The Future of Coworking: coworking visas, corporate partnerships and real-estate specialists
The coworking phenomenon might not be very old, yet, it already has a lot of perspectives and questions to address for its near and long-term future. As we attended Asia’s first Coworking Unconference in Bali in January 2015, we heard a lot of the speakers (coworking operators for the biggest part) share their insights on […]
A review of Chile innovation policies
With the growing success of Start-Up Chile, the Chilean government’s program to attract world class entrepreneurs, everyone has an eye on what’s happening in this odd-shaped country at the end of the world. But Chile innovation policies go way beyond Start-Up Chile, which happens to be mainly a very successful communication of the government. Chile, […]
The Future of Work – Wrap-up of the Asia’s 1st Coworking Unconference
We’ve attended the first Coworking Unconference of Asia, organized by Hubud (The Hub in Ubud, Bali) as again, we have this privileged feeling to have witnessed something new, half-way between a tectonic, societal move and the birth of an ecosystem of organisations willing to innovate in a new field. The event was co-organized by some […]
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 […]
A visit of the Zappos Pop-up Shop in Las Vegas
During our visit of the CES in Las Vegas, we visited the Zappos Pop-up Shop, often dubbed the « shop of the future ». It’s more of a prototype, which, having opened in November 2014, should close pretty soon this January 2015 to analyze its own data and see how to move forward. Visiting is was definitely […]
Zappos corporate culture: innovating for employees, clients, and the ecosystem
We’ve extensively described what Zappos was doing with its « Downtown Project » in Las Vegas, pouring some $350m to revitalize a stranded part of the city. In this second episode, we’ll wrap-up our thoughts on Zappos corporate culture as we have been visiting its headquarters, ironically located since 2013 in the former town hall of Las […]
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 […]
Thoughts from Las Vegas: the FrenchTech reach maturity
When my aunt did some research on our family tree a few years ago, we found only armymen from the early 1800s with a « grognard » serving Napoleon, up to my grandfather and my father who both served in the French army, although in different contexts. I’m not wearing the uniform myself, but I’ve been educated […]
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 […]
Meet the 24 FrenchPitch startups who pitched at CES in Las Vegas
Here’s a quick wrap-up of several French (and non-French) startups who pitched at the FrenchPitch event, organized by EPC Digital, and part of the broader #FrenchTech umbrella. It’s like the appetizer of a longer program which will take us in a tour of the Downtown Project, an initiative powered by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and […]
