Let the games begin!

The 35+ technology showcase companies who took part in I!E06 were testament to the fact that, in many cases, Europe does indeed have a jump start on the USA as regards certain technologies – particularly open source software and peer-to-peer computing.

We’d like to congratulate one of our showcase companies, Skinkers, and CEO Matteo Berlucci, on their deal with Microsoft! You can download their company presentation here.

Clicmobile were select by Guidewire Group to showcase their technology at Innovate!Europe 06 recently.

This company - one of the largest power companies in Europe - has a strong focus on renewable/sustainable energy sources. A group of us had the pleasure of meeting with this company's Managing Director and some board members, just before Innovate!Europe began.

We first got a presentation at their offices and then headed out for a tour on one of their properties - a farm of 300+ wind-powered generators just outside the city of Zaragoza.

On the ride over, I spoke with Jaime Ross Vice General Manager of Endeza. In this podcast posted on the Guidewire Group site, he shared perspectives on renewable power and tells of the success his firm has had over the last several decades.

I posted several episodes on the Guidewire Group site that you should hear. So check out the following links to hear what Chris had to say about:

The difference between entrepreneurs in Europe and the U.S.

Thinking global and acting global - the new requirement for innovation

Talking in his home town, Ignacio Uson introduced his Warp Networks company and its EBox platform. Ebox is a free open source network administration server for small business. Typical of the big thinking of Europe's young entrepreneurs, Ignacio sees an international potential market 25mn companies for the platform. His marketing strategy is to reach them through system integrators and ISVs. The EBox business model is to sell an annual certification and support package to these resellers. The first marketing goal is 'to get popular fast' by achieving 2500 downloads in the five months after EBox 1.0 launches in Q3.

Otodio has developed a mark-up standard for audio. The company sees a big market opportunity in enabling print publishers to reach mobile phone users via text-to-speech applications. The Otodio system will soon be compatible with all smartphone operating systems, Symbian, Windows Mobile 5.0 and Blackberry. Simon Gall of Otodio says its system is "a big step on from podcasting."

Kewego already has over 1000 corporate clients, 70 TV channels and millions of viewers using its system that brings TV to net and cellphone screens. Anyone can use Kewego to create and watch personalized TV programs. Professional versions of the technology target the broadcasting and corporate sectors.

In a panel Q&A, Chris Shipley, Executive Producer of Innovate!Europe, quizzed representatives from BT, Microsoft and Symbian responsible for making deals with small developers. The picture that emerged from all three companies was of buzzing dialogues taking place with both small innovators and VCs to find new partners. Once signed to the partner community, operational groups within each of the platform creators steer the development of the relationship.

Chris Shipley's most revealing question was what mistakes eager small fry make when pitching to the big beasts. If you're talking to Sherry Roberts, Head of Partner Development at Symbian, don't just brag about about your technology. You'll need a well thought through business proposition that shows understanding of both operator and consumer needs. She'll be checking that you're marketing savvy and aware of the revenue models involved.

Mike Carr, Director of Research and Venturing at BT, also advises innovators that it doesn't all hang on how wonderful their technology is. He says that people who get good partner deals from BT understand that they are contributing a piece of the jigsaw that has to fit well with other pieces. They also understand what else needs to happen to make the whole technology chain a commercial success.

Finally if you want to win a positive hearing from David Rowe at the Emerging Business Team, Microsoft EMEA, don't bang on about your love of Linux. Telling him that your technology is so hot Microsoft will soon be dying to acquire you is another no-no. And recognize that Microsoft, like your company, is most excited about its latest offerings. So if your claim to fame if deep knowledge of mature Microsoft products, you'll have trouble winning the coveted High Potential Partner status.

A panel of experienced VCs plus a Web 2.0 innovator discussed the significance of the buzzword, moderated by Michael Arrington, publisher of TechCrunch networks and serial entrepreneur.

Fred Destin of Atlas Venture sees the Web 2.0 movement pulling the user back to the centre of the architecture, potentially challenging the publishing, broadcasting and advertising models.

Judy Gibbons of Accel Partners -- whose career spans H-P, Apple and Microsoft -- saw Web 2.0 applications impacting the mobile phone space in Europe. Judy saw demand in Europe for continuous data access via mobile phone on the Blackberry model. She forecast that Web 2.0 applications would enabled continuous data refresh to mobile phones without having to go through the operator.

Philippe Collombel of Partech International counted himself among the Web 2.0 sceptics. Quite a number of web watchers feel Web 2.0 is a fancy name for a predictable technology evolution.

Tariq Krim of Netvibes was the Web 2.0 entrepreneur on the panel. His customisable web GUI enables users to manage all their daily information feeds and service providers from one page. Tariq said that the net has become too complicated. Web 2.0 applications will return to users control of their information.

Personally I like the guy. He's opinionated, brazen and you never need to question where you stand with him. Granted, he sometimes opens his mouth and proceeds to shove his foot past his tonsils, but his heart's in the right place and he has some solid perspectives on technology, start-ups and other industry topics.

He was a panel moderator at the Innovate!Europe conference and we had a chance to sit down after he was done being his saucy self. As you might expect Mike had some pointed remarks about innovation in Europe; but we also talked at length about some of the rather nasty experiences he's been having in regards to some cowardly chumps who have been attacking him personally for no apparent reason other than they just don't like him.

Take a listen to these two episodes, and if you have a problem with them or my standing up for him, go ahead ... take a whack at me too.

Mike's thoughts on the European innovation ecosystem and its challenges.

