Cannes Archive

Back Home...Finally!

I got home safely late Friday afternoon after some 20 hours of travel time. I was only gone a little over two weeks, but it felt like months. There was so much crammed into my trip to London, Cannes and Israel that I tried to capture as much as possible here, but really, I'm still processing a lot of it. As much as I was ready to be home, I also immediately wanted to go back everywhere.

So don't expect I'm done blogging about it all. I've also got a BusinessWeek column on London and one on Israel to come, plus a lot of the video I shot on the trip for Yahoo. But right now, I just need a break and some bedrest!

difference between cannes and sxsw is....

...reaction to my legs! i continue to get asked by everyone i meet about sxsw and the zuckerberg keynote. it's always very friendly towards me, just as during and after the conference in the US, i just can't believe ANYONE still cares about this.

loic was teasing me about being on stage again at cannes for the first time since the debacle, as you can see this video he insisted on shooting as we were trying to plan out questions for the panel..... (after the jump)

almost forgot to blog this gem

last night there was some odd awards ceremony for different content projects. it's actually a boring show, but hosted by this funny british guy so it makes it all ok. but none of those details matter. what was funny, was the head of Ogilvy in the UK was on stage just hours after MySpace and Bebo roundly kissed up to advertisers and the mainstream content world, saying unlike Facebook and LinkedIn, they were real media companies.

so the funny british guy asks the Ogilvy guy if he used MySpace or Facebook. Ogilvy says, "Facebook" without hesitating, adding he's "too old" for MySpace. the host-- who clearly thought Facebook was still a college site- was confused and said, "wait, i thought MySpace was for grownups?' to which Ogilvy says, "No, MySpace is for pedophiles." and the packed auditorium laughed.

Ouch.

blogging in style

don't ask me why it took this long. but i just discovered the VIP room at this conference. and it is swwwwwannnky. it's on the beach with a whole wall of windows, wifi, an assortment of design within reach furniture and -- because it's france-- champagne. the bartenders are absurdly charming as well. apparently this is the place to park yourself at the MIPTV conference because everyone you want to talk to filters in at some point during the day. my heels are off and my feet are curled up on the white leather couch next to me as i blog. a european dude just walked by and said, "all you need is the TV, eh?" eh.

anyone want to watch a movie on their phone?

sheesh. i'm not the target market. i grouse about a 36" tv. my yahoo blog today.

btw

by "chilling in cannes" i also meant it's cold and rainy. i am *such* a weather jinx. sorry israel! grabbing some lunch and writing a blog for yahoo. sadly, i think the weather is too bad for the restaurant on the beach.

chilling in cannes

i'm a nerd. i've been in my hotel writing for most of the afternoon/ evening instead of attending an interactive TV awards gala in cannes. but i had a headache, a load of emails to return, and i wanted to write my businessweek column while london was still fresh in my head. speaking of- thanks to mike at techcrunch UK for the shout out! anyone i missed in the foggy city, don't worry i'll be back!! anyone coming to *my* foggy city in late-april, i'll likely see you at an event or two.

speaking of the country i'm now in: i was looking through some european funding stats for my businessweek column and it seems france had a banner 2007-- with more than $1 billion in investments from U.S. VCs. that definitely conflicts a lot of the stuff i heard this week about the relative lack of startup excitement in paris and berlin-- even compared to eastern europe (which i believe mike has written about as well).

my guess is a couple big one-off deals. either that, or french deals are being done mostly by outside investors, while European deals are increasingly being done by local firms (accel and others count as local, i believe, since they are separate funds from US counterparts) leaving U.S. firms less to cherry pick. anyone in Europe have more thoughts on what's up here?

leaving london for cannes

well, london was amazing. doe-eyed entrepreneurs and overly chatty cab drivers- what's not to love? not done with it though, i'll write something brilliant mildly insightful for businessweek and fedexed a slew of video interviews to yahoo yesterday. some of it will post in the next few days i hope. and i'll see a lot of my new london pals in san francisco later this month!

in cannes, i'll be  moderating a panel at the MIPTV conference and will see a few techy pals like Joi Ito and Loic LeMeur-- hopefully others too! (hoping joi's twitter was wrong about all that rain!)

btw- london gets EXTRA points over paris for the brilliantly easy airport check in experience. thank god nice is one of the only european destinations that's still in terminal one!