LIFT Conference (Geneva, 25-26-27 February 2009)

Lift is happening again next February. I’ve missed the 2008 edition but have been looking forward for 2009. LIFT is an inspirational conference where you can expect your mind to be challenged and pushed in unpredictable directions.

This year LIFT is about answering the question “Where did the future go?”

We were told the future would be about mechanization, computerization, 1984-like nightmares or robots. What did and did not happen? What can we learn from the predictions that never materialized to better look at the future?

Lift gathers international entrepreneurs, artists, managers, researchers, investors, CEOs, designers or ethnologist, people who come to be inspired and meet those who make a difference.

Bread and Butter has again created an amazing poster for the conference:

lift09_poster_600px_0

As usual I’ll be flying easyjet since their Geneva hub allows for really cheap prices. Thanks to Nuno and Paula I’ll be again staying with them in Geneva. If your looking for a nice and simple place to stay the City Hostel is a good option. For other places check the practical page.

December 30, 2008 | Tags: , | 2 Comments 

Le Web: uma experiência única

Agora que a parvoíce tempestade pós-conferência já passou posso finalmente fazer o meu post sobre a Le Web de cabeça fria e explicar porque a Le Web é uma experiência única na Europa.

Gary Vaynerchuk at Le Web 08 Le Web venue

Mais fotos no Flickr.

É verdade que o wi-fi teve problemas, que esteve algum frio no primeiro dia e que a comida não era abundante mas são tudo faits divers relativamente ao essencial da conferência. A Le Web conseguiu reunir no mesmo espaço, durante 2 dias, algumas das pessoas mais relevantes na área da Web a nível Mundial.

Na Le Web estiveram em palco:

Os vídeos de algumas das apresentações e entrevistas estão no arquivo do Ustream e valem muito bem a pena para quem não esteve na conferência. O programa da Le Web era bastante longo e incluía ainda outros oradores. O curioso era que todos os oradores estavam na audiência e por isso eram facilmente contactáveis.

Eu gostei, e muito, da Le Web. Foi uma experiência única de pessoas, de boas talks, de bom networking, de bom brainstorming e (claro) de uma grande night party do MySpace.

Se tivesse de optar entre conferências como esta e outras mais pequenas como a reboot, a lift ou a SHiFT não teria dúvida em escolher uma ou mais das 3 últimas. O facto de serem mais pequenas torna mais fácil conhecer pessoas e partilhar ideias. No entanto, ir a uma Le Web por ano, deveria fazer parte do programa de conferências de qualquer empreendedor interessado em fazer contactos e perceber para onde caminha a Web.

Por falar em conferências, em Fevereiro, vou estar na Lift. Num próximo post falarei disso.

December 29, 2008 | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments 

Holiday video editing


Driving Range from andrerib on Vimeo.

December 28, 2008 | Tags: , , , , , , , | 2 Comments 

Flavour Shaker

Christmas is around the corner and I just got a lovely Flavour Shaker to help me on the kitchen.

Flavour Shaker

The Flavour Shaker works like a cocktail mixer but, as the name suggests, it shakes, crushes, grinds and mixes the ingredients with a ceramic ball to create dressings, marinade and sauces.

Here’s a video explaining how it works:

The Flavour Shaker is available in several different colors and also a stainless steel International Limited Edition which is the one I got.

December 14, 2008 | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments 

Photos from Paris

I’m still trying to get my notes together but here are the photos from Paris and Le Web.
mosaic1701208.jpg
1. Le Web Stage, 2. Le Web lounge, 3. Le Web venue, 4. Food at Le Web, 5. Garden at Le Web 08, 6. Pompidou, 7. Le Web Bloggers booth, 8. Art at Les Halles, 9. human forms, 10. Canal St Martin, Paris, 11. Canal St Martin, Paris, 12. Le Verre Volé, Paris, 13. Sign at Paris Metro, 14. Inside pompidou view of Paris, 15. Open Social Slide Le Web 08, 16. OrlyVal

December 12, 2008 | Tags: , , , , | Leave a Comment 

Notas da Le Web

Vou colocar aqui notas curtas da Le Web durante a conferência:

13:40: The conference is great but the wifi had some problems, so no update possible in the morning. Let see how it good on the afternoon.

9:10:: Le Web starts in a wonderful venue with All you need is love from the Beatles.

December 9, 2008 | Tags: , , | 2 Comments 

Dynamic Wine Labels

Imagine you are in a restaurant or in a wine shop and would like to know more information about a wine you’re thinking of buying. If that wine uses the new Dynamic Wine Labels you’ll be able to use your mobile phone to instantly access lots of useful information about that wine (ratings, notes, prices) directly from the adegga wine community.

We’ve done a nice video demonstrating how it all works:

Dynamic Wine Labels from andrerib on Vimeo.

To make this work we’ve connected three things together: the AVIN our ISBN-like unique wine identifier, the mobile version of adegga and the QRCodes technology.

If you’re interested read the whole post at adegga.

December 7, 2008 | Tags: , , , , | 3 Comments 

25th Estate

As I was reading the last posts before the weekend I found this wonder. A brilliant animation that I found through James Bridle’s booktwo.org.


This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

Welcome to our city - to our world - of books. This is where we live.

25th Estate was commissioned by 4th Estate and produced by Apt with Asylum Films.

The film was produced in stop-motion over 3 weeks in Autumn 2008. Each scene was shot on a home-made dolly by an insane bunch of animators; you can see time-lapse films of each sequence being prepared and shot in our other films.

December 5, 2008 | Tags: , | Leave a Comment 

Le Web Free e Live na Web

Segunda-feira parto para 4 dias em Paris para ir à Le Web onde espero aproveitar umas das melhores conferências na Europa.

