What to do at Web 2.0 Expo Berlin

It seems that most of Europe’s web and tech startup community will be converging in Berlin next week for Web 2.0 Expo.

There’s certainly a lot of buzz around the event, partly precipitated by a very successful blogger outreach campaign handled by an international brigade of top bloggers otherwise known as Nicole, Steph and Suw!

But it’s not just Web 2.0 Expo, the whole week looks set to be a real coming together of Europe’s tech, web and mobile scenes.  It kicks off with Barcamp Berlin 3 on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th October.  A great unconference, informal way to get together with a geeky crowd many of whom will likely be heading to the Expo too.

Janetti Chon‘s been keeping track of much of the activity over on the official event blog, but I thought I’d also highlight some of the key events and sessions that any self-respecting start-up should be seen at.

Tuesday 21 October: 08:30 – if you can drag yourself out of bed for an ungodly 8.30 am start, then Leisa Reichelt’s session on productivity, creativity and consensus is one not to be missed.

Tuesday 21 October: 13:00 – perfect your pitch by heading to this workshop on how to get your startup noticed by VCs, journalists or even potential buyers!

Tuesday 21 October: 17:15 – Startup Ignite sees six of the best European startups pitch to a select group of judges and their peers.  Make sure you’re in the room to check out the competition and pick up some tips on how to pitch your own startup next time.

Wednesday 22 October: 09:00 – I saw Jyri Engestrom, Jaiku creator now at Google, speak on ‘social objects’ at the NMK Forum in London in 2007. Simply, he is brilliant.  A must see whether you think you know all there is to know about ‘social objects’ or are bemused by the whole concept.

Wednesday 22 October: 15:30 – as more and more ad spend moves online, but more and more online users ignore online ads, what’s the future?  This session on Reactive Advertising is one that should provide some creative answers.

Thursday 23 October: 14.35 – the session on Electricity 2.0 in which Tom Raftery and James Governor of RedMonk talk about how lessons from the web can improve energy networks could be one of the highlights of the conference. An interesting collision of concepts.

And then finally, there’s the big Techcrunch sponsored party to round off the Expo.  I think you may have to gatecrash that one, if you’ve not already got your ticket 😉

If you are going, do report back on what were your favourite sessions.  If you want to go, then you can get 35% off when you register for the conference using the code webeu08gr10.

Alex is the founder and editor of SmallBizPod, the UK's first podcast dedicated to small business, start-ups and entrepreneurship. Alex writes about topical small business issues, entrepreneurs and anything else that catches his eye here on the small business blog. http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk