Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten

As we both know…

A friend of mine had an argument with his girlfriend about who should do what in the house. She told him she was doing all the laundry and that maybe he should help out with that. He replied that he always took care of dinner. He bought groceries, prepared the meal, served it and then cleaned the dishes. She replied "Yeah, but that's not fair. You 'like' cooking". They were both right, of course. It is easy to discard anything you are good at as nothing special. You make something and...

Ashes Meeting Obama!

In 1997 I shook hands with someone who had just shaken hands with Hilary Clinton. That is as close as I ever got to meeting a president. Yeah, not very close indeed. You can imagine how extremely jealous I am of my best friend Daniel J. Ashes who traveled to the US a few weeks ago with a few friends (Joey Elgersma, Achmed Akkabi, Jim Aasgier and Nasrdin Dchar)  to meet with Obama. I begged him to take me with him but that just wasn't possible. The only thing left for me to do is watch...

Fun in Greece at Blogger Camp 2008

Patrick and me having fun near the pool at Greek Blogger Camp 2008: I just did a presentation here which several people filmed and will upload to Youtube later. Other speakers were Matt Mullenweg and Timothy Ferris. As you can see we are having a very good...

Public Speaking

These days I seem to be spending a lot of time on stage at various events. Yesterday I moderated a session at Achmea about communities and innovation. Next week (May 22) I will moderate the National ICT Event in Utrecht and on May 30 I will fly to Greece to speak at Greek Blogger Camp 2008. Other speakers at Greek Blogger Camp will be Timothy Ferris and Matt Mullenweg and it will take place at the fabulous Ios Palace hotel which is located on the golden sand beaches of Mylopotas. No, I am...

San Francisco; here I come…

"Your city is remarkable not only for its beauty. It is also, of all the cities in the United States, the one whose name, the world over, conjures up the most visions and more than any other, incites one to dream. Georges Pompidou This Sunday Ernst-Jan and I will get on a plane, sleep for 11 hours, and then wake up in San Francisco. We will attend the O'Reilly Web2Expo and every party we can talk our way into. We will be staying at the Handlery Union Square Hotel Our itinerary on...

Speaking at Plugg in Brussels today

Today I will be speaking at Plugg in Brussels, Belgium. I'm a guest in the Entrepreneur Panel with these people: Simon McDermott from Attentio, Andrej Nabergoj from Noovo and Rodrigo Sepúlveda from Vpod.tv. We will discuss these open questions: "conducting web business and raising venture capital in Europe, and how does it differ from the rest of the world? Without having the vibrant ecosystem in Silicon Valley, will Europe ever manage to produce multi-billion dollar internet companies?...

Next Web Conference Notes (and discount!)

On April 3 & 4 we will host another edition of The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We are very busy preparing everything. We expect 700+ visitors and a lot of exciting news and speakers. Check out more information on http://2008.thenextweb.org and regular updates on The Next Web Blog. For people who have been following me here I also have a special discount. If you want to visit the conference and have been reading my blog and want a good discount contact me or leave a...

Boris @ Les 3 Vallées

I'm currently skiing in Les 3 Vallées in France with Daniel J. Ashes and Planet Edo (more on that later). There isn't much snow but that makes offpiste skiing even more challenging and fun. This photo was made my Mr. Ashes on one of the highest mountains in Les 3 Valées. The skis I have rented are the best ever! I'm seriously considering buying them because I feel like a professional skier with them. Only problem is they will probably still be expensive. If you look at a higher...