Para quem não vai há muito boas notícias. A conferência vai ser transmitida live e também vai estar aqui neste post:

Palco principal da Le Web (trasmissão live a partir de terça-feira):

Concurso de startups:

Estão inscritas mais de 1600 pessoas (scary) para assistir a dois dias muito completos de talks, entrevistas e painéis de discussão. Entre os participantes estão alguns referências que tenho curiosidade de ver ou rever: Gary Vaynerchuck, Pierre Chappaz, Martin Varsavsky, Chris Anderson, Marissa Mayer e, claro, todos as outras pessoas e projectos que só as conversas e a presença em Paris permitem conhecer.

Uma das sessões em que estou mais interessado é o concurso de startups. Esta é a lista de empresas que foram seleccionadas para a apresentação final:

    1.    2Win-Solutions - FRANCE
    2.    3scale networks S. L. - SPAIN
    3.    Apture - USA
    4.    Box.net, Inc. - USA
    5.    Brozengo SA - FRANCE
    6.    Charge Ventures - Malta
    7.    Cmune - CHINA
    8.    ConTrust - ISRAEL
    9.    DoctorSIM - SPAIN
    10.  Edicy - ESTONIA
    11.  Haploid - FRANCE
    12.  IZI-collecte - FRANCE
    13.  Kaltura - USA
    14.  MyID.is Certified - FRANCE
    15.  Nimbuzz - NETHERLANDS 		    16.  Popego Inc. - USA
    17.  Producteev Inc. - USA
    18.  Publing - FRANCE
    19.  Radionomy - BELGIUM
    20.  Samedi GmbH - GERMANY
    21.  ShoutEm Ltd. - CROATIA
    22.  Silentale SAS - FRANCE
    23.  SquareClock - FRANCE
    24.  Tellmewhere - FRANCE
    25.  Trendiction - LUXEMBURG
    26.  Viewdle, Inc - UKRAIN
    27.  Webnode.com - CZECH REPUBLIC
    28.  Zavedenia.com - BULGARIA
    29.  Zipipop Ltd (Zipiko) - FINLAND
    30.  Zoover Holiday Reviews - NETHERLANDS


Vou dando notícias da conferência à medida que puder. As fotos, como sempre, estarão no photos no Flickr.

December 5, 2008 | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment 

Web Startups in Portugal

This is my personal list of web startups and projects based in Portugal. I recommend these web startups (small companies working with web technology) and projects because they are either very interesting concepts, have a good technology or show good potential.

Texts are mine except when quoted. This list is ongoing and more projects and startups can be added or removed at any time.

Adegga
Adegga.comAdegga is a social wine discovery service that lets you track the wines you are drinking and share your wine opinions with the community. (disclaimer: I’m a co-founder at Adegga)

Blog.com
Blog.com logoBlog.com is a free blog hosting company and one of the first web startups in Portugal.

Bookworms (Think Orange)
BookWorms LogoThink Orange is the company behind the brand new Bookworms. Book Worms is Portuguese social book discovery site where you can organize your book collection and share your recommendations with other readers (mainly in Portuguese).

Destakes
Destakes logoDestakes is a Portuguese news aggregator that sources news from a great number of Portuguese online media.

Evolui.com
Evolui.com Evolui.com, one of the oldest startups in Portugal, is a profitable Portuguese e-learning site.

GoPlan (WeBreakStuff)
GoPlan LogoWebreakstuff is the company behind GoPlan, an online project management and collaboration tool. WeBreakStuff is a team of designers, developers and strategists that also develops Web projects for other companies.

Gimmestock
Gimmestock logoGimmestock is a photo stock site where people can find high quality stock for only $1 on a Royalty Free basis.

Guestcentric
Guestcentric logoGuestcentric develops an online platform for hospitality applications that helps independent hotels integrate next-generation online marketing and a booking platform.

Handivi (7syntax)Handivi
7syntax is the company behind Handivi. Handivi is a mobile application that allows people to share messages, photos and videos with their friends from anywhere.

Jobtide
Jobtide logo
Jobtide is a job search engine that aggregates data from hundreds of job sites. It’s available in Portugal and Denmark.

MyTVShows
mytvshows logo MyTvShows is a service that helps people manage their daily fix of TV Shows.

Postcrossing
Postcrossing blogPostcrossing is a project that allows anyone to exchange postcards (real ones, not electronic) from random places in the world.

Survs
Survs logoEnoughPepper is the company behind Survs. Survs is a cool collaborative tool to create simple and elegant online surveys.

Stream19
Stream19 logoStream19 is a social network for action sports’ fans with some interesting technology supporting it.

Tarpipe
TarpipeTarpipe makes it easy to share content across different social media applications. (disclaimer: I’m an advisor at the company)

TheStarTracker
TheStarTrackerThe Star Tracker is an social network that focuses on building an online network of Portuguese talented people. Members share the same interests and affinities to promote networking and help each other attain success.

TubaraoEsquilo
TubarãoEsquilo logoTubaraoEsquilo is the biggest Portuguese blogging network.

QuestionForm
questionform_logoQuestionform is a web application for creating, publishing and analysing online surveys and forms.

Wizi
Wizi logoWizi is a location sharing and free traffic network.


Other interesting projects: mobifeeds, whit.me, FaceInHole.com, Amiguinhos, maisgasolina.com

Updates: Added Gimmestock, Guestcentric, Wizi and a new paragraph for Other interesting projects.

Note: I don’t (obviously) know all the startups in Portugal and although this is my personal ‘interesting startups’ list, if there’s a project that you think I should know about, please link it up in the comments.

December 3, 2008 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 26 Comments 

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