So, for your interest…

• 20th October TechLudd, Dublin

• 20th October – TechCrunch Munich at Sun Microsystems (TechCrunch Europe Attending)

• 22 October – Venture Lounge London (TechCrunch Europe Attending) Watch out for an announcement about an informal TechCrunch Europe meetup afterwards over drinks. For now follow @mikebutcher and/or @pjozefak for information closer to the day.

• October 28-30 – Stockholm 24 Hour Business Camp (TechCrunch Europe Attending)

• 23-25 October Helsinki Altparty (TechCrunch Europe Attending)

• 28-29 October – KIEV Investor Day CEE (TechCrunch Europe possibly Attending)

• 28-30 October – The Emerging Communications Conference & Awards (eComm Fall, 28-30 October) (TechCrunch Europe Attending) is the world’s leading-edge event, spanning Telecom, mobile and Internet based communications. It’s designed to showcase and accelerate both technology and business model innovation; and to explore the latest opportunities. As a media partner TechCrunch Europe has one free ticket (leave a comment on this post about why you want to go and we’ll pick someone randomly) and there is a 10% discount code to anyone reading this post, just click here.

• Nov 1-5 Re-Think Hawaii – Global Geek Gathering (TechCrunch Europe Attending, possibly)

• 3-4 Nov Slush Helsinki

• 5th/6th Nov European Venture Market, Berlin

• The IAwards – The Science Museum on 16 November 2009 (TechCrunch Europe Attending – Mike Butcher is a judge of the startups category)

• 16-19th Nov – UK Digital Mission to New York for Web 2.0 Expo, Nov ‘09 (TechCrunch Europe Possibly Attending)

• Nov 16 – 22 Global Entrepreneurship Week – London

• 30th November UKTI / TechCrunch Europe Pitch Workshop – FREE for UK-company registered startups, email Petra Johansson, (TechCrunch Europe Attending)

• Le Web 09 – Paris – Dec 9 2009 (TechCrunch Europe Attending, and helping to organise the startup competition)

• TechCrunch Europe ChristmasCrunch – It’s A Realtime Holiday! (London)
15 Dec – More details to follow. For sponsorship enquires (only) contact Petra@twistedtree.co.uk

The winner of the pitch competition was FestBuzz (pictured). The other startups to pitch were Kyubid, Aware Monitoring, Social Safe, Yoomoot, Fiabee, Notion Learning, Audioboo, Kohive, En-twyn and mywidz.

There’s a great write-up of the startups over at TheStartup.eu, a blog run by Techcrunch Europe’s Italian contributor Stefano Bernardi who also took some great photos.

Thanks to BitchBuzz for coming along and taking some more great photos of the event. If you have any more yourself please let us know in the comments and also please tag them with “TCLondon”.

The event also saw the launch of TechHub (more info).

Thanks also to our awesome speakers and sponsors, below:

Nadjm Maz, BSKYB
“How startups interact with and sell to large corporates”

Barak Rabinowitz, Amuso.com
“Skilled gaming as part of the social networking framework”

Wil Harris, Channel Flip
“Why raising startup funding in the UK is different”

Scott Rafer, CEO at Lookery, Co-founder of Mashery
“How to handle closing your startup”

PARTNERS

Seedcamp

Seedcamp is a programme created to jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in Europe by connecting next generation developers and entrepreneurs with over 400 mentors from a top-tier network of company builders; including seed investors, serial entrepreneurs, product experts, HR and PR specialists, marketers, lawyers, recruiters, journalists and venture capitalists. Seedcamp acts as a micro seed fund to invest in startup companies, mainly through our flagship event Seedcamp Week, which takes place in September every year. To make sure we are honing in on all the new startup talent, we also runMini Seedcamp programmes throughout several startup hubs around Europe from January-June. Seedcamp’s standard investment is €30-50k. Following Seedcamp Week, the companies who receive investment stay in London for 3 months to grow and develop their company, building key and lasting business relationships along the way to help them sustain a viable business.

TECHCRUNCH PITCH! SPONSOR:

UKTI

UK Trade & Investment is the government organisation that helps UK-based companies succeed in the global economy. We also help overseas companies bring their high quality investment to the UK’s dynamic economy – acknowledged as Europe’s best place from which to succeed in global business. UK Trade & Investment offers expertise and contacts through its extensive network of specialists in the UK, and in British embassies and other diplomatic offices around the world. We provide companies with the tools they require to be competitive on the world stage. For further information please visit www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk or telephone +44 (0)20 7215 8000.

MEDIA PARTNER/CO-SPONSOR:

Press Association

The Press Association is the UK’s trusted source of compelling multimedia content, placed at the hear of the media. Press Association delivers everything from breaking news and showbiz interviews to real-time sports results, TV listings and weather forecasts. Increasingly, content is delivered to clients digitally, and we are actively developing new digital products and services for media and online clients. For more information visit www.pressassociation.com

DRINKS SPONSOR:

Bootlaw

Bootlaw is a free boot camp for emerging technology, internet and digital businesses and the professionals working in them who want to learn more about the legal issues they face. It is brought to you by Barry Vitou and Danvers Baillieu, the friendly lawyers at Winston & Strawn in London. For more information go to www.bootlaw.com

When Seedcamp, the rolling European startups programme, runs its week-long event in London we like to turn up and cover the startups pitching the mentors and judges during the week. Seedcamp is built around its network of mentors and tends to attract a lot of CEOs and VCs, so we hate to waste the opportunity. Thus, with their collusion, we’re piggy-backing alongside their week, running an afternoon event [tickets here] of our own (as we did last year), and throwing their official party [tickets here] to boot. We’re calling the event TechCrunch London.

We’ll be putting on an afternoon featuring pitches from early stage startups selected from the sector right now, alongside startups which have been tutored on the free pitch-training programme run by the UKTI, which we’ve been supporting for a while now (see below for details). We’re also featuring some great presentations by a bunch of speakers. It’ll be on 24th September in central London.

The Essentials:

Tickets and info for the daytime event are here.

Tickets and info for the party only are here.

Venue

Cafe de Paris, Central London, please see here for info.

Time

We kick off at 3pm / 15.00. The party/networking starts at 7pm /19.00.

Sponsorship opportunities

Please contact Petra Johansson petra(at)twistedtree.co.uk for further details and enquiries about tickets. (Do not contact the editor, Mike Butcher, about tickets).

Press

If you are a member of the press wanting to cover the event, please contact Rassami Hok Ljungberg on rassami(at)rassami.com

Content

The “TechCrunch London” event is themed “Startups in a cold climate: getting real in the recession”. But although the title of the session sounds downbeat, the reality is that the recession has created many opportunities for startups, something we’ll be exploring. Like all TechCrunch events, it is designed to bring together startups, seasoned entrepreneurs, investors and key industry players for sharing of knowledge and great networking, TechCrunch style.

The supported by Seedcamp, UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), Bootlaw the free boot camp for emerging technology, internet and digital professionals run by Winston & Strawn, as well as the Press Association.

Here are our speakers:

Nadjm Maz, BSKYB
“How startups interact with and sell to large corporates”

Barak Rabinowitz, Amuso.com
“Skilled gaming as part of the social networking framework”

Wil Harris, Channel Flip
“Why raising startup funding in the UK is different”

Scott Rafer, CEO at Lookery, Co-founder of Mashery
“How to handle closing your startup”

The presentations will be followed by / preceded by 12 startups pitching their business idea and model, where some of the pitching companies will have attended the previous UKTI workshops (FYI, participation in the Pitch! workshop does not guarantee participation in TechCrunch London, which is an entirely editorial decision).

The pitching startups include:

Kyubid

Aware Monitoring

Social Safe

Yoomoot

Fiabee

Notion Learning

Audioboo

Festbuzz

Kohive

En-twyn

mywidz

PARTNERS

Seedcamp

Seedcamp is a programme created to jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in Europe by connecting next generation developers and entrepreneurs with over 400 mentors from a top-tier network of company builders; including seed investors, serial entrepreneurs, product experts, HR and PR specialists, marketers, lawyers, recruiters, journalists and venture capitalists. Seedcamp acts as a micro seed fund to invest in startup companies, mainly through our flagship event Seedcamp Week, which takes place in September every year. To make sure we are honing in on all the new startup talent, we also runMini Seedcamp programmes throughout several startup hubs around Europe from January-June. Seedcamp’s standard investment is €30-50k. Following Seedcamp Week, the companies who receive investment stay in London for 3 months to grow and develop their company, building key and lasting business relationships along the way to help them sustain a viable business.

TECHCRUNCH PITCH! SPONSOR:

UKTI

UK Trade & Investment is the government organisation that helps UK-based companies succeed in the global economy. We also help overseas companies bring their high quality investment to the UK’s dynamic economy – acknowledged as Europe’s best place from which to succeed in global business. UK Trade & Investment offers expertise and contacts through its extensive network of specialists in the UK, and in British embassies and other diplomatic offices around the world. We provide companies with the tools they require to be competitive on the world stage. For further information please visit www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk or telephone +44 (0)20 7215 8000.

MEDIA PARTNER/CO-SPONSOR:

Press Association

The Press Association is the UK’s trusted source of compelling multimedia content, placed at the hear of the media. Press Association delivers everything from breaking news and showbiz interviews to real-time sports results, TV listings and weather forecasts. Increasingly, content is delivered to clients digitally, and we are actively developing new digital products and services for media and online clients. For more information visit www.pressassociation.com

DRINKS SPONSOR:

Bootlaw

Bootlaw is a free boot camp for emerging technology, internet and digital businesses and the professionals working in them who want to learn more about the legal issues they face. It is brought to you by Barry Vitou and Danvers Baillieu, the friendly lawyers at Winston & Strawn in London. For more information go to www.bootlaw.com

Geek ‘n Rolla – the day for European startups old and new to network, learn from each other, meet investors and party – will have a full day of speakers, startup pitches and will also have a dedicated exhibition area. Get your ticket today.

