And during this time at Vanksen office

Segway rules!

The Economist invites the world to vote for Obama & McCain

I just found the great http://www.economist.com/vote2008/ campaign created by The Economist in order to see what the rest of the world would be voting between Obama and McCain... The only small problem is when you have a look at Luxembourg... Instead of 500.000 inhabitants, the country, thanks to the renown magazine, is supposedly totalising 3.4 millions!!! i.e. more than 7 times too much... oups! Wow, in less than one day, The Economist already replied to my blog post and corrected the figures about Luxembourg's population on their site (and I am really not a big one compared to our other big blog www.culture-buzz.com). Great reactivity... I wish we would see the same with media in France...

Elected "2nd most creative entrepreneur of the Year" in Luxembourg

I have been elected "2nd most creative entrepreneur of the Year" during the The CYEL 2008 Award Ceremony in Luxembourg on friday...

Wow cool! Even if I should share this title with Xavier Lesueur, my business partner and all the Vanksen team. I won't have received it without their intense efforts and big talent to face the challenging growth we are living in 2008 with VanksenGroup... And bravo to Xavier Buck (EuroDns) who won and to Sylvain Zimmer (Jamendo) who ranked 3rd...
Luxembourg is definitely a small and amazing place that really welcome foreign entrepreneurs and talents and motivate them to stay and grow their business...

Interviewed by Flydoscope (Luxembourg)

Flydoscope, the magazine edited by Luxair, Luxembourg's Airline, was keen enough to interview me in the latest edition. Bad point was (at least for the poor readers) that they asked me, as usual in the magazine, to make a drawing! Now you know why we do have art directors and designers at Vanksen|Culture-Buzz. They are just so much better than me regarding design... ;)

   

La nuit des publivores de retour au Luxembourg

Source : http://www.paperjam.tv

Surfing at 312km/h on the Paris-Luxembourg fast train TGV

Wow, the train I just caught to move back from Paris to Luxembourg... is offering to use free WIFI. I am actually blogging this post at 312Km/h from my laptop...

The internet speed is really good, I can even watch videos on dailymotion. This action is only a test but I cannot wait for the regular WIFI service to be launched... Below they even offer a live map to know where you TGV train is...

They even offer videos & music for free (you can dowload VLC player in order to watch them)

Luxembourg ranked as #1 smart city in Europe

Smart cities, an initiative for ranking city depending on their Urban Quality such as housing, economy, culture, social and environmental conditions is ranking little Luxembourg as number 1!

Source : http://www.smart-cities.eu/ranking.html

Party Time in ...Luxembourg with DaftPunk & Placebo

If you weren't in Luxembourg to attempt Placebo and DaftPunk concert in the RockHall, you really missed something! Despited being dead tired, I was just amazed by the energy transmitted by DaftPunk duo...

DaftPunk - Lux - 07 - 2
Vidéo envoyée par gonzaguedambricourt

It was a great time with a part of BuzzParadise, Legitiname and Vanksen teams...
NB : sorry for the poor photo and video quality.. but Gonzague got his camera taken by security ad we had to use phone cam...

Kokian paintings in Luxembourg

Last Friday, I was delighted to see one of my favorite modern painter, "Kokian" visiting us in Luxembourg for a nice exhibition of his latest paintings in Leslies' Art Gallery in Bridel.

   

If you don't already know Kokian, have a look at his website that show the whole of his artistic talent...
NB : Kokian has just been selected by Challenge Magazine, Beaux Arts Magazine & Artprice as one of the top 1000 artists who make the artistic market in the world!

 

Colophon 2007 : International Creative Magazines meet in Luxembourg

Many seems to believe (and wrongly I must say) that Luxembourg is a quiet and lost little place ;)
So for those who don't know, Luxembourg has been selected as European HeadCity of the Culture for the Year 2007. This "title" means that an amazing number of great  events is happening all around the year.

If you were in the Grand Duchy between the 9 and the 11 of march you could have attempt to one of the most creative event : Colophon 2007. Organised by Mike Koedinger, a Luxembourgish magazine editor and addict (who publishes some of the biggest magazines here in lux : Paperjam, Explorator, ex-Nico, ...), this event had for objective to invite the most creative magazines internationally.

Mission accomplished as I have been able to see.

For 3 days I have been able to talk with editors, designers, illustrators, magazines fanatics from Brazil, Lituania, Asia, France, Netherlands, UK,... 

The Casino d'Art Contemporain was hosting most of the event and offering enough space for the participants to move from the conference room to exhibits area...

...to the bar or to a temporary shop (base in the veranda, aka the aquarium) selling an amazing selection of the most creative mag. From content to design it was an amazing occasion to crawl around creativity...

