Tag: fowa

Calling all geeks: Win a free ticket to Being-Digital in London, 10th June

South by SouthWest, Future of Web Apps, Future of Mobile, Fuel Conference, Mobile World Congress… Yes, I love conferences and, most of all, I love meeting new people.

Coming up soon is Being-Digital, a conference organised by the Mashup* events crowd, and I’m going along with Bob Last, from Taptu, who’s going to be speaking alongside with some other great speakers and entrepreneurs.

Being cheeky as I am, I asked the organisers whether I could extend the invitation to attend the conference to the Taptu blog readers. I now hold one precious ticket, worth £325, and I can’t wait to give it out!

So take part in the competition to win the ticket by creating a video, showing off some pics or leaving a blog comment telling us about the most unputdownable gadget ever.

I’ve got a goooooooolden ticket, come and get it! And see you at Being-Digital on the 10th of June, right?

Diggnation 118 live in London – The bits you didn't see

As you’ve probably figured out by now, I really like Diggnation, enjoyed Wednesday’s live show like no live event I’ve been to before, and am thrilled to have met the guys there.

I took my video camera to the show and it was such a good move. The show does not start when the cameras start rolling. Alex and Kevin are naturally completely whacky, especially when drunk, so the moment they roll in, the madness begins.

So here are the 10-15 minutes before the show, including the marriage proposal to Alex, some pre-show checks and opening their new shiny Diggnation mugs.

The video job is pretty bad, no need to tell me, but hey, I didn’t want Glenn to feel his job was at risk. Or that’s my excuse anyways! 😉

[Don’t forget to Digg it! …How full-circle-meta…]

Diggnation 118 Live In London – The Bits You Didn’t See

FOWA: Some evening fun with Diggnation

After a number of interesting panels in the day, it was time for beers and Diggnation.

Think of being 10 years old and looking up to your biggest, most favourite music star. Now imagine the excitement if you were told you’d get to meet them. That’s how I felt yesterday.


Vero & Alex @ Diggnation live in London

I filmed a good part of the live Diggnation show (which I’ll put online tonight), but then the guys bravely took on the mobs of 16 year olds and joined the Carsonified party at the Excel pub. Once the crowds went home, only a few people were left. But surprise, while Kevin buggered off to the hotel, Alex and the Totally Rad Show guys stayed for some drinks! Having a chat with them, they’re just as lovely as I’d hoped.

If this kind of event and show format is the future of TV, I’m going to feel right at home.

Creating a community

Matthew Haughey, MetaFilter says…

“Be the third place; people have home, work and a third community or social attachment. This can be a car enthusiast club, a WoW guild or a website community. Make something they’ll want to spend time on everyday.”

FOWA: We're not divinating the future

Future of Web Apps LondonI’m at the Future of Web Apps in London today. So far, I’ve attended the intro keynote with Om Malik and Michael Arrington, followed by Heather Champ & Derek Powazek on “We’ve got this community: Now what?”. I’m now in Tony Conrad’s “Future of Search”.

The main running thread of all talks so far is quite clear: Nobody knew what would happen next after launching their app. And in fact, few ended up where they expected to go. Someone this morning said that the real work on a web app really begins after you launch (see, I was listening, but didn’t take note so not sure who said this…) You need to listen intently, watch your users and see what they make of it. Odds are you’ll notice that they’ve hacked your app and use it in ways you would never have imagined. That’s your cue to harness their creativity and evolve accordingly.

Sometimes, Web 2.0 big names can get a bit cocky about success, but I think this is one point everyone agrees on: You just don’t know what’s going to happen next when you launch a startup.