Workplace Change Agents.

Workplace Change Agents is a dedicated team of workplace interior designers and change managers who create the perfect working environment for enterprises and startups that reflect the (desired) corporate culture of the company. They do this by entering the firm for a three-six months analysis period and recommend both improvements in the structure, processes and people needed to be more effective and productive using all the current (and state-of-the-art) technologies and best practices. They don’t just deliver, they participate and make things better in close collaboration with the people and always in respect with the current context.

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ADSS: animal door security systems

I know quite some people who have animal doors in the home. That’s a serious security breach. They hear it when it clacks but it remains a potential thread because it’s often used by burglars to get access to a house. ADSS wants to provide you with products to enhance the safety of animal doors. That can be done through auto-animal detection through sensors, video etc. It can detect whether it’s in fact your cat that’s entering the house. Animal recognition at the outside makes sure your animal is the only one entering the house. For other animals the door would remain locked.

Smartphone Analytics.

If you see how addicted people are to their smartphone, it’s time to do something about it. People should be more in control but in reality they are not really. It’s not that the smartphone has to go but as with alcohol, it’s best when used moderately.

The smartphone analytics app not only monitors everything you do and how much spend on your device, it tells you exactly how much time you waste on your phone watching unnecessary reminders, starting to do stuff without actually doing something, etc. With this knowledge, Smartphone Analytics offers a paying management console in which you can amend your ‘time-consuming’ settings more easily so you are waisting less and less time on your phone. It will also alert you when you’re losing unnecessary time on your phone as it happens.

TapaasBaar: concept pop-up bar with tapas for foodies. #oipd

Because drinks without food are only halve the fun. Imagine a mobile kitchen, fresh ingredients, exquisite drinks, a creative bartender and chef that pop-up on public places or in buildings (or by invitation) until all is consumed.

Probably a concept Koen Betsens would enjoy.

I was a first-timer at Drupalcon.

I attended Drupalcon Prague last week. What a great experience it was!

I attend the CxO Event where I met people from all sizes of companies and while topics were crowdsourced (good idea!), the quality of the discussions was really dependent on some of participants in a group. Anyway, I had some input on what the main problem of most companies is; finding people that deliver quality Drupal work. The Drupal community might have been thriving the product to a more complex ecosystem. As we all know the more complex, the more crappy something becomes and how impossible it almost becomes to keep it maintainable and innovative …

As I could also attend the Acquia Partner Day, i left the CxO event and took a seat to have a look into the future of Drupal and Acquia’s products and services. I was mainly impressed by Peter Guagenti (VP Products) presentation about the ‘could site factory’ platform (DrupalGardens v2) and the speech of Tom Erickson (CEO) who surprised everyone by stating Acquia hasn’t been the best partner but that they know and working on it. Acquia has some interesting stuff coming up and even more strategic initiatives that should really so I tend to believe him.

As I was there to do some business, I did two keynotes (Dries Buytaert & Aral Balkan) and only attended a few sessions.
What stroke me is that Dries’ presentation was pretty pixel perfect from a communication-technical point-of-view but that he seemed a bit distracted and not very convincing. It might have gotten something to do with his grandmother passing away (My sincerest condoleances, Dries!). What I remember from his presentation is that he was really diplomatic about the backdrop issue and the forking of Drupal in general in relation to Drupal 8.
Aral was, as always, a great evangelist of ux design for a free world. Funny, to-the-point and great to watch presenting his beliefs!
There is one particular session I want to give a special mention. The session of Sylvain Moreau about Universal Media Assets Management in Drupal with the Scald module was very interesting indeed. When I evaluated the scald module in february, I quickly fell in love with the ideas but was very disappointed about the execution. Now, in september, they evolved it to the what’s probably the best asset module for Drupal’s future. We will probably use it now in our Paddle distribution for kanooh.
For the rest, I had great in-depth meetings with Commerce Guys and Acquia to start and strenghten our partnerships. The future is bright for ONE Agency.

I also got to meet up with some fabulous dev, design and business people i got lost in touch with for several years, and others I only knew from twitter, so I can safely say; Drupalcon, you were great! Thank you!

Buy and save or donate payment gateway. #oipd

Yesterday, I was so busy I did’t make time to add an idea. That’s why this one should be a good one, a kind one. So here it is.

For any responsible online business that handles e-payments, it would be an act of humanity just to give them customers a choice between a saving or a donation. The payment gateway solution offers it immediately. The dealer should only take into account that a percentage or fix amount of his goods will be reserved to please its customers.

It addresses to both the left and right brainers, as you get yourself a discount or you can help someone or organization. The perception of the brand that uses the buy and save or donate gateway will automatically improve. (No scientific research says this. It’s my guts only saying this)

Going forward. Faster.

After talking to Kris Leys, who I’ve been in touch with through Flanders DC (SOS Idee), I’ve started looking for a co-owner for ZOYOKO. I was convinced that I just needed an angel investor to lower my personal risk, but after talking to him, it sprang to mind that I mostly need someone that can grow the ideas that make the ZOYOKO business in a more pragmatic way. Funds only came last in my priorities list.

Or it works. Or we pivot.

I wrote to several institutions and realized again that institutions are not the best to talk to when you’re talking entrepreneurship. But I have to say that I am open to alter my vision a bit on that as yesterday, I met Arne Oosthuyse of BRYO (Bright Young), a program for starters and entrepreneurs by VOKA.

My five cents on entrepreneurship

Although he certainly has some standardized speech, he let me do my talk before even starting to guess whether I knew what BRYO was. It was a nice talk. He pretty much convinced me that it would be really good for me to join the program. What convinced me most is that I would get out of it what i wanted to get out of it. BRYO enables you to talk to likeminded people on entrepreneurship. Not in the free floating Open Coffee kinda way but with both starters as experienced captains of industry with whom you could challenged your ideas, discuss problems and opportunities in free and organized sessions.

Anyway I’ll do my best, and try to get into next years program. Looking forward to that!

Ignore the competition :-)

“Even in the fact of massive competition, don’t think about the competition. Literally don’t think about them. Every time you’re in a meeting and you’re tempted to talk about a competitor, replace that thought with one about user feedback or surveys. Just think about the customer.”

– Mike McCue, CEO Tellme Networks, Former VP of Technology Netscape

If you don’t understand the customer better than the competition, quit.

If you can’t recruit a team that can serve your customers better than the competition, quit.

If you don’t think the market is big enough for competitors, quit.

Assume you have 30 competitors. Assume half of them have more money than you. Assume they’re ahead of you. Don’t worry when they launch before you do. Every overnight success story is the result of years of sustained, focused execution.

If you want to be #1, ignore the competition. (source: Nivi Blog)