Henriette Weber

I have two very dear friends of mine that lives in Enschede in the Netherlands – Ton Zylstra and Elmine Wijnia. People who has supported my work and ideas for years on end – and people whom I look to when it comes to learning new stuff and figuring out things about myself and the internet. Thursday my husband and I drove from Denmark to the Netherlands to attend #Ton40 – or Ton’s 40th birthday – which is two/three days filled with cool people and learnings. Yesterday was one of the highlights – the birthday un-conference (in BarCamp style) on ” working on stuff that matters” – (or as I would say “epic shit”).  This is some of the key findings I took away from the conference.

picture by Elmine =)

– Creating  stuff instead of publishing stuff is gaining momentum.

There was a bunch of FabLab people at the un-conference – which is a great movement of people “learning by creating and making stuff” instead of only reading stuff – I totally dig that people learn better with their hands and a creative experience. For me writing a blog and publishing stuff online is a creative experience, but again I would say that you could take it further into “maker-mode”. A total inspiration today was Siert Wijnia and his homemade 3D printer where we saw a whistle produced over the course of the day. When he asked who wanted the whistle – I yelled “I” grabbed it and will make it reside in Coworkingboat Pan that we are increasingly turning into a state-of-the-art-tech-boat when it comes to functionalities – so an oversized whistle is perfect for her =)

- How to post stuff that matters to you , even if you’re into the blogging/ social media thing.

Some people don’t tap into the whole “personal branding” thing surrounding blogs and  social media these days, they feel that’s a lot to make up to, maybe because they don’t feel the need to express themselves and making their mind publically as other people do. I think a real find for me taking away from yesterday is that you have to make people like this aware of that they don’t need to create something extra to publish stuff. Like fx. a developer who really wants to share his stuff online but he can’t get himself to write blogs about code – I can understand why, because coding is actually “doing the work” and blog-writing is “writing about doing the work”. So if you can make an ecosystem of recording what you do – while you do it, instead of afterwards (code with a camera on a helmet for all I care=) I think you’ve nailed a big part of it. Other people who aren’t into looking silly (I am for sure=) could do a screencast and edit it afterwards. Anyway think real-time recording instead of publishing stuff later =)

- How to rethink and reuse innovation and creativity

I did a session on rethinking and reusing innovation and creativity and all the talk about the abundance that everybody talks about we’re supposed to have in our lives. We are abundant – especially in stuff. If you look on the pacific ocean garbage patch – we’re really abundant in plastic – so much that we can afford to have it flowing around in our oceans. We need to find a way to reuse these wasted materials and add value to it again. I think this part of the global chain of production is key to figuring out how we will go from a post-industrial society into putting the silent revolution into action. Now I think it’s something we need to do proactively (again the coworkingboat is a good example of reusing something that was going to be waste otherwise). We need to find (or make) the resources in our local neighbourhood that has a use for waste and can make it into something new – and keep on reusing it. I know that material-wise there’s a long way to go still – but we ARE getting there people! I’m a total optimist about the future, but we need to put innovation and creativity into action and actually do stuff instead of padding our own backs because we write about the changes. To some extend it makes them real – but there’s a huge gap from thought to action – a gap we need to be aware of, and a gap we need to fill with our own proactivity to changing things.

#ton40 was brilliant – so many new ideas and so many awesome people =)

Yes – I am finally one of those cool ladies who has been to a Geek Girl Meetup. I even have an official sticker saying it.  I have been dying to be a part of that gang since I heard Heidi and Paula talk about it in Stockholm about a year ago. Saturday was my big first-time-at-a-geek-girl-meetup. For me it was a fantastic experience and I used it for inspiration for the danish geek girl meetup events that we have been planning and I even gave a speak about action on the social web (im up at 23 minuttes in the video).

I was so impressed by these ladies, first up the venue was mindblowing. The people who spoke where amazing. The food and the sponsors rocked! The team behind the meetup really did an fantastic job putting it all together – for all your hard work – thank you !

But most of all I cherished the conversation with the leading geek  ladies of the Skåne region. So many things are being done over there, so many ideas and dreams, and so many successes!. I felt like staying there forever in this creative mindspace that we all participated in – awesomeness.

My favorite quote from the day is the one you see on the picture on top “passion is more contagious than expertise”. And it sums up the day so well for me. I think it’s brilliant that we can meet cross-industry/media/countries around a given subject that we are all passionate about : geek and share our point of views and how we look at the world.

What I took away from Geek Girl Meetup in Helsingborg was that we are shaping the world by these meetups, impressions and sharing our ideas. I still feel so inspired and have added a ton of stuff to my lists of things I need to do and research on to become better. Better at business but also let go of more stuff that I am dealing with, maybe do something completely different?I found out if I was supposed to do something else than being a creative web person I would become a veterinarian with 4 kids – it has always been a dream of mine. It’s not something I am considering (especially since I have this thing that I faint everytime i see (or sometimes even think of blood)

So thank you for letting me take part in your mind on a sunny saturday in Helsingborg. I am a fan =)

Oh and the creative mindspace of the event made me and Karin promise that we will set up a geek girl meetup in Copenhagen soon. stay tuned for more =)

A mail ticked into my mailbox this morning from a conference in Berlin. First off I am completely honored because I thought they where inviting me to speak there, which is the only time where I find out about conferences in my mailbox instead of in my network. This conference has everything –  Top trends on the web is what they are going to be talking about there.. Im sure it’s gonna be a blast.

