Our own world tour of The Valley?

3rd of April 2007 by conor

I have many fond memories of the EI-organised trip I did to California back in 1999. We spent the week receiving lectures from some great people like Bob Sutton in Stanford and we also did a bunch of field trips to companies like Cisco, HP, Excite, Ideo etc.

At this stage there are a lot of us in Ireland who know the Valley and the Bay Area quite well and have a good bunch of contacts there. However because of the distance and cost, unless there is a direct and immediate business reason to go, most of us visit rarely.

Then I read Jeremy Fain’s Blog and I realised we are being far too short-term in our thinking. Jeremy writes:

That's why I decided a couple weeks ago to organize a study trip to Silicon Valley. It will be a week-long study trip focusing on the business of innovation & technology (entrepreneurship, venture capital, software, computer networks & hardware, consumer electronics & Internet, telecommunications) and actually take place between Sunday, 25th November 2007 and Sunday, 2nd December 2007. No kidding, it's serious business so save the dates!

In no time at all he had a bunch of people interested in joining him. Similar things have been done before with great success like the Israel Web Tour.

Perhaps we are getting too used to having the Valley come to us in Europe and it is time to return the compliment and meet all those people we admire on their turf? I’m open to helping to arrange something like this later this year. Who would like to discuss this further?

17 Responses to “Our own world tour of The Valley?”

I think this is a great idea!

I myself have some contacts in the Valley… and would be happy to help organize this event.

Sounds great Dan. I think we should be able to rustle up a good contingent before the end of the year.

I think that’s a really good idea. I’d definitely be up for it (if my bank balance allows if / when the time comes). Would be great to go near the start of Autumn.

Hey guys,

Well I’m glad our initiative inspired you as well. We should definitely, after Silicon Valley of course, think of building a bridge between Ireland and France as well (cross visits?): a load of things has been happening in our respective mother lands recently. Knowing each other better can only help high tech start ups develop their business in the European Union more and better.

Good luck in organizing the trip and take care!

Jeremy

Later in the year is definitely the plan as a lot of people it might suit are doing launches in the next few months and will neither have the time nor the money. Early Autumn in the Valley is delightful :-)

Great idea Jeremy about making links. I know several French guys based here building interesting tech. We’ll watch your blog for news on your planning.

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This is a great idea.

Based on what the Israeli group itinerary – it would be great if we could do something similar – surely the Irish “valley” ex-pat community would also get involved.

yup great idea ;)

I would be glad to join and help !

Conor, give me a ring. I would be happy to discuss how EI could help get involved in putting this together with you.

Count me in anyway!

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I was on that same EI trip back in ’99. Really excellent – I still recall some of the site visits, and the lectures, from that week. All in favour of a group tour, especially if we could get some Stanford tie-in and/or start-up networking tie-in over there.

Would love to go, I have good contacts out their and can arrange visits to the large telco concerns

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