Wednesday, June 20
“How can enterprises catch up with consumers on Web 2.0” with Louis Naugès

Consumers have taken to “Web 2.0” rapidly. Over the last year or so there’s been a massive uptake and general acceptance of much that can be labelled Web 2.0: blogs & wikis, of course, but also for example “software-less” applications like “Office 2.0” and Google Apps (why buy a license if you can get the service for free online?), MySpace and other “communities”, video sharing sites like YouTube and DailyMotion, internet telephony with Skype, Wikipedia, wireless everywhere, peer-to-peer file sharing and distribution…

So where are the enterprises in all this? Most are nowhere. Louis Naugès will chart a path for how enterprises can catch up with consumers and up-to-date employees who are of the digital age…

Louis Naugès is president and founder of Microcost, a company that, according to its web site “guides enterprises through the revolutionary transition from existing legacy systems into the future era of web based autonomic computing and assists them as a trusted partner with ongoing evolution. http://microcost.com and http://nauges.typepad.com/.

SPECIAL ADD-ON: So, I’m on the internet. What now?

As an add-on module to this lunch we will have a workshop for those of you who might ask yourself the question in the headline? Or actually even for those of you who are not yet there.

– What are the basic things I need to do the get an internet footprint? Web hosting? Blog? Html? Flash? Web 2.0? Newsletter?
– So, I have a web site, but no one finds it. Why….? What do I need to do? Do I need an SEO consultant? Oh, and what’s this “SEO” thing?
– Perhaps I should think of if bright colours and jazzy type face fits with the image I want to have… How do I make my web site look and feel professional?
– How do I make it work better…

This is not a formal presentation but a discussion workshop managed by Emmanuel Podvin (http://www.intersel.org/) who is specialised in working with small companies to develop an effective internet presence.

We have many L@C participants who run a small or individual business (consultant or other). Some of you have perhaps a site, some of you perhaps not yet. This is for you. You don’t have an IT department (or just a small one), and you might be thinking that perhaps you could do something, or something more clever, with a web site.

IMPORTANT:

– This is separate from the lunch. You don’t need to come to this workshop to participate in the lunch.
– Come prepared with your questions. The session is entirely based on what your concerns are.
– Time and place: just before lunch, 11.00 sharp to 12.00 in the same place.
– Don’t forget to let me know if you want to participate in this pre-session AND the lunch when you register.

When, Where, How

– Wednesday June 20
– Lunch starts at 12.15-12.30 and ends at 14.00
– We limit participation to ~20 seats
– Inscription: By email only and I will confirm
– Pre-registration required

Welcome

Thursday, May 10:
“Pitching to Win” with Philippe Jeanmaire (almost wrote Pitcher of Wine there…)

Persuading people. How do you convince your investors to put money in your company? How do you convince that big prospect of yours that your proposal is actually not expensive at all but very good value? How do you convince the market that your latest widget will be a hit?

With the bid for 2012 Olympic Games as a background Philippe Jeanmaire will cover the 9 typical “mistakes” – what you should not do. Then we will look at way to make a difference. This may give you ideas to promote new concepts and business opportunities to investors, customers and others. Or how to find capital for your venture.

After being a global consulting partner with Deloitte and spent more than 15 years in Australia and US, Philippe has also previously created the French subsidiary of a global communication consultancy. He is now launching a new venture “Team Performance” to help leaders and their teams accelerate the achievement of results through new ways of thinking, being, communication and doing. Philippe will draw on his experience both from launching a brand new small venture in France as well as from his previous international business experience.

Web: www.team-performance.biz

– Thursday May 10
– Lunch starts at 12.15-12.30 and ends at 14.00
– We limit participation to ~20 seats.
– Inscription: By email only and I will confirm.
– Pre-registration required

Wednesday, April 4

“Innovation in the Internet Age” with Serge Soudoplatoff

Can you promote innovation? Or is it simply a thing that happens in brilliant minds?

More than being yet another technological invention, the internet has totally changed the life of over one billion people, in a time frame of only 14 years. Why is it so? What is the real impact of Internet? How can you use it to create more value? How does the innovation processes that led to internet in turn help people and companies to be more innovative?

Examples such as “second life” or Wikipedia are some of the keys to understand this revolution.

Serge Soudoplatoff is founder and president of Almatropie, a foundation that promotes intelligent use of the internet and innovation. His previous career includes: co-founder of Highdeal, a company providing software solutions to telcos and internet operators; director of Cap Gemini’s R&D activity , director at France Telecom Innovation centre, as well as positions in higher education and research. He has written a book, “Avec Internet, où allons-nous” (“With the internet, where will we end up?”). You can download the book on Serge’s web site.

Serge will talk about how you can facilitate and promote innovation and how the internet can make your organisation more innovative.

More info on Serge and on Almatropie here:
http://www.soudoplatoff.com/
http://www.almatropie.org/

– Wednesday April 4
– Lunch starts at 12.15-12.30 and ends at 14.00
– Inscription: By email only and I will confirm.
– Pre-registration required

The next L@C lunch event will be:

— Friday March 9
— “Is French business and French society in terminal decline?” with Peter Gumbel, Time Magazine.

Peter is Time Magazine’s senior writer in France. You have no doubt read some of his articles. He has a long career in journalism (Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Time) with a stint in the dotcom venture Business.com in the early 2000s as an extra spice. His talk will be based on his recently published book French Vertigo.

The best way to introduce Peter is perhaps to quote himself: “I reckon it’s time to say enough is enough. […] France isn’t in great shape economically, but it’s clear to me that the situation isn’t nearly as terrible as French doomsayers would have the country believe. […] I’ve been a journalist and foreign correspondent for more than 20 years. Since 2002, I’ve been based in Paris as a senior writer for TIME Magazine, mainly covering the European economy and business scene. […] I spent 16 years at (the Wall Street Journal), working in New York, Moscow, Paris, Berlin and Los Angeles. […] The high point of my career to date was my 1988-1992 assignment in Russia. I covered the rise and fall of President Gorbachev, culminating in the 1991 coup against him and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union. I’ve won a number of journalism awards, including two from the Overseas Press Club of America for my Moscow reporting. In January 2006, the London-based Work Foundation named me Journalist of the Year. I took a year out from print journalism in 2000 to help found an Internet startup, Business.com. It was supposed to be a business information site modeled on Yahoo! but it didn’t become the big success we’d hoped for.” From Peter’s website on his new book. (And I can perhaps add that BKWine was one interviewed by Peter and appears in the book)

The book’s web site: http://www.frenchvertigo.fr
Peter’s blog: http://blog.petergumbel.fr/

– Friday March 9
– We limit participation to ~20 seats.
– Inscription: By email only and I will confirm.
– Pre-registration required

Buy French Vertigo by Peter Gumbel on Amazon.fr