Lot of activity has been happening in the last days. I felt honored to be invited to the Internet Summit of the Verlagsgruppe von Holtzbrinck in the beautiful Krallerhof in Austria. It was clearly one of the most high-caliber events I ever attended with 70 people from the industry, many of them CEOs and senior management of the Holtzbrinck Group. Event the owner and CEO, Stefan von Holtzbrinck, and the CFO Jochen Gutbrod were attending throughout the entire 2.5 days.
It was a fantastic mix of presentations, Q&As and networking in the sidelines of the event in a very focused, yet unassuming atmosphere. I will write more about this event on the blog of Holtzbrinck eLAB in the next days when it does live.
Rushing back on Friday, I changed into Lederhosen and rushed to the openBC event in the Hippodrom Tent of the Oktoberfest. Sitting with Lars Hinrichs, the CEO of the company, we talked about the upcoming name change to “XING”. He admitted that the initial feedback from the members has been “horror”, but the wind has by now calmed down already and the company will of course carry on with it. The next is my opinion, and nothing but my opinion. Lars has not said that, it’s MY view: I believe that as openBC is from its website a “pre-IPO” company this sort of name change is also part of a “story” which might at the first glance look like actionism, but might also bolster the credibility for an aggressive international strategy. Although the name “openBC” in my opinion is not bad at all, such a “re-launch” always carries a certain dynamic which investors might appreciate. End of my opinion :-)
Back to the liquid facts: Lars and me enjoying a “Mass Bier” in the sunset of the Wies’n (=Oktoberfest) 2006. Ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit.
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