I talked to a friend on the phone today and I told her that when the week began I had decided to make this a book writing week – my daughter is at my in-laws for a winter holiday so things are pretty quiet around here, which is awesome for writing. Anyway now it’s wednesday evening and  I had done a ton of restructuring, a ton of client work and business planning this week, but no book writing.  And then she said something:

” how about doing something that’s easy?” and I went

“what do you mean ?” then she said

“well everytime you do something you want it to be worldchanging in your perspective, just so you can look back at it in 2 years time, when everybody has come to terms with it and said “I told you so. If you wrote something that came easy to you it would be mindblowing in the present and you could do that in no time”…

I think she struck a very large chord within me, Im so obsessed going after the next megatrend so I can say “I told you so”… I don’t believe in writing stuff that’s not worldchanging, but I think my problem is that I don’t see how far ahead I am… So I chose to supply my worldchanging epic book that’s due in the fall with something easy for the spring. And I found out that easy for me, has a pretty good shot at being mindblowing, practical and current for a lot of people on the internet.

And I became humbled by her insights. Especially when she added “im in communication and marketing, and I just can’t keep up with you.. you are such a geek”…

picture by Chris Heuer: Kristie Wells of Social Media Club, Annika Lidne of Disruptive Media and yours truely)

So this draft was created on the last day of the le Web conference in Paris, but I first got around to finish it now.

Le Web has been a very interesting experience. Even though it has been very different from last year- but a lot fantastic people where met, speakers seen, friends dined and cool British bands such as the ting tings where experienced. All compiled in 4 days in Paris.

I think to some extend the Le Web conference is like a fashion show. 

in one of the presentations somebody used the phrase “undercover fashion tech a la creme”. To me it describes Le Web very well;  It’s the best of the best in tech and you’re left mesmerized. I think Le web has become for tech what Paris is for the fashion scene. The conference is so well curated so if you’re leaving Le Web not knowing what is going to happen within the next 2 – 3 years, then you haven’t been paying attention at all at the conference.

Le Web has become the European event hub that’s most vital for your business.

You need to be present as a startup or as a coolhunter/trendspotter. There was some agencies down there who I overheard a conversation by, and they had simply thought that they would get a recipe for social media they could sell to their clients (if that’s what you want – feel free to contact me over at Toothlesstiger.com and I can help you out). But they didn’t get the whole startup/venture capitalist part of the conference. Some of them where annoyed that it seemed like that the whole conference where more about startups and what they are building. But you need to know this – even as an agency. You need to know what cool ideas are out there – executed by the finest in Europe.

Anyway Im looking forward to Le Web again next year. It’s my december kick and a good way to ignite and plan for 2012 =)

A couple of weeks ago I was approached by a friend of mine, who was asking me what I thought about this video:

Right from the beginning I just knew that this would upset me very much – sometimes you can just feel it when it’s coming.

She’s entitled to her opinion, but if it’s the truth she’s saying, then I shouldn’t have succeeded in anything I’ve ever done in the tech industry. I have been a women in tech since I was 19, and I think I’ve done pretty alright for myself (to say the least). So now I have been thinking about it for a while, and I think what’s really making me tick, is that she argues that because Im a women in tech and I call myself a GIRL (im 31 so Im still cool with that), I should be afraid not to be taken seriously in the tech scene – especially because I’m standing by “being a girl”. Im the co-founder of geek girl meetup copenhagen. And actually after I’ve been thinking about it (and talking about it with my good friend Lone) I don’t want to try/ to do an effort to be taken seriously. No way! here’s why:

When I was living in another country, one of the things that mystified me was that the women/girls there always went out on the town in suits. I think they did it because they wanted to be taken seriously by someone – but no one really thought about it, apart from some of us foreigners who thought it was really weird that these women would wear suits when they where supposed to have fun. I think they wanted to show the world that they where to be taken seriously – and to me it ended up having another effect – I ended up feeling sorry for them, because they didn’t show a bit of themselves instead of being taken seriously by their surroundings.

