TheNextWeb2008 Update: Love, Internet Access and Attention
Written on March 30, 2008 – 2:31 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,
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In only 3 days The Next Web Conference 2008 will be held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. We will post short daily updates about speakers, initiatives and events here.
A lot of people have been asking us if we would provide Internet access and Wi-Fi during The Next Web Conference 2008. We sort of avoided the question and sometimes even said ‘No’. This has caused concern with some people so I thought it would be a good time to explain our ideas about the subject. But first THE answer to the question: “Will there be Wi-Fi for participants at The Next Web Conference 2008?”
The short answer: Yes.
The long answer: Yes, and a lot more! We will have a special area with wired ethernet connections to a 100mbit Up and Down connection, the fastest connection we could get. This area (front left at the main conference area) will also have enough power sockets to keep everybody online all day. In addition, we will have Wi-Fi connections for the rest of the audience people. We plan to split these up in several groups of 50 people who will all be able to connect to their own access point.
This means that if one of those groups takes the network down, at least the other groups will still be online until we restart the device. And if the Wi-Fi fails we always have wired backup for you. One thing: we DO expect the wireless network to go down. It is our experience that Wi-Fi becomes extremely unreliable when you get more than 30 people in the same room connected.
We hope that the speakers will be so extremely inspiring and captivating that the use of computers will be limited to live blogging, twittering and digitally reporting about the speakers on stage.
The Next Web, just like the current web, runs on love and attention.
We hope you will give our speakers lots of both. ;-)
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
9 Responses to “TheNextWeb2008 Update: Love, Internet Access and Attention”
By Bob Jansen on Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
Nice post. I’ve seen the conversation on Twitter yesterday and it became a bit too much of bashing. I’ve had the impression that it only would be VIP enabled. But I think that was due to the noise of Twitter.
Right now we’re competing for the cards on pitchstorm.tv with Tweetburner and hope to get one of the cards so we can join the conference! Looking forward to it. Otherwise of course reading all the coverage on the web, live stream, twitter etc.
By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
@Bob I don’t think I was bashing anybody yesterday, was I? :-)
By Bob Jansen on Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
@Boris, nope not at all. It was the other way around. Messages like No wifi access etc lead to signal noise at Twitter. That’s why I (and more people) probably started thinking that it was VIP only or even not at all available at the conference.
By Frank Meeuwsen on Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
@Boris Thanks for the update. I look forward to being there the coming week. With laptop, power and a lot of love and attention! :-)
By Fred Zelders on Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
Great news for attendees and those who are not able to attend but are very interested in what is happening @ TheNextWeb2008!
By Martin on Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
Love and attention and on friday it seems that even the sun will join us. So what do we want more?
By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
@martin The sun??? That would be great! Where di you see that? Yahoo Weather said wind and clouds yesterday…
By vd on Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
Great news! :) Thanks!
By Dennis Goedegebuure on Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
Power sockets, Good call!
A must have for every conference.
I still regret not being there.