A week later

It is exactly a week ago that The Next Web conference took place in the st. Olofskapel in Amsterdam. Boris and I got a lot of nice and positive reactions on The Conference, its speakers, the organization, the down to earth and open style of the organizers, speakers and sponsors. So, thank you all for these warm comments.

We're already busy with the first plans for the NEXT Next Web Conference on May 11 2007 (put it in the agenda) and are evaluating the good stuff and the stuff that can be improved. We can use your help and suggestions on what you liked or disliked about the conference. Where can we make improvements? More Showcases? More breaks? Party at the same place as the conference? Should we add a Canal tour through Amsterdam :) ?

Whatever it is, your meaning and thoughts are appreciated. mail us: info at thenextweb.org or post your comment here directly.

We're working on the videos and presentations, please have a little patience.

Conference1.0 vs 2.0

I wrote this post more than 2 months ago, but somehow I forgot to upload it. When evaluating the conference I found it somewhere in a word file. Quite funny!

The Next Web

Organizing a conference requires certain skills, and as Boris nor I have never organized a conference as ambitious as The Next Web we decided to do only the things we are good at (leveraging our network in the internet industry) and outsource the rest. Enters Live Solution. Live Solution is THE new media event organization of the Netherlands and they are actually organizing the event.

We’re ambitious, that’s one thing. And we are not afraid to rewrite the rules of how to organize a conference (conference1.0).

Rules of organizing a conference1.0:

1. Bring up your site at least 7 months in advance of the conference.
2. Choose a theme that is wide enough so you can attract a lot of people
3. Be profitable
4. Find sponsors in advance (so before you’re website goes live)
5. Have your speakers confirmed (you can always ‘change your mind’)
6. Get one big keynote speaker
7. Never organize a conference during the summer (mid June to mid September)
8. Do something interactive, otherwise the attendees will get bored (workshops, panel discussions)


Rules of organizing a conference2.0 (according to us):

&%^*$ the rules of organizing a conference1.0:

ad 1. 7 months ahead!?? we have enough other things to do and you probably as well. Tell me: which web-savvy is scheduling 7 months ahead? If the conference is a ‘must go’ and you already have an appointment on that day, reschedule! Or better invite your appointment to join you to the conference (great way of actually doing business!)

ad 2. Choose a theme that interests only a few people, we have little space so we want as targeted attendees as possible.

Ad 3. Why? Break even is good enough.

Ad 4. Talk to your sponsors along the way. Turn your sponsors into partners, get them involved in the process.

ad 5. Aim high, but don’t lie. Get the best speakers in the field out there, call them, mail them, sing for them, do anything to get them over here. And if they cannot attend they’ll help you find even a better substitute!

Ad 6. Why only one? The Next Web is a conference where European web-savvies come together. Every keynote speaker has to be great.

Ad 7. Organize a conference in the summer! Don’t be afraid of holidays. Hollidays are great, only the real interested people will attend. Not to speak of the other advantahes of doing it during the summer, like (1) the weather is probably nice, so every one enters with a smile on her / his face, (2) Competition of other events (if any) = 0 because it is summer!

Ad 8. Get the best speakers, so nobody will get bored. Reduce the interactive part to the minimum.

Furthermore:
Enjoy! Don’t Just do it, Do IT

It’s gonna be a great conference.

Update (July 10, 2006): I think it was a great conference! I hope you experienced it as great as well (feedback is always welcome). I believe it was an inspiring day with interesting people, great speakers, great Showcases and the best conclusion ever: The Web is UNDER-HYPED! :)

The NEXT Next Web Conference

A lot of people asked us if we will do another conference in the future. The answer is YES. We have picked a date and are speaking with potential sponsors and speakers. We are planning on hosting The Next Web Conference 2007 on may 11, 2007. If you are interested in sponsoring opportunities contact us as soon as possible. If you have a sugegstion for a speaker contact us or use the comment field...

