Category Archives: speaker

Marina Niforos on Web3

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On March 6 we had the pleasure to welcome Marina Niforos to Lunch at the Circle. She spoke about Web3, block-chain, NFTs and much more.

Watch the video interview with Marina below.

Marina Niforos is an experienced board member, advisor, investor and academic, working at the intersection of deep technology and impact. She is world recognized expert on blockchain and web3 and a member of the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum. She is lead author of the IFC-World Bank report on blockchain: Opportunities for Private Enterprises in Emerging Markets and a frequent contributor in media (Bloomberg, FT, CoinDesk and others). She is also Affiliate Professor of the Future of Work at HEC Paris business school EMBA programs. EU Startups named Marina one of “one of five female leaders driving change in the European blockchain ecosystem”.

Marina spoke about web3.

Web3 is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics (Wikipedia).

I should also point out that Marina is sitting next to the desk where Alfred Nobel wrote and signed his testament creating the Noble Prize. It is just barely visible at the edge of the frame. A copy of the testament hangs on the wall.

Marina Niforos speaking at Lunch at the Circle on Web3

Marina Niforos speaking at Lunch at the Circle on Web3

Jörgen Eriksson on International Entrepreneurship and Disruptive Finance

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On June 13 we had the pleasure to welcome Jörgen Eriksson who spoke about international entrepreneurship in a disruptive environment, and particularly in finance. Jorgen also spoke captivatingly about his experiences of building business all around the world.

“Jörgen has 30 years experience from executive and advisory work on four continents with both the public and private sectors. As a tech executive in the 1990s, he was overall responsible for delivery of the systems that powers the ECB and the introduction of the Euro. As a management consultant, he has been involved in regional startup eco-systems from United States to South Africa, and public sector projects such as strategy for new cities from China to Egypt.”

Jörgen on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgen-eriksson/

Here’s our video interview with Jorgen:

Some pictures from the event:

Jorgen Eriksson and Per Karlsson at Lunch at the Circle

Jorgen Eriksson and Per Karlsson at Lunch at the Circle

Jorgen Eriksson and guests at Lunch at the Circle

Jorgen Eriksson and guests at Lunch at the Circle

Jorgen Eriksson and guests at Lunch at the Circle

Jorgen Eriksson and guests at Lunch at the Circle

Per Karlsson and guests at the Jorgen Eriksson Lunch at the Circle

Per Karlsson and guests at the Jorgen Eriksson Lunch at the Circle

“International entrepreneurship in the age of internet and disruptive innovation”

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The next Lunch at the Circle event is on June 13.

Speaker: Jörgen Eriksson

Theme: International entrepreneurship in the age of internet and disruptive innovation

“Jörgen has 30 years experience from executive and advisory work on four continents with both the public and private sectors. As a tech executive in the 1990s, he was overall responsible for delivery of the systems that powers the ECB and the introduction of the Euro. As a management consultant, he has been involved in regional startup eco-systems from United States to South Africa, and public sector projects such as strategy for new cities from China to Egypt.”

“In one of his recent mandates, Jörgen was the CEO of QuickBit, a fintech company started in 2016 and listed on the NGM Nordic MTF stock market in 2019, and in 2020 he started a London based ‘fintech factory’, combining an incubator, investor and accelerator in one organization, with the purpose of changing the way value moves in international banking.”

  • Date: Monday June 13
  • Time: You’re welcome from 12.00. We sit down at the table at 12.30.
  • Place: //on invitation//
  • Theme: International entrepreneurship in the age of internet and disruptive innovation
  • Speaker: Jörgen Eriksson. Jörgen has 30 years experience from executive and advisory work on four continents with both the public and private sectors. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorgen-eriksson/
  • Bonus: you get a two-course lunch with wine (or water) and coffee (please let us know food allergies in advance)

Register your participation on this link: //on invitation//

A railway carriage in ruins

A railway carriage in ruins, copyright BKWine Photography

Therapeutic hypnosis with Doctor Laurent Taton

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The first Lunch at the Circle “Season Three” event took place a few days ago. Judging from the feedback, it was a great success. People were keen to meet IN PERSON again.

We had an exciting and unusual speaker who over lunch who explained how he works with hypnosis to alleviate or improve impediments to good performance and normal life. For example stress situations (that many of us are all too familiar with), smoking, vertigo, sleep or food irregularities or other things that may interfere in daily life or work.

