Now, my mother always thought I should go to Cambridge or Oxford. And recently I got to do just that (sort of) as the facilitator of Startup Weekend Cambridge University participating in the Global Startup Battle (GSB), organized by the Cambridge Accelerator at Cambridge Judge Business School.
Recently I was honored and delighted to be invited to the Rheinische Fachhochschule – the University of Applied Sciences – Cologne to share my Startup Lessons Learned and introduce the students to The Lean Startup.
Here are the slides I used:
Students practicing using the Business Model Canvas:
If you want to book me too, shoot me an email and let’s talk.
Watch the speaking hands – Pitching on stage at the Nordic Startup Awards Finals, Copenhagen
No rest for the wicked. I recently pitched 3 stages in 3 countries in 3 days. From Cologne, to Paris and LeWeb to Copenhagen. And to get there for free directly from Paris and LeWeb – I simply hitched a ride back with the Danish Startupbus. What drives down must drive up again.
As my startup getGauss.com already won the People’s Choice for best startup at the Norwegian Startup Awards, I was invited to the Nordic finals in Copenhagen to compete for the Nordic awards.
The view from the stage
Look ma, I’m being interviewed on TV
As I wrote yesterday, I attended a DNA Digital workshop held in the 4010 Telekom store in Berlin to discuss how so called digital natives, social media and web2.0 can positively influence and help shape the future of Deutsche Telekom (DTAG). [Big fat disclaimer: I work for a company that does business with DTAG] Here’s the follow-up as promised.
The goal of the workshop was to select the members of the DNA Digital community that would attend and speak at the next and perhaps more exclusive workshop with DTAG CEO René Obermann.
The workshop itself was more or less organized in the style of a open-space meeting. Any attendee was free to step forward to present a topic that they’d like to discuss and the rest with no topic of their own could chose to join in group discussion of the topics of interest. Topics ranged from “apps development via social media” to “cultural change and credibility”.
I chose to participate in the latter, “cultural change and credibility”, sparked by Lutz Hirsch and Basti Hirsch (if my memory serves me correctly) as it is a topic that highly engages me personally. The number of challenges, ideas and thoughts that were addressed in that discussion is probably symptomatic of the complexity of the subject matter. I will not try to repeat them all here as they have already been posted on the DNA Digital blog (German).
At the workshop I found myself pimping the book Tactical Transparency by Shel Holtz more than one time. I think it’s a good primer on the transparent enterprise – and no, I’m not getting a cut for saying that. ;)
I also promised to post the link to the NewPR Wiki’s comprehensive list of social media policies. NewPR Wiki is worth checking out. They also have a comprehensive list of blogging CEOs.
In conclusion I was positively surprised by the variety of people, opinions, ideas and experiences shared. I was also very pleased to register a high level of authentic personal engagement among the attendees. My cynical suspicion before the workshop – that the whole thing could be an embarrassing play to the Telekom gallery – was definitely put to shame.
Looking forward to see you DNA Digital guys again at the Obermann gig in Bonn on the 17th of June!
Disclaimer: I work for a company that does business with DTAG. However, I'm not getting paid nor am I instructed to write this blog or to participate in the Enterprise2.0 discussion.
I’m taking some well deserved weeks off in the old country of Norway, trying to stay away from them there internets for most of the duration.
Yes, that’s my hometown in NORWAY in the picture, not the Caribbean. Truth. :)
See you again in the middle of August!