SIME goes Svenska Turistgalan!

SIME together with our partners at Swedish Travel and Tourism Federation are putting together Europe’s largest seminar and gala focusing on the development in the travel and tourism industry, celebrating succesful entrepreneurs, hearing from policy makers and regulators on the advancements in the industry and how we all can be part of shaping the future growth and development.

The event is on October 20th at Berns, Stockholm. You can find all the information here

Fastest growing sector 

Travel and tourism is the largest and fastest growing sector with more than 800M people traveling every year, is the world’s number 1 employer and contributes to 10% of global spending. From the airports to museums to tourist passes to finding out information on what to do where, online has only accelerated the consumption mechanism. From a consumer point of view, we of course use tripadvisor to read reviews and ratings of places, use our social network to get recommendations on things to do, book our flights through our online travel agent, use our phone for fixing itineraries, and as much as travel is engrained in the digital world, there is so much work to be done, and the Svenska Turistgalan wants to bring such ideas to life.

SIME and Turistgalan   

SIME as part of our mission to spread knowledge about internet and digital opportunities, will help bring out some of the coolest trends, technologies and tools that are in the offing today within the travel and tourism sector – for instance, layar on augmented reality or tripbirds with their social travel engine amongst other such emerging concepts.

Digital opportunities


Follow a journey into digital opportunities where SIME, Europe’ s leading event for digital business, look into new business opportunities, interesting case studies and a digital future that changes the travel industry fundamentally to be moderated by Ola Ahlvarsson, international serial entrepreneur, investor and founder of SIME together with Swedish and international leaders. Meet some of the digital world stars showing you a range of exciting business opportunities!

Full day seminar and Gala Evening

To be held on October 20th at Berns in Stockholm, the Turistgala features high prominent speakers such as Taleb Rifai, General Secretary of UN World Tourist Organization, Thea Chisea, Head of Aviation, Travel & Tourism Industry, World Economic Forum, Pablos Holman, The Intellectual Ventures Laboratory amongst other international leaders and entrepreneurs in the space. You can find all the information here. The day ends with a celebration of the people who have pioneered the industry through 3 separate awards handed over in Eurovision style with a mix of media, interviews, on stage announcements and a lot of fun!

Are you in the travel & tourism industry? Or want take advantage of the new business opportunities arising in this rapidly growing industry! If you are, this is a day you can’t afford to miss!

Announcing Bloggers Pass for SIME Stockholm 2011

Who can apply for a bloggers pass?

Anyone who has / represents a company with major digital focus and a well read blog (personal or corporate).

How to apply for a bloggers pass?

SIME welcomes Caterina Fake (Flickr) and Jyri Engstrom (Jaiku, Ditto) as new speakers for SIME Barcelona

SIME Barcelona is just 3 days away and we are excited to return with a brand new program and fantastic speakers.  Blending in a mix of local and international speakers, SIME Barcelona promises to be inspiring, energizing and a lot of fun – true to the SIME style.

On top of the existing speakers, we have added Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr (acquired by Yahoo) and Jyri Engstrom, co-founder Jaiku (Google) and Ditto.

Jyri is going to be in a panel along with Erik Wikstrom on serial entrepreneurship, while Caterina Fake will be on an exclusive fireside chat sharing her experiences on building and selling one of the darling companies Flickr during the first burst of Web 2.0 companies.

The event starts at 10:00 and ends at 1600 and the venue is Fira de Barcelona

If you haven’t signed up yet, you can do so here

Welcome to SIME Barcelona! Welcome to a day of inspiration, knowledge and fun!

SIME Amsterdam – 2 days to go!

With just 2 days to go for SIME Amsterdam at Beurs van Berlage, we are very excited to announce 4 master classes / workshops for you to choose from during the day. Apart from the main stage program which is a combination of panels, keynotes, fireside chats and interviews / Q&A with the audience, we also have 4 separate workshop tracks for you to get a deeper understanding of the topics of your choice. These 4 workshops will be held from 1300-1350 and from 1700 – 1750 at the main stage and choir each. The tracks are:

At 1300:

a) MASTER CLASS 1 @MAIN STAGE: MOBILE SELLS OR DOES IT?

b) MASTER CLASS 2 @CHOIR ROOM: IS ONLINE BOOKING TURNING THE WEB INTO AN EBAY OF PEOPLE?

