Thursday 28 June 2007

Buzz in the bay

Having just returned from my recent trip to Silicon Valley, it's great to see the 'bay area' buzzing again with tech start-ups …it is very high energy out there right now. Car parks are full, 101 South is jammed at rush hour and Starbucks is packed with everyone ‘doing deals’ just like the boom times of the late 90s.

At the peak of the down turn all 3 were empty (though Starbucks always survived on stay at home moms and the retired) and there was a general depressing malaise in the air… ….where the general overheard conversations were about where to get a job, the company’s latest losses..the dramatic drop in house prices and who was the latest victim of cut backs…but that’s now all firmly in the past.

Yes, boom times are here again, you can see it everywhere, the San Francisco Chronicle is covering it all the time. And isn't everyone just jumping on that bandwagon hoping to make a quick buck…but as was learnt last time around…it’s only a small core of those that really hit the big-time…..and those are the ones with a sound business strategy, good marketing and not just a great new Web 2.0 idea ...


However, the industry is saying that it's different this time. Let's hope so, we don’t want to go through the same boom and bust process as before…Whilst the Web 2.0 manic frenzy seems very similar to the .com era of 99/2000, there are also some very credible businesses changing the face of our working and personal lives forever. For the very latest on what's happening check out techcrunch.com and venturebeat.com.

And finally, this is the first year that I really could carry my laptop around remote accessing wherever I went…Starbucks, my hotel, San Francisco airport (which meant I nearly missed my flight), small independent cafes…yes it all finally works which it certainly didn’t 18 months ago.. the productivity was high with no time wasted.

Though my laptop hasn’t worked properly since I’ve been back so the remote access world is still not perfect after all!

And finally, if you are a visitor, do take a trip out to Sausalito…the views back to San Francisco are ‘awesome’.

No comments: