Flight disruptions due to volcanic ash cloud

Well the group has had to make alternative travel arrangements, as all flights home have been cancelled until at least Friday. Some have travelled to New York this morning and will be staying there for the week. Others are staying in Mountain View and flying to LA and then on to New York. Talk about chaos, the reports are saying that since the eruption over 65,000 flights have been cancelled. Mind numbing. The last time this happened was about 200 years ago I'm told, and the volcanic ash was said to have stayed for over two years. Maybe I better start looking for work until I can get a boat back to Ireland.

Last day in the valley

Well we're coming to an end of our trip. Can't believe how fast it has all gone. To tell you the truth we've had so many meetings that its difficult to distinguish the days. Had every intention to blog every night, but on most evenings all I've been able to do is sleep. Happy to say that of all the meetings that have been arranged I've managed to make all of them. I've listened to all the contributions with a very open mind and I genuinely can say that I've taken in an awful lot. Have I learned, yes! Have I understood, I think! With all the ideas that I've been exposed this week it will require some consideration to see if we can adopt and adapt them for home.

2 days in the valley!

Let me just start by saying that 2 days in the valley feels like a lifetime. Don't let the pessimist in you get the upper hand though, the feeling is all about optimism. The openness, frankness, honesty and welcome that we are experiencing is energising, creative and inspiring.

People here are happy to give you the opportunity to learn from them and their experience not on the basis of what they can get from you today but on the hope or belief on what may come from that connection or relationship tomorrow and into the future.

Perhaps its the romantic in me or maybe just simple hopefulness but its always best getting up in the morning thinking about what the future may bring then pondering about what could have been!

My head is bursting. Social text http://www.socialtext.com/ in the morning, Intel http://www.intel.com/ in the afternoon and a pitching event in the evening. Combined, the whole day simply reinforced the openness here. As I watch and listen to these enterpreneurs, I can't help thinking "you're giving it away--your knowledge, your experience, your frankness." How can people be so generous with their time, so open with their ideas and so frank in their assessments? The cynic in me is screaming, "whats in it for them." Apparently nothing; well not today anyway, that is just the way it works here. Silicon Valley takes the idea of collaborative competitor to a whole new level and in a whole other direction.

A great idea is the simple and the obvious idea. The pitching event we attended this evening brought that home. Not with the businesses on display, which were all great, rather the event itself. Bring a bunch of entrepreneurs together and have them pitch to venture capitalists, not for money but for feedback, and have an audience of interested individuals give their opinion. IP was not exposed or undermined, and no-one wanted to steal ideas. This was about taking a look at what people are doing and telling them what you thought. And they were interested; the feedback was genuinely welcomed. Why aren't we offering this level of support back home more often?

Is today the day I fire the CEO?

This is the first question that a venture capitalist should ask when getting up in the morning according to Phil Wickham of the Kauffman Fellows Program at the Center for Venture Education in Palo Alto. 'And make sure the CEO knows that you are considering this option each day' he emphases.

If the answer to this question is yes, then get on with it and proceed to source the best candidate for the job. If the answer is no then the question should be: 'What can I do to support him/her today?'.

The openness of communication in the Valley can take the European aback!!
Here everything is discussed openly; people are encouraged to share idea, perspectives and insight in a unique frank and direct style.
Meeting is an integral part of doing business; either formally to pitch, or informally over a cup of coffee, business ideas are discussed, developed, challenged, progressed or dropped. If this one does not take off, let's move on to the next one.
The important point is to get feedback, better find out that your plan will not work early on instead of investing time and money and realise there is no scope further down the line....

Missed my lift down to the 8am meeting at Illumina http://www.illumina.com/. S***t. Took the Cal to downtown Pal Alto and came across this New York diner with outstanding hash browns and eggs. As I sit here feeling the buzz, eaves dropping on the chattering networking going on all around me, I have only one thought: How do you bottle this stuff?

Monday 12th April - 1st day of visits

In the morning we start our busy schedule of visits in Silicon Valley with a welcome from Enterprise Ireland, followed by meetings organised by Jack Kissane from EI with venture capitalist Phil Wickham and Burton Lee, Stanford University academic and member of the Taoiseach's innovation task force.

Later in the afternoon we visit Gigoptix, a leading provider of electronic engines for the optically connected digital world.

In the evening we will split between attendance at a talk in San Jose University by John Hall, Managing Director, Horizon Ventures, a venture capital firm in the Valley, and a public presdiential lecture at Stanford University by Mary Robinson.