Appatize is the start-up I’m working on and we’re featured on Betali.st and soon on Sprout (dutch). You’re welcome to check it out and put yourself on the guest-list (:
Appatize is the web app for all your restaurant needs. With Appatize you’ll be able to check contact details and the menu, rate the dish you ate, follow restaurants for the special of the day or certain perks and send your table order directly to the chef.
Eyes on the prize
I surely have a busy week behind me. Worth mentioning are that at Thursday I attended and blogged for TEDxRotterdam, and in the weekend I participated in the Enterprize which is a contest for starting entrepreneurs.
I already have a few balls rolling but I entered the contest with a business idea I actually need some funding for. I also entered the contest because I believe it’s an idea that could use adjustment here and there and I actually made a few. I also met a lot of young creatives from in and around Rotterdam which might even be more valuable.
So what would I like to realize you might ask yourself, well the last six years I’ve primarily focussed on new media and the Internet, but originally I came from a family that had a restaurant. I’ve been working from home but I realized that I didn’t want to do that for the rest of my life and I always dreamt about what it would be like to have a bar where people can work from. I’ll outline a few steps of how this dream formed in my head.
Eight years ago I had a thing with this exchange student from Finland who lived in the Hague, I was 18 at the time and she was 25 and probably thought I was 23 or something because when she saw my ID she kicked me out for being too young. I wasn’t planning on leaving so I went downstairs where there was an Internet cafe. I found out I could enter the web there and even order something to eat and I might have ordered a whisky at around 1pm. She called me a little later and was welcomed back in. I have never forgotten this, not because of her, but because of the freedom I felt at the cafe, I mean, working and ordering a scotch with your sandwich?
Five years ago I was attending a study in MultiMedia Design and I wondered about a production studio that would double as a club in the weekend. You see, you could have a lot of the equipment already to make great pictures and videos of the parties taking place. During the day the crew would be able to work on websites or use the photo studio and come weekend, the desks would simply roll away backstage. This was maybe a little silly but it stuck with me.
Last year I was already working from home for quite a while and it hit me that I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life. You see, when I go out to have a drink or lunch with a prospect or partner, you’re always surrounded by people that don’t want to do business and don’t care about what you’re up to at all. Even in my spare time when I try to just have a few laughs this is the case, and I might not want to do business in those moments, I do however like being surrounded by people that might.
There’s three kinds of people in this world, those that make stuff happen, those who observe and those who wake up one day saying; “Huh, what happened?!”
I want to create a bar just for that first group and we’ll also be open for those in the second if they’re interested, the third group can stay in bed.
How will this modern Internet bar/cafe look? What will it offer? I’ll jot that down in a post after this one. Please let me know what you think.
(via superbruut)
Mikko Hypponen and why it is good to be a minority.
I was at TEDxRotterdam yesterday and I was supposed to blog but since the wifi wasn’t optimal I hardly got anything out. It’s one of those problems we’re still struggling with as a society. Now that I typed that it hits me as a typical first world problem, but hey it’s true. The organizers could have chosen for a closed network but that would keep some students from tweeting since 3G wasn’t really working as well, they chose to have an open network which resulted in no one being able to have a stable connection. Personally I can’t ignore the fact that you should be able to run two networks, one public and one private but then again, I might be wrong.
Let’s talk about TED, which has the slogan: “Ideas worth spreading”. Mikko’s talk was a prime example of one of those. I’ve seen most of the talks and I promised myself to highlight only the ones that were in my opinion actually worth spreading. Mikko’s talk is worth spreading because so many people really don’t know what can happen with the technology they take for granted. Sometimes I feel like I have a sixth sense of maybe just a lot more of the common kind when it comes to viruses and especially links like: “OMG did you see these naked pictures of you?” or DID you read this nasty blog about “you?!” send by someone you know. I mean c’mon people.
There are certain aspects in technology that even frighten me sometimes tho. Things like hactivism and Stuxnet can really send chills down my neck. I won’t explain that to you right now but I do think the public needs to know more about it or at least about the easy traps they could fall for.
On another note, as an Apple user I hardly get any troubles from malware or viruses and Mikko noted that the next big victim will be Android since they’re getting bigger than the #1 target of the moment, Windows XP. Sometimes, it’s good to be a minority.
I’ll be at TEDx Rotterdam tomorrow and I will be blogging about the talks right here. It’s going to be early for me but I have already prepared; my shirt is hanging to dry and my alarm is set!
There will be a lot of great speakers and artists at the Nieuwe Luxor tomorrow and I hope I’ll be able to see them all since I have to leave a wee bit early at around 5pm.
At around 8am I’ll be at the Luxor, probably with a coffee to go in my hand, waiting in line for registration. After that I think I’m already entitled to have some breakfast (: and then it’ll be also time for some music from Scarlet Mae. I’m actually kinda curious how that will sound since I’ve met one of the band members a few weeks ago.
Mikko Hypponen should be interesting to see as he is one of the 50 most important people on the web. (according to PC World Magazine)
Ilco van der Linde is speaking as well, Ilco is the mind behind Dance4Life and the peace initiative Masterpeace. Will see that as well.
I’ll probably end the day with a bit of ‘Conny Jansen Danst’. I’ve seen ads for that show practically everywhere and at Lowlands I actually worked back stage of their performance but I’ve never seen it.
Rotterdam is already a leading city in so many areas and let’s hope it will stay that way with all the budget cuts taking place at the moment. I always love to meet people that are so enthusiastic about our architecture. I’m going to keep an eye out for any more interesting insights on the connection between leading the future and my amazing city.
Who will lead the future is actually a pretty good question when you think about the recent passing of Steve Jobs. Steve gave a speech at Stanford University in 2005 which was so good that eventually it was also posted on TED’s website in 2009. Please watch this video if you haven’t seen it before.
Who will be the next Steve Jobs? Who will lead the way in technology? Who will lead the future? I’m hoping to find out!
(Source: thenextweb)
Hey @Tumblr can we get this one on a Tee?
Only 2 more weeks and the Rotterdam Tumblr Meetup will be a reality! We can’t wait to meet you all and to have some fun together.
That being said, here are the exact details: We open the Rooftop before 4pm, you’re already welcome then, officially the Meetup starts at 5pm. At that time and with good weather the barbecue will already be sizzling hot. Beers will be cold and provided by us. The rest is up to you! If you’d like something else to drink please bring along and if you bring some food you can enjoy the barbecue.
When it starts to get cold on the roof, there can be a lot of wind, we can always go inside where we’ll also setup a table if you need to do some blogging. Did I tell you there’s Wifi? Afterwards you’re free to join us in heading downtown.
We’re working on some other cool stuff that we might not be able to pull off so we’re not mentioning just what right now. If you’d like to see anything else, just let us know!
Hope to see you the 20th!
Rooftop? Beers? Barbecue? Rotterdam?! Wifi AND Tumblr?! YES! See you there? RSVP
Friday the 20th of May, starts at 17:00
Hofdijk 581
3032 CG
Rotterdam!
Leon: 06-24 21 6332
Mail from Tumblr (:
We all know what that means right?
We have an awesome location with not only a view over the city centre, but with a terrace as well. It’s a 10 to 15 minute walk from Central Station or you could take tram 4 and get of the stop after you’ve passed our lovely Hofplein Fountain. Best part? There might be a barbecue burning if we have nice weather, which it looks like we will.
We will be drinking beers brought by me and the stuff you guys bring along (BYO) so bring wine, soda, juice, bites or anything you like. There’s coffee as well.
Please do RSVP and Reblog or tell any other Tumblrs-non Tumblrs you’d like to see there to join and RSVP.
You can always call or email me, Leon: 06-24216332 - LeonPals@me.com
PS; the first to show up get swag, yay! (:
PPS; In no way do you have to be, per se, on Tumblr yet. We’d like to grow the community and we always welcome new people, even if they only come for the fun, burgers and beer.
Very nice screen at #TNW2011 did I say very nice? How about an awesome screen!
I’m heading to Amsterdam tomorrow for TNW Hackathon & Conference 2011. Just booked a place to sleep and am currently in the process of packing my bag. I was really looking forward to the conference until last weekend, I suddenly realized we’ve had wonderful weather the past week and I couldn’t stop thinking about all the daylight hours I would miss by attending the conference.
But today I heard the weather would suck this whole week, except for Queensday of course, so I’m all excited again. Just kidding tho, I’ve been so all week.
It’s always fun wandering the streets of our busiest city (with an almost 24hr economy), but it’s even more fun when there’s web & tech people around, loads of fun & drinks and last but not least Queensday just a few restless nights away.
I’m posting this as an intro into what might become a crazy load of Tumblr logs and eventually a roundup of the coming week - including Queensday of course!
Things I’d like to see and people I’d like to meet:
- Brilliant pitches by hot start-ups
- Loads of Coffee
- TNW Crew members I didn’t meet before
- Tammy Camp
- Scoble
- Extraordinary breakfasts
- @boris & @patrick in suits
- A few unsuspected surprises would be nice as well, heck that’s what the conference is for right? Meeting great people you barely or never heard of?
If you’d like to meet you can always let me know.
Goodbye, good night, and have a blast!
I did an interview recently for Pytch, here’s the video and the rest can be read over at Pytch. It’s all in Dutch though..
What do you think?