When I read through the mail I find out that this isn’t a speaker invite – they want me to come as an attendant. Wow and here I am puzzled that they would ever send me a participant invite – especially since I haven’t heard about them before – and I have no idea who the people behind the conference is. I received spam. From a top-trends-on-the-web conference in Berlin. In 2010.
Normally I would just ignore this – but I think it’s disturbing that people are having a top-trends-on-the-web conference if they think it’s okay to send out spam to other people that don’t know them, asking them to come to the conference. Now this is where the s*** hits the fan in my head, because the last two lines of the mail says “all talks and workshops will be held in German”.

I don’t speak German.

This makes this mail not only completely disturbing to me – but also completely irrelevant. I mean this is a complete no-go in my book. In every EVERY sales book (and not social media or web marketing book) but in every sales book it says that “first you meet the people you want to sell to, then you get to know them, then you get to trust them – and then – only then – you can start selling”.

So this is the reason I won’t come to your conference. I don’t think you have any idea of what you’re talking about, or what your speakers are going to talk about. You sure haven’t implemented any of it. Thank you for taking some of the most precious thing in my book and wasting it: time.

I mean this is so not okay. Which is also why I am writing this blogpost and wasting another 30 mins of my time telling these people that it’s totally not okay. Really guys, Im on EVERYWHERE on the internet. You could have reached me a 1000 other ways – the internet is interconnected like that. If you can’t figure out how to do that – you sure ain’t going to teach me about internet trends.

Sorry Im ranting now. But please ! – stop it. never again. promise me that ?

So shift09 was pushed ahead to april 16-17th 2010 so now it’s shift10 (and you should all come to Lisbon with me, because shift is so much fun, so sunny, and so filled with brilliant thoughts).

It’s a conference where I have had the role as “super duper advisor” for a couple of years – which is a cool role to have and it’s a fantastic creative way to work…

Anyway now it’s shift10 – and I STILL want to do a Shift transportation crusade as I mentioned before.

The shift10 transportation crusade has one purpose and one purpose only: to get you to think about the way you travel to shift or any other conference – or if you go a tad bit deeper – how you can save the world yourself… by thinking out of the frames and upscaling old habits/things to new ones.
Like driving a car/train to Lisbon (which is 3 days each way instead of 3 hours from copenhagen).

btw if you’re coming from anyplace else than Copenhagen – and you still want to go, get in touch and I will see if I can work something out, facilitating the network and other things…

(or why I am going to spend 82 hours on transportation in october to come from Copenhagen to Lisbon and planes are not an option)

As some of you know I am a creative co-organizer of the shift conference in Lisbon Portugal (twitter: @shiftconf). It’s a great role to have because I get to do whatever I want around the conference (heck I get to to whatever I want whenever=) for the common good of the conference.

This year, when I have been speaking at conferences, when I have been travelling Europe, I have mostly gone by train. Maybe it’s because I really want to see the world eye to eye, but a big part of it is that I want to state that it matters that we don’t take the plane everywhere. basically trains are much more private and not quite as hectic. They suit me better. So this year for Shift09 – the theme being DIY, I am going to do the first thing myself and hope that a lot of other people joining me at the conference will follow suit: don’t take the plane to shift09. Take a boat, a bus, a car, a train, walk. Do a transportation crusade.

(a message from Pedro – so I better get going on this shift thing=)

The idea actually comes from Innocent drinks who has a logistic stand point when they ship their goods around the globe then “plane is not an option”. It means a lot to the stakeholders and to the people who work there… So I am trying to live by the same believe when I ship my goods around the globe – if managable – plane is not an option.

This is an action to reduce carbon emissions from the conference goers and doing something myself…As one of my friend said to me once “cultural change is a matter of perspective”. So by getting people to join my little transportation crusade, opening their eyes to alternate ways of travelling than flying, I hope that the shift’ers will actually think about alternate transportation before next time they order a planeticket.

It’s a small mean – but we’re already a couple of people from denmark heading down to Lisbon – I was thinking that if other people around the world would like to join us that would be awesome…

Another idea for making it into a crusade would be to stop different places and do social meetups – it’s just an idea – basically because I could see myself going to Paris for 50 mins only – I want to stay there for a day or so… =)

If you are interested in going to shift (if you are going anywhere really) – and you want to create a difference and be a part of the conference crusade (no matter if you live 5 min or 50 hours from the conference) – please contact me by mail or on Twitter.com/redsoda

As a part of Elmine Wijnia’s In full flow project Im rambling about my education – and what was and wasn’t useful to me. I also talk about the future of education and especially for my 5 year old daughter.

Stories on our kids’ education – Henriette from Elmine Wijnia on Vimeo.

also a different take on education coming from Euan Semple (also a part of Elmine’s in full flow project)

Stories on our kids’ education – Euan from Elmine Wijnia on Vimeo.

