Silicon Valley: the rules always change

Today we had two interesting talks about the way of doing business in Silicon Valley. Barbara Wichman talked about do’s and don’ts in business and the art of networking. Here strong message was: Ask the question “what does it take for me to do business with you”? In other words: bring something interesting, e.g. the provision of a think tank as a sound byte may trigger the SV entrepreneur.

Paul Wiefels Managing Director,
 The Chasm Group http://www.chasmgroup.com, stated that within SV “rules change all the time”. There is not one way and nowadays the focus on customer markets and products is certainly hot (See the change at Apple). And as an entrepreneur you are enjoying your passion and are allowed to fail! A badge of honor is given.

And in between the two presentations we drove to Intel and visited the Intel Museum. On the picture we see the first microprocessor 4004 on a chip.

The first impression of the valley is fine: all huge and super modern buildings with lots of space. But much office buildings can be leased. Where are all those companies gone?

Lower Yosemite Fall track

This is the name of the track to the lower part of the big waterfall in Yosemite Park. Everything is big here in the USA: the coffee you order, the car you own and the meal you eat. And so is this waterfall. We climbed to a height of nearly 1500m to get to the middle of this waterfall. We had a beautiful view on this fall. The snow that fell during the walk made our trip difficult.



During the afternoon we traveled to San Jose. Tomorrow we start our visits to companies and institutions here in Silicon Valley.

Traveling t(hr)o(gh) California (Bintangs)*

After a long flight of nearly 11 hours we landed on the International Airport of San Francisco. Customs was easy and staff was polite. First contact with home was made, Wi-Fi and Edge could not be used on my iPhone: the internet/telecom operators should improve this facet of living.

After collecting the four minivans we were heading for Yosemite Park, a nature park more than 200 miles from San Francisco. I got a typical stereotype image of the environment. The number of big gars is huge, old cars have been pimped up, old farms along the road, huge fields, old houses, caravans, thousands of wind mills on the hills. Using maps, Tom Tom and a bit of orientation and after a stop for some sandwiches we ultimately reached our motel Cedar Lodge in the village of El Portal on 9.15 pm. A quick meal was the end of a long trip.

*Bintangs: Dutch rock group in the sixties and seventies with a song titled Traveling in the USA. Name of the group derived from the brand name “Bir Bintang”, meaning star beer in Indonesian language.

Program Proximity Tour Silicon Valley

See the destinations on Google Maps

Saturday March 29
Morning departure (11.10u) from Amsterdam arrival at San Francisco (14.20u)
Transfer to Yosemite Park evening team building / dinner night [1] in Yosemite Park; Stay in the cedar Lodge Hotel http://www.bookinotel.net/yosemiteparkportal/cedarlodgehotel.htm

Sunday March 30
Visit to Yosemite park, afternoon transfer to San José evening night [2] in San José; Stay in the clarion Hotel in San Jose – http://www.clarionsj.com/

Monday March 31
Do’s and don’t’s in business and the art of networking. Barbara Wichman, Artemia Communications

Intel Museum, guided tour. See http://www.intel.com/museum/index.htm

Paul Wiefels Managing Director, The Chasm Group, LLC ; "As we see it: the Tech Market Landscape". See http://www.chasmgroup.com

Tuesday April 1
Meet the Dutch Business Community, Dutch breakfast @ PlugandPlayTechCenter; see http:/www.plugandplaytechcenter.com
Cisco
Evening Hockey Match San Jose Sharks see http://sharks.nhl.com/


Wednesday April 2 University Day!

1. Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC) Meeting with Jasna Mrkic Director of Industrial research in the interest of Society see http://www.citris-uc.org/
2. National Public Lightpath: Policy and Technology Platform for Meeting the Connectivity Challenge in the U.S.Start: 12:00 pm
3. Visit Stanford Computer Forum see http://forum.stanford.edu/facebook/overview.php
4. Presentation Dave Mc Clure Persuasive Technology see http://captology.stanford.edu/facebook/overview.php
   

Thursday April 3

Meeting SD Forum see www.sdforum.org

Computer History Museum see http://www.computerhistory.org

Visit Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus see http://research.microsoft.com/aboutmsr/labs/siliconvalley/

Evening Churchill Club see http://www.churchilclub.org

Friday April 4

Franz Inc see http://www.franz.com

Expression College for Digital Arts see http://expression.edu/

Transfer to The Holiday Inn Golden Gateway Hotel see http;//www.goldengatewayhotel.com

Saturday April 5

We will visit San Francisco.

Sunday April 6

Departure from San Fransisco Airport 15.20u; arrival in Amsterdam Schilhol Airport on Monday April 7 10.30u.

Proximity Tour Silicon Valley

Next week starting this Saturday I will join the Proximity Tour to Silicon Valley. This is an excursion organized by the ICT-kring Delft. This network of ICT companies in the Delft region celebrates its first lustrum with this tour and a symposium organized on the 22nd of May this year.

The theme of this tour is ‘Value by Proximity’ – how to create value by cooperation and using each other’s knowledge, network, innovative and creative power. Our goals are the exchanging of experiences, making foundations for cooperation, finding out which are CSF’s of big and so big companies, incubators, local entrepreneurial networks and governmental institutions and institutions such as universities.

The following post is the program, which still may be subject to change. I will publish every day a short story about my experiences during this weeks visit.

Christiaan Huygens Project

Christiaan Huygens is één van de vijftig belangrijke Nederlanders. Maar wat weet de gemiddelde Nederlander van hem behalve dat hij de uitvinder is van het slingeruurwerk?

Dit project heeft tot doel het intellectuele netwerk van Christiaan Huygens te onderzoeken. Welke mensen hebben hem beïnvloed, welke heeft hij beïnvloed? Niet alleen de fysica en wiskunde zijn onderwerp maar ook andere wetenschap, het onderwijs dat hij genoot en de maatschappij waarin hij leefde. Op welke wijze hadden de mensen contact met elkaar en met hem, hoe zijn inzichten ontstaan en uitvindingen tot stand gebracht?

Het resultaat is kennis, deels bestaand en mogelijk deels nieuw die beschikbaar is voor de generatie van nu. Zowel de brongegevens alsmede de studies van de relaties, de analyses en conclusies zijn ontsloten via internet. Middelbare scholieren beschikken over onderwijsmateriaal waarmee zij fysisch inzicht kunnen opbouwen aan de hand van de wereld van Christiaan Huygens.

Het intellectuele netwerk vormt de rode draad. De al aanwezige kennis over en van Christiaan kan hierin zijn plek hebben. Maar ook nieuwe verbanden kunnen zichtbaar worden. Voor een groot publiek zal het inzicht groeien en overzicht ontstaan.