At 1700:

a) MASTER CLASS 3 @MAIN STAGE: THE FUTURE OF PERFORMANCE MARKETING

b) MASTER CLASS 4 @CHOIR ROOM: HOW TO WIN IN “INNOVATION AWARDS 2012

You can read the detailed agenda and speakers per session

Apart from the workshops, we also have shuffled around the timing a little bit to make sure we get sufficient coffee, food inbetween and have an opportunity to enjoy the sun. We have added some more speakers to the roster. Overall we believe its going to be a great day of inspiration, knowledge and lot of business opportunities. And just as a caveat, we take having fun seriously too!

See you on May 25th.

SIME Amsterdam – Speaker, Agenda Updates

SIME Amsterdam is on May 25th and we are very excited to bring together international thought leaders, local leaders and stars in the digital arena for a day of insights, knowledge and inspiration.

More info at http://sime.nu/11/amsterdam

In a 0900 – 1500 action packed day, we touch upon different facets of digital. Beginning with a journey on digital opportunities, the big forces in motion, to the change in the marketing dollars from display to interaction with Erinn Marzo, the Director Brand Partnerships of BuddyMedia to a sneak peak into the world of Amazon with Dr. Werner Vogels CTO of Amazon. The afternoon session highlights include quick pitches from some of the coolest companies in the digital space to watch out for, the change in the media landscape, and a fireside chat with Puck, the 11 year old whiz kid behind a bunch of successful apps. We end the day with why  originality is still the winner in the industry today and how we can be a bit more original in our strategy, thinking and communication.

You can view the detailed agenda here (note : actual timing of each session might be subject to change)

You can view the speaker listing and profile here

Welcome to a day of digital opportunities, knowledge and fun. Welcome to SIME Amsterdam!

SIME Vienna Countdown – Days to go : 1

Friends, the big day is tomorrow at SIME Vienna and we are extremely excited!

The updated agenda and speaker info is all here

Some important information for your attention:

1. Start Time: The event starts at 0900. Please make sure you are at our location around 0815 in the morning with your printed ticket from amiando as it will get crowded closer to the 0900 clock mark. There is always coffee and wifi, so that should keep you all warm and fuzzy inside even if you come early.
2. Location for the event is at Ottakringer Braueri.. More info and directions here
3. Interaction during the day — we have created various digital touch points for you:
   1. Our Live Channel powered by Twingly .. Please add in your tweets with #sime11 and #vienna
   2. Our Facebook Page
   3. Our twitter list for SIME Vienna
   4. Live Blogging and Twittering during the event? You can then add yourself to the list here
   5. Capture the SIME moments — by downloading the LiveShare App — and snapping photos within the SIME Vienna Stream. Info here
   6. Although SIME was started in Sweden, we aren’t the regular shy Swedes. So don’t be afraid if you find paparazzi following you for photos and video interviews.

That’s about it! Have fun .. And remember, great people great conference. Lets rock the town tomorrow!

Capture the live action of SIME Vienna with Liveshare

We have partnered with the cool folks from LiveShare by Cooliris for you to upload SIME Moments as you experience SIME Vienna and watch the action unfold through pictures at the Liveshare SIME stream. To be part of the action and see yourself in the big screen at different places in the venue and be part of SIME Vienna legacy:

1. Download the Liveshare app for iPhone, Android or Windows Phone 7
2. Search for the “SIME Vienna” stream in the Public section
3. While in the stream, tap on the camera button and snap your picture
4. See your picture on the big screen
5. Also access them via our Facebook page and our live page

Special thanks to the folks from Liveshare by Cooliris, they have been fantastic with their support, and have a very cool tool to play with.