The event will be from 10am, all day at RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects), 66, Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD. Map

Geek ’n Rolla is sponsored by Viadeo one of the largest professional social networks in the world, and supported by UK Trade and Investment, as well as NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts. And not only will we be having a great day of fantastic content for tech startups, we are planning the mother of all evening networking parties at one of London’s premier venues, Cafe de Paris kindly sponsored by Winston & Strawn’s Bootlaw.

What’s there left to say? Just this. Are you Old School, or New School?

You see, people ask the question, what’s a real Geek ‘n Rolla? And I tell ‘em: We all like a bit of the good life. Some the money, or the fame.

But a real Geek’n Rolla – wants the lot.

Sponsors

We still have a few sponsorship opportunities and there will be a dedicated exhibition area available for companies to show off their products. If you are interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at the event, please contact Petra Johansson on petra[at]twistedtree.co.uk

Viadeo

Founded in June 2004, Viadeo quickly established itself as the place to be for professional networking in Europe and beyond. Since then, with more than 7 million members (as of January 2009). Follow them on Twitter @viadeo. Viadeo is essential for those who want to:

• Increase their business opportunities (to discover new clients, staff and business partners)
• Enhance their visibility and their online reputation
• Manage and develop their network of professional contacts

Viadeo’s members consist of business owners, entrepreneurs and managers from a diverse range of businesses both start-up and well established. Each day Viadeo attracts more than 10,000 new members; 40,000 new connections are made and over one million profiles are viewed. Based in Paris (head office), Viadeo also has offices and teams in the UK (London), Spain (Madrid and Barcelona), Italy (Milan), China (Beijing), India (New Delhi) and Mexico (Mexico City). The company employs 200 staff worldwide. www.viadeo.com

As part of their sponsorship Viadeo are delighted to offer all delegates the opportunity to be prominently featured around the venue. You are invited to create a profile at www.viadeo.com – the 10 most interesting profiles will be part of a rotating Viadeo display visible to all attending VCs, business angels, journalists & geeks for the duration of the conference. Additionally all delegates signing up to Viadeo prior to April 21 (with the email you used to register with amiando) will be given a 3 month free premium subscription in order to get your European networking kickstarted… To qualify for exposure at the event profiles must be completed by midnight on April 19th via the link/ URL above.

UKTI

UK Trade & Investment is the government organisation that helps UK-based companies succeed in the global economy. We also help overseas companies bring their high quality investment to the UK’s dynamic economy – acknowledged as Europe’s best place from which to succeed in global business.

UK Trade & Investment offers expertise and contacts through its extensive network of specialists in the UK, and in British embassies and other diplomatic offices around the world. We provide companies with the tools they require to be competitive on the world stage. For further information please visit www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk or telephone +44 (0)20 7215 8000.

NESTA

NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts. Its mission is to transform the UK’s capacity for innovation. NESTA Investments has the largest portfolios of early-stage businesses in the country and is a leading authority on how to grow new ideas. We have strict investment criteria, and work with companies that have high potential for growth, are at seed or start-up stage, and have the potential to attract syndicated support. When we do invest, we aim to maximise our investment by assigning mentors, part-time managers or specialist support. We also stimulate imaginative solutions to pressing social issues and shape policy to help the UK meet its national innovation challenges.www.nesta.org.uk

After-party sponsor: Bootlaw

Bootlaw is a free boot camp for emerging technology, internet and digital businesses and the professionals working in them who want to learn more about the legal issues they face. Its brought to you by Barry Vitou and Danvers Baillieu the friendly lawyers at Winston & Strawn in London. For more information go to www.bootlaw.com

School for Startups

Geek’n Rolla is also supported by School for Startups. The inspiration of serial entrepreneur and angel investor Doug Richard, School for Startups is the UK’s leading provider of business training for entrepreneurs. Anyone attending Geek’n Rolla may claim a 5% discount on all current School for Startups events – currently 2 in London and 2 in Scotland. Simply go to www.schoolforstartups.co.uk quoting the discount code TECHCRUNCH to qualify for this discount.

