On the bus in, I ran into Irfan Rajani of Apparent Networks (Vancouver as well). He had come in from London where he was doing business. Small world, I thought I was the only Vancouver representative at the ETRE conference. He invited me out to dinner after I had settled in but being that I was exhausted from the 16 hour journey, I wound up taking my time to unpack and then by the time it was complete, it was too late for dinner. I sent Irfan an SMS with my condolences which he appearently only got the following day.
After unpacking, I went for a trip around Cannes to seek the Hotel Martinez where the conference is at. After three hours of wandering, I was feeling a bit hungry and tired so I decided to stop at this kebab place – best kebab I’ve ever had and they’re open until 2am,
I was able to get my bearings and have a good understanding of the whole area from my walks – I usually do this on all of my travels – it is most useful. The sole concern in my mind was safety but really, I had nothing to lose if I was robbed.
The following morning (Sunday), I went out to the conference by foot (having a good understanding of how to do that…), on the way to the hotel, people were already swimming – the sun wasn’t even out yet too. Breakfast was poorly attended – perhaps not everyone is an early riser. Met some really nice people and some people to look up to. My finding is that those who have most to offer are really really nice. Of particular mention were four people who I feel I will have long lasting friendships with in the future:
All were very kind in the morning and through the day, I developed a real liking for all of them. George and I went on a city tour of Cannes. We were the hardcore ones since the rainfall was tremendous, it did clear up during the trip around town and got really nice so the original group of 40 that started really missed out – in the end it was a tour for three people, George, myself and his father. I was able to learn a great appreciation for George, his father and the tourguide – also got to practice my French with someone.
(Today’s pics are located at this link)
Incidentally, during our trip, we were able to find out about the name of Cannes (named after sugar cane reeds which are indigenous to the area), Croisette, the little cross on the church which was on the main street when that was all that existed on the street, Suquet, (means small head ou petit tete), the top of the hill which houses the castle in Cannes, Les Petit’s Fleurs de Versailles (Marijuana) and la train de pines (the train which goes so slow up hill that people could grab pine cones which they would burn for the aromas)…. Also got to check out the story for the legendary man with the iron mask who was banished for some years to an island off of Cannes… The market also housed some delicious food. I will have to go back and endulge some more on the fresh organic Foie Gras and beautiful breads.
The conference was really fun today. I especially enjoyed the Meet the Money session where CEOs got up to pitch their ideas to VCs and having Alex Vieux (of DASAR) as the moderator. Alex was especially discerning during the presentations – some would call him the a* word if you know what I mean but I suspect it was all in good fun and he kept the agenda right on time. One CEO didn’t even come up on stage – he sent his VP Marketing up to take the fire. Upon completion of the presentation, Tim Draper’s (MD, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a VC Firm in the Bay Area) commented that the first thing he’d do is blow out the CEO. I’m sure that was a wakeup call for the CEO.
The evening was provided by Microsoft, a good evening cocktail at a casino. Some food was provided as well – mostly canapes and after that I was hungry so I showed my new friend Galit Yemeni of the Isreali newspaper Haaretz back to her hotel and then went off to the kebab place for dinner. A decent, fast place open at 11 o’ clock at night…
Tomorrow, another day. Have to be up in six hours for another full day at the conference.
