see if I could get to Web2 Expo in San Francisco which is running this week. I had to do a couple of things first:
- Find my passport (filed away "carefully" after a trip last Winter)
- Rearrange some work commitments this week with the help of clients
- Clear the cost with my co-founder
I did all three and then started to make contact with anyone and everyone who was over here, focusing especially on the area of freemium business models and also looking at stuff around user generated content.
Looking like most of us may hook up for the Techcrunch/WebMission event this evening and then going for a bite to eat afterwards. Also planning for lunch with Simone Boswell from EI Silicon Valley on Thursday.
I also found an unconference happening for the 1st time during the Expo and got the last slot in one of their sessions on Wednesday, looking forward to that and we have already had 15 signups to the beta since it was posted this morning. Details below from their blog, thanks to Sarah Milstein for organising.
keith
As I've written here recently, we've got some amazing sessions scheduled for Web2Open--the free unconference hosted by Web 2.0 Expo in SF this week. One that I'm particularly excited about is a new experiment, "Practice Your Customer Pitch."
We're bringing in five startups who will get two minutes each to give their customer pitch (not their VC pitch), as if meeting a potential customer at a cocktail party (i.e., no slides but OK to drink if you want). To give them feedback, we've assembled a top-notch panel of serial entrepreneurs and marketing experts. It's not a competition, so there's no judging or ranking—just discussion among the entrepreneurs, panelists and other session attendees.
We're trying this idea for the first time, so who knows how it will go? But in the entrepreneurial spirit, we've mitigated our risks: even if the format doesn't sing, the session can only be a hit given the participants. (Thanks to Sean O'Malley for helping us connect with a lot of these folks.)
The rather impressive panel:
*Rashmi Sinha, moderator. SlideShare CEO
*Robert Acker, panelist. LiveSpot CEO
*Michael Cerda, panelist. cc:Betty CEO
*Nilofer Merchant, panelist. Rubicon Consulting CEO
The smart startups:
*CrowdVine, social networks for conferences
*dbTwang, Dogster for guitars
*Doodle, online scheduling magic
*Maestro Market, a Web 2.0 speakers' bureau
*Magoosh, customized test-prep
The session is on Weds, April 1 from 10:50 - 11:40a. If you still need a free pass for Web2Open, you can register using the code websf09opn. There's more general event info on the Open website.
Tell Simone I said hello :)
Posted by: dave | March 31, 2009 at 11:52