Stupid Volcano – we have won our first ever competition as a start up – the DotOpen App Circus for creative and innovative apps.

We have 3 minutes to present CrowdScanner on stage at the amazing eComm conference in San Francisco on Tuesday and this damn volcano is ruining our plans!

Our flight is supposed to leave Dublin tomorrow morning, and we are just so stressed that it wont be able to leave and all other flights are booked up except some Delta flights on Monday morning, but we have already spent ALL our savings on flights, and we have no cash left to book more.

Just praying right now to the volcano gods that Dublins flights will leave tomorrow!!!

We are being affected because we keenly await Gn R on Tuesday and are unsure whether Wizz Air will be flying from Prague to London – so formulating a plan B which does indeed involve train travel or driving over for the event. You are spot on with the lack of European train data, planning and costing the the train trip has proven to be a bit of a nightmare. But who needs trains when you’ve got a plain! Lets hope this Volcano stop erupting soon.

I might add that even if I do manage to fly – it will certainly not be the most relaxed flight I’ve ever taken! Colin Brown explains the effects of volcanic ash on plane engines [video]: http://bit.ly/c72UKl

Have a look at this animation of the eruptions, you can see what the next few days is going to be like

http://bit.ly/dgUNZS

If you flight directly from Dublin to the US, you won’t be affected by Eyjafjallajokull ashes… It’s another story if you planned travelling via London.

I’m also based in Dublin and the impact of the volcano is impressive. You realize how many people travel daily once everybody is grounded…

*are going to be like

A friend of mine suggested starting a dating/fling service , a kind of “Just Lunch” for the volcanic fall-out that can’t get home. Could call it – “Dust Lust”

Here is the transcript

Stefan Debattista: how much is a train from prague to london?

william debattista: let me see

william debattista: http://wizzair.com/useful_information/delay_information/

william debattista: http://jizdnirady.idnes.cz/vlakyautobusy/spojeni/

william debattista: i cant get a price.. :@

william debattista: still noprice i just can leave the page with a price

#awesome

I just hope with all my heart that this will be settled by monday/tuesday in order for all of us to attend Geek’n'Rolla.

[...] // April 16th, 2010 // Uncategorized via eu.techcrunch.com [...]

how long will the volcanic ash last anyway?

Nobody seems to have a clue. Most people say 24h, but the thing is that there’s another volcano that may erupt in the coming weeks.

The map (etc) can be found at http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/vaac/vaacuk_vag.html #fwiw

If you plan to travel in europe, train is a good failover solution, specially if you plan to do to London, from France it’s nothing more than 3 or 4h depending on where your starting, and it’s not that expensive.

But yeah, it’s affecting some business, i got one of my developer grounded in France until Tuesday at least, was supposed to be back yesterday, affecting our deadlines. But luckily, client are smart enough to understand that.

I read that this might happen again in the upcoming 6month as this volcano (and an other) have high chances of erupting again…

This volcano thing is Huge. I am not that concerned if we can make it to NYC for the TCDisrupt because till then there is a lot of time and we can go East instead of West and take a day or two in Japan.

However last time this volcano errupted 200 years ago it caused the French Revolution and famine all over Europe.

Now we see a huge industry grounded and loosing thousands of dollars every minute a plane is not buzzing, which is affecting everything else we do – from travel to deliveries.

So, lets suppose this volcano goes for 1,2, 5 years. Huge hubs like London, Frankfurt, Brussels, can easily go out of business – depending of the wind direction.

So here is an idea – a ticket service that also checks the wind prognose for that current day and makes a query to check available trains too. And it delivers not only the available transportation but also how likely or not it is for this particular flight to take off.

There are a lot of carpool sites already, so I guess they just have to be made more popular. And the general mood from this volcano lesson should be – do not take anything for granted. Entire continent can be paralyzed overnight so always think of plan B, C and the rest…

I run a start-up that helps people find alternatives to flights… Check out http://loco2travel.com/journeyplanner

Price and full booking info coming soon. Thanks Iceland volcano for helping us to prove the market for alternatives to flying!

