Dublin, Paris and Amsterdam

It’s been a whirlwind tour and I’ve really been enjoying meeting local people in the various cities on our Road Trip. Here are some thoughts on the various cities:

Dublin

The scene in Dublin is very, very exciting. So much so that I’d venture to say that it’s even more happening than the London scene. We had a massive turnout (200 excited people), there were demos, tons of networking – it felt even more exciting than a TechCrunch party in Silicon Valley.

I’d say a big key to that is the Web2Ireland group. They’re very positive, outgoing and excited about succeeding in the web space. Here are just a couple of the exciting apps I came across:

• PutPlace
• pxn8
• Touristr
• Nooked
• Pixie
• Newbay
• Nubiq
• MySay
• PollDaddy

I’d like to thank Fergus from Nooked for helping me organize the event. Also, we had Microsoft Silverlight and Advent Ventures throw a ton of money behind the bar. Thanks!

Paris

The Road Trip to Paris was small an intimate. We had about 20 folks show up, mostly from Netvibes. My French isn’t that great (read: non-existant) so it was tough to drum up a lot of interest to the French crowd. However, it was great to be supported by the folks that came out.

It was at this event, actually, that I came across one of the most exciting web apps so far: Todeka. Charles, the CEO, ran me through how it works and I’m really excited about it. I think it might be the beginning of an answer to the online identity problem.

Amsterdam

We had a great turnout in Amsterdam and it was a great night. What I took away from the event is that there is a very vibrant Dutch web community. It was interesting to hear from several folks that they felt that, in general, the Dutch are too protective of their ideas and that it stifles creativity. I know a lot of the people I spoke to wanted to break down those barriers.

Another interesting point is that there are a ton of startups focusing on mobile in Holland. I had a great conversation with Mathijs van Abbe from Moby Picture about uploading your data to various networks with one click via mobile.

Another interesting app I came across was Tipit, which is an app which allows you to give tips to people.

Next …

On to Copenhagen!