See below for our speakers;

PROGRAMME: Geek’n’Rolla

10.00 Registration – Coffee and Tea

10.18 Opening Remarks

10.20 Europe, The Final Countdown – The Good, the Bad and the SuperBad

Speaker: Inma Martinez, Stradbroke Advisors

10.35 The Masterplan – How to Hire a Team of Peers

Speaker: Andy McLoughlin, CEO Huddle.net

10.50 Hey you, get off of my cloud – Launching your startup on a cloud computing infrastructure

Speaker: Joe Drumgoole, CTO & Founder, Putplace.com

11.05 Paper Planes – Monetising your startup from the word go with advertising and affiliates”

Speaker: Joe Stepniewski, Skimlinks

11.20 What’s the frequency Kenneth? – The trials of a mobile apps startup

Speaker: Jof Arnold, CEO Gymfu.com

11.35 Hey now, what you doing? – Usability / UX / Call it what you like: What startups most often get wrong and what they should do about it

Speaker: Leisa Reichelt, Freelance user experience consultant

11.50 Panel: Just a girl – Balancing Tech Culture: Getting more women involved in tech startups

Moderator: Cate Sevilla, BitchBuzz

Panellists:
Leisa Reichelt, User experience consultant
Sophie Cox, Worldeka.com
Paul Walsh, OpenSoho (startups networking event) & Entrepreneur
Zuzanna Pasierbinska-Wilson, Huddle.net
Nacera Benfedda, Director of Product, Viadeo

12.35 LUNCH and Networking

13.35 Get on your boots – Bootstrapping, Scaling and Cashflow

Speaker: William Reeve, Serial entrepreneur and Angel investor

13.50 American Idiot – Launching Your Startup In the US – when you’re actually in Scotland

Speaker: Lesley Eccles, Hubdub

14.05 We don’t need no education – Geek Tools, A Primer

Speaker: Ian Hogarth, CEO, Songkick.com

14.20 Panel: Have Love, Will Travel – How to be a startup that wins, excites and keeps users

Panellists:
Ryan Carson, Future of Web Apps / Carsonified
Nic Brisbourne, DFJ Esprit (Venuture capital)
Keiran O’Neil, CEO Playfire.com
Wendy White, CEO Moonfruit

15.05 COFFEE BREAK

15.25 Send me an Angel – Funding and How to Handle Angels

Speaker: Nic Halstead, CEO Favorit

15.40 Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Recession Business Models for Tech Startups

Speaker: Reshma Sohoni, Seedcamp

15.55 Bankrobber – To VC or not to VC? That Is The Question

Speaker: Fred Destin, Atlas Ventures

16.10 TechCrunch Pitch! sponsored by UK Trade & Investment

Pitch judges:
Doug Richard, School for Startups
Julie Meyer, Ariadne Capital
Michael Smith, Mind Candy
Alex How, Angel Investor

Startups Pitching:
Affect Labs
BookingBug
Buildor
Gigulate
Scribblar
Smarkets
Swiffen
VouChaCha

16.50 Closing Remarks & a Surprise…

18.00 Close of conference

19.00 Networking Party at Cafe de Paris (ticket required)

Of particular interest to TechCrunch readers is going to be the VC panel on day two (Thursday 25th October) at 16.00 – 16.40, featuring a venture capital take on monetising virtual worlds, with the likes of Ben Holmes (Index Ventures), Nic Brisbourne (Esprit Capital) and Sean Seaton-Rogers (Balderton Capital).

Plus, on the evening of Tuesday October 23, there are Drinks with SXSWi in association with VWFE.

Overall, VWFE looks pretty interesting (though I must declare an interest, as I sat on the advisory board). From October 23rd to 26th the show will pack in 60 leading speakers, tracks on enterprise virtual worlds and the consumer perspective, workshops, networking opportunities (and parties). And something I think is pretty cool – a four day member pass to The Hospital a private members’ club for delegates.

The event will also bring the X|Media|Lab – the internationally acclaimed think-tank and creative workshop for digital media professionals – to London for the first time on the Friday of that week.

TechCrunch UK has a VIP code for anyone wanting to get which will get you of 15% off the conference fee. Just quote “VIPS011″. See you there.

Refresh Newcastle
Meetup for designers and developers in Newcastle

Wednesday, September 26
Internet Icons
The Web is back! And the British Library has assembled a group of internet “icons”…

Brighton Coding Dojo
The Dojo is set up to let everyone experiment with coding in a non-competitive, collaborative, fun environment.

Thursday, September 27
OpenCoffeeSussex

Wireless Communications
- Challenges and Choices, London

Friendship in the Digital Age
But who needs 100, or 1,000, friends?
Chinwag Live on Tour – Media Widgetised @ ad:tech
Discuss the impact of widgets, web feeds & aggregation on mobile and web media… At ad:tech London 2007, Olympia 2

Thursday, September 28
Brighton Open Beer

Saturday September 29
mobileCampLondon
mobileCampLondon is a barcamp for designers and developers working with mobile technologies.