Little Luxembourg really rocks sometimes!!!

NB : More photos on Flickr....

On Off exhibition. Luxembourg

If you are living or stopping by in Luxembourg, don't hesitate to visit the latest art exhibition of Casino d'Art Contemporain : OnOff. As they mention it, "Throughout the year, the Casino Luxembourg - Forum d'art contemporain organises contemporary art exhibitions, focusing on the diversity and complexity of current artistic approaches and attitudes".

OnOff is an interesting exhibition around the concept of lighti illustrated by "fifteen works of light in movement, some of which have been designed specially for the occasion, works to transform the building into a bright jewel-case, a field of intense and yet somehow disturbing artistic radiation".

I sometimes do have hard time with "modern art" but this exhbition was original and surprising with some really innovative and smart use of "light".

Blogdelux.lu : Day-8

Only 8 more days before the first bloggers meeting in Luxembourg : http://www.blogdelux.lu.Thanks to all the media that already supported this event such as Radio Ara, Le Wort (the number one information daily newspaper in Luxembourg, in Luxembourgish):

Contacto (the portuguese community newspaper > Luxembourg has a huge portuguese community and few of its big bloggers are blogging in this language) :

La Voix : one the biggest newspaper (in French)

Paperjam (the biggest business, communication and finance magazine)

Les Frontaliers.lu : one of the biggest website in Luxembourg for the French and belgian citizens who travel everyday to come to work in Luxembourg. (the site is operated by the same team who run Jamendo, the web2.0 music community : Laurent Kratz > watch his interview on culture-buzz.c om...).

Station.lu : the information website of the english community in Luxembourg

Finally one of the challenge in the luxembourgish and Great Region blogosphere is one of the charm of the country : the number of used languages. Luxembourgish, french, german, english portuguese, italian,... wow so much languages for such a small country. But so nice to have the opportunity to exchange with people from so many countries and cultures... The world village is maybe finally... Luxembourg...

Blogdelux.lu : Join the first Bloggers meeting in Luxembourg

If you are available on Saturday 27th of January in Luxembourg, join us at http://www.blogdelux.lu for the first bloggers meeting in the area. After a little study we have found more than 150 people blogging in Luxembourg and accross the borders in France, Belgium and Germany... If you have ideas or suggestions to improve or be involve in this event, do not hesitate to contact us...

6th "Museums Night" in Luxembourg

Once a year, Luxembourg opens all its museums until 1am during what is called "la nuit des musées" (Museum Night). It was a nice opportunity to discover the new modern art musem (Mudam) and its amazing building. I still have some trouble dealing with some of the "supposed" exposed master pieces... but I guess Art is question of perception.

I advise you too to visit the Fortress Museum. Build by Vauban, this castle has just been rebuilt... And it is pretty fun to visit a one mile underground secret passage only lighten with your cell phone screen ;)

Last week in few words

Because time is moving fast, here is a turbo summary of the last week...

Tuesday ///  PR2.0 or Everyone is an opinion leader : As we just launched BuzzParadise, I am always interested in other's people insight regarding PR, opinion leaders and word of mouth. This week, I suggest to read 2 interesting thoughts : RP 2.0 from PRland and "Tous leaders d'opinions" from Sébastien Bailly, who just joined Yadès...

Wednesday night /// Luxembourg's, Nico Magazine, new edition launch party at Nude Shop : In luxembourg, Nico is a local creative monthly magazine presenting all the art/fashion/trends/culture & music news. For french people just imagine a mix between Technikart, Nova, Blast and l'Officiel des Spectacles. Last wednesday, I was happy to attempt the new edition launch in one of my favorite Luxembourgish shop "Nude", animated by the trendy owner Ture. The party started with a small fashion show with some pretty models, continued with some of the best local Djs, local beer and animated discussions between the guests. It was nice to meet Brav, a Luxembourgish blogger I did not knew, Aurélio Angius from Tempo or Fred Theisen from Rockhall.

      

Thursday /// TV Spot shooting : yes you read it right... we are shooting our first TV spot for a major french brand... Our creative director Galienni did really a great job and you should be able to watch it soon on TV. Stay tunned for more info to come soon.

Thursday night /// Paris CEO bloggers' club dinner : with a dozen of enthusiatics entrepreneurs and bloggers such as Rodrigo, JB Plantin, Jacques Froissant, Christophe Ducamp, Marie Hulin, Henri Kaufman, Rmen, Christophe Ducamp, my partner Nicolas Van Beek, a quick visit from Mry,... under the organization of Guillaume du Gardier. I was happy to meet a new member and an old friend : Godefroy Jordan. My first job was indeed in B2L webagency, that was managed at the time by Loïc Lemeur and him. Welcome in the blogosphere Godefroy.