It reminds me so much of something I have seen happen again and again in the tech scene – that women they start to resemble men more and more because they don’t want to stand out and show the world what they are really like, because – what if somebody didn’t take them seriously.  What if people deemed you strange or “not qualified” because you didn’t look or acted seriously enough.

I think Im the proof that the techscene has changed – and it can embrace both men, women and girls, because I don’t think that “seriousness” lies in a name or in a “girl” label. I think that seriousness lies in going after what you think is super important, practice what you preach and be a rolemodel to other people. Do epic shit, right ?

The reason I think Geek Girl meetups are so important is because it teaches our kids/daughters that Geek can be cool, and I don’t think “geek women” would do the trick. In my mind it just wants to be taken seriously.

Actually I think that my girl label (that I bear with pride) is the least of my “seriousness” problems. I build a large part of Toothless Tiger (my thriving 7 year old business) telling companies that they should be like rockbands - think more in return on involvement instead of return on investment (biiiig business no-no)  (I wrote a danish book about that) and practice rockbandism and do business unusual. And most of the companies actually loves me for it. And they do take me seriously – why ? because I do what I think is the best fit for me. I firmly believe that I challenge the old systems and I am taken seriously because of it. I would never try to be taken seriously.

I will wake up everyday being myself and do what I believe in. And I think that some people don’t take me seriously at all. That to them Im the biggest joke on the planet. And I think that’s okay, they are entitled to. But to others – I’m the hugest inspiration. And the only thing that hasn’t done anything to aid the effect I’ve had in the scandinavian european global tech industry is probably ta-da! seriousness.

I guess what I wanted to say is that asking for seriousness, to me, is a sign of low self-esteem, it’s a sign of not believing enough in yourself to say “hey I can be totally different and they will still love me and take me serious because of that”.

Because you take yourself seriously. The whole of you. And that, my rockers, is one thing I really do; Take myself seriously.

So I stumbled across this list through the next women – and even though I appreciate it a lot – I think a list with the coolest geekgirls from a scandinavian/european perspective would be awesome! – and I am so doing that.

I am aiming for 500 geekgirls and 500 pieces of geekgirl business advice – both for the femmes but also for the hommes =)

I want to include all of you! – so drop me a note on henrietteATtoothlesstigerDOTcom or leave a comment below if you want in/knows someone who should be on the list – tell me a bit about yourself, give me your best business advice and give me a link to your twitter and site – and let’s build this together=)

1. “Don’t ever do anything mainstream” – Henriette Weber

2. “Follow your Passion and bring it into Action!” – Pernilla Näsfors

3. “Be trustworthy and kick assâ„¢” – Amelie Jacobsson

4. “Be a hub! With spokes! The hub is your core business, your specialty. The spikes is what you also make money on. Keep oiling the hub, keep it in top shape!” – Karin Høgh

5. “To slip on the right banana peel, you need to eat lots of lots of bananas. ” – Linn Grubbström

6. “Put yourself into your customer’s shoes and understand their business! Only then you will be able to help them finding “their” solution and sell them what really suits them best. If you cannot offer them anything really suitable, an honest “no” is better than selling them a bad solution. Honesty and helpfulness is core for establishing a long-term business friendship! Yes, friendship, not just relationship, since friendship is about helping, trust and honesty. That is what ensures future sales. Disregard this if you aim for business one-night-stands only.” – Anja Rauch

7. ”Remember that the path to luck must be weeded daily.” – Néné La Beet

You’re in- aren’t you ?

So during the last couple of months the amount of times I’ve heard “we need to be based in the valley” from startups has increased – a lot.

Yesterday I found a blogpost about the “european ecosystem” for startups – I think the article has a lot of great points, but I want to add my own more-action filled 2 cents.

I don’t want to move to the valley. I want to be at my own personal silicon mousehole called Elsinore, Denmark. Because it’s cool here and it’s where my kid goes to school. See, we are possibly 3 companies up here working with the internet. It’s not even Copenhagen. I don’t see a decentralized tech scene as something bad, I see it as something remarkably “glocal” and an opportunity to tell a different story than yet-another-startup-out-of-the-valley. I think what we need to aim at, is the “clusters” in the different cities, making sure that companies within the same field works together to ensure further growth.

We have a technical ecosystem that makes sure that we can work on projects from anywhere in the world with video and cms/crm/project management systems located somewhere on the internet. And basically being based in the same city makes me not prioritize meeting people here, because I could meet them at any time. I think there’s a huge psychological thing attached to geographical locations that isn’t taken into consideration when talking about “the whole tech scene needs to be in the valley” and the “competitive advantages of valley startups”.

So how do I make sure that people in the  tech scene knows about this little red tornado (aka. me)?

I often do tours of Europe to be present at the gatherings that are made in and for the european tech scene, it’s important to me because I get a grasp of what’s happening amongst the firstmovers of the internet, it’s important for me because it makes me connect to people, that are easier to connect with here than if they where in the valley. Oh and sometimes I even meet people at a different conference again – and they remember me.

Think about it. If you want to pitch/sell/get to know some hot shot person (maybe the coolest person in the world) it’s probably better to meet him when he’s out of his context, when he’s in Paris or London or Copenhagen for a week and don’t really have anything else to do there than to speak at conferences and attend meetings. If he’s in the valley he’s within his own context and wouldn’t prioritize meeting you as much as he would if he was in Europe and had time on his hands.

So I definitely see that you need to be present physically in the tech scene, you need to meet people where they are (physically as well as on the internet). But I would rather stay put in my small town and fly out to meet the tech scene physically every second month (europe, asia, US ) instead of being present all the time, backing it up with skype calls and tweets and facebook likes and what have you. Get a proactive and strategic approach to the tech community would create so much more for you as a startup than to be present in the valley at all times.

Live from my personal silicon mousehole

Picture by Jeppe Liisberg

I used half my saturday mentoring Copenhagen Startup Weekend.  It was crazy cool and left me floatin’ on a creativity trip, just from spending around 5 hours at the venue, together with the teams and the organizers. I can imagine how much inspiration the team members have gotten from a weekend filled with executing ideas. Anyway I got to mentor 5 ideas and the concept behind all of them was great.  I’m hoping that they all would be executed well and be some of the cool startups of tomorrow – like some startups emerged from last year (cough Memolane and Planely cough).  So this was where I saw that the teams I mentored where heading.

Using “online” to create convenient offline services

Actually, when I think of it, most of the teams weren’t doing communities on the internet or social websites, they where using online connections to create convenience in the real world. The talk was more on apps, RFID tags and censors then on “building the next facebook for xx”. I was happy because I’ve gotten a bit put off lately by the amount of web services that saw themselves as the next facebook (or facebook for businesses).

The idea was all about the end-users

No matter if it was a business-to-business or a business-to-consumer idea, it was all about the end-users. Involving them in ways that could make you collect data from them, and create a win-win situation for you (smarter companies) and for them (more relevancy and substance in the interactions with the companies).

Most of the ideas were built on visions of making the world a better place

Again it was about convenience but the drive came mostly for making the world fitter and happier.  I love when it’s not all about the money – I mean, money is fantastic, but the love I have for people who want to change the world is enormous.

I left Startup Weekend confirmed in my own hunches for the future, inspired and filled with enthusiasm for the teams – I’m sure they will do extremely well.

The last couple of days there has been a discussion going on in the danish twitterverse about a blogpost where he was sad about the social media/technological revolution (in danish) -because it made him and his family sit in front of screens all the time. I think it raises some great subjects, so I couldn’t help but giving you my take on it.

