The World Conversation (Tour) Update

With all the lawyer letter/O’Reilly Web 2.0 stuff flying around, I forgot to mention that the August world trip has some expanded dates and cities.

We (Shel & I) will be out from August 11th through September 15th which is a bit longer as the break in between is gone.

We are going west to east as many folks advised us to hit Europe last to avoid everyone being on vacation. We took that advice and adjusted our schedule.

We will post the cities that we've got laid out, probably on Sunday. The delay is waiting for Delta's around the world desk to confirm some routes. Those of you that took the time to comment and write, we will be in touch with you to get your detailed suggestions on what to see and do.

One city I am hoping to get to see with a local is Ho Chi Minh. I'm hopeful that a university or school will invite us over to hear about the country and what is happening. We are in maximum listen mode.

Stay tuned for further updates, it is shaping up nicely.

Update: Shel did a post today, which you can find here, listing the cities. Ah, kids. They always get excited when road trips happen. Yes, that’s him bouncing around yelling “Are we there yet..”

Sooo, here are some updates to the story that were going to be done on Sunday but what the heck. (It is subject to change.)

First, a few friendly reminders. I’m not anti-Silicon Valley. No, really, I’m not. I’m pro-Canada and pro–looking for other places to find smart people wanting to get in the game and make a difference. I’m looking for stories, looking around the corner for the next great things and, in general, want to see some new new things that might be of interest to many of you. Mostly, tho, I am looking to meet smart/interesting people.

Second, this trip doesn’t include Canada as I’m working a specific road trip/tour with others in order that we may specifically give a large number of Canadian start ups a shot at speaking to a number of VCs and Angels. Stay tuned on that one.

Third, this isn’t a US road show simply because of schedules. In the late fall (Oct/Nov) I might grab a few US guys and do a road trip that mirrors the Canadian thing. Stay tuned on this one as well.

Please note: I was not able to make a dip all the way down to Australia/New Zealand because of time/mileage issues. I’m pretty bummed about it because when Microsoft sent me there in the 90s to do training (well missionary work called Windows NT), I found beautiful scenery, brilliant people and lots of smart things happening that never made the news back home. I’ve not given up on it yet.

The grand conversation:

Tokyo on Aug 12th.

Beijing on Aug 14th. (We are spending time in China to hit Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzen, and Hong Kong.)

Seoul on Aug 18th.

Bangkok on Aug 20th (We are spending time in and around Bangkok and Phuket.)

Ho Chi Minh on Aug 23rd

Taipei on Aug 25th

Bombay on Aug 26th (We are spending time in India to hit a number of places including Bangalore as well as Seth Godin’s project here.)

Berlin on Aug 31st ( In and around Berlin, places like Jena in the former east have amazingly smart people/things going on)

South Africa on Sept 3rd (trying for Johannesburg/Cape Town)

Amersterdam on Sept 5th

Once back to Amersterdam, we will be hitting a bunch of cities in Europe (and surrounding communities): London, Stockholm, Helsinki, Florence, Munich, Paris, etc. We’d like to hit some spots in Eastern Europe as well, suggestions welcome!

Shel goes home on the 13th and I head back to the barn on September 15th.

I’ll be posting the some additional details and requests shortly.

It should be fun and I hope to meet as many of you as we can.

Comments

Wow..that's a pretty impressive itinerary.

Looking forward to the Canadian tour, as right here in Toronto, we at Zytran are working on making a dent in the web universe and creating a completely new experience.

Posted by: Varun Mathur | May 27, 2006 at 13:59

Very cool. If you have space on the Canadian tour I'd love to come along. Not as a VC, but to help early entrepreneurs through some of the lessons we've learned. We know we still have more to learn, but any way we can empower the Canadian entrepreurial community is hugely exciting to me :)

(speaking of which, we need to talk about doing a startup camp in T-Dot... I keep forgetting to mention it to you)

Posted by: Jeremy Wright | May 27, 2006 at 16:27

Sounds like a great trip!

Sorry to hear you won't get Down Under for a beer and to hear about real innovation ;-)

Posted by: Darren | May 27, 2006 at 21:25

Rick

I'll be at reboot8
lets make sure we meet and talk before/during/after the conference

Marc.

Posted by: marc goldbergMarc Goldberg | May 28, 2006 at 09:31

Hope to catch you in Bombay

Posted by: Amit Doshi | May 29, 2006 at 07:14

May I suggest Bulgaria?