Another problem that is arising is the long term effect the ash has on Temperatures because the dust particles will stay in the atmosphere, block the sun. What a ball ache.

I don’t know what everyone’s getting upset about — it’s just another ash-hole dumping on Europe…

Are you traveling from central Europe to London? Please reply to this thread, maybe we can drive together or figure out train routes via Germany, ferries maybe?

From Milan. I don’t have my car here.
Train seems awfully expensive..

One of the big opportunities should be fixing the simple things – making sure that a joined-up plan of action is there to deal with the stranded – how to handle flight rebookings, cancellations, hotel accommodation, alternative transportation.

For example – in Sweden the train company will honor tickets booked for one day on another provided that evidence of a cancelled flight can be produced. The airlines could adjust their booking system to make all non-flexible tickets flexible – which would allow many pasengers to rebook flights themselves and clear an almighty backlog of manual/phone queries that seems to be the current modus operandi.

So again – the opportunity is to act as a disaster management company and set-up “dark systems” that kick-in the minute one of these major situations arises. I’m surprised that these action plans do not exist already (maybe they do?) since there is often weather/strike/major cultural event related chaos.

You could also start a fling website for people in departure lounges at airports which sometimes takes hours and hours and is very boring. Call it flyingtogether or should i say flingingtogether =D

Hey! I tried to sell a business plan for a kind of Match.com+GPS app, so you could use that to interact and get know people around you and also to share business interests…

Well, if the Volcano keeps erupting It’s not the end of aviation in Europe, It’s an opportunity to RR and GE to develop ash-proof turbines and make a lot of money!

Each image has 4 maps, corresponding to different times.

The big numbers on each map have the following meaning:
* Top Left: e.g. “20100416/1200Z” means 2010 April 16th at 1200 hours
* Other three: e.g. “16/1800Z” means 16th at 1800 hours.

The different coloured borders are for different altitudes.

Welcome to reality! What about using a video conferencing solution instead of flying?

Really, the least I’m worrying about is startups. They’re usually lean, flexible and agile. If a startup can’t handle this situation, they won’t be able to handle any other unexpected situations with far more impact on their businesses (like new competitors, new legislation, hardware breakdowns, server outages, buggy software, hacker attacks, data loss etc.). And those things will come for sure.

Don’t be that whiny!

If only more companies would adopt video conferencing, most business flights would become superfluous… (well, actually, most of them are right now, there ain’t much you can’t discuss via telephone and/or desktop sharing).

If only videoconferencing solutions between more than 2 or 3 parties would be more affordable…

If only…

There is nothing like a face to face meeting though. And hey this is TC Europe event we’re talking of, not a board meeting! The determination to get there is what makes us entrepreneurs, booking overnight trains and trying to get there at all costs. And obviously while still trying to figure out the cheapest way too.

Giving up and watching it on our screens is not where its at =)

Hey Stefano I am trying to get you on skype – the clock is ticking and I need to make some decisions (drive, train or risk) – add me to yours please stefan.debattista or on twitter @superscout_stef. Cheers.

I’m back from the seedcamp paris, my flight was canceled and now I’m on a very crowded TGV train from paris to milan… a lot of people like me are by foot, I’m wondering if they are everybody involved in some startup…

Gino

You can just use skype & co for doing most of your work. Travelling is expensive and time consuming. It should be required only for special events and not as a routine.

This just shows people should always have a backup plan.

What taking the train until the ash problem is resolved; it will take longer to get to places but at least you will get there.

Check out http://www.zimride.com/p for some good carpooling!

“CEO from anywhere, money from a pan European investor (often based in London, the biggest financial centre) and developers/engineers often in Central Europe. ”

Don’t you mean Dublin Ireland for both? Dublin is Europe’s leading tech / development hub by a long way.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles 2010

Some one has abuse this volcano in my site ..

They should be sic. for abusing an volcano

http://bit.ly/a2XTgI

Perhaps “Move bits, not atoms” will become better appreciated.