Dr Laurent Taton at Lunch at the Circle

Dr Laurent Taton at Lunch at the Circle

A Lunch at the Circle event in Paris:

Speaker: Le docteur Laurent Taton

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/docteur-laurent-taton-b6942719a/.

Theme: L‘hypnose thérapeutique, comment peut-elle contribuer à l’optimisation des performances ?

Le docteur Laurent TATON est médecin spécialisé en hypnose médicale. Il intervient auprès de cadres du secteur privé et de la fonction publique, ainsi que d’entrepreneurs pour les accompagner dans leur gestion du stress.

Enseignant, auteur, il intervient aussi sur des problématiques individuelles ou en entreprise pour des formations et actions de prévention. Il consulte à son cabinet ainsi qu’au C.H.U. Cochin.

Plus d’info sur l’activité de docteur Laurent Taton ici : https://www.medecin-hypnose-paris.com

Next Lunch at the Circle event: June 13.

A short video interview with Laurent Taton :

Dr Laurent Taton speaking at Lunch at the Circle

Dr Laurent Taton speaking at Lunch at the Circle

Dr Laurent Taton speaking at Lunch at the Circle

Dr Laurent Taton speaking at Lunch at the Circle

Dr Laurent Taton and Stefan Norberg at Lunch at the Circle

Dr Laurent Taton and Stefan Norberg at Lunch at the Circle

 

Martin McCourt on Mergers & Acquisitions

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On June 17 Martin McCourt shared his experience about how mergers and acquisitions can play a role in corporate development with the guests at the Lunch at the Circle lunch.

Watch the video interview with Martin below.

Martin was Executive Vice President M&A and on the management board at Gemalto for around a decade and involved in a number of acquisitions, from some 10s of M€ to 890 M USD with SafeNet (in 2014).

Gemalto is a world leading digital security company providing software applications, secure personal devices such as smart cards and tokens, and managed services. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of SIM cards. (source:Wikipedia) Gemalto is now part of the Thales group.

Organised by Lunch at the Circle:
https://www.lunchatthecircle.com/

With Per Karlsson, BKWine:
https://www.bkwine.com/

Martin McCourt speaks at Lunch at the Circle

Martin McCourt speaks at Lunch at the Circle, copyright BKWine Photography

Martin McCourt speaks at Lunch at the Circle

Martin McCourt speaks at Lunch at the Circle, copyright BKWine Photography

Martin McCourt speaks at Lunch at the Circle

Martin McCourt speaks at Lunch at the Circle, copyright BKWine Photography

 

L@C TV: “How I created Lauritz.com and made it Scandinavia’s biggest auction house”

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“How I created Lauritz.com and made it Scandinavia’s biggest auction house”, with Bengt Sundstrøm, founder, owner and president of Lauritz.com

We recently had an exciting Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrøm, owner and president of Lauritz.com.

Over lunch Bengt told us about how he raised the money to start his business in three hours with a quick phone call to his banker, how he does not waste money on Google Ads (but instead use them effectively), what his next strategic moves will be and what the key difficulties are in creating an online auction house. But he did not tell us why he still does not have any serious competition in his business. Because, he says, it is a puzzle to him too.

Here’s a short video interview:

Bengt Sundstrøm is the owner and president of Lauritz, Scandinavia’s biggest auction house. In 1998 Bengt bought the small auction house of Lauritz Christensen Auctions, founded in 1885. One year later Bengt launched the online auctions on lauritz.com. It has since grown to a business with a turn-over of around 100 million euros. The business model is very different from other well-known internet auction houses (e.g. eBay). All bidding on Lauritz is done online but they also have brick-and-mortar viewing locations across Scandinavia where you can go and look at the items on sale. They also have a staff of over one hundred valuation experts. This mix of online auctions, valuation expertise and physical presence has been the key to Laurtiz’ success, says Bengt.

More information: http://www.lauritz.com/

Bengt also (accidentally) became the owner of a vineyard, Chateau Vignelaure, in Provence a few years ago, so he will also tell the story of life as a winegrower. As well as let us taste some of his wines of course. More information:http://www.vignelaure.com/ and on BKWine Magazine: Château Vignelaure – Cabernet sauvignon meets Provence.

And here are some more videos and images from the event!

