Article written by guest blogger Glenn Le Santo
I’m excited! Genuinely excited, in that kid-the-night-before-Christmas way. Why? Because I’m one of the lucky 13 writers from Europe, Australia and China to have been chosen by Orange to go on a blogger bus tour of San Francisco and Silicon Valley in September.
The tour aims to find out what makes Silicon Valley tick. We want to examine the culture of the Bay Area and meet the companies, institutions and individuals that make the area what it is – a world leader in technological innovation.
The area spawned the giants such as HP and Apple – and latterly Facebook and Twitter. We want to know how the area does this. We also want to find out if it will continue to do so, especially as some observers (such as Y combinator’s Paul Graham) think the Facebook IPO might have signalled the end of the Valley’s long reign.
To help us on our mission we’ve arranged to visit several companies in the Bay area, both large and small. We’ll be heading off to see Adobe, Swipp, Eventbrite and many more, the list has close to 25 company names on it already, and a few incubators. We’re still looking for more hosts (contact @lesanto in case you have a suggestion for us). We will also be paying a visit to the MIT/Stanford University VLAB venture lab, which is at the centre of the Valley’s development. We want to hang out where the main movers and shakers hang out – we want to experience the Valley vibe.
Apart from having a brilliant, inspiring and memorable trip, we also want to be telling you the story of our trip. Not only the company visits, but the travel and social stuff that goes with it. I’ll be keeping a video diary of our experiences.
We’ll be announcing exactly who is going and where and who we’re visiting very soon – watch this space!
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