I have always felt trapped in between technological revolutions. Seriously – when I was a kid I loved loved loved playing Civilization and Hero Quest – I could get completely absorbed in the game to the point where my family didn’t see me for a whole weekend – if they letted me. I remember being FURIOUS if my brother had to borrow the computer and play. I have always been drawn to the games. I can see my daughter is getting as absorbed in it, as I was.

I tend to make it into a family thing to play animal crossing on the wii (which she loves) as I tend to make her help out cooking, create stuff and as she has her “creative online workshop” (a blog) where we posts things that’s she’s build out of cardboardboxes and other stuff. She loves to build, she loves to be read to, and she loves to make stories/movies with a camera and her lego’s (maybe with permission I can post some of it here).

I posted Clay Shirky’s essay called “gin,television and social surplus” in my book “return on involvement” because it’s one of the essays that means most to me. I think it’s spot on to say that the media has changed, and they have become more active (as he does in the essay).

I think the active media and how we use it is all about choice. It’s what we choose to make of it -I sit in front of the computer all day, and there’s nothing that makes me more relaxed than to cuddle up with the family in front of a nice movie, or to spend my nights reading books or doing art. I don’t believe in technology/life balance as well as I don’t believe in work/life balance or family/life balance- I believe in life.

Seriously if you think you spend too much time in front of the screen – get a house, a garden get some kids and get a dog… and you will cherish your time in front of the screen. Set up an environment for yourself where you can’t get absorbed in it. You will love it everytime you get to go into your RSS reader and see what magic is happening in there, because to me, the technology truely is magical.

If you let the technology take over, if you let it separate you from the crowd you’re in, and where you spend you’re time sitting in front of screens.

Like letting your kids play DS all day long,

Like being at conferences – not being present but checking out stuff on the internet

Like playing wii with your best friends instead of being together with them

I think it’s your priorities around the technology that’s not set up properly, and you probably should set them up – otherwise you might miss out on a great deal of living =).

Technology moves SO fast these days, it’s important that you have your priorities set up about it, both from a business, personal and a family point of view. To me the technology is empty shells – it’s just tools

But it’s what you put in these tools and what you decide to create with it, alone or in a group, that counts – it’s not a life takeover – it’s fun, creative, narcissistic and full of possibilities (as well as threats) – make the best of it.

There’s an old saying by Madeleine Albright saying ” there is a place in hell for women who don’t help each other”. We’ve heard it over and over again. I would rather say that “there is a place in heaven for women who rocks it out together”. If that’s so, I was in heaven this weekend, at geek girl meetup 10, together with 100 + of the fiercest tech ladies in Sweden. I was so happy that I could just linger and hang out.

I had a personal goal, and it where to do my first ever presentation without a presentation, so I had written all my key takeaways down on a card, and  people really liked my message and my call for action + the presentation style. The most important thing was that I felt really good after the presentation, and it’s actually the way I personally measure whether or not a presentation has been great. If Im happy and at peace inside, then it has been awesome.

But there where so many discussions and so many subjects going on.

So now Geek Girl Meetup Copenhagen and Geek Girl Meetup 10 has happened, and I think there was a lot of things that could happen with the geek girls next, not to replace, but as an addition to the meetups. there’s just so many ways we could work around geek girl that it’s hard to limit myself. Some of the things I personally would love to see is:

a tech coworkingspace for ladies, A geek girl calendar for 2011 (a creative workshop-y one, not one with nude pinup pictures), a geek girl web tv channel ( i feel so inspired after being a guest on sweet sunday web crunch). Now I don’t think that these initiatives should only involve women, men should be very welcome as well, but the initiatives should be made by women, in order to get the geek girl stamp =)

I feel like im a part of a club of likeminded ladies that I can support in all their endeavours, and it’s great =)

(ps. pic by Paula Marttila)