At a Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrom, Lauritz.com

At a Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrom, Lauritz.com

At a Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrom, Lauritz.com

At a Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrom, Lauritz.com

At a Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrom, Lauritz.com

At a Lunch at the Circle event with Bengt Sundstrom, Lauritz.com

Last L@C for the season, June 27: Online branding

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The last Lunch at the Circle event for the season will take place on Wednesday June 27:

Managing your brand online with Bernadette Martin and Julie Vetter.

It will be slightly different than usual: 1) we will have two speakers and 2) the lunch will be in a different place, see below.

Here’s the outline:

Would you hire someone today without googling their name? Would you do business with someone without checking their web site? Didn’t think so. But how do you look online? Bernadette Martin and Julie Vetter have built a business around managing one’s online identity, online personal “brand”, and online image and reputation management. What will people find out about you? What tools do they use? And how can you make sure that they find an online picture of you that looks the way you want it to look? Bernadette and Julie will illustrate it with some surprising examples.

Bernadette Martin, founder of Visibility Branding, is a personal brand and e-reputation strategist, speaker and author of “Storytelling About Your Brand Online and Offline”.  More info on: http://visibilitybranding.com

Julie Vetter, founder of Hoi Moon Marketing, has over fifteen years experience in helping to create the online presence of over 50 clients in the fields of travel & leisure, transportation, hi-tech, wine, real estate, medical, and health. More info on: http://hoimoonmarketing.com/

When

Time: Wednesday June 27

……

Participation (and full details) on invitation only.

Next L@C: “How I created Lauritz.com and made it Scandinavia’s biggest auction house”

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“How I created Lauritz.com and made it Scandinavia’s biggest auction house”, with Bengt Sundstrøm, founder, owner and president of Lauritz.com

Next Lunch at the Circle event is on Thursday May 31, with Bengt Sundstrøm, owner and president of Lauritz.com. Register for this event now!

Bengt Sundstrøm is the owner and president of Lauritz, Scandinavia’s biggest auction house. In 1998 Bengt bought the small auction house of Lauritz Christensen Auctions, founded in 1885. One year later Bengt launched the online auctions on lauritz.com. It has since grown to a business with a turn-over of around 100 million euros. The business model is very different from other well-known internet auction houses (e.g. eBay). All bidding on Lauritz is done online but they also have brick-and-mortar viewing locations across Scandinavia where you can go and look at the items on sale. They also have a staff of over one hundred valuation experts. This mix of online auctions, valuation expertise and physical presence has been the key to Laurtiz’ success, says Bengt.

More information: http://www.lauritz.com/

Bengt also (accidentally) became the owner of a vineyard, Chateau Vignelaure, in Provence a few years ago, so he will also tell the story of life as a winegrower. As well as let us taste some of his wines of course. More information:http://www.vignelaure.com/ and on BKWine Magazine: Château Vignelaure – Cabernet sauvignon meets Provence.

When, where & How

  • Time: Thursday May 31, 2012
  • Location: Participation is on invitation only

 

 

Information security in a world with both traditional IT and social networking: it’s all about people

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A previous Lunch at the Circle event was on “security” Joseph Graceffa, co-founder and CTO of Advens.

Information security in a world with both traditional IT and social networking: it’s all about people.

Today it is not enough with “IT security”, it is really a question of information security, both for companies and for individuals. Wikileaks, l’affaire Renault, a Dutch web site that collects information from Facebook and blogs to show which houses are empty (to burgle) since the inhabitants are on vacation, someone “looses” (really?) a smartphone with the company’s entire client list on it…

On one side you need to avoid unauthorised access to your systems and information by having proper protection. On the other side you need to give people good tools to work with, especially when everyone is travelling or working from a home office: smartphones, remote VPN access, webmail etc. And then you have the “social networking” aspects: Today business is more about sharing and collaborating than what it was a few decades ago. And also about using Facebook, blogs, Twitter and other tools for the benefit of your company. But all this leads to security risks.

Information security is about technology of course, but it is also, and increasingly so, about people, their behaviour and awareness of the issues.

The Economist recently ran a big feature article on the subject: The Leaky Corporation. Read it here: http://www.economist.com/node/18226961

Joseph Graceffa, co-founder and CTO of Advens, will give us an introduction and insight into these questions.

Joseph Graceffa is co-founder and CTO of Advens, an information security company. Advens provides a full range of security services to medium and large enterprises in France and across Europe. Before creating Advens some 10 years ago he was in charge of network security at Decathalon and a consultant with Bull. More info: http://www.advens.fr/