Tuesday October 2
mashup* Demo
13 startups pitch before an audience of professionals who would include:- investors, media journalists and bloggers. (TechCrunch UK is a media partner)

Geektails
A new monthly evening networking event in London for everyone interested in internet startups

Wednesday October 3
Future of Web Apps
The UK’s premier web 2.0 event returns to London

Assoc of Online Publishers conference 2007
London – The leading lights of UK online publishing come together to work out what next…

Thursday 4th October
Google Open Source Jam
Google London Engineering & Sales Office

BarCamp Bristol
Bristol’s first BarCamp

PHP London
Meet PHP users, professional developers and recruiters

Saturday, October 13, 2007
Multipack
Midlands UK web geek gathering
Monday, October 15
Mobile 2.0
A one-day event focusing on the mobile web and disruptive mobile innovation

Wednesday, October 17
The Facebook Debate
A debate hosted by the British Interactive Media Association. TechCrunch has some tickets to give away for this so stay tuned….

Wednesday, October 24
Virtual Worlds Forum Europe
Bringing together leading European brands and corporates to share their thinking about the virtual worlds emerging space. To get 15% off the conference fee use the special TechCrunch UK VIP code: VIPS011

Thursday, October 25
Mobile Geeks of London II

Thursday 01 November
it@cork: Leaders Awards Ceremony
(Ireland)

Wednesday, 14th November
The Future of Mobile, London

Tuesday 20th November
Essential Mediatech 2007
Investors, corporates and entrepreneurs. Pitches from 30 of Europe’s most innovative media technology companies. Expert panels.

Monday 26th November
mashup*
The Business of Social Networking (London)
Wednesday 28 November
it@cork Technology in Business Conference 2007, Ireland
Mark your diaries for the 9th Annual Conference

Tuesday, December 11
LeWeb3 conference 2007
A mission: grow the european internet sector and have fun!

LeWeb3

However, onwards and upwards.

This year the whole thing has been re-vamped and will feature a substantial stage dedicated only to start-ups. Thirty companies will be selected from the applications submitted, and will demonstrate in front of a panel of expert judges. Three winners will be selected to then present on the main stage, and thankfully there is no fee to participate. So register your startup to pitch. To actually come as a delegate, then fill out this form to attend.

It’ll be on the afternoon and evening of 2 October in London, presenting 15 companies who will each get a 5 minute slot. It costs £35 to attend, and £350 to be a demo company, but this mashup event is “not for profit’ so twist their arm if you think that’s too much and you have a great idea you want to present. See you there.

“Online advertising is racing ahead in Britain, growing at a roughly 40 percent annual rate, and is expected to account for as much as 14 percent of overall ad spending this year, according to media buying agencies. That is the highest level in the world, and more than double the percentage in the United States.”

“The U.S. is so far behind,” said Terry S. Semel, the chief executive of Yahoo, in a recent speech in London. “It’s certainly lagging the U.K. by at least a year or two.”

So it’s very timely that the theme of the next mashup* event will be on Advertising 2.0 – hear how online advertising is evolving, becoming personalised, targeted and relevant. Learn what this means for online services, media businesses, marketing departments and how personal publishing, social networking and digital lifestyle aggregators are evolving to provide highly effective marketing platforms.

The event will be held on Wednesday 13th December from 6pm in The Captain’s Room at Lloyd’s of London, 1 Lime Street, London, EC3M 7HA – details here.

The Speaker, Panel members and Contributors are now finalised. The panel includes Michael Bayler, Co-founder and Creative Director, The Rights Marketing Company. David Burrows, Head of Ad Technology, Yahoo! Europe and Esther Dyson, “editor-at-large” CNET – the full list of speakers and panelists is available here.

One of the highlights for me was the VC panel session with Jonathon Wolf (Director of Corporate Development) Yahoo!, Ben Holmes from Index Ventures, Anil Hansjee, (the new European Head of Corporate Development) Google, all discussing the current investment market trends with mobile taking front and centre of the conversation, especially after Jonathon’s recent acquisition of Swedish mobile company Kenet Works for EUR 16.6 million or $21.28 million.

The other highlight was the presentation from Ian Valentine (ex-Technical Alliances Director, SKY) who presented his new company idea for a TV Microbrowser which uses Sky Interactive’s new WTVML (WebTV Markup Language). Although Ian was instrumental in getting this new webTV standard adopted, it seems he may not be the first to market with the technology.

The lowlight of the event was the over use of the SMS backchannel. It meant people could not ask questions directly, instead we could only text in our questions to the panel moderator(s)? The questions were not even put up on a screen for everyone to see. By not taking questions directly, it killed the debate and audience interactivity. In fact it felt almost surreal to sit there listening to the questions being posed to the panel by the moderator and then hearing the answers, a bit like watching TV. I am a big fan of the backchannel when used properly in combination with a live QnA.

Twelve months ago I was not so sure because at Les Blogs the backchannel was publicly displayed behind the speakers and some of the comments from the audience were a little bit edgey and rude; anyone remember Ben Metcalfe and Mena Trott’s fall out over comments made on the backchannel. At the time I was totally opposed to the backchannel but looking back Ben you were right! I might not have said it in the same way as you did but the sentiment was right.

