As some of you know I am a fan of Mac Computers and Hanna is going for Dell.

A study of Studie von Forrester Research (German Link)  now found out that Mac-Users are particularly active in Web2.0 and produce content, Dell-Users however don’t. Well, somehow just like with Hanna and I

Maybe that will change some time soon as it seems as Dell lost some credits with Hanna.

Some time ago the wonderful long weekend was over, Michael being in London again and I was back in Hamburg as usual.

May Day was not as bad as many expected. Even if all streets in danger were cleared beforehand, after the official events in Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg some drunken youths tried to make trouble. Well nobody knows if these youths wer not a couple of tourists as some suspect. But taking just our feeling living less than one kilometer from Boxhagener Platz, it obviously was not that bad. Otherwise alarms and helicopters would have kept us awake for quite some time. And newspaper reported riots and numbers of arrests, but reports concdfning the number of burnt cars or windows destroyed were missing completely. Therefore I assume that these numbers are close to zero.

Personnally the weekend was quite relaxing, Michael is more and more adapting to not being active any time you can imagine. Currently we try not to smoke in the flat, simply to reduce consumatiom as cigarettes just are not available without thinking. Just a pity if our mates just occupy the smoking seats established in the hallway even if they are non-smokers!

Here in Hamburg there was quite some stress, many deadlines are imminent concerning proposals for EU projects to be submitted with our help. In addition we have to do PR for our LOCOMOTIVE-Conference, as nothing is more deadly than a conference without paticipants. My boss is on holidays in the republic of Georgia, but she sent Emails before departure and afterwards (even if having difficulties and using a strange sending address), called as soon as possible and then sent an SMS. One could say “Business as usual”.

During the last weeks I had to move 3 times here at my working place, from the ground floor into the basement, then into the first fl0or and finally into the second. It was not my fault only, but I take my share, which I will report some time when I am drunk enough. My new secondary flat does not have the disadvantges of a ground floor flat, the view out of the window is quite nice, showing a park and a school. The school is quite useful as I hear the sound at 8 o’clock sharp and know the time. Even without owning a watch.

Gärtnerstraße

The area around Boxhagener Platz was cleared extensively before 1 May this year. As we hoped there were no major riots that night as was the case last year.

But the roads were cleared prophylactically anyway. Sort of a strange feeling to see roads, which are full of parked cars usually, suddenly cleared of all resting traffic. Tow-cars were very busy as the temporary no-stopping-signs usually are ignored by residents. They will get a substantial invoice.

Seumestraße

Well, in my opinion this was the correct starting of the BBQing season on the roof terrace. On the occasion of Michael’s visit from London we had asked people for brunch and about 13.5 people responded to the occasion. As always Hanna had catered for more than enough food, even if I had decided to miss any food with a meat bias, and steaks eventually. But she even organized (half size!) T-Bone-Steaks and much more.

Everybody enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Especially Michael and Daniel Kinderman, our two (born) Canadians enjoyed themselves thouroughly.

Wenn Michael was here we went out for dinner. Originally we wanted to go for an Indian restaurant, but on our way we passed “Kaspar und Hauser” and decided to go there after having a look at the menu.

I would call the way of cooking as something like “international bistro cuisine”. We went for the Wiener Schnitzel, which was wonderful, the meet was thin with a batter showing bubbles like it should be. The asparagus going along with it was marvellous and fresh. And my variation to have melted butter instead of Sauce Hollandaise with the asparagus was fulfilled without complaints.

Upon leaving the venue, the band for the evening arrived. Managed by an Ukrainian they wanted to start with German chansons, continue with Andalusian music rounded off by Klezmer.

Kaspar und Hauser, Knorrpromenade, Berlin-Friedrichshain

A project meeting like this I never experienced before. The the date was fixed in the beginning of February, only 4 from 8 partners were represented at the start of the meeting.

• Partner 8 was supposed to host the meeting but had some unspecified other appointment leading to relocating the meeting to Hamburg.
• Partner 7 cancelled the participation without giving reasons, maybe it disturbed a long weekend??
• Partner 6 could not come due to him not being able to make it to Hamburg as there was an unnofficial strike by SAS cabin staff. He obviously did not take into account the 4 hour train ride to Hamburg.
• Partner 5 participated but only arrived in the evening of day 1. As two of the partners present hardly uttered a word, we were finished with the discussion when he arrived, particularly as the partner being the source of most of the discussions did not manage to come.

