Författare: Victoria Ahlén

Awoque broadcasted the regional final for Venture Cup Väst yesterday live from Draken in Göteborg. Together with Regional Director Jonas Almeling, the sponsors and all entpreneurial fans, we wanted to create the best possible exposure for the competitors. Around 8.20 pm we reached one of our goals and trended as number 1 on Sweden’s Twitter Top List.

In the prize pool, more than 350 000 SKR and around 10 pm the winners were announced. Congratulations to Cyto365, Appbooster, Velit Biologics, Heaven Can Wait och Beliqua.

Our mission to spotlight and create lots of needed PR for all the regional finalists from all over Sweden continues. Stay tuned on the blog from Sverigefinalen and you will not miss a thing.

Interview with winner Micael Törnblom, Cyto365 (in Swedish):

Interview with the bronze medalists Velit Biologics:

A big applaude and High5 also to the young talents hosting tonights festivities Simon and Johanna from Venture Cup Väst.

Yesterday Avalon Hotel in Göteborg celebrated spring and invited 400 guests. Awoque teamed up with event producers Relevent and captured the energy, athmosphere and the fans’ comments online. Here are some more photos on Avalons Facebook page taken by talented photographer Emelie Lager.

Next week we start sharing offices with Relevent on Kungsgatan 42 in Göteborg. Please drop by for a cup of coffee.

Creating a positive, social atmosphere at salon Klippa is one of the missions I am involved with at the moment. Today, 11 creative, talented hair stylists came together to form a clear WHY, set goals and laugh. Take a glance on what route we have taken:

NOVEMBER: I gave a morning pep-talk, inspiring the staff, getting their minds spinning about social media. I showed some videos and asked questions. We start an internal Facebook group to tie the two salons closer together.

DECEMBER: Klippa painted two magnetic High5 walls in each salon where staff could post great articles, write notes and share ideas.

FEBRUARY: I interviewed most of the staff members to get their views on what inspires them, why they do what they do, what their dreams are, suggestions for the future and ongoing events in their lives.

APRIL: Workshop time. We created two mood boards. They will lay the foundation for a strategy for the coming years in social media connecting with in store activities and of course in the daily motivation of the staff.

A High5 day indeed.

Awoque applauds Pinchos today and wishes them a happy start with their first tapas restaurant opening in Göteborg tonight at 5 pm. This is the first restaurant in town where every order goes through an app.
“I want people to go out and eat more and to be social. Having a strong online profile and an open dialogue with our fans is an absolute must”, says founder Fredrik Mattsson.

Awoques mission so far:

• Socialized the company and the team. Providing education, answering questions and forming a social media policy.
• Connecting them with fans and getting conversations started online together with the staff
• Monitoring the brand online and measuring spread, reach and impressions
• Socializing the pre-party online and inviting & interacting with fans and early adopters of the brand.

Follow Pinchos on Facebook and Twitter @eatpinchos.

Interview with proud owner and Head Chef Johannes Räfsby on Bambuser:

Three Swedish blog posts from Pinchos:
Göteborgsbloggarna “Grab a Fork”>>
Eva Wielsegren “Tapas direkt från appen”>>
Kristina Svensson, Tomatsallad “Tapas direkt från app på Pinchos”>>

I ran into Anni Lyngskaer founder of This is my Story during one of many sessions at South by Southwest a few weeks ago. Look at her project as a great example of positive social change for the world. The project engages women in a participatory video workshop teaching the participants to express themselves and engage in their community. I asked her to tell me more and here are her answers:

The next one is Anni and Mariatu and editing her film

Why do you do what you do?
Well, this is always such a hard question. But I guess I’m working within the nonprofit industry because I believe that all humans are equal and have the same rights. Unfortunately, the world today is so unjust, but I believe it is possible to create chance. It makes me happy when I’m working with This is my Story because I can see it works. I can see that the participants learn and actually gain self-esteem. One of the female participants in Sierra Leone said “I’ve learnt that a woman is also valuable in a community.” – and that quote really says it all, that is why I’m doing what I do.

This is Fanta, one of the participants. They all have so many stories to share, and I feel so happy and blessed that they are willing to share them with me and the rest of the world

What is the key to your success?
I get a lot of ideas, some of them are kind of crazy, but I’m not afraid to fulfill them and follow my dreams. And then I’m curious and always trying to learn new things and skills.

