LIFT06: connecting new technologies and people

Just bought my tickets (btw, great website easyjet) to Geneva, Switzerland for the LIFT06 conference in February.

LIFT06

Laurent has been working hard since he commented on the desire to have such a conference in Switzerland in June during reboot 7 where me and Pedro met him. Now we will all meet again.

What LIFT is:

LIFT is a conference about new technologies and people.

LIFT is about teaming talented observers, explorers, and builders with people whose work depends on understanding current challenges and creative solutions presented by emerging technologies. Attendees will face cutting edge business models, bold predictions, radical thinking — ideas to inject into their own part of the planet.

LIFT has a simple goal: connect people who are passionate about new applications of technology and propel their conversations into the broader world to improve life and work.

Since Reboot 7 many things have changed in the technology world. Reboot was one of the most interesting conferences I’ve been into. Among that things Reboot 7 was able to connect many people related by technology. LIFT aims just that: connect people around technology.

For more information check out the speakers list and the program on LIFT’s website.

November 24, 2005 | | Leave a Comment 

Stress is a good thing too

The article Are you working too hard? might explain why I’ve been feeling that I need to get into some kind of special stress (followed by some calm moments) to get really productive on what I’m doing.

For the part of my life that I work as a Web Developer and Project Manager, the article shows why a balance between being in a stressful state of mind and working away from it is so important to creativity and productivity.

November 20, 2005 | Tags: | 2 Comments 

Classifieds Dance

Classifieds moving away from newspapers and into the Internet was already a trend 18 months ago in Europe and even longer in the USA (think craigslist). But still newspapers can’t find the right balance between print and online editions and are loosing valuable customers each day.

Ebay has been positioning themselves with kijiji. Google’s launching Google Base and what are newspapers doing? Maybe they’re just too afraid to touch their own revenue source or maybe they’re simple too big too move.

I say that, some elephants can’t dance, after all.

November 20, 2005 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

The book of the success-story of Kelkoo

Thanks to Alex’s help, who bought the book in France for me (it was sold out Amazon) I should receive my copy of the book Ils ont réussi leur start-up ! La success-story de Kelkoo (in french) in a few days.

Logo Kelkoo

Kelkoo’s had one of the biggest success stories in Europe regarding startups and entrepreneurship. A group of people have created a really profitable leader in the business of shopping comparison sites. The adventure ended with the sale to Yahoo! for 435 million euros.

For more info on the book and Kelkoo’s startup period check out the kelbook, the book’s blog. Even more info on the authors blogs, Julien Codorniou and Cyrille de Lasteyrie (both in french).

November 17, 2005 | | 3 Comments 

How Google teams work

Small teams and lots of iteractions, that’s Google way of working. Google thinks small is an interesting view inside Google’s world.

Among many other comments by Marisa Mayer (Product Manager for Google) on the management of Google’s team, I really like this one: Fear and suspicion happen when information is hidden. Hidding information is probably one of the worst enemies for a growing company.

I certainly agree with the way Google works. I have already worked with this model and it has produced the best results so far.

November 16, 2005 | Tags: | 1 Comment 

Growth in the Online Groceries Market

It’s been a few months now that we decided to start doing our grocery shopping exclusively online. (We don’t buy everything from the online grocery store. Fresh stuff comes on a daily basis from the local grocery shop.). We have tested two of the Portuguese online grocery stores. Continente and El Corte Inglês.

I have had good experiences with both. Good timely service and although El Corte Inglês is more expensive it does carry some products not available elsewhere. From my experience with this shops I can see clear value in doing my shopping online and from the growth numbers of online grocery shops I think many other people also do so.

FreshDirect Bread

Two years ago I wrote about north-american FreshDirect’s amazing operation. It was one of the first to start capturing a big part of the online groceries market. In some countries in Europe the market is also growing at a fast speed and many new brands have been created in the last 2 years. In the UK, which has Europe’s most developed Internet market, online groceries are also thriving and trying different approaches to this market. BBC is running a story on two English online grocery stores that have been taking on the British. Ocado and Tesco. Tesco belongs to a well-established company and is piggy-backing on it’s already deployed regional stores. Ocado is a £200 million investment that has it’s own airplane-hangar and a partnership (having common investors) with waitrose.

Big players have been placing themselves within this market and are waiting to take advantage of a well-know Internet business model that will let them save on real-estate, work-force, etc. as soon has it moves into mass-market. Small players will enter niche markets (they already did with specialized groceries like organic products).

Has I have written small local grocery stores do have an important role in everyday life and although it’s still a long way ahead, it does seem each day we’re moving a bit more online.

November 15, 2005 | Tags: | Leave a Comment