Last Friday saw the close of the 3-day Picnic event in Amsterdam. Along with my partner, we jumped at the opportunity to end the week rubbing shoulders with an array of media artists, technology entrepreneurs, website designers and IT freeks who made us feel very welcome!
The morning was spent at the ‘Power of Co-creation’ workshop organised by the European Centre for the Experience Economy. Seated in groups of 4-5 behind intranet terminals, the audience collaborated on defining the concept of co-creation and best practices.
Business cases such as Lego and Sellaband were enthusiastically debated as we attempted to identify the point of co-creation and the deemed value which is not always obvious. Thanks to Albert Boswijk (ECEE) and Raul Lansink (Favela Fabric) it was truly an inspirational workshop.
Disappointed by the cancellation of ‘The Day of the Incubator’ – an exchange of best practices and brilliant failures between technology entrepreneurs; I found myself faced with a mind blowing demonstration on the possibilities of augmented reality (the words of the organisor). Obviously still in beta stage, AR applications presented by both Metaio and Nokia although educational were sadly not enough to keep me glued to my seat – each to their own, as they say.
But all-in-all, I was pleasantly suprised to come face-to-face with so many women in touch with their technology side including university teachers, brand managers, digital entrepreneurs and bloggers. Unfortunately, I missed out on the Next Women brainstorm camp organised by Simone Brummelhuis, founder of The Next Women Business Magazine and co-owner of iens.nl – highly respected restaurant guide for the Netherlands.
The lab encompassed both a female and male audience, with three starter entrepreneurs presenting their business ideas. Not only did they all benefit from valuable advise and feedback but one would go onto win the opportunity to develop their idea further. Judged on several criteria including name, viability and marketing – favz.nl by Bianca Bode was later pronounced the winner. The Favz idea is a website where you can list all books, movies and music you own, in collaboration with a large e-shop (name undisclosed for now!)
The planning for Picnic 2009 has already begun. Limited half price tickets are now available to purchase online.
As September draws to a close and faced with gloomier days ahead, be thankful that October was elected as 