SIME Vienna – First batch of 10 speakers released and a heartwarming comment to share

SIME Vienna is coming up on April 28th, and we are extremely excited to present the first batch of 10 speakers yesterday. They are:

1. Isabella Löwengrip or better known as Blondinbella, inspiring fashion cults and movements online in Sweden
2. Andries Oudshoorn, Program Director Schibsted, one of the most inspiring, innovative and transformative media companies there is
3. David Rowan, editor in chief of Wired Magazine
4. Mattias Miksche, founder of Stardoll – the virtual world for young girls
5. Matt Stinchcomb, from Etsy, fashion marketplace for handmade goods, valued north of 300M$ and growing at a healthy rate
6. Fabian Heileman from Dailydeal.de – a daily deal and coupon site
7. Stefan Glanzer, a SIME Veteran, involved in companies like Last.FM, Mendeley.com, RJDJ and also running White Bear Yard, an innovative incubator spurring the European digital scene.
8. Pablos Holman, futurist, hacker and a genius, again a SIME Veteran
9. Daniel Mattes, founder Jajah, serial entrepreneur and author of books in SQL and Databases
10. Robert Lang, CEO of Criteo, one of Europe’s hottest companies in the retargeting space.

You can find their details profiles here

Stay tuned as we keep updating our speaker roster and agenda in the next couple of weeks.

And what definitely made our day, was a very nice heartwarming email from Michael Borras, co-founder of Tupalo.com. He said:

Some tips for maximizing your time on Day 2 at SIME

Well, I should be at the SIME speaker gathering party right now, but instead couple of us thought lets sit down and sort things together with the team so that we can reach an even loftier goal of making day 2 of SIME better than today. Thanks for all the feedback so far, and helping us help you.

And this is what I would do if I were you.

The Basics:

1. Be on time to both the conference at 0900 and to the workshops.
2. Interact, ask questions, stop the speakers at the workshops and probably even at the main stage if the curious itch got into you.
3. Be part of the conversation at our twitter and live stream channel with the hashtag #sime10 and #sime10np
4. Computers are going to be passed around tomorrow, and you are (can I use ‘must’ without sounding like the dictator of the internet?)welcome to write a short piece about the future of a brand, idea, product or technology (crowd-sourcing authoring if you may)

Workshops and Match Making:

1. Use the workshop screens to make sure you are in sync with the latest timings of the workshop (apologies for changing a workshop time today or from the time of your registration, but having fully booked events can be a real hassle). The web of course also has it
2. Use http://m.sime.nu for match making, agenda and workshop timings. Using the mobile site, you can meet people who have opted in to be contacted. And if you want to opt-in, you can do so by clicking on the “Add Me” button. Of course, you can also access http://m.sime.nu from your PC / MAC / iPad
3. Grab iPads you see to give feedback about SIME this year and enjoy a beer on us.

The Others

1. Move quickly in the line when it comes to food and coffee. Think of it like in the airport baggage scanner line, faster the better for everyone
2. And if you have a ticket to the awards, gala and party, needless to say, sit back relax and enjoy the show in true SIME style.

See you tomorrow! It’s going to be fantastic.

[SIME Day 2] Another workshop you should really think about going to!

As a follow up to my workshop post on my picks given the fact that most of them are over flowing, here is one more fantastic workshop that you should be at.

November 18, Day 2

16.15-17.00, From user engegement to user delight – the Hemnet story

Location: Rigoletto 2

Moderator:  Anna Omsted Lindgren,founder Tasteline

Speaker: Dr Katarina Graffman, antropolog

and featuring participants,

Beata Wickbom – Queen of webb and social media at Pool in Stockholm.

Katarina Graffman – CEO, Founder Inculture. Provides ethnographic research and anthropological analysis on contemporary culture, trends and cultural branding.

Carl-Henrik Borg – CEO Hemnet.

Konrad Olsson – freelance writer and editor, mainly interior and lifestyle.

Alexander Noren, journalist and working on a book about the residential property race and how he became an eager property surfer.

It’s a great mix of experts on ideas to make your ‘users’ ‘fanboys’ and  to take customer level intimacy to the next level.