Normally I prefer more entrepreneurial style / web 2.0′ish conferences like Carson’s FOWA which I’m attending in October - usually they’re a little more fun than the often pretty mind numbing industry specific conferences I’ve attended a 1000 times - such as SES and Ad:tech.

But since my soul and my life is deeply interconnected to TraceWorks - you know the company behind Headlight, a web application for marketing professionals - I think it will be a fairly good move to check out what the hot shots in the marketing industry has to say. That’s why I’m going to DMA07 to listen to what the biiig Agencies have to say. And since we’re 3 people going from TraceWorks it will certainly be a lot of fun.

Anybody been there? What should I expect?

A very positive surprise is that one of the keynote speakers is the Founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales. I’m very interested in learning what’s on his mind and especially look forward to learn about his “Google-killer” search engine “Wikia Search” … I among many certainly hope that Wales succeeds in creating a true alternative to Google, because as he explains himself:

“This is fundamental, basic information about the world. It needs to be neutral, and there needs to be an accountable, transparent, public dialogue about how it’s created.”

Read the full article on FastCompany

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A lot of people ask me what the hell LinkedIn is actually good for. For you out there who’s not familiar with LinkedIn it’s an online network of more than 13 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.

Well, I could probably come up with a few more useful things but it’s primary function to me is that it really helps me locate and eventually hire some amazingly talented colleagues.

The procedure is straight forward.

1. Click the “People” tab
2. Type in your search criteria e.g. “C# .NET SQL2005″ and select the appropriate “Industry” & “Location”
3. Locate the right people among the search results and choose “Send InMail”

4. Select “Career opportunity” and write a letter of introduction:

This is how I’ve recruited half of my last 10 colleagues: Very talented people who were not actively looking for a job change. So I guess it works. This is my statistics the last year or so:

Note! Remember only to contact people through LinkedIn who’s “interested in career opportunities” - a user profile setting which per default is set to “interested …”. If you begin to use LinkedIn a lot for this specific purpose then you’ll probably need to upgrade to a PRO account - which includes 200 “InMails per month”.

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Ryan Carson (founder of Carsyn Systems ltd) offers a practical and down-to-earth description of what it takes to build a web app - especially the financial aspects if you decide to bootstrap the whole process from idea to finished product.

It can work! It did for me! In many ways Ryan’s description is similar to how I work with new projects today. It is also very close to how I started TraceWorks with my co-founder Anders and the marvelous design/tech cousins Jesper and Jimmi.

Ryan’s blog post dates back to 2006 - but everything is still true (… much of the stuff he’s talking about is actually becoming easier / cheaper by the day: hosting, communication, and in some ways also marketing).

Read it here: The Cost of Bootstrapping Your App: Part One & Part Two

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“Most job boards are a crap shoot. You post an ad and face an email deluge from unqualified applicants. If you like collecting resumes, that’s fine. If you actually want to hire someone, it sucks.”

This is how Jason Fried introduces 37signals’ job board which is placed alongside both the company’s hugely popular blog (73.000+ subscribers) and corporate website (1 million+ web apps sold).

The hipsters from 37signals are not the only ones doing this. Many of the most influential and popular international bloggers are also beginning to do this.

The idea behind this new bread of job boards is pretty simple: You need to hang out where the talents you’re looking for hang out … and that is not on traditional old school job boards - right?

I’ve been using some of the boards a few times - both for TraceWorks and Wulffmorgenthaler, and they’re so much more effective than traditional job boards.

Here’s are the best ones - I think:

- jobs.37signals.com
- www.crunchboard.com
- www.thinkvitamin.com/jobs
- www.authenticjobs.com
- www.krop.com

It seems this trend is not showing in Denmark? I don’t know any popular Danish bloggers who’s added a job board to his or her blog. It’s pretty easy to do so and potentially a better commercial deal than traditional ads like Adwords.

Get started? Well, you can be up-and-running in just 5 minutes using one of the just fine out-of-box job boards available: Job-a-matic, Job Thread, and Marketplaces.

