Places of Innovation – How tech giants, hackerspaces and corporates shape new places to foster innovation
The first Coworking Unconference of Asia was the opportunity for us to showcase part of the work we’ve done over the last 18 months around the world. One topic we have been exploring during our trips is the design of what we’ve called “Places of Innovation”. How do corporates create new places where their teams […]
Revitalizing Las Vegas: a guided tour of the Downtown Project by Zappos
Las Vegas may be famous for its casinos, attracting 40 million tourists each year, and the Consumer Electronic Show (170k attendees in 2015), but parts of it are not so shiny. The city has long been too dependent on tourism and gambling, two industries very sensitive to economic fluctuations. The workers are largely low-skilled, and […]
Interviewing Mitch Altman: "Hackerspaces are about love"
Last year, as we did some research on the places of innovation for a client, we interviewed Mitch Altman, dubbed the “father of the hackerpaces”. The topic was to know how large companies could find an inspiration from the hackerspace movement. Mitch founded Noisebridge, one of the first hackerspaces in the US in 2008, and […]
A journey into the Singapore startup ecosystem with Florian Cornu
For the Coursera MOOC I’m following on “Beyond Silicon Valley”, I had to interview a local entrepreneur to better understand the concept of a startup ecosystem. Living and working in Singapore for two years now, I chose to interview Florian Cornu, whose experience started with corporate innovation finance industry beforehand in London for AXA. He then came to […]
Startup Books #3: Startup Rising, the Entrepreneurial Revolution in the Middle-East, by Christophe Schroeder
So far, Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle-East is one of the top startup books we have read, and that we recommend. In a dense, 200+ pages, author Christopher M Schroeder not only gives a kaleidoscopic view of an exciting region, he also shares his own journey, started with “a first mentorship experience […]
MOOC – Beyond Silicon Valley #2: Role of philanthropy
Last week, we began to follow Coursera’s new MOOC “Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies” and wrapped-up the first lesson on the role of government. This week, we tackle another topic, with the Role of philanthropy and donors: why do they get involved, how different are they from invests and governments? US laws allow […]
A night at La Paillasse, Europe's largest biohacking and open science space
Coming to Paris, I attended La Paillasse inauguration night, organised as part of the Nuit Blanche, a yearly event mixing culture, arts and party, when many museums, labs and other creative places open their doors for a full night of demos, exhibitions and music. La Paillasse is Europe’s largest biohackerspace, although it has recently gone […]
Palestinian startups in Chile: from the diaspora to the investments
Back in the late 1910’s and early 1920’s, the collapse of the Ottaman Empire generated waves of mass migration from Palestine to some friendlier place. Chile was chosen by many of the migrants, mostly from Belen, for it has a similar climate to Palestine and its locals are rather welcoming to foreigners. 500 000 Palestinians […]
The Philippines startup ecosystem: the tipping point of the "island frontier"
This first day of Geeks on a Beach 2 provided a lot of insights on the state of the Philippines startup ecosystem. Several panels addressed the topic of the country itself, and its position in the broader ASEAN region. Overall, speakers and discussions in the audience agree that it’s the right place and the right […]
Corporate innovation series #1: GE Garage in Lagos, Nigeria
What General Electric is doing in Nigeria with its GE Garage is not your typical corporate accelerator or even makerspace. It’s not an incubator, in the sense that there is no funding for younger entrepreneurs or a stake from GE in a startup’s equity. It’s more like an open Fablab, with GE employees around to […]
