Maartens Journey

Let me tell you what I’ve been doing. For the past two weeks now my energy is slowly growing, which enables me to do more and more.

On Monday I accompanied Claire (one of the SPRX partners) to get a couch at her parents house for the SPRX office. And to drop of our table panel at a carpenter in the east of Holland. For the SPRX office we bought an antique wooden panel to make into a cool big desk and meeting table for the four of us. The carpenter will make the legs and order a big piece of glass to put on top of it. I got Home at 8 and it was the first time I was out of the house and doing stuff for 8 hours. That felt great.

The day after that Lori and I did the admin for our company FASKO and in the afternoon there was a small event by Amazon. I went there by metro which I haven’t done in a long  while. The event itself was pretty boring yet fun because there were lots of (twitter) people there that I hadn’t seen in awhile. And it turned out to be a preperation for the rest of the week.

Wednesday to friday was the PICNIC conference. An international event about about media, technology, science, art and much more. I have never missed an edition. The tickets are pretty expensive yet I was lucky to be able to help out to write for the PICNIC newspaper and in return get access.

The first day was good for me because it started at 12 so I didn’t have to be up and running for a whole day. I saw some keynotes but sat outside in the sun in front of the venue a lot. It’s where everybody was. Like the night before it was great just to see lots of people that i hadn’t seen in so long. And because of this blog they were up to date with my situation so we could skip that part and talk about other things. The day ended with a twitter borrel (drinks) with the dutch twitter people that were there. On my way home i went by and had a drink with Lori who was having dinner at a restaurant on the way home.

Thursday I went in again at 12. Had lunch and ended up not seeing much again. Sitting outside was much better. There were even more people there that I knew and hadn’t seen for a long time.

I had created the ultimate feedback loop. First I got sick and shocked everybody. Then I shared my story via this blog. And then I turn up after 3 months in the 1 place were everybody is at. I got so may great comments and people were so happy to see me. It really was amazing.

Thursday night on the way home I went by Beer and Innovation. It was a side event in a bar in the neighborhood of the conference. Startups present their ideas and there is free beer. A very good combination. It was thought up and organized by Erwin Blom another good twitter friend. I didn’t last that long but again had a great time.

By the last day I was starting to get tired.

But the Last day was also the day that our company SPRX had an event at PICNIC. For the last 4 months we have been organizing Vodafone Clicks. A Dragons Den type competition for the best Mobile phone Application concept. Total prize money was 100.000 euro’s. Friday morning at PICNIC there was the final and at night there was an award show and party including the Vodafone CEO who announced the winner.

First I wanted to be smart and go at 12 but ended up going early because i wanted to see the Vodafone Clicks final. That was a good decision. I saw that SPRX put up another great production. In the afternoon I took my usual place in the sun. And again saw loads of people. Also I briefly talked to Bruce Sterling which was waaaaaaay cool. I have been reading his books since the beginning of the ninties.

At six I went to the award show which was filled up. That was a good thing because we weren’t sure if we could fill it up. We did. To bad my friend @mathys didn’t win with his Mobypicture app.

By now I had expected to be dead tired and ready to go home. There was a dilemma though. I wasn’t too tired and Marketingfacts‘ (a dutch interactive marketing blog) had its yearly party on a boat down town. And lots of people that I wanted to see and that weren’t at the conference were there (like @marketingfacts, @puur and @slijterijmeisje). So guess what? I went to the party.

And again. I had a great time. Saw great people and ha some good food. and finally I was tired. I was in bed at 1 in the morning….

So what did you do last week?