Amidst all the depression caused by the financial crisis, attending SIME this year was like a breath of fresh air. Ola Ahlvarsson worked his magic once again. A very entertaining 60+ year old professor of medicine demonstrated an exciting new technology to create visual statistics called Gapminder, which was acquired by none other than google.org. Rockstar entrepreneurs and investors ranging from Morten Lund to the founders of Bwin infected the audience with entrepreneurial spirit.
Blowing away any clichés about a gambling company, Bwin demonstrated that they have a particularly modern HR Policy.
David Sifry showed how a leading rockstar blogger can become a travel tour guide entrepreneur. Among the most fascinating aspects of the conference was a panel of leading entrepreneurs from exciting international markets such as Vincent Fong for China, Joi Ito for Japan, Mahesh Kumar for India and Michael J. Wolf for the US. That was especially exciting for me as sevenload is in the midst of its internationalization. The most inspiring thing about the conference was the infectious “can do” spirit that the entrepreneurs’ presence radiated, especially those from Holland and Sweden- two countries with a distinct positive attitude that I sometimes miss in Germany.
