As some of you might know, since the beginning of April I've been doing the Clean program. Clean is a 21 day detox consisting in 2 blended meals a day (breakfast and dinner usually) and a solid meal (lunch).
I have a story with Social Media Week Berlin. And now it is time for some confessions.
Karneval der Kulturen in Berlin
The 17th edition of Karneval der Kulturen (Carnival of Cultures) is starting tomorrow Friday. Celebrated always on the weekend of Pfingsten (Pentecost), it is the perfect time to experience the big diversity of Berliners living in our beloved city.
As you might have heard, MyFest (Mai Fest) for 1st of May is one of the biggest highlights of the party year in Berlin and unofficially the one open air party that kickstarts the summer season. Everyone is looking beautiful and you can't keep wondering where all those people were during the long winter. One of the biggest mysteries of Berlin, indeed.
But if you really want to enjoy the celebration, read this guide of "MyFest, the clever way". Why the clever way, Monica? Isn't that arrogant of you? - you might ask. Well, tomorrow it will be my 6th MyFest in Berlin. And I have learned a couple of things that I want to share with you. So really, take my advice.
On the 16th of April every year, Foursquare Day is celebrated worldwide. The initiative to dedicate a full day to spread the love to Foursquare among other people and mainly businesss owners came from the community. Which is kinda amazing. Check #4sqday on Twitter to see how much is going around the world :) Why I am so passionate about Foursquare
Foursquare is a great service. It is in some ways still crossing the chasm, in that difficult area between being a geeky platform for the "savvy crowd" and becoming totally mainstream. Thanks to their early API access and as well as Twitter's, its arms expanded beyond their platform. So, everytime you geotag a Instagram pictures, yes, it is thanks to the powerful Foursquare data. But after 4 years, still many mobile users link Foursquare to "creepy" check-ins and "nonsense competitions" to accumulate mayorships and badges.
GiveCamp is a worldwide initiative to bring developers and Non Profit Organisations together for a weekend. During the GiveCamp developers help the organisations to improve their websites and at the end of the weekend, they donate their code.
For me, the first edition of GiveCamp Berlin has been an eye opener experience. Even if I happen to NOT to be a developer or a designer, I joined as a supporter and volunteered my experience with social networks. Usually managing the online communication for a project takes a lot of time and resources, which many non profits prefer to put on other aspects. So my role has been to give them some ideas on how making the most of their time and still be active and engaging on Facebook, Twitter and so on :)
A blog post coming a week late but better late than never!
CommunityCamp Berlin 2012 was already the 5th edition of the Barcamp for Community and Social Media Managers, but surprisingly I had never heard about it before this summer. I got the hint thanks to @m106 and I signed up for it without knowing what to expect. Anyway, it was for free and in Berlin we love umsonst.
The only thing I knew for sure was that everything was going to be German oriented. Practically all attendees in the Mixxt group were German and coming from all around the country for a weekend of networking. So I promised myself to leave my German shy self at home and give some steps towards my full integration in this country. 5 years overdue, I know.
I have 2 dreams. And both are Catalan dreams.
Even if I was not born in Catalunya (that's the way to write it in Catalan), I happen to think Catalan. I know because I love "la feina ben feta", meaning "work done right", I am geizig / money-saving and I am also a good example of "seny i rauxa", which would be "reason and hothead(ness)". As well as I feel proud to be Catalan when I hear the expression "a contracor", used when doing something against your heart, but admitting you cannot help but doing it. Exactly, some stuff cannot be translated.
This week I was invited to write a piece for Venture Village, that's the link to the published version, under these lines the text I wrote. I am überhappy on the final result, but the first text was a bit longer and more "me", plus it is an excuse to publish it here as well :D
10 ways to smart up your travels
Being on the lookout of the next best thing, killer features and future trends is part of a daily Internet routine when building a startup. It might not be the most productive or healthy thing to do, but it is unavoidable: you see some news, you dig a service, end up signing up and thinking “Oh man, that is awesome!”.
It is a typical sentence you come across when talking about being original, reinventing a market, creating something innovative: the everyday conversation when you are in a startup scene context. There is nothing new under the sun, nothing left to be created. Some days you believe it and some days you prefer not to. This might be old and you might have seen it already, but it still resonates in my mind since the first time I came across with it: