Umamiblog

This is probably the earliest I have ever turned up to an airport, ever, so I have some time to kill and hopefully an opportunity to try and make sense of my thoughts from the last week. As I type, someone nearby is listening to my iTunes library – I wish I could see what songs they’re listening to.

San Fran rocks. Period. There appears to be far less homeless people than what I remember as a kid in the early 90s. Would be interested to know if that’s just my memory or the truth. I had forgotten how cheap food can be also – although I’m feeling fairly toxic and a few pounds heavier as a result.

WiFi is available everywhere. It’s great. Even better when you have a WiFi enabled device like the iPod Touch. I’m very interested to see what features I end up using the most. So far, using Safari for email has been a lifesaver.

TechCrunch was a blast. Met some very cool people and lots and lots and lots of money – and it makes me want to move here. Now. Can a Kiwi company actually be successful without moving here? I don’t think so.

That said, Silicon Valley has little originality. Most presentations from TechCrunch were companies that were taking an existing process and making it better, or faster, or easier. There were few ideas that were trying to fundamentally change things. Don’t get me wrong – they’re really smart people, some of them will make a lot of money and their users will thank them for making their own lives easier. Operating from 10,000 miles away in a land full of sheep might not be such a bad thing.

People are unable to tear themselves away from their iPhones/Smackberries, etc. That said, having cell networks that support the efficient use of those devices is a major plus. Did you know iPhones, when you have a couple hundred in a room, all try to find the WiFi and thus crash it?

The Apple Store was a life-changing experience in terms of thinking about brands, tech, and how they can relate to and involve people. This was a massive highlight for me.

Yes, the coffee was shit – can’t have been going to the right places. Good coffee must exist somewhere.
Tequila shots don’t exist – they come in glasses and are hazardous. Proceed with caution.

Hammer was cool – Steven was lucky enough to get a photo with him. I had an absolute ball with Mr APHH ripping around the city and the conference with him.

Kawasaki is funny and a genius. Telling Xobni: “That’s a dumbass name. I hope you didn’t pay for it. If I was your investor I’d shoot you.”

Meeting people that burned through $50million during the last boom and are back for more (and investors are willing) blows my mind. Meeting other business and tech celebs was crazy but thats probably more to do with being a Kiwi and so far away than anything else.

The companies I liked the most were seldom liked by others. Kerpoof, for instance, was brilliant (or so I thought) and was aimed purely at kids to be creative online. WooMe was another where I thought “Cool!” – but others were less impressed than I was.

I’m humbled by the response at TC, online, and back home to Ponoko appearing at TC. Amazing. Engadget crushed our blog, not to mention Ars Technica, Boing Boing, Read/Write Web, etc. It blows my mind. A little gutted I didn’t bump into Peter Griffin at the conference.

Being told by a Kiwi millionaire to “forget about the f…ing Govt” was humbling and has made me think hard about my perspective on myself and NZ.

Oh, and I can’t forget… I’m need to send some Curiously Strong Mints to the people at Ink Comms.

Customs coming into the States wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. We’ll see what it’s like on the way out in a few hours.