Mike shares his experiences with personal attacks, how he deals with them and what they mean in the big picture.

We live in a global village.

Pick whatever cliche you like, but the premise remains the same. The world in which we live grows increasingly smaller, and though there are unquestionable variations between cultures and manners of business in various parts of the world, the stark reality is that there are more similarities between one country and another - at least in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship - than not.

This week I had the pleasure of sitting down with one of Europe's more well-known entrepreneurs - Loïc Le Meur. Currently a partner with SixApart, and in charge of that firm's European operations, this affable and eloquent man has launched several companies with a great degree of success.

In our conversation, Loïc shared his thoughts on:

The session was led by Loic Le Meur, one of Europe's most influential bloggers and winner of the innovator of the year award at Innovate!Europe 2005. Highlighting the speed this trend is moving, Loic said "Podcasts are already challenging TV and radio, just like blogs are seriously challenging the press." Loic pointed out that blogging is fast becoming an every day medium not a techno peculiarity. "There are now more podcasts than radio stations," he said, "and only a third of blog posts are in English. A hundred million people use Skype."

Loic said these phenomena show a new type of citizenship is emerging across a fast flattening world. People are talking to directly each other rather than via the traditional political and media establishments. Loic, whose day job is Executive V-P & General Manager EMEA at Six Apart, introduced five social media innovators:

GTP Solutions of Greece is among the companies at this Innovate!Europe offering a Web 2.0 solution. Dr. Nicholas Ampazis, the professor who heads the company, demoed Feeds 2.0 a personalized RSS aggregator that prioritizes incoming information according to the user's interests.

Skinkers, which has developed a second generation push messaging chain. The system answers one-to-many messaging needs that email can't cope with. The company has a roster of blue-chip clients.

Wakoo has a solution that enables bloggers to easily create realtime chat. The baby of two young French entrepreneurs, Wakoo also has a service for business blogs that avoids the spam threat.

Nooked from Ireland has already built a worldwide customer base for its RSS marketing solutions and is market leader in its sector.

Wee World promises to infect the net with the most irritating characters to sane adults since the Windows paperclip. Its online service allows users to create WeeMees, customizable avatars that can be used as identifiers on all kinds of mobile and online communications. Through gritted teeth we are bow in admiration to Wee World's $20+mn in funding and a partner list that includes Microsoft Messenger, Motorola, Skype and Vodafone. With over half a million sign-ups a month, Wee World is one of the world's fastest growing communities.

First up was Gary Stewart, founder of Goa Internet Services. Gary, an American now based in Barcelona, has launched Mi Goa , a vertical search engine. Mi Goa will start by offering tightly targeted real estate, job and auto sales searches for the Barcelona area. Gary's longer term plans are to take the formula to other European cities and even Latin America (he has fluent Spanish). Gary first decided he wanted to start a business in Spain and then looked to the U.S. for commercial ideas. He was seeking models from the well-developed U.S. ecommerce market that would have early mover advantage in less developed Spain. Vertical seach and the buzz around Craig's List looked to fit the bill.

Cedric Maloux, founder of AllPeers, is French but decided the UK offered the lowest friction environment for launching his information sharing platform. And that Prague is the best bet for software development. Later stage business and marketing development will be handled from the UK. Today's European entrepreneurs are flexible and mobile when its comes to finding the best locations for their businesses at different stages.

Niclas Begstrom, founder of ReadSpeaker, described a sophisticated early growth model that shows how imaginative European entrepreneurs can be in building their businesses and market positions. The ReadSpeaker team wanted to square the circle of growing a speech processing business fast across multiple language areas, harnessing the sales drive of eager entrepreneurs in each country, while ultimately retaining a significant stake. So they created a new company and sold all the ReadSpeaker rights to it. That company then issued three year licenses for the ReadSpeaker system to entrepreneurs in target markets. Alumni of a European business school snapped up several of the franchises. At the end of three years franchises will revent to the licensing vehicle and franchisees will be granted stakes in that company on a formula that will reflect their success in building sales and margins. Smart or what?

Stay tuned for some great commentary, includingconversations with Loic Le Meur from SixApart and TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, as well as several of the stellar innovators at this week's event.

In addition, I'll be posting a series of episodes based on a fascinating meeting we had earlier this week with some top government officials. We met with the Regional Minister for Economy, Finance and Employment for the Government of Aragon, as well as the Managing Director of Sabia, the Aragonian Government's venture capital fund and the Managing Director of Aragon Exterior who helps local companies in exports to other countries.

And be sure to check out the Guidewire Group "I of Innovation" weekly series in your favorite podcast directory. Do a search for our program and you'll find some fresh episodes this week, including part two of a seven part conversation with Ann Winblad, and some additional insights and perspectives from technology's leading innovators.

In the mean time if you have suggestions for topics to cover, or comments about what you've heard thus far - don't be shy! If you're here in Zaragoza, you can let me know in person. Otherwise, go ahead and email me!

In this series of podcasts, I speak with entrepreneurs representing three very different locations in the international innovation ecosystem - Sweden, the Czech Republic and Australia.

Hjalmar Winbladh - President and CEO of Sweden-based Rebtel - says that entrepreneurship was once a rather "fishy" thing in his hometown.

Tim English of Digislide explains that even with the explosion of innovation in Australia, being down under means being a bit out of the loop.

Matt Gertner and Cedric Maloux, CTO and CEO respectively, of AllPeers discuss how the advantages of innovating in a place like Prague aren't necessarily a slam-dunk for success.