Just got to #ggm10 or “geek girl meetup in stockholm” this morning and I am already inspired. There was a really good talk this morning entitled “im not a brand – or am i ?” (in swedish – anyway the title was something like that). I so wanted to raise my hand and introduce myself as “hi, I’m Henriette Weber and I am a personal brand – but not intentionally”… See I really wanted to remark on something in the brand discussion that was here, but time was limited, so I decided to do it on my blog instead. Because some of the things I thought has been essential and vital for me, was really run over briefly. here’s what I want to contribute with (and my ideas on personal branding)

- To me it’s important to have a personal brand that’s the same as who you are- when you are professional – if you look at someone like Marilyn Monroe -she totally distinquished herself as “Marilyn Monroe” when she was out. and “Marilyn” or Norma Jean” when she was on her own. if you can grap one of her biographies it’s really interesting to see her struggle between herself and her “brand”. Seriously there’s so many versions of me as well. I understand sweet Marilyn completely

- Your brand is something that exists in the minds of other people – so you can’t really take ownership of it. Sometimes you’re labeled something that isn’t really what you intended. Like my e-book ” why every company should be a rockband” it labeled me with being an “online rockstar” or a “rockbrand” (- I like the word rockbrand, it’s something Im tapping into in a future e-book coming soon to you). Fortunately I was completely cool with that. (Good thing I didn’t write a book about why every company should be “insert-uncool-word here” or something like that, because that would have taking me ages to get over – brandwise).

But I started to work the brand instead of working against it. Up until then, I didn’t have a brand I worked as such, people who’ve met me either like me or don’t, I’ve always been an opinionated, creative, curly haired rebel. But the brand wasn’t really a concious decision for me. It came from what I was really good at, and a crazy idea about companies as rockbands, which made totally sense to me.

- My brand came from creativity and an idea I just couldn’t let go. I would keep resembling things to rockbands – and then I just started writing, pure and simpl. It’s a 2 year old e-book now, and it’s something that has identified me as a (rock)brand ( I actually think it has done so, more than I am aware off)

So, my 2 cents on the core of my personal branding. Im doing a talk at #ggm10 later today about “epic shit and business unusual” where I will tab into more of it…

I feel inspired!

Go crazy out there =)

So – last saturday I was running around at iværksætterhuset on Nørrebro, kind of like a hen without a head, but remaining calm and smiling. To arrange a meetup with 150 ladies requires a lot of planning and a lot of on the spot actions. People everywhere has said how great it was though.

Picture of yours truely by Amelie Berkeley

To be honest with you, We did expect it to be great. Karen, Karin, Malin, Lisa and I (aka. the planners) had a hunch. There where small indicators, like that the first 100 tickets sold out in 6 days, like we got a lot of support for the event from the participants beforehand – and a lot of hugs and smiles and laughter during the event. It confirmed me again that ladies do bond better and the coolness + approach-ability factor goes up. It just seem more down to earth, fun and dreamy. Yep I would argue that there was a fair share of unicorns and rainbows at the event (not only supplied by the Sony Ps3 Move).

I think my personal goal where met, when a couple of the ladies went home with a bigger dream avec un petit peu d’internet. I think my goal where met when ladies decided to give twitter a second shot. Or when so many at the event hooked up on facebook. When Sine told me that she’s doing something similar in Odense because she loved the feeling of it. Or when somebody magically cleaned up after cake and dinner, without me notising it. When Marie is setting up a blogger gathering in the spring in Ã…rhus -( and I will be there) When the sponsors clapped their hands because of the exposure they got and everybody left this magic place in the middle of Nørrebro called Iværksætterhuset with a feeling of go-get’em and we where told that we could have the place as a venue next time around as well.

A lot of the talks and workshops where amazing. or so Im told. I was so happy for the showroom set up by Malin and supported heavily by Camille and her blog hverdagshjem and her urge for everyone to do a hausfrau evening in their home. A creative feminine outburst. It rocked.