Barry Woudenberg

Today was a big day for web 2.0 in Europe. The second edition of The Next Web Conference was held in Amsterdam, the first day that is. Unlike last year, this edition is a two day event. Last year was, at least to me, a big success with some cool speakers such as Dick Hardt. So this year the organizers had to beat last year’s succes. Judging by this first day, they’ve succeeded. Here’s briefly why:

1. great speakers;
2. cool presentations;
3. interesting new start ups that I did not know of (shame on me);
4. a great atmosphere!

Even though I’m not a thinking about a making my own web 2.0 start up , the vibe that’s at this event (and last year’s) causes me to reconsider. In 2007 the general mood about Europe in web 2.0 being virtually none existent (’where’s the european silicon valley?’, this year I’ve seen some impressive European 2.0 startups. Moreover, from what I could tell from the audience, a lot more people from europe are attending this event in comparison to last year’s. What were the coolest start ups? Here are my favorites:

1. Webnode: This is the start up which impressed the most. I actually might consider testing this one (the same counts for JT-kit even though that wasn’t presented in the start up rond). Webnode is a webplatform that allows you to easily create a website, with all kinds of widgets and allows you to easily add content (articles, polls, youtube movies, flickr photos etc.). And best of all, it looks visually appealing without a standard template feeling to it.

2. Zilok: like the moderator said rightly so: Why didn’t I think of that! Zilok is a peer2peer rental platform, meant for rental between individuals. They had the scoop that this week a Dutch version is opened.

Reflections on the first day

Here’s some reflections and general impressions on the first day of the next web 2008:

• to start with the most important one first: sandwiches were ok, but the amounts could have been better;
• like last year, the WIFI sucked big time;
• I’ve seen some cool presentations which have inspired me to do more with pictures and drawings in presentations. I Especially liked the presentations of Leah Curver (pownce) and someone from fav.or.it. I also liked Nova Spivack’s presentation even though it wasn’t that visual;
• There two things so far which I’ve greatly missed today: dataportability (which only Kevin Rose mentioned briefly) and the human/social side of web 2.0 (like Deborah Schulz did last year);
• We need more female speakers! Leah Curver was, like Deborah Schulz, a welcome variation to all the male speakers;
• Even though I’m not really interested in the whole venture capital story behind the whole web 2.0 start up scene, I have to admit that

Read more about the next web conference 2008 on the following websites:

• blog of thenextwebconference
• Dutch cowboys
• Techcrunch

Find more pictures of the next web 2008 on flickr.