Boring speakers spouting sales & marketing crap should know what the audience think; a bit like a dragons den for speakers. i.e if you want my time and attention (and in some cases money) then make it interesting or get off. I don’t want death by Powerpoint, I want your original thoughts, opinions and then a debate that moves the topic forward or don’t volunteer to speak if you have nothing original to say. Events should be more like live blogging with the speaker giving their opinion and the counter comments coming in think and fast.

I wonder how many speakers at LeWeb3 this year will be original, please Loic put up the backchannel again so we can praise the good ones and comment on the other speakers!? I guess if Loic doesn’t do it then we can all use Twitter anyway, either way the audience will have its say.

Friday was time spent with Robert Scoble and Hugh McLeod. Darren Streight publishes his awesome Flickr photoset of last Friday’s London “Pissed As Newts” pub crawl and the Firefox party that followed afterwards. I got lucky and stayed out of the pictures! Whilst on the tour it was amazing to see how Hugh McLeod’s Stormhoek promotion had gone mass market with coverage on BBC Five Segment,, BBC Online news article and Times Online.

Hugh also told me about his video interview with Microsoft UK’s Steve Clayton (the new Scoble?).

I also meet up with Tristan Nitot, the CEO of Mozilla Europe (my ex-Netscape colleague) at the party. If you think about it, Firefox has become the WebOS, I can now use it on the Windows, Mac and Linux OS’ and the experience and plugins work the same. Netscape had this idea 10 years ago but Microsoft killed that but I don’t think Microsoft can kill Mozilla.

This week is hopefully quieter and therefore I have more time to review the companies currently sat in my inbox but the end of the week sees the BBC Backstage Party and LeWeb 3.

Update from John Wilson: Ivan Pope from Snipperoo who was on the pub crawl has made video.

MediaTech 2.006 will include contributions from Google, SKY and Yahoo, entrepreneurs like Bob Young CEO, lulu.com and co-founder of Red Hat, Russell Buckley of Admob, Sequoia’s latest investee company, and investors such as Index Ventures, one of the founder investors in Skype. The day’s speeches and panels will be also feature 17 young ‘upstart’ mediatech companies and some leading bloggers (possibly Robert Scoble as well).

Registered attendees include representatives of leading VCs and corporate names and some of the top entrepreneurs and innovators from the convergent space of Media and Technology. So far the list included people from from 3, 3i, Acacia Partners, Advent Venture Partners, Albany Venture Managers, Alegro Capital, Amadeus Capital, BBC, Benchmark Capital, BT Group, Celtic House Ventures, Esprit Capital Partners, Eden Ventures, Google, Guardian Media Group, Impetus Partners, Intel and Intel Capital, Logitech Europe, Microsoft, Mitsui Capital, Oracle Corporation, Orange, Partech International, SKY, Siemens Venture Capital, T-Mobile, TLcom Capital Partners, Yahoo, and more besides.

TechCrunch UK & Ireland will be covering the event.

Sadly I couldn’t go but last week I met Ian Hayward of Glaxstar - UK developers of Firefox add-ons (Yahoo’s delicious add-on) and the organiser of the Firefox party, which I will be going to this Friday. Attending the party will be several of the Mozilla developer team, if you have any questions.

Speaking briefly with Ian and others about the summit, it seems the key take-away were the number of concerns & challenges facing Mozilla as is starts the countdown to Firefox 3.0, the first being how to avoid becoming bloatware.

“we need to shed some ten year old platform baggage while retaining our (large) lead in web compatibility.”

Personally I prefer Firefox 2 to Internet Explorer 7, not just because of the faster rendering engine or the better standards support, not just because of the extensive 3rd party add-ons but simply because it looks and works the same on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux platforms, as do most of the add-ons. So my user experience is the same irrelevant of the underlying operating system. So when people talk about the possibility of a GoogleOS, for me Firefox is already the WebOS but I do agree that Mozilla needs to stay lean and mean, shed a few Netscape Gecko pounds and ensure that the additional “nice to have” functionality is delivered via the extensive add-on marketplace and/or greasemonkey scripts.

The second challenge facing the Mozilla project is in the mobile space, especially given the new challenge following today’s announcement of Opera mobile/mini and the recent news from 3 of their x-series mobile broadband initiative. One proposal discussed was the development of a new version of HTTP to address solely the mobile community.

“Another problem with the mobile Web is HTTP. We would like to start work on something similar to Waka as soon as possible.”

Although there are other web protocols such as FTP, I suspect Sir Tim Berners-Lee will be hanging his head at this thought. I would not like to see a new protocol but better Mozilla support for the new W3C Mobile Web Best Practices Proposed Recommendation.

The third issue raised concerning the Mozilla project is the continued release of Linux builds that now run on an extremely wide variety of distributions. This is a large burden, because claiming a release runs on “Linux x86″ requires compatibility with extremely old libraries and forces a lot of checks to happen at runtime which slows down Mozilla.

