Sunday, February 03, 2008

Plugged In

I just got back from Baa Camp in Auckland and now feel very plugged into New Zealand's web and entrepreneurial communities.

The link to the site doesn't do this gathering justice, but that is because it is a private gathering - but what is clear is that this is *the* place to trade ideas and learn from a fantastic cross-section of NZ's thought and business leaders. People who think nothing is impossible.

A major characteristic of the Baa Camp is that the entire agenda is user created - at the start everyone lists out topics that they want to talk about and see how those develop over the weekend. Hardly any power point in sight - only used to help illustrate the conversations.

Apparently last year's Baa Camp delivered a lot of the industry input into shaping the thinking of David Cunliffe in his regulatory approach for broadband. I'd expect to start seeing some coherent industry activity on

1. Independent web advertising networks
2. Policy input for Fair Use of Digital Content



Personally, I got a heap out of it
- Met some fantastic people with the most diverse range of backgrounds, skills and thinking
- Got majorly inspired about the prospect of setting up my own business in this space
- Participated in a very impromptu (and high quality) single malt sharing session
- had some great conversations about the power of brand promise and customer experience and how to get that to stick
- Played my first game of werewolf and got nailed completely - but dead keen to have another go
- Uncovered a few business opportunities that I'm keen to have a good look at.

Next step for me is to have a crack at setting one of these up in Telecom before I disappear in mid- April. It is by far the most effective way that I have seen to get up to speed with a number of different topic areas and the best networking event I have had the privilege of attending.

Big thanks to Nat for the invite and making it happen. Tips to to Rod,  Mauricio and Russell who made the recommendations for me to attend.


1 comment:

thomasscovell said...

cool to meet you.

and thanks for using the nzwc tag - it works! ;)