30 4 / 2013

Let’s meet! Here are my simple guidelines for getting me onstage at your event.

I’ve done a lot of keynoting the past years, not least the past few weeks (7 flights in 10 days).

Moving forward I’ll have to be a bit more selective. Since saying no is not really in my nature, here are a few simple guidelines for getting me involved as as a speaker.

  • Please check my conference schedule on Conferize.
  • I’d require organizers to use Conferize. There’s really no reason not to.
  • If your event aligns with our strategy, I may or not not ask for a honorarium but expenses should be covered.

To get in touch with me, please message me through my Conferize profile. Thanks!

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02 4 / 2013

My keynotes and talks for April: Mesh, Red Herring 100, Nordic IT Powerhouse, Iværk&Vækst

Busy times ahead as I’ve been invited to a bunch of great conferences and speaking gigs in April:

  • 9-11 April: Red Herring Europe 100, Amsterdam. I’m presenting Conferize as one of the finalist, fingers crossed we’ll win. Red Herring is one of the most established brands in emerging technology and the list of finalists is daunting. 

  • 15 April: Nordic IT Powerhouse, Regional Growth Through Nordic/Baltic Collaboration, Stockholm. Am invited as a panelist to weigh in entrepreneurship and talent development in the Nordics. Follow the link to register (free). Background info here and here. As you may know this is a favorite topic of mine - The Nordics in the new millenium. 

  • 18 April: Iværk & Vækst, Aarhus, Denmark. Keynoting about my entrepreneurial background (Danish). Will be exciting to meet with successful entrepreneurs outside my normal circles - and to be welcomed by former news host Paula Larrain.

  • 18-19 April: Mesh#4, Oslo. I’m exited to check out the startup scene in Norway, hosted by the Mesh people who also run a hot co-working space (invite only). Am hoping it’ll be somewhat like a Nordic version of F.ounders, which I’ve attended twice with great pleasure. I’ll be keynoting about the importance of innovation.

And finally a small rant: Sadly not all of these events are on Conferize yet and are not even using a dedicated (unique!) #hashtag.

Even the best tech conferences still struggle to set up the simplest strategy for social media and content marketing. Good news is that Conferize can help in doing that.

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21 2 / 2013

Speaking here and there in Copenhagen these days

I rarely get around to updating this blog, but in case I still have readers here, I’d like to point your attention to an excellent event next week in Copenhagen. I’ll be weighing in on the panel, details and link below.

This week was a busy one, speaking both at Social Media Week and CreativeCPH. Now back to work.

Equity used right

EL2 is proud to present key note speaker Dr. Saras Sarasvathy and a prominent panel of discussants consisting of Anders Hoffmann (Erhvervsstyrelsen), Peter Torstensen (Symbion), Ted Zoller (University of North Carolina) & Saras Sarasvathy (University of Virginia) and a Danish “Super” Entrepreneur.

Dr. Sarasvathy will share the results of over a decade of research into lessons learned by expert entrepreneurs - people who have more than 15 years of founding experience, including successes, failures and at least one public company. Dr. Sarasvathy will summarize the findings of her investigations and also present her new series of studies that examines equity relations between entrepreneurs and their early stakeholders.

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09 1 / 2012

Come work with me as we change the world

Phew, time flies when you’re busy changing the world. That wasn’t just a oneliner to get your attention.

This summer I parted from one of the world’s most successful startups, Issuu, after five exciting years. They just updated their About page if you want a fresh view.


Immediately following that I spent four months on paternity leave with my son. I’d say it qualifies for a life-changing experience. If you can’t manage a six months old, how can you run a company? 


Oh, and while doing all that I introduced a new thing into the world, called Conferize. Read the latest update or check out our manifesto. This year we’re looking to take Conferize live after having successfully tested it in the wild at a series of high-level events around the globe.


Basically Conferize is enabling anyone to get smarter about their conference life. Usually a conference presents the best networking and knowledge opportunity in any industry and region of the world—yet it remains a vast untapped potential until we embrace true networking and contemporary knowledge sharing standards. As we get ever more networked and globalized, the value of clever face-to-face interaction only increases. Improve the quality of conferences, both offline and online, and I’d say you’ve changed the world. 