…right – but it’s only been 2 days! Jesus you can live without a face to face meeting for 2 days surely?

There’s a TC conference in London on Tuesday which some of us want to get to. We use Skype to collaborate within our team every day.

We had people from our Prague HQ and London office here at NAB in Las Vegas …. stuck in the US now having to do conf calls in the middle of the night.

@Markus You can video conference with up to 20 people for free on TokBox. There is also a larger scale solution that allows you to Broadcast a 12 person video chat to a 200 person audience from $12.99 (http://bit.ly/7HgMMo)

europe and europeans in general, its entrepreneurs, and its startup ideas are all so lame

Actually my first reaction to the last volcanic-map screenshot, was that canary-island picture taken via google street view.

re GKNR: I’m less concerned about startups not making their way to London – those guys are highly motivated and flexible: they will basically take any chance they get to pitch there.

my concern rather is that many business angels / investors not located in the london will just think that going there just b/c of GKNR could be too much of an effort right now. they are the ones much more relaxed since they don’t necessarily have to be there..

hence, the vulcano imo reduces the chance for startups to meet the right investor at GKNR now – since many angels / investors simply won’t show up unless the sky is clear again monday the latest

I actually see this as an opportunity for startups. Startups are innovative to use other methods of communications and also flexible with travel arrangements and travel pain. On other hand, I’m sometimes very skeptical with European businesses, when I see so much more hungry people in Asia and the US. So, this is not good for Europe.

http://www.flydini.com Registered Users can see 200 options to get from here to there (schedules only, sorry no Seat Availability data or Fares) I’d skip down to the middle, select 2 stops and 200 results, you might find that Dublin to Barcelona can be achieved via Istanbul and Sofia.

http://www.flydini.com Registered Users can see 200 options to get from here to there (schedules only, sorry no Seat Availability data or Fares) I’d skip down to the middle, select 2 stops and 200 results, you might find that Dublin to Barcelona can be achieved via Istanbul and Sofia.

Yes, the ScaleUp team had to cancel our trip to NY for the Cloud Computing Expo – no way to make it since all flights were cancelled & can’t rebook until potentially Tues or Wed. This is our industry event & it is causing great disruption in meeting schedules with clients & partners. But, as a leader in fast growth startup, this bit of “found time” has given us a much needed & unplanned break. Of course I’m already filling up the next week’s schedule. But, this morning I rode my bike around the Alster in Hamburg & went out for breakfast rather than rushing off bright & early for a flight to NY. Not bad!

Interesting Site – http://www.flightradar.com/ — Shows live aircraft traffic above Europe. Notice none around iceland or crossing the atlantic! Pretty Interesting. Mother Nature is in Control here!

Interesting Site – http://www.flightradar24.com/ — Shows live aircraft traffic above Europe. Notice none around iceland or crossing the atlantic! Pretty Interesting. Mother Nature is in Control here!

Sorry, posted the wrong link first time..Corrected link is in my second comment

Looks like we won’t make it..

In addition to airports being closed, we have trains that are running at about 40% capacity in France due to a strike. So people were truly stranded in Cannes. This is why Claire Bonstra (and others) starting connecting through Twitter to find people to share cars or a coach. It worked quite well, although it worked better when we worked out hashtags etc. Next time will be easier.

Still, it had its bright moments. One comment I received said something to the effect: “Sweetheart stranded in Cannes due to volcano; you don’t often get to say that”.

Time to build some high speed railroad in all of Europe. That will take a few years to do, but the volcano might also keep doing what it does for a few years. More railroads would also be good for the environment.
Maybe next time there is a volcano eruption, we are better prepared.

If you are driving or have a few spare seats on your car or bus, please announce it on http://www.geogoer.com, it may be helpful to others.

The service is still in alpha, but perhaps we can help with this – please spread the word

[...] April 18, 2010, In Uncategorized, By juegando Share The ash cloud over Europe is proving a nightmare and a boon for some startups. It’s certainly a nightmare for startup teams traveling to events, like [...]