“The various distros can do a better job at this than we can, and they also happen to have most of the users, outnumbering Mozilla builds by more than 10-to-1. For Firefox 3, there will be no release Linux binaries, but nightly builds will continue, on a single, relatively modern reference platform. getfirefox.com will still have options for Linux users, but they will be in the form of packages from Red Hat, Ubuntu, Novell, etc. The same arrangement will be made for OpenSolaris and other Unix versions.”

Other sites worth visiting:

• Firefox Mobile
• Firefox 3.0
• Mozilla Labs (new)
• Mozilla Developers

Mozilla is about to start a Firefox TV campaign (flicks) with Spot Runner, the first Internet-based ad agency that makes it really easy for companies like Mozilla to advertise on TV. Spot Runner does TV advertising — commercial production, media planning and buying. This is one of Saul Klein’s (VP of Skype and founder of Video Island) favourite companies and a potential acquisition for Google. I wish there was an equivalent over here in the UK.

Below is a list of flicks that meet the three criteria set out by Mozilla for their flicks:

1. Appeal to a wide, mainstream audience
2. Capture an audience’s attention and imagination
3. Don’t directly attack our competition by name

Daredevil, This is Hot, Billy’s Browser, Web for All, Give me the soap, Painter, One Window for Every Reason, Improve, No comparison, Sunday Morning, Life Lessons.

And finally for those of you who have not seen this humorous spoof site http://www.msfirefox.com please do so before Microsoft’s lawyers get it closed down.

Linden Lab’s creation is giving rise to a interesting secondary economy of real estate, avatar accessories, in-life artefacts and indeed an emerging consultancy market on how best to exploit SL. Next month, Linden is hosting a pair of workshops, in London and Boston, for agencies looking to help their clients establish projects and presences in Second Life. The London event, How to position Second Life to your Clients, will take place on 13th December.

I wonder if I can convince Sam and Mike to hold a future TechCrunch event in SL

DATE: Wednesday 29th November 2006
TIME: 7:30pm – 10:30pm
WHERE: Balls Brothers , 5/6 Carey Lane, London, EC2
MAP: Mini Map google map
HOW MUCH: Free Event: Sponsored by Microsoft Cambridge Labs
SIGN UP: http://londongirlgeekdinner.pbwiki.com/

Also a quick congratulations to Sarah Blow the organiser for the successful launch of the Barcelona Geek Girl dinners. I had suggested to Sarah that possible she could organise a Paris Geek Girls Dinner before Le Web 3. If you are interested let her know (send an e-mail to info [at] Londongirlgeekdinners.co.uk) and if there is enough demand you never know.

Robert Scoble – author of the Naked Conversations – and now Podtech ScobleShow, is coming to the UK next week. He’ll be presenting at the Online Information 2006 conference with Adriana Cronin-Lukas.

Robert says “I have my video camera and would love to meet up with anyone who has interesting technology to show me.”

Robert and Hugh McLeod are also trying to organise a geek event in London. I have left Robert and Hugh a message which I hope they will pick up because there is of course the Firefox Party at The Lane Bar on Friday. Tristan Nitot – the head of Mozilla Europe – and several other key Firefox developers from the US will be there.

Robert sadly won’t be going to the IT@Cork conference but Hugh McLeod will be there speaking along with Marc Canter. I don’t know how long Robert is over in Europe but there is Le Web 3 on the 11th December (764 people already registered and closing fast) and the London Geek’s party (they hit 400 sign-ups in exactly 35 hours).

I was going to write a post on this but one of my fellow speakers David Terrar of Twinfield and the Enterprise Irregulars (a must read if you are interested in Enterprise 2.0) has done such as sterling job that I will let him tell you more. Below is an edited snippet from David’s post.

I met some really interesting people. I spoke with Stephen Tominey, the MD of acrticPigs. He told me all about the interactive, 3D animation that his company does, particularly applied to the education sector. Philip Hemsted and Anish Kapoor are the founders of Yuugoo. Phil and Anish have just secured VC funding for the next stage of their company from Rising Stars. Their product allows you to collaborate with IM, VoiP and to share screens instantly, and working in and out of the office through firewalls and across different platforms.They seem to be addressing the issues for the enterprise and platforms in a way that the guys at Blogtronix are too – they should get together. I met Ian Eddison, who works for Chamberlink advising business in the North West. I met David Thomas, Director of D-Geo, who have a product that helps a potential innovator through the key steps of analysis in evaluating their idea – i2m. And I also met Steve Livingston of KPMG. Steve get’s a special mention, mostly because KPMG were kind enough to pay for the food at the event.

Like David I enjoyed speaking with several of the people mentioned above. I also spoke with Chris Leigh from RealTime Race’s. One thing I would take away from the evening was the fact that it felt a bit like London in 2005. There was lots of positivity and lots of energy but most of the entrepreneurs were still struggling to find a good Angel or VC i.e one who could understand their opportunity and not talk to them like a banker with one eye on a short term ROI.