After all, the economic output of professional meetings is bigger than that of auto manufacturing. It’s a trillion dollar knowledge economy and from what I’ve heard, that’s where we’re all headed as everything becomes ever more ephemeral and intangible. 


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10 6 / 2011

So, about that Conferize thing

So many have been asking about Conferize, my new startup (see my last post). I’m currently in San Francisco talking about it and meeting with some people. I can’t yet share the intricate details, but you should head on over to our blog to learn about what kinds of problems we’re looking to solve. I promise to share more as soon as I can.

The Conferize Manifesto.

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27 5 / 2011

Au Revoir @Issuu, Hello @Conferize Today is my last day at the Issuu office. It’s very strange for me to say that. After five mind-blowing years, I’m yet again looking towards new horizons. I’ll continue as a shareholder but no longer mess around in the engine room or speak on Issuu’s behalf. I’m extremely proud of what Issuu has become. Yet I am a person who like to start things. To get my hands dirty, learn new skills and wear many hats. I knew a day would come where this Issuu thing would grow too big for me. And the past weeks working out of our completely refurbished 1,000 m² office made it pretty clear to me: It’s awesome. And big!  Issuu is close to 50 M users & 4 B page views. A month! Time.com thinks were one of the 50 best websites in the world and we’ve twice been a SXSW finalist. But the best part for me was seeing the true impact we’ve had on real people. People who trusted us with their precious content and helped us redefine what reading online could be. Reading rocks and it’s changing. I know that my awesome co-founders and team will keep cultivating Issuu into everything it can be, and more. If you’d like to work with this killer team, you should totally join us. It’ll take me a while to stop saying ‘us’, ‘we’, and ‘our’ in relation to Issuu. But soon I’ll have to because I’m founding a new startup called Conferize. We’ll be looking for smart capital and exceptional developers (RoR, JavaScript/HTML/CSS)).  Departing for the Valley next week. Stay tuned. Photo credits: www.newmediadays.dk & www.liliendahlphoto.dk.

Au Revoir @Issuu, Hello @Conferize

Today is my last day at the Issuu office. It’s very strange for me to say that. After five mind-blowing years, I’m yet again looking towards new horizons. I’ll continue as a shareholder but no longer mess around in the engine room or speak on Issuu’s behalf.

I’m extremely proud of what Issuu has become. Yet I am a person who like to start things. To get my hands dirty, learn new skills and wear many hats. I knew a day would come where this Issuu thing would grow too big for me. And the past weeks working out of our completely refurbished 1,000 m² office made it pretty clear to me: It’s awesome. And big! 
Issuu is close to 50 M users & 4 B page views. A month! Time.com thinks were one of the 50 best websites in the world and we’ve twice been a SXSW finalist. But the best part for me was seeing the true impact we’ve had on real people. People who trusted us with their precious content and helped us redefine what reading online could be. Reading rocks and it’s changing.

I know that my awesome co-founders and team will keep cultivating Issuu into everything it can be, and more. If you’d like to work with this killer team, you should totally join us.
It’ll take me a while to stop saying ‘us’, ‘we’, and ‘our’ in relation to Issuu. But soon I’ll have to because I’m founding a new startup called Conferize. We’ll be looking for smart capital and exceptional developers (RoR, JavaScript/HTML/CSS)). 
Departing for the Valley next week. Stay tuned.

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23 5 / 2011

Reading Beyond Words, My Contibution for ‘I Read Where I Am’

I was invited to write a short essay for a book called ‘I Read Where I Am’, ed. by Geert Lovink, Mieke Gerritzen and Minke Kampman after a concept from Graphic Design Museum/Institute of Network Cultures. It was launched in relation to The Unbound Book conference held last week and looks to chart the status and future of reading. I just learned the entire book is available at www.ireadwhereiam.com, an interestingly minimalist microsite well suited for books.
Have a look at the impressive list of contributors: 