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I’ve read different places that Digg is nearing mainstream adoption (especially from a media perspective, meaning newspapers etc. are increasingly adding “Digg this” functionality to their sites). Sure, it’s a powerful influencer and viral channel if you want to spread your message … But still strongest among the tech savvy - I think.

A little stat example of this trend: Solid rumors of Bill Gates having an affair with an “apple computer” is according to Digg much more popular (aka “got more diggs”) than any other comic strip ever produced by Wulffmorgenthaler - even though it’s not even listed among WM’s Top 10 Comic Strips.

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First we said they were ruining their health with their bad habit, and they should just quit.

Then we said they were repulsive and we didn’t want to be around them. Then we said they were costing us loads of money — maybe they should pay extra taxes. Other People, after all, do not share their dissolute ways. Cigarette smokers? No, the obese.

Now it’s time to also include global warming to their record of sins as explained in a very sophisticated calculation created by some very clever guys (who probably have University decrease):

“The average weight of Americans rose by 10lb during the 1990s and what a new survey called this “additional adiposity” caused airlines to use a further 350 million gallons of fuel in 2000, at a cost of £149 million. This is hitting the environment with an extra 3.8 million tons of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere”

Source: Economic and environmental costs of obesity by Dannenberg, Burton, and Jackson

What Can We Do? The Solution!

Scientists are of course working hard to develop a cure to prevent this catastrophe…

But most rational people point towards a more simple yet very powerful way to handle it. They point in the direction of a guy called Søren who lives in Copenhagen. He’s a personal trainer who’s dedicated his whole life to help people get in shape.

So if you want to loose a few pounds hence have a direct influence on preventing judgement day then I suggest you get in touch with Søren - either by phone +45 4037 0903 or by email srp@kropswerk.dk. Or you might want visit his website: www.kropswerk.dk.

Note! Since Søren just opened his new company a week ago you might be able to get some kind of attractive introductory price on some of the big packages: Especially if you say the magic, very secret, and rather long and difficult-to-remember password: “there-is-no-password-silly”.

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Progress has a huge appetite .. and it seems that TraceWorks has an everlasting hunger for those rather rare SuperTalents.

You can help us hunt them down, corner them, convince them … and be rewarded: DKK10.000 per head. Also remember the tranquilizing personal gratification from helping your fellow man (a company called TraceWorks aiming for Nasdaq in 2010) and the soothing sensation that always follows the righteous and beautiful patriots. So pull yourself together and get started!

“Okay sure, but who’s TraceWorks and what is it like working there?”

Currently we’re looking for the following human beings to help design, build, and fix our insanely cool marketing web application called Headlight.

2 x Senior .NET Developer
You are a Best-in-Class .NET / C# fanatical FREAK? Well, look no further! Paradise is soooo close!
Not yet “officially posted” on TraceWork - so hurry up.

1 x Senior VLDB’er (Very Large DataBase) Architect & Developer
You simply love databases. More than life itself. Want to help develop the biggest and most complex MS-DB setup in Scandinavia? Of course you want to!
Check it our here

1 x Senior Technical Project Manager (Scrum Master?)
You’ll help manage our 8-man strong product team of SuperTalents within UI design and C#/.NET Development. You’ll help them work faster and furious and be happier than ever.
Not yet “officially posted” on TraceWork - so hurry up.

1 x Q&A QA* Test Evangelist (almost taken)
You’re probably a mad perfectionist who’ll ensure that Headlight is always 100% bug-free. “Quality is perfection”.
Not yet “officially posted” on TraceWork - so hurry up.

We’re also looking for guys who can optimize our internal stuff and who can help sell our magical marketing web application all over the world:

2 x Sales Managers
Believe Marketing Management is the next CRM-like revolution waiting to happen!? Put your sales career into high gear!
Check it our here

1 x CFO - Chief Financiel Officer (taken)
TraceWorks is getting rather complex. More customers. More markets. More business to handle. Help needed!
Check it our here

This is where to find us: http://www.traceworks.com/contact.htm

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New amazing gourmet butcher / delicacy take-away joint on Østerbro. You should consider skipping preparing food at home all together since Gourmandiet is a reality.

Damn! Just spend a fortune on a new kitchen.

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Anyhooot … he’s still the winner of Tour de France.

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