**Written by Guest Contributor better known as ‘Daddy’
Web 2.0 Summit Day 1
Dear Rockstar,
Your dad took a week off with his 2 business partners to SF for the Web 2.0 Summit Web 2.0 is a really cool term now for those people in the internet industry.
When you grow up, Web 2.0 will not mean anything anymore but what he learnt in terms of the people and atmosphere in Silicon Valley will hopefully be valuable to you. Stay tuned for a 3 part story on this journey.
Arrived on the 14th Nov 2010 in San Francisco. He has been very excited about this trip, both in joining the summit and also explore the idea of buying an apartment in SF. Had a very unpleasant experience with the Immigration Officer asking him questions like (in a rude manner):
“What are you doing here?”
“How many days do you want to stay here?”
“How much money did you bring?”
“Who are you here with?”
“Why is your wife not joining you for this trip?”
[Mummy has to chip in here: What the freak is this? Why the hell does he care? It’s one less potential illegal immigrant isn’t it?]
“Which day are you leaving? What flight number?”
“Where is your air ticket?”
Unfortunately Daddy did not print out my air ticket. So he took out his blackberry to try and search for his e-ticket.
“Put down your phone NOW. Where is your air ticket?”
OMG, this is freaking Silicon Valley. What is the problem in showing you my air ticket on my berry? Isnt this tech city?
“Next time if you do not print out your air ticket from where you come from, don’t even bother to board the plane.”
F hell. And that immigration officer is Asian Chinese.
Anyway, here is the view of SF from Ming’s apartment. What a beautiful city. Too bad, at this point your dad decided he doesn’t want to buy a SF apartment anymore 🙂
The Web 2.0 summit in Palace Hotel !! That was such a cool event. I have not seen so many billionaires in the same room. We had people like Eric Schmidt (Google CEO), Robin Li (Founder of Baidu), Mark Zukerberg (Founder of Facebook) and etc.
Your dad with Tim
(Probably taken by Ming, until we found someone to take a shot of everyone)
Here is a video of interview with Eric Schmidt. This guy is pretty witty actually.. See how he answers those political questions:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krSXqtKSoh4]
Next we have Ben Huh from Cheezburger Network (LOL Cat).
What the hell? What’s wrong with this guy and cats?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JRRvf3CaUI]
We also had Robin Li (Founder of Baidu). Oh man, this guy is cool – check out his response when the MC asks him to talk to Mark Zukerberg the next day. I can see his face like saying “What the hell do I care about Zukerberg? I am Robin, the King of China internet… one of the richest in China”….
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur-dytCq7Hc]
And finally we joined David Ng from Chinacache.
This is Robert Lindsey (EVP of Eidos, the maker of some of the famous games like Tomb Raider). Rockstar, you will get to see this uncle again when we travel to SF next month.
[Mummy thinks you will care only whether this uncle is a nice man who shares his raisins. This is why 3 year olds should run the world.]
Stay tuned for Day 2.
PS: Dear readers, if you are up for more, check out Tim’s posts too:
What Silicon Valley feels like
Visiting Zynga’s Office. The Home of Farmville. Mafia Wars and the likes