So Reboot11 is over and I guess we’re all digesting the movements, thoughts, laughters, actions and most important to me – the old new. “old new” seems to collect everything I consist of these days. From my pledge to use old stuff for everything not to support mass production of clothes etc etc… to my work with Coworkingboatpan – an action packed shared economy project between people I love.

Reboot was fantastic as every year however the focus is being taken more and more away from the speakers and to the people instead – which is why i choose to go to reboot every year – because of the openess and the creativity from the other people there. NOT that the speakers don’t do a great job- but reboot is more than that.

On saturday I had a coworkingboat pan launch party (more on that later) – where it became obvious how many of the people I am calling “friends” these days where some that I have met at reboot – and in particular reboot7. Reboot7 changed my life. Reboot11 confirmed me in what I believe in most – and it gave me so many thoughts. It basically made me reboot my vision of action – which was the organizers goal.

You succeeded but you also did more than that – you made me jump and smile and laugh:

thanks =)

So the videos from two talks I gave 2 weeks ago in Hamburg and Stockholm are online.

Here’s the one from next09 called: “rockbandism” or “why every company should be a rockband” based on my ebook with the same title – filmed by the amazing Andrea Vascellari

Here’s my talk on “return on involvement – how you can use social to create business unusual” from disruptive media a couple of days later i Stockholm.

Here’s where you find the video

This week I am working on putting last hands on a new ebook that is probably going to be entitled “from hopeless to hot – a crashguide in social marketing” – I don’t know yet – I change my mind all the time =) anyway the suggestion came from Eva Jonassen who send me a mail with the coolest suggestions…

Also I have made up my mind to move socialmediacamp copenhagen from the 5-6 of june to the 12th of september – this is mainly do to heavy workloads on the PR and publishing side of my big book (entitled return on involvement – how you can use the social web to create business unusual” which is due to come out shortly.

that’s about it these days – what’s happening on your side on the internet ?

So I wrote down all my favorite bits and pieces from SXSW in a notebook. Here’s the favorite quotes I took there:

- Culture change is a matter of perspective, change 4 people instead of 10.000 – Bruce Sterling.

-”you have your own level of radical geekyness Henriette” – Bruce as well

-”don’t be stupid” -  how to behave online.

-Make assumptions of social media projects look as good as possible.

-Don’t assume that you will do a facebook or a myspace. you probably wont.

-What are the metrics and what are you measuring against?

-Communicate as work, not for work

-Instead of thinking “what if it fails”, think about “what if I do nothing”, or “what if I succeed?”

-email and video still rules

-in order to grow local,  you have to build local

-if beta testing works in Africa it’s gonna work globally

-where’s the lolcats of change ?

-being dirty is too cheap

-what kind of paper adds value to the internet

-the music industry is doing fine, except for the gatekeepers

I have been arranging Barcamp’s in Copenhagen for about 3 years now and I have a new one in the making called socialmediacamp Copenhagen. (and I am toying with a bit of other camps as well). The problem/possibility of a barcamp is that the format is non-existent. the Barcamp format is called un-conference – meaning that unlike a conference, nothing is really planned except for a framework to support the attendants.

Basically as a barcamp organizer you put together a framework where people can have the best facilities for knowledge, network, inspiration, creativity and fun. It’s a project management job where you make sure that the venue is working, the sponsors are happy and the crowd is exstatic.

As an attendant all you have to do, is participate. And how do you do that ? you put together a panel, you prepare a speech, a game a concert, whatever.  Basically you prepare for, that minimum 30 mins of the barcamp is yours, to present whatever you want to present, or to do whatever you want to do. So what do you get out of participating ? hopefully you get to hang around some real cool cats for a day or two. You get to work with them, talk to them and laugh, dance and play with them. You get inspired from things you never thought would inspire you. You get creative.

one sentence why should I attend: you’ll miss out on something if you dont. I don’t know what that something is. But you’re definetly missing out =)

As an organizer you get whuffie for organizing. A lot of whuffie. You sit back for two months after the camp has been done, and then you get that urge to have people around you in the barcamp way again. People that wants to share and participate. You could a beercamp (as allan did) or a transitcamp or a creativecamp, a designcamp, a fairtradecamp or as I am about to do – a socialmediacamp. If there something you are passionate about and you want to put your thumb on it – do a Barcamp people =)

As a sponsor you should give food or stuff to people! – why ? because they remember you for that. At the last couple of barcamps there has been something like 70 of the most influental and connected people there. Now that’s something that you could use both as a supportive project, but also for marketing purposes I bet ? There’s also some of that magic whuffie rubbing off to the sponsor, you get the mentality of a barcamp + the awareness and involvement from the people attending. oh and don’t get me started on what will happen if you want to sponsor t-shirts or schwag bags =)

So final question: is barcamp just for geeks ? no it’s for passionate people. People who wants to think new and get inspired. In my world geeks are a great thing. But I could see that designers, project managers and CEO ‘s could go barcamping – as well as the strange guy from the financial office. Barcamps are kind of an underground event.