Monday, November 23, 2009 at 3:33AM Monday, November 9, 2009 at 12:52PM Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 8:17AM The Must see web conference in Paris is LE WEB.
Dont miss it!!! This year the mega web conference and better than ever events for networking, will be staged on 9th and 10 December.
The Worldclass Speakers Include @GaryVaynerchuk of TV winelibrary fame, who needs no introduction. Jack Dorsey founder of twitter, and many other web giants.
The full list of speakers is here
Register now! use code BLOG09 for the 10% discount.
Donna Jackson
Social Communications Specialist
Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 1:33PM
As it so happened, I was in the new Apple flagship store in Zurich on the day the Apple financial results were announced, and I heard it first on my iphone through a news feed I get.
I was looking at the sparkling new mac airs and mac pros loaded with the crisp snowleopard software. Design is a big part of the apple philosophy thats clear, but client user experience and playfulness is the real rub here.
I checked my emails on the loaded-up-and-always-on-apples, which are arranged around the slick cutting edge store for people to drift in and play with.
click on images to enlarge
As it was, I was having network/account problems with that monolith Swisscom, I tried telling the staff at the Swisscom store, and they looked at me like you look at someone who is talking out of his ear. So I went, and I strode up Bahnhofstrasse, debating arbitary things like whether I should tell Swisscom to go and fly a kite, and why the showers and toilets downstairs at the well-organised Zurich station, announce Pissoir on the door. (Don't you just love the French, they don't dress things up).
When I stumbled into the apple store, and checked my emails on their play-for-as-long-as -you like- new models. Turn head to see user interactivity
So here's why they have been so successful: It's called viral user recommendation.
As I was playing on the mac, a tall young man drifted by with a smile and asked if i was enjoying the mac air, "oh yes I said, I know it already". We started to chat about its features and how I came to be an latecomer ---applehead, ...
I realised why. The store was full of people like me, drifting around, just touching things, feeling the slimness, and the brushed silver slabs of tech, buying new ear phones, checking the new model iphones and generally having fun. No one was chasing them, getting irritated. No numbers were issued to wait in line to be seen by the consultants.
It's in the sales bible, let someone touch your product, own it, play with it and they will buy it.
This young Swiss man who spoke English flawlessly, took his time to listen to my network story, and told me he'd look at my mac, so I got it out and together we tested and re-installed the crappy, not slickly-designed Swisscom usb stick, from which they deliver the internet to me. After fiddling with the usb awhile, while I spoke of Apple and its success, he told me he could also better my Swisscom iphone contract, that I had failed to get Swisscom down the road, to do!!!!
He seemed unmoved by my announcement that Apple's results are reflected in the iphone and mac sales. Well he said, "We sell a lot".
A lot,yes, close to 60 million iphones and counting ...so many, that Nokia want a piece of the pie, and are now making litigious noises.
And here's why people: they make it fun, and they think about user experience, and they'll keep making it better, plus, a whole new industry in iphone apps has been born for the new generation.
So Take note windows 7, Apple built its success on the disaster that was Vista, and having to un-install your drive and all its settings to load windows 7, or alternatively, buy a new computer, is unlikely to encourage potential new users to spend their Christmas double check on windows 7.
FOOTNOTE Two other customers who were playing with the apple mac next to me after the assistant went to off to help someone else, asked my opinion, and I said, "buy it".
Leave us a comment with your user experience, or gripes of course. We'd like to hear from you.
Donna Jackson
Social Communications Specialist
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 5:24PM 
There are now so many events conferences, tweetups and dinners you can attend to network and collaborate at. Just dont expect free wifi at most conferences in Europe they cant seem to do it.
So how do you choose which ones to attend?
I have a wall planner now where I pencil-in all the events that I find of interest and then they have to pass the test.
Is the content or speakers on my top ten list?
Is it in my city, or one I will visit for work?
Will it provide me an insiders view on the industry?
Can I contribute anything?
Can I find collaborators/contacts there on projects I'm working on?
Can I learn from other startups?
If I answer yes to these:
Then it makes the penned in list, and I plan my month, and then year around these dates.
Here are latest London events brought to us by our friends at Eventbrite
THE HUGE and bigger than ever web fest LE WEB is on in Paris again this year on the 9th 10 of Dec, get your ticket now
Milan also has many startup events and techgarage
Find out what your city is hosting and get involved
ReadWriteweb summit in California with a of listing top 100 web companies
The success of your business depends on it.
Leave us a comment listing your experience with events and networking. Have an event you want to shout about? Let us know and we'll tweet it.
Donna Jackson
Social Communications Specialist.
