Elevator pitches and “Cocktails on the Titanic” at State of the Map

It is less than two weeks until State of the Map kicks off.

The annual OpenStreetMap conference provides a great opportunity for the open data and volunteered geographic information community to gather in Girona to talk maps, learn from each other and inevitably squabble a bit about open-ness and licensing and tag structures and stuff.

If anyone doubted the importance of the OpenStreetMap community and their map the incredible response of the community to the earthquake in Haiti should have provided an answer. I am looking forward to hearing about activity in Haiti and some of the other community maps being created in parts of the world that don’t satisfy the business models of the navigation vendors.

Talking about business models, I am chairing a panel discussion entitled “Cocktails on the Titanic”. If you can’t work out the relevance of the title you might want to think about businesses that do not adapt their business models to rapidly changing circumstances. The core of this panel discussion comes from a session I ran at wherecamp.eu “We are all FCUK’d without a Business Model”

(C)(C) Terence Faircloth http://www.flickr.com/people/atelier_tee/

The second half of the panel at SotM will be an opportunity for startups and small geobusinesses to do a one minute elevator pitch to the audience about their business. You need to pitch the Who? What? Why? and How Much? of your business model. Have a look at this old post if you need some background on the questions. No slides, just a mike and 60 seconds not a single second longer followed by some challenging questions from the panel and the audience. At the end the community will get to vote for their favourite pitch and a small prize will be awarded. The big opportunity for a startup is exposure and possibly even an investor (I am still open to more geostartup investments if they have a good business model – Geo.me seems to be off to a good start)

If you or someone you know want to grab a slot for an elevator pitch mail me through this
or mail henk@stateofthemap.org

Cheers