cruel to be kind

For the last few years, Leweb marks the end of the year for many, and is a great way to meet tons of internationally minded Europeans in one Spot. Some quick links to help you prepare.

I am very happy to be on board again with the official blogger program which this year has more diversity than ever before. As much as I really don’t like Paris, I am always very keen on meeting other Europeans. Which is the main reason to make this trip: If I just would be interested in the sessions, I could watch the live stream and participate through Twitter. But meeting people IRL is what this is all about. And for that I even take Paris. ;)

In the past I have done preconf interviews with mainly speakers, but this year I decided to have a closer look at this year’s “Internet of things” theme. I’ll be looking around to connect with startups from that sphere to get some input on what they are doing, and will try to record some ideas from the audience about what this means for them.

Besides that I am more than happy to talk about Berlin, the city I finally managed to move to this year. ;) A vibrant city, with lots of international visitors and residents, tons of startups and people who want to build stuff. Well worth a coffee to talk about it!

Get started and meeting people

• Use the right twitter search: if you use the mobile app, you might use the search term leweb OR leweb12 to catch all infos for this event. Problem is: you will only see the top tweets through the mobile application or mobile web site. Better use this search on the web site to see all results for this specific search.
• Make sure to get the Leweb App: For iphone / ipad and for Android it provides the agenda, link to speakers and simple access to the twitter feed for leweb.
• Get to know the place: As soon as you are on site, familiarize yourself with the different areas so you know where to go when you want to meet people.
• Mobile Presdo: Leweb is using Presdo again to connect attendees, and you should bookmark their mobile site m.presdo.com.I am not sure if this is just the people at Leweb this year or also last years data in it (my profile was prefilled but that just might be good thinking). This will also be helpful to follow up with folks, so remember to add an option to contact you there.
• Follow them on twitter: If you find somebody interesting, follow them on twitter so they can DM you back.
• Have look at the list of official bloggers. Coming from all over the continent, these are typical connectors into their respective countries. And head by the blogger lounge to meet some of them. Be careful though not to just come with a bad pitch. ;)
• Probably a nice app, let’s you check who of your twitter friends is going: http://whosatleweb.com/
  (cannot tell you if that works, it crashed on my number of connections)
• What else is happening? Check the siliconstudents overview of events.

More quick tips

• Don’t know where to go and eat something?
  My distaste for french cusine is probably well known, but that does not mean that I cannot enjoy seeing others have some of that. To help you out, Madleen over at the SalesForce blog has put together a nice Guide LeWeb 2012: A Paris Restaurant Guide from Social Media Crowdsourcing”
• Android only: Save a local version of Google Maps for Paris
  Given that most people will be coming from outside without a data plan, this is a neat trick to figure out where you have to go. Open up the Google Maps app, go setting and say ‘download for offline use’
• Sync the program offline: Save it to your pda because chances are, the wifi will be problematic.
• Have coins: If you are coming to and from CDG via public transport, make sure to have several credit cards with you or just take coins (coins, not bills) to get your ticket for the train. If you don’t have that, go directly to the office of transportation close to the machines.

Tags: leweb12