Startup camp London is an “unconferene”, which is where the attendees decide on the schedule on the actual day. The morning was more like a conventional conference and then the afternoon was filled with ‘discussions’, lead by the attendees who also chose the topic. I attended these 3 discussions today:

• Raising equity finance - led by Alan Edwards
• Running a successful online marketplace - lead by Simos Kitiris, founder of PeoplePerHour.com (my favourite discussion of the day). An important marketing point I found very useful from here is to remember that buyers and sellers could come from different places. For example, sellers could come from all over the world and buyers just from the UK and USA (or the other way around), so a separate marketing strategy is needed to attain buyers and sellers. Also, when giving names to users (e.g. PayPerPosts “posties”), make sure the names are obvious and don’t confuse the users by new ‘innovative’ names for things.
• Launching a startup on less than £1000 - We are launching with more than £1000, but it was useful anyway

There have been some fantastic presentations so far and I cannot wait for tomorrow to start. Steve Garnett, the Chairman of Salesforce.com stood out to me as being jam packed full of wisdom. The only thing that beat him in terms of being packed, was the tube! (underground train). I’m sure in most countries being that squashed together counts as rape.

The most dramatic part of the day was when Mike Butcher of TechCrunch UK jumped up on a desk and announced who he was and that startups who want him to write about them should go and talk to him. Is that the norm for TechCrunch writers?

That’s me in the blue shirt avidly listening to Simos Kitiris (right):

My challenge for tomorrow is to get in a photograph with the kilted man!

These photos were taken by David Berlind, I’ll add some of my own soon.

So far the main benefit of attending is inspiration. Being around like-minded people who you can talk in to ‘real life’ about blogging and start-ups is very refreshing and encouraging. If you are considering shying out of a local networking event I erge you to take the leap and go!

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This is from my FaceBook profile using the Fortune Cookie application. I don’t see how it’s a fortune (it’s past tense) but nevertheless it is true!

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