Recession Diary part 2
Today I was at a workshop held in connection with ICEWEB 2008. Iceweb 2008 is the second conference held by SVEF or the Association of the Icelandic Web Industry, an association that I'm proud to be part of. Today was the first day of a three day event, that is bringing together those of us working in web development and some excellent industry leaders, both homegrown and from abroad. Our speaker today, Kathy Sierra is best described as a popular Web developer, author and blogger who encourages people to consider human behavior when designing technology products. While we didn't discuss the economic situation in Iceland, it wasn't ignored either. Kathy has gone through a number of downturns. She's a survivor from the dot.com bust and one of the things she mentioned stuck in my head. That those organizations which have a strong value proposition for their customers and a focus on strong customer relations have historically emerged stronger from recessions. That after the dot.com bust a number of companies emerged as people became involved in start-ups and new ideas.
We discussed this during the break. One of the people I work mentioned a great idea. Maybe I should say a great enabler that's missing here in Iceland. In essence what you need today to start up a business isn't much more than a computer and an Internet connection. But if you're trying to sell your idea, you really do need a bit more. You need a place with a conference room, possibly someone who can answer the phone when you're not their. So she mentioned that now was the time to create such an incubator. Due to the downturn there's already an oversupply of office space. Create a good environment where 100 small start-ups could be based. Offer free office space, a good internet connection, somewhere to have meetings, a person who picks up the phone. Offer support in terms of business plan creation, legal assistance. In return get 30% (or some such percentage) in ownership of the start-up. Do this for, say 3 years, and allow the start-up to buy back the stock before the end of the 3 years. If things don't work, nobody has lost anything. If things work well the stock will be worth something. If not, people will have a place to put their ideas into action. Something to keep them busy while we work through the current situation. We can expect that 90 out of 100 ideas will fail. That's the way these things work. But 10 should work and we might even see 1 or 2 become very successful. We're lucky here in Iceland that we have a lot of well educated people. Lots of whom are now looking for new opportunities. This sort of incubator has worked in many countries. There's no reason why it shouldn't work here. I've already seen signs that this sort of place might be established. Actually it sounds like a great idea, even when we don't have a recession.
This week I also applied for my Chinese visa. It was an interesting experience. The people at the Chinese embassy here in Iceland seemed genuinely interested in the turn of events here and concerned about how things would turn out. I got the feeling that they haven't been very busy over the last few weeks. They noticed where I work and seemed to assume that I was going on business to China, we have an office in Shanghai, but very pleasantly surprised that I was going as a tourist. Explained to me that I couldn't get a multiple entry visa, as that was only for business travel, but that my double entry visa should be fine for me to use on my trip to Hong Kong. I'm looking forward to seeing more of China.
We discussed this during the break. One of the people I work mentioned a great idea. Maybe I should say a great enabler that's missing here in Iceland. In essence what you need today to start up a business isn't much more than a computer and an Internet connection. But if you're trying to sell your idea, you really do need a bit more. You need a place with a conference room, possibly someone who can answer the phone when you're not their. So she mentioned that now was the time to create such an incubator. Due to the downturn there's already an oversupply of office space. Create a good environment where 100 small start-ups could be based. Offer free office space, a good internet connection, somewhere to have meetings, a person who picks up the phone. Offer support in terms of business plan creation, legal assistance. In return get 30% (or some such percentage) in ownership of the start-up. Do this for, say 3 years, and allow the start-up to buy back the stock before the end of the 3 years. If things don't work, nobody has lost anything. If things work well the stock will be worth something. If not, people will have a place to put their ideas into action. Something to keep them busy while we work through the current situation. We can expect that 90 out of 100 ideas will fail. That's the way these things work. But 10 should work and we might even see 1 or 2 become very successful. We're lucky here in Iceland that we have a lot of well educated people. Lots of whom are now looking for new opportunities. This sort of incubator has worked in many countries. There's no reason why it shouldn't work here. I've already seen signs that this sort of place might be established. Actually it sounds like a great idea, even when we don't have a recession.
This week I also applied for my Chinese visa. It was an interesting experience. The people at the Chinese embassy here in Iceland seemed genuinely interested in the turn of events here and concerned about how things would turn out. I got the feeling that they haven't been very busy over the last few weeks. They noticed where I work and seemed to assume that I was going on business to China, we have an office in Shanghai, but very pleasantly surprised that I was going as a tourist. Explained to me that I couldn't get a multiple entry visa, as that was only for business travel, but that my double entry visa should be fine for me to use on my trip to Hong Kong. I'm looking forward to seeing more of China.
Ummæli