More Photos

Guido van Nispen posted beautiful photos on his Flickr acount. Take a look:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vannispen/sets/72157594190859074/

Here are some photos from Sjors:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/svirsk/sets/72157594192637647/

And Kat Orland:

http://flickr.com/photos/18509851@N00/sets/72157594192852985/

PrePartyPictures

The evening before the conference Jake Blok and friends organized an informal 'borrel' at The Mansion in Amsterdam. Photos and comments are here:

http://www.esnips.com//web/BetascoutsPhotos/?widget=birdButtonBlue

Looking back...

So, the conference was yesterday. I'm still high on adrenaline and too strung up to relax. We had a great day and enjoyed all the speakers. I will add links to blogs that wrote about the conference on monday.

You can find a lot of photos on Flickr by searching for 'thenextweb' or 'nextweb' and 'Amsterdam':
http://flickr.com/search/?q=Thenextweb

We will add more photo's to our Flickr account too:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thenextweb/


Thanks to all our guest and speakers for making this a great day...

Research: people feel good about the future of the web!

The friendly people from Netpanel have done a great research project for The Next Web Conference last week which we published yesterday. It is full of very interesting facts and a lot of news sites have written about it:

http://www.nu.nl/news/770187/57/%27Nederlanders_zijn_weer_enthousiast_over_internet%27.html

The conclusion and pressrelease are written in dutch and you can read and download them here.

Thanks again Marja!

Drinks the night before!

For everybody who is in town the day before and thirsty (aren't we all) Jake and Martijn are organizing a sponsored party at a great place in Amsterdam called The Mansion. Check it out:

Last Minute Opportunity! Let's meet up for a drink the evening prior to The Next Web Conference! (Drinks – 6 July, Amsterdam)

For the first 40 (or so;) people that register (yes, it is FREE) we have organized what the Dutch call a ‘borrel’ (drinks) at currently the coolest bar in Amsterdam. Even better, the first ~500 drinks are on us!!

To get this idea of international insight sharing going we invited some of our local web friends to join the fun. Please register for the evening by sending a mail to jake@betascout.com or martijn@betascout.com and also leave your comments for other people here on the blog...

More information here: http://thenextweb.org/borrel/

UPDATE: many people signed up so sign-up is closed for now...

Extra speaker and extra showcase!

We are pleased to announce that we have an extra speaker and 2 extra showcases for The Next Web Conference. They are Paul Molenaar from Ilse Media as a speaker and WidSets from Finland and eSnips from Israel as showcases. The conference is getting better every day!

Check their profiles at the speaker page:
http://thenextweb.org/?r=speakers

A place to sleep

The conference starts on friday and ends near midnight somewhere in the center of Amsterdam after the Party2.0. And after that you can always party on with the new friends you made during the day.

But there will come a time when you will have to start looking for a place to sleep. Our advice would be to book a hotel now and not worry about that in the middle of the night while you are lost somewhere in Amsterdam.

We have two hotels to recommend: The Barbizon Palace and the Lloyd Hotel. Check all the information and room rates here:

http://thenextweb.org/?r=hotel

Hyves, AllPeers, Netvibes, Plazes, Fleck, Twones, Tractis, Sky-Click, Spotback, Hitflip and Mabber

One of the things we are proud of are the hot Web2.0 companies joining us on july 7th. To name just a few: Hyves, AllPeers, Netvibes, Plazes, Fleck, Twones, Tractis, Sky-Click, Spotback, Hitflip and Mabber.

We don't want to explain everything about them right here but we do have links to each company in our 'Attendees' page and you will be able to meet everyone during the conference.

The guys from Mabber (check em out!) are going to give away t-shirts and since we don't have a dress code you might as well come naked and wear their shirt all day.

You should also check out Plazes and get an account. The good thing about Plazes is that they track you as you travel so the website will show that you are visiting Amsterdam and The Next Web Conference.

And then there is Hyves, THE place to go to meet and socialize with your friends. Or sign-up and see if you can find some new friends in their database of 2 million users.

All the other companies are cool too so check their websites so you are able to ask smart questions after their presentations!

If you are interested in meeting someone in particular from one of those companies don't hesitate to contact us so we can set up some meetings. The Next Web Conference should be a great networking tool too so mingle!