But most of all they were keen to talk to fellow entrepreneurs, create a community and learn from each other. This first event hopefully will facilitate that.

Finally regarding the next event, it is already in the planning and will hopefully take place in Leeds early in the new year. There will also be a similar event started in Brighton called SW Startup 2.0, the details of which will be announced here shortly. I am also working with other people to start similar events in Edinburgh, Dublin, Belfast, Bristol and Cardiff – “from an acorn an oak tree grows”.

I would like to add that these events are not TechCrunch events but I am certainly keen to help the organisers get them started, help promote them and attend if asked. If you would like to sponsor (£500) or host one of these events please let me or one of the named organisers know.

Quoting: “Some people may choose to present a 5 minute lightning talk on what they’re doing. Then little groups will form and people will work together on code! We’ll encourage contributing good things back to open source projects, or maybe the launch of new projects.”

BYO laptop and just ask for the Open Source Jam event at reception but note that there are only 8 (eight) places left out of the 53 places made available and the first 45 filled up in half a day.

Signup by creating an account and editing the page here.

But one thing I can confirm is the venue will be “somewhere cool” in central London (able to hold approx 200 people) and Mozilla are sending across merchandise (T-shirts, mugs, pens etc) to give out on the night!

So why even mention it when the date and venue have not been confirmed!?  Well to help the organisers of this London event, it would be great if you could register your interest on the Firefox party planner site.  Of course if you cannot make it down to London, then there are currently 620 parties across the world being organised and over 5,000 people have already registered their interest in attending one or several of them. I myself will also be heading to Dublin fo their party on the 14th November. Of course you could start your own party and if anyone wants to run one in the Midlands or further North please let me know.
 

Finally who are Glaxstar? They are a Birmingham based developer company who specialise in building Firefox pro-extensions for blue-chip companies. Recently they built Yahoo’s awesome new delicious bookmark replacement which I now use in Firefox 2. Until this extension came along I had forgotten about delicious and the value of tagging.  

Had I not been chairing it I would have been able to take better notes, and I will try to put something up soon about it. However, as usual there were some great bloggers in the audience and among them Alan Patrick has done a very thorough write up. We also had PaidContent and almost legendary Adam Reuters there.

For myself I would say a standout development I picked out of the discussion – and there were many – was the eventual merging of Social Software networks like MySpace with Second Life.

The most notable example of this – (and possibly the first) – is the ability of users in Playahead to be able to flip their profile into a Second Life avatar with all their preferences and networks intact. That, to me, is potentially very revolutionary, and I don’t use that word lightly. Imagine if people flip their MyPSace profile or even their LinkedIn or Blog into Second Life? Since Linden Labs is about to make the whole thing an open source project – while retaining control of the crucial namespace facility – we may well be able to all do this in the not too distant future.

The last event was in September – which about 180 senior execs registered for – focused on ‘Digital Lifestyle Aggregators’, a long-winded phrase but a useful acronym invented to describe the user-generated content and community focus of the likes of MySpace etc. Indeed, etribes is itself a pretender to the DLA crown – and they have as good a shot at it as anything, especially in the more “consumer friendly” market.

The mashup event in December, dubbed Advertising 2.0 will, as the blurb says, explore “how the online advertising, lead generation and marketing sector is rapidly evolving and adapting to new technologies and media (including high bandwidth video and audio).” In particular it’ll look at the ‘viral’ effect endemic to social networks.

As Simon says: “the impact of the Internet and Web2.0 services on marketing represents probably the biggest single shift in the way products and services are ‘advertised’ and it’s taking place right now.” And who would disagree?

Meanwhile Library House is organising “MediaTech 2.006: who is walking the walk?”, a one day event on November 30 at the Imax Theatre, London. The contact for it is research@libraryhouse.net (and registrants through mashup should put the code MID06 in the Fax line of the online payment/registration form).

(If there seems to be demand, I may do some live blogging from one or both of these events, depending on the circumstances).

Loic Le Meur [France's most influential blogger] has just opened the registration for Les Blogs 3, which I have been eagerly awaiting and he has even given it the new name of Le Web 3. Why the change? Well Loic explains that he wanted it to be more general than just blogs. “We had 450 people from 25 countries last year, we expect 1000 bloggers and key Web2.0 players this year.”

Les Blogs 2 was probably one of the best European events I attended in terms of speakers, networking opportunities and conference debate. So my expectation for Le Web 3 is very high. Loic is currently working on the program right now and he will announce it soon on the Le Web 3 blog and if it is only half as good as last years speaker roster then it will be another great event.

[note: The price is €300 until Nov 11th and €500 after (including coffee, lunch and dinner, a party organised by Techcrunch France, and two days conference).

[update: 50 people have already registered]

London Mixer

“As the name suggests, the concept is simple: you come, you meet people, you talk. Do keep in mind that only people on the RSVP list will be allowed in, so please register.”

If you would like to attend then you need to contact robert AT internetpeeps.com for an invite.