{ Monday, January 22, 2007 }
I am here in Munich for the Digital Life Design conference, which has been fantastic. I had a great deal of fun on the first panel of the conference, moderated by David Kirkpatrick , one of my favorite reporters. I won't write what I talked about as it is well summarized in some notes from that panel on Poynter Online.
I was also awarded the Aenne Burda Creative Leadership Award, which was significant for two reasons. One, Aenne Burda was the founder of the Burda company, and started with Burda Moda, a fashion magazine, which contained in every issue a pattern, to make an article of clothing -- really very much about, and she'd never use this term, user generated content, which used to be called "creativity". Very entrepreneurial, and creative herself, Burda Media is now a tremendously successful company, and the sponsors of the DLD conference, through which her creative spirit flows. (And as Hubert Burda noted, she started the company at 40, so you late-blooming entrepreneurs, take note!) Thanks Burda! Especially Hubert Burda, a wonderful, brilliant and terrificaily fun man, who I sat across from at lunch (and next to Norman Foster!), and who during the awards ceremony managed to get everyone singing a German folk song, and then, Glory Glory Hallelujah. Two, Marissa Mayer of Google, who won the award last year, chose me for the award this year. Marissa and I do some similar things at our respective companies: new product development, shepherding a culture of entrepreneurship and invention -- and Google and Yahoo are often seen as bitter rivals. But no. The press likes to play Don King, setting everything up like some Ali vs. Foreman Rumble in the Jungle. The truth is less dramatic, and as such I was very gratified to be chosen *by Marissa* to receive this award. It's truly an honor. Thank you Marissa!
Linda's talk really summed up a lot of what I've been feeling vis-a-vis my Continuous Partial Attention problem. I did waay too many press meetings -- so many I lost count -- which meant I missed a lot of the conference, wore myself out, and had to bow out of my last panel. Here's one I did live on CNBC -- not at my most articulate, but a passable job. The press, and my horrible jet lag led me to two new resolutions when attending overseas conferences: 1. fewer press meetings, and 2. arrive at least two days before the conference to adjust to the new time zone. Some brilliant people invented Slow Food, now we need to invent Slow Life. Zipping between time zones, and all work, no play makes Caterina not only a dull girl, but a weird glassy-eyed always-on caffeinated jetlag vampire. To hell with all that! Munich is a beautiful city, and to be here and not see it at all, a terrible, nay, crying shame.
LINK | 5:56 PM | TB
Many congratulations on your award, Caterina! It's beautiful. The Burda enterprise is certainly a fixture of my childhood, my mother always had Burda's sewing magazines around for patterns, and I think most of my wardrobe started out there (my mother used to sew a lot, and very well, too).
And does this mean that you also get to pick next year's winner? That would be so cool!
marrije | January 23, 2007 3:08 AMCongratulations, Caterina! Thanks for sharing the Burda company information. And I think you are so right about the press playing Don King.
emdot | January 23, 2007 10:56 AMReferring to 40 as "late-blooming" is kinda offensive to those of us over 40. Studies have shown that the majority of successful entrepreneurs are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. The canonical example is Ray Kroc, who took over and built McDonalds starting at age 52.
I hope you liked the picture and the video taken of the event. Great seeing you again. Take care !
Rodrigo A. SEPULVEDA SCHULZ | January 23, 2007 4:10 PMcongrats on the Burda award.
i enjoyed reading your press interviews, as it was posted during the DLD convention.
keep doing good.
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Slow is not just Slow Food, although food is the most well known aspect of Slow,
http://www.slowmovement.com/
And yeah, you need to slow down :)
Graham | January 23, 2007 1:45 AM