Category: Events

10 Things I learned at DLD11

DLD is mostly a tech-oriented business event but nonetheless it pays attention to those big issues that interest us all: given that this world is full of wonders and constantly feeds us with new extraordinary findings, where do we want to go? What is our purpose in life? How can we make it better with the help of technology? And the fact that at DLD you can see Sean Parker and Paulo Coelho interview each other on stage (check it out) is a perfect example of “connecting the unexpected”.

Here are ten things I learned this year at DLD11:

1) Life is not measured by how many breaths we take but by how many moments take our breath away (Lakshmi Pratury);
2) Most of the germs on my body are located on my forearms (David Agus);
3) Technology craves agency and freedom (Kevin Kelly);
4) If I stop and listen to myself for some seconds I can hear my true self (Deepak Chopra);
5) Some people have genetic traits that make them different from others and allow them to do things that others can’t do. It’s not about eugenetics: it’s a matter of fact (Juan Enriquez);
6) Technology is the 7th kingdom of nature because it evolves like an organism (Kevin Kelly);
7) At least six species of humans coexisted thousands of years ago (Juan Enriquez);
8) The Social Network movie is “a complete work of fiction” (Sean Parker);
9) To be happy means to constantly chase new challenges (Paulo Coelho);
10) The body is a process not a structure. It is an energy and information field (Deepak Chopra).

Live Tweets from DLD11

Here is a widget I set up to follow the Twitter stream related to DLD11. Enjoy!

Trip to Germany and DLD11

Tomorrow will be another pack-n-go day: I’m going to spend some days in Germany to visit some dear friends in Freiburg and attend the DLD conference in Munich (check this post in Italian for the 2010 edition). On Sunday evening I’ll attend a special preview of “Tron: Legacy” before the official German release (I hope it will have English subtitles because my German is not good at all). It’s going to be a crazy weekend and I can’t wait to get started!

LeWeb 2010: my impressions

Friendly, warm, inspirational. If someone asked me to pick three adjectives to define the latest edition of LeWeb these would be the ones. Oh, and snowy, surely. Because snow wrapped up Paris during the two days of the conference and made things look a bit different from the usual. LeWeb has become an impressive event that always leaves a tail of comments and praises among its participants. Logistically speaking, I believe this year’s edition was the closest to perfection: getting back to Les Docks was definitely a good move because Le CentQuatre was too dispersive; the food and the beverages where top quality and the wifi connection was pretty good.

As usual, big numbers were listed and discussed on stage and the popularity of services like Foursquare, Zynga Twitter, Google and Facebook was once again crowned by several panels and workshops. For the first time LeWeb introduced Ignite presentations (my friend Luca Sartoni gave a very inspirational one) and I think it was a great idea to offer the stage to some selected participants who were not necessarily entrepreneurs or Scobles. I also noticed the influence of the TED/DLD approach on LeWeb and I liked it: there were at least three high level presentations given by professional speakers who really attracted the audience (one of them was Bertrand Piccard, who talked about solar energy-powered airplanes).

I was particularly and pleasantly impressed by the presence of Asian participants and speakers; people who shared insights into the Japanese and Chinese trends and made me discover that DeNA Global, a Japanese social gaming company that sells virtual goods for mobile virtual worlds, can make up to $517m in a year. Overall, it’s been great to be, once again, part of this and I must mention the good time I had with my old and new friends in the French capital, which added even more fun to this experience. Kudos to Geraldine, Loic and the whole crew for the amazing job.

About the World Blogging Forum 2010

Having the chance to participate to this year’s edition of the World Blogging Forum was an amazing experience. It was a full immersion into a rather big community of people who are very self conscious and know that they can make a change in the world just by making sure their voice is heard. And it’s always great when many people from different parts of the world can gather and talk about what’s going on in their countries.

The crowd was not a shy one: there were many interventions and most of them were appropriate. Certainly there was a very critical approach to each and every presentation. I took the chance to talk about crowdfunding and the new forms of user-generated content on TV (I will try to prepare a presentation with real slides, since I didn’t make one).

The sponsors did a good job: the location was perfect and the food was tasty. I believe no one could say the opposite. The great thing about the related events is that they really helped create a bond between the invited bloggers. The day after the conference we went to Stift Klosterneuburg to visit the abbey and the local market and had the opportunity to appreciate the local food and art.

A big thumb up for Ritchie Pettauer who did a great job at making everyone feel at home and entertained us with his funny tales. I was lucky enough to spend this amazing week in Wien with some friends like Luca Sartoni, Andrea Vascellari and Mihaela Draghici: moreover, it was a pleasure to meet Matthias Lüfkens and Eric Dupin and get to know them better. If there will be a 2011 edition I look forward to jump on the boat!