You can aid them by voting for their video “I got rhytm” here>>

Any ideas on where their workshop might be needed, get in touch!

“Only you can change government”,says  Jennifer Pahlka from Code for America. Her non-profit uses the power of web-tools to assist in projects in cities across America. The good outcome of the projects benefits the citizens. She shows us what is possible if you dare to dream. “Code can be beautiful, simple and easy to use”, says Pahlka.
For example check out the project adopt a hydrant. The citizens of Boston where asked to take care of the hydrant closeby their house and make sure it was free from snow. They reported through and easy app. Other cities followed thanks to the open source code and sharing of information. As members of a community, we can fix things, not just complain.

Kenny Genborg, reporter at Göteborgs Posten writes an article today about the key to the future (Nyckeln till stans framgång)>>

Stop the complaining about housing, no work. Let us be inspired by this great example and come up with solutions that enable people to act!

I met many fantastic people during my visit in Texas. Together with Erik Presley, CEO Eli 360, we recorded this podcast on social media´s contribution to thinning global borders (10.5)

A few highlights:
- Be proud of who you are. Find people who inspire you. Social media enables you. Stay positive. The world will be yours.
- Keep the phone off when you are in a meeting and with your family. I personally use social media so that I can spend as much quality time as possible with my family.
- When you drink a coffee with your best friend. Keep the phone in your pocket. OK to take a photo to save the moment and tweet about it.
- Honesty is key.
- Find the community that share your passion. Listen, follow trends and start asking questions.

Thank you ACU for letting the use of the Learning Studio to record this podcast. What a great place to communicate witht the world, create digital storytelling and magic. If you want to see what has happened during the year that the AT&T studio has been at ACU here is a video:

Year One: The AT&T Learning Studio from Learning Studio on Vimeo.

I came into Austin without appointments and booked sessions. Back in October, I had this strong notion that I had to go. 14 years ago, I lived in Abilene a few hours north of Austin so revisiting would mean many meetings with people I love and places I knew from my youth.

Still, when walking into the Austin Convention Center to pick up  my badge for the (South by Southwest) SXSW Interactive late Thursday evening, my legs shook and at the same time I wanted to scream of joy. I challenged myself to get here. I wanted to face the knowledge in my industry and by the unknown. I desperately needed to recharge batteries. I came because the time had come to chase new dreams and to find new horizons.

A week since SXSW Interactive conference ended and I am still digesting.

What a wonderful beautiful world of possibilities I took part in.
What a creative melting pot of creativity and welcoming spirits.
What a mix of great people off all ages, nations, gender and backgrounds getting together to share ideas for social change, for new horizons in business and simply connecting with each other in easy conversations.

You can join the SXSW spirit. Together we can make this world a better place. Tell and communicate your stories offline and in social media. Dream the dream. Be proud of who you are. Go get it. You just connected with the future.

Be inspired as I was by this Keynote by Baratunde Thurston – How to read the word

Åland’s Social Media Guru Mats Adamczak writes about SXSW here (in Swedish)

A blog post in Moosylvania.com -What Austin Taught Us: Key Takeaways from SXSW

The Chamber of Commerce in Göteborg writes on their blog (in Swedish)

Baratunde Thurston SXSW 2012

Downtown Austin by Mats Adamczak

I saw all the new technology in the trade show today at SXSW but this panel beats all that. Here are some great examples of innovations around Africa that will inspire you to just do it. Sharing your ideas in a open innovation manner rather than capitalizing to make this world better.

Hans de Zwart summarized the session well in his blog post from #sxmakeafrica.

Here is the broadcast:

Steve Daniels:

Juliana Rotich:

Yes, you can come to the conference and focus on keynotes and panels. Fill you calender tight with pre-booked events. But then you might miss the true magic. When you just end up having an inspiring conversation with people who blow your mind, ask intriguing questions and getting your ideas challenged. Today I had lunch with a group of creative people and one hour later, we spread our passionate stories and dream projects. We now have a group on Facebook called Overlap where we can continue the conversation.

Be inspired, like I was by Marcus Goodyear´s post on on 1000 Years of History at SXSW – a poetry response to a noisy place

Do this in life. Try it. Just sit down next to someone. Ask them a question. Magic could happen. Social media enables and lets you connect and stay connected. Enjoy!