It was really lovely getting together with a group of Belgian bloggers on Saturday at the restaurant Belga Queen to meet Shel and Rick. Kris had decided this would be a nice location – it used to be a bank and has pretty special character. He was right and the wine which started flowing at 12.00 helped with this impression. (For those that don’t know Shel co-wrote Naked Conversations and Rick Segal is a Canadian VC)

During the lunch I spoke with Francois Lamotte, which was a conversation touching on Belgian politics (I need to learn more about this). I had a good chat with Luc Van Braekel who runs the Blogium web site amongst other things, which maps popular links on Belgian blogs; he has a list of 20,000 Belgian blogs.

I later spoke with Miel who writes the coolz0r blog, he only has 700 links he must work harder :), but seriously he must have one of the most popular marketing blogs in Europe. We spoke about the art and science of buzz tracking.

I had a quick conversation with Ine, she is a favourite of mine on the Barcamp circuit and I really enjoy the passion she shows for photography (she travels around the world with the Belgian Government taking photos, pretty cool). I didn’t have much time to talk with Peter, but it was good to see him, he initiates and organises Barcamp in Brussels (2).

Finally, it was great to meet the two guys from North America. I spoke with Shel regarding a number of things connected to the US competitive landscape for buzz tracking; working with wireless in a garden under a tree (I’m jealous) and also the joy of marriage. He is over as part of a new book Global Neighborhoods and he will look for additional material on this trip. He is a big believer in the power of the conversation and bringing people together like this, really highlights that power.

I only spoke with Rick at the subsequent Round table. Gert started off the questions and I later asked Rick about the VC view on Second Life (good vehicle for entertainment but not for porn). The recent social media focus of David Cameron also came up for discussion. I feel that this highlights how the brand can be helped even if the sales (in his case votes) take some time to come. There was no one in the room that could vote for him but the general good feeling he creates by being open is likely to have an impact on who votes for him in 2 years time, also most of us know people that will be able to partake at the next UK election… There were also people there from Thesedays, Agency.com, ZN, Duval Guillaume and Saatchi.

The guys took a flight to Sweden later, I shudder to think of what the taxi cost to Charleroi but still a VC and a best selling author can probably afford it :) Big thanks to Kris and Geert (and other Microsoft people) for putting this together.

There are some pictures here http://www.flickr.com/photos/pietel/sets/72157594338408323/ © Pieter Baert.

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