Building Innovation Bridges Between Silicon Valley and Europe

Conference in Palo Alto, May 13th, 2010 
www.innovationbridges.com

The European Commission, Innovation Directorate - DG Enterprise and Industry, wishes to express its gratitude to GABA, the Stanford University Mechanical Engineering and all conference participants as well as the European innovation support services for organizing this event that will help shape our common thinking and future action. 

This conference had a very particular focus: Building stronger innovation bridges between Silicon Valley and Europe through the European Expatriates. The purpose was to provide ideas and guidance for those that design and deliver innovation support in Europe or on behalf of European organisations in the Valley. The policy makers - and I am counting myself as one - simply don't know enough to provide the best enabling environment to make your innovations work in Europe. But we are interested to do better. 

I want to thank you already for your contributions, your ideas and advice. Personal experience and opinions on barriers for building better innovation bridges are as welcome as scientific insight and the practical framework for transatlantic venture capital investing. 

Looking forward to your feedback. 

Sven Schade
European Commission, Support to Innovation    

Click here for videos and pictures from the event.  

Related online articles in French:

Innovation et transfert de technologie
Le capital risque : la silicon Valley versus l'Europe
http://www.bulletins-electroniques.com/actualites/63412.htm

http://www.france-amerique.com/articles/2010/05/18/conference_building_innovation_bridges_between_silicon_valley_and_europe_1.html 

Make Social Media Work for You and Your Business

The perfect exercise in social media marketing, is to create and promote an event dedicated to it. 

On March 30th, over 50 women came to the Mindjet office in San Francisco to discuss how social media marketing can become a viral instrument to turn your unique experiences into a successful business.
           
It was our most marketed event yet— promoted on four different social media networks (along with our usual email channels), inspired the group’s first-ever real-time Tweets, and lots of email group activity about the topic.
 
Our speakers got the conversation started by sharing their personal and professional experiences about using social media for their start-up business, within larger organizations, and on behalf of their clients:

• Bettina Jetter – serial entrepreneur and founder of Coaching Sanctuary
• Chaszey-Sandhriel-Dejay - Executive Director of Pay It Forward Academy 
• Betsy Streeter - Cartoonist/Illustrator/Designer/Teaching Artist 
• Nicole Kidd - Rebmann Research U.S. Trend Scout & Analyst         

 Bettina, Linda and Nicole

The discussion explored how women excel at networking, business persona versus personal personas, and the social media business bottom line.  Comments about marketing techniques quickly turned to questions about how to market using social media, and the realization that social media more than just a marketing trend— it’s a business reality and a social imperative.

Some noteworthy sound bites:

• Social media has shot to the forefront of people's attention because it is fun.  Thanks to social media, it's easy to share your ideas, photos, videos, likes and dislikes, with the world at large - and find out what they think of them.  You can find friends, business contacts and become part of a community or a bunch of different communities.  Social media allows you to connect with people you have something in common with, and it helps to streamline the process who you meet.
• Set goals, be authentic, know your values before you create your profile.
• Make wise decision whether you want to give your product or services away for free.  However, generosity oftentimes pays off because it can raise awareness and catches someone’s interest.
• You may want to consider using software that helps you to manage your time, increase productivity and to stay focused.  Remember that it is easy to get lost.  Pace yourself and follow the 80/20 rule.

The full event presentation: http://www.gaba-network.org/download/EventFlyer/20100330_Presentation_WIBSocialMediaNicole%20Kidd.pdf
Photos from the event: http://www.gaba-network.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=569&Itemid=211
For more information about GABA Women in Business, visit: http://www.gaba-network.org/womeninbusiness
WIB email group: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/GABA_WIB

By Linda Kotzot Cleary, GABA Women in Business Chair