Arie Altena, Henk Blanken, Erwin Blom, James Bridle, Max Bruinsma, Anne Burdick, Vito Campanelli, Catalogtree, Florian Cramer, Sean Dockray, Paulien Dresscher, Dunne & Raby, Sven Ehmann, Martin Ferro-Thomsen, Jeff Gomez, Denise Gonzales Crisp, Alexander Griekspoor, Hendrik-Jan Grievink, Ger Groot, Gary Hall, John Haltiwanger, N. Katherine Hayles, Toon Horsten, Minke Kampman, Lynn Kaplanian-Buller, Kevin Kelly, Joost Kircz, Matthew Kirschenbaum, Tanja Koning, Steffen Konrath, Erin La Cour, Rudi Laermans, Warren Lee, Jannah Loontjens, Alessandro Ludovico, Peter Lunenfeld, Ellen Lupton, Anne Mangen, Lev Manovich, Luna Maurer, Geert Mul, Arjen Mulder, Caroline Nevejan, David B. Nieborg, Kali Nikitas, Henk Oosterling, David Ottina, Peter Pontiac, Ine Poppe, Emilie Randoe, Bernhard Rieder, Paul Rutten, Johan Sanctorum, Louise Sandhau, Niels Schrader, Ray Siemens, Karin Spaink, Erik Spiekermann, Matthew Stadler, F. Starik, Bob Stein, Michael Stephens & Jan Klerk, Carolyn Strauss, Dick Tuinder, Lian van de Wiel, Bregtje van der Haak, Els van der Plas, Rick van der Ploeg, Daniel van der Velden, Adriaan van der Weel, Erwin van der Zande, René van Engelenburg, Francisco van Jole, Peter van Lindonk, Koert van Mensvoort, Tjebbe van Tijen, Dirk van Weelden, Jack van Wijk, Astrid Vorstermans, McKenzie Wark, and Simon Worthington.
Anyone even remotely interested in how reading is transforming should take a look at both the conference and the book. You can find my short contribution below:
Reading Beyond Words

My literature professor understood reading as a relative concept: One might grasp the words without yet comprehending the meaning. Ideally the reader would discard her library every five years, because by then she had elevated her perspective… 


That’s an elitist notion of reading in stark contrast to the reality of today. Text as a medium is being challenged by ever more engaging forms of communication. And it seems the conditions for deep reading are pretty much being killed by mankind’s ongoing experiment to digitize society. Irony, anyone? 


Me, I’ve parted with most of my print library. For good. Ninety percent of my reading now takes place on-screen, although I’m uneasy about digital books living inside those intangible walled gardens. Can I pass them on to my kids, like my mother did with Camus to me? Will they keep my side notes? Will they smell? 


Let’s not get overly nostalgic just yet. Text remains a universal vehicle for human thought and often it’s the shortest distance from one mind to another. But as we stumble into digital renaissance, our understanding of both text and reading will have to encompass more than mere words: hyper-connectedness, vibrant plasticity, social interaction, and dynamic contextuality. 

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17 5 / 2011

I’m Speaking at Oresund Mobile Meetup & Community Day #OMM2011 #CD11

Just a quick note to anyone attending Oresund Mobile Meetup or Community Day. I’ll be speaking about Issuu at both and am thinking about what to say. Let me know if you have any topics you’d like covered, or if you want to meet up. 

Hope to see you.

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04 3 / 2011

A Couple of Interviews for Arctic Startup & In Treehouses

I’ve been asked to do a couple of interviews, and if you’re into deep reading of prolific and scrutinizing scribbles, you’re in for a treat. Enjoy.

‘The Big Issuu’ for In Treehouses, the We Are All Publishers Now edition
I also did a piece about Issuu and digital publishing for a new hip digital publication called In Treehouses. Don’t you just love that name? It’s the brainchild of a great guy called Thom Chambers. I really dug in deep and tried to convey where I see the world of publishing going.
We’re All Publishers Now (PDF download only, p 15-18) - it has loads of other interesting articles too.

‘My Story’ for Arctic Startup
Antti of Arctic Startup asked me to do the first of a new series they call My Story. It’s about entrepreneurs and their backgrounds, experiences and advice. I love this blog and gave it a shot.
Read My Story.

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17 11 / 2010

See My Panel from New Media Days 2010 About Mobile Apps (Danish Only)

via nmd.arkena.tv

Update: Seems Posterous crops the video, so check it out here instead http://nmd.arkena.tv/012894769531322/apps-strategier-i-en-guldfebertid

In case you missed it, here’s a nice video of my panel about mobile apps at New Media Days 2010. It’s in Danish.

I thought it went really well and that we covered a lot of important ground in terms of strategy, technology, payment, marketing and more in relation to mobile apps for media companies.

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