[...] ash cloud over Europe is proving a nightmare and a boon for some startups. It’s certainly a nightmare for startup teams traveling to events, like [...]

[...] ash cloud over Europe is proving a nightmare and a boon for some startups. It’s certainly a nightmare for startup teams traveling to events, like [...]

[...] Publicado por admin en Abril 18, 2010 0 Comentario The ash cloud over Europe is proving a nightmare and a boon for some startups. It’s certainly a nightmare for startup teams traveling to events, like [...]

[...] ash cloud over Europe is proving a nightmare and a boon for some startups. It’s certainly a nightmare for startup teams traveling to events, like [...]

I will say this .. what if this Volcano keeps going ? Is anybody worried about that? mabey im in the wrong web site . and i apoligze , but Really if this keeps going , I think it will affect us all . Scary .But I dont want to jump to any conclusions .

Hi wont Make it ? Do u mean going home from the Airport?

MobileMonday has gathered a first list of people who might be able to help standed volcano travellers … http://bit.ly/9hZqlI also http://www.mobile-monday.de

Our travel search engine Zoombu helps people to find door-to-door routes to Europe, comparing many modes of transport. We can help people find alternative routes to flying, involving ferries, trains, coaches, Eurotunnel etc. within a single search. We’ve seen our traffic increase tenfold over the weekend as people look for ways to get around without flying.

I was on a holiday in Sweden and got stranded in the airport for hours. Still, work has to continue so i started working from my laptop -
I wonder what online tools can help in this situation? I use http://www.verishow.com/ , really useful site for online collaboration.

hahahahaha

Hoping that my client the start-up HipLogic, and my Mom and step-Dad can get to London next week, both still plan to come, and say they aren’t scared of the volcano. In the meantime, I’m wondering what the ash cloud will do to our summer in the UK? Will the summer of 2010 be like the summer of 1816? History shows that when a volcano exploded in 1816, it resulted in a very grim summer, so let’s hope it doesn’t make us this miserable:

http://www.georgianlondon.com/1816-the-year-without-a-summer

[...] Meanwhile, I leave you with a genuine, but strange image of this mischievous volcano. Remind you of anything? via eu.techcrunch.com [...]

[...] consequences of restrictions on air travel even more so. Mike Butcher argues in a Techcrunch Europe article, “It seems that Europe’s startup economy has been running partly on the spread low-cost [...]

[...] consequences of restrictions on air travel even more so. Mike Butcher argues in a Techcrunch Europe article, "It seems that Europe's startup economy has been running partly on the spread low-cost airlines [...]

[...] consequences of restrictions on air travel even more so. Mike Butcher argues in a Techcrunch Europe article, “It seems that Europe’s startup economy has been running partly on the spread low-cost [...]

[...] las concescuencias de las restricciones aereas con más intensidad. Mike Butcher argumenta en un artículo de TechCrunch Europa que “parece que la gestión económica de las startups europeas ha [...]

[...] consequences of restrictions on air travel even more so. Mike Butcher argues in a Techcrunch Europe article, “It seems that Europe’s startup economy has been running partly on the spread low-cost [...]

[...] consequences of restrictions on air travel even more so. Mike Butcher argues in a Techcrunch Europe article, “It seems that Europe’s startup economy has been running partly on the spread low-cost [...]

[...] ash cloud over Europe is proving a nightmare and a boon for some startups. It’s certainly a nightmare for startup teams traveling to events, like [...]

[...] ash cloud over Europe is proving a nightmare and a boon for some startups. It’s certainly a nightmare for startup teams traveling to events, like [...]

[...] to delay flights across the Atlantic. The cloud of volcanic ash is creating havoc for travelers and European startups who can’t get anywhere. But entrepreneurs in London at least are coping with impromptu [...]

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One of the big opportunities should be fixing the simple things – making
sure that a joined-up plan of action is there to deal with the stranded
– how to handle flight rebookings, cancellations, hotel accommodation,
alternative transportation.

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