At least we had a nice dinner at Bixio in the interior port of Harburg, with the weather being unusually warm until 11 pm and an extraordinary evening mood. The food however did not meet the general mood, the poultry liver was too well done and the helpings were simply too big as often in Germany.

No, I do not want to get involved in the discussion about paid PR for blogs, I am just not important enough. But the project LOCOMOTIVE, which sort of beamed me to Toronto in April, is nearing its end this summer. To finish it off, a conference is held in Hamburg and for the unlikely case that one of my readers is interested I do not want to miss the opportunity to advertise it.

Well, advertising on!

LOCOMOTIVE FINAL CONFERENCE

Hamburg 5-6 June 2007

Background to project
The goal set by the Lisbon Agenda for European growth is formulated in the Barcelona objective that R&D investment in the EU should rise to 3% of GDP with two thirds coming from the private sector by 2010. This is proving to be a difficult challenge. As Commission Potocnik has had to point out in January 2007, the current figures produced by Eurostat for 2005 show a stagnation at around 1,9%. Ref http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/blog_potocnik/page/potocnik?entry=figures_for_r_d_investment
There are many explanations for this. One of the most influential analyses is given in the Aho report. While there is much to be done at collective EU policy level, equally if Europe is to play a significant role in the knowledge economy, all levels of policy making European, national and regional have a role to play.
The FP6 Regions of Knowledge Project LOCOMOTIVE has been looking at the policies of significant private sector R&D investors (i.e. multi-national enterprises) in the eight regions of the project partners to learn and understand more about current thinking of global R&D decision-makers and how they perceive their locations. Many regional policy makers find a dialogue with the management of international companies problematic. Part of this is due to the fact that the decision-makers for R&D strategy may not be located in the region even though the R&D unit is. But without understanding the localisation strategies of major private R&D investors better, regional policy makers will not be able to harness or leverage private investment in support of regional development. A lack of an effective dialogue could well mean that clustering policies miss their mark, and that much regional investment of time and money could be in vain.
LOCOMOTIVE aims to bridge the gap in this dialogue in a highly pragmatic manner, by offering a framework for discussion. Interviews and roundtable discussions have been conducted with global R&D managers. The culmination of the project is the LOCOMOTIVE Final Conference which under the theme “Managing the links: global trends and regional policies in R&D location” aims to provide a platform for wider access to the findings and a collective discussion about should be done.
Target Attendees

The conference will be of particular interest to those with an interest in the interaction between global research players and regional actors including regional planning policy makers, industrialists R&D decision makers, technology orientated SMEs and others involved in issues relating to R&D location in the regional development.
Register now…
Advertising off

This is the report an proof that I really worked in Toronto. For the organisation of the visit my thanks go to David Wolfe of the Munk Centre for International Studies and to Jen Nelles for her charming chaperonage.

David Wolfe

Jen Nelles

Tuesday, April 10

Innovation Synergy Centre in Markham

ISCM is a “Not for Profit” business advisory hub that was created to help accelerate the growth and development of firms with the objective of assisting grow their sales and employment base. Supported by the Town of Markham, The National Research Council and the Ontario Ministry of Innovation, ISCM business support is offered at no cost to the SME. These services include linking a company to a very experienced business mentor/advisor, workshops and training courses to inform companies about current business issues. ISCM also has a partnering initiative to link companies to other resources for testing and IP development such as Universities and colleges across Ontario.

Tour of IBM Toronto Software Lab (CAS)

Organized with the assistance of Knowledge Media Design Institute
As one of the largest IBM software development laboratories, the IBM Toronto Lab develops leading products for worldwide distribution in the areas of: application development tooling, application servers, database management software, electronic commerce applications, and systems management solutions. The IBM Toronto Lab is home to more than 2,000 employees from a diverse range of backgrounds and disciplines, with a dynamic mix of early career employees and experienced professionals. Over 70 percent of lab employees hold a degree with a major in computer science, engineering or mathematics, which highlights our technical expertise.

Wednesday, April 11

Toronto Region Research Alliance (TRRA)
TRRA is a results-oriented, non-profit organization dedicated to making the Toronto region a world-leading centre for research and research-intensive industry by: attracting new research-intensive companies to the region and working to expand those already here; building public and private research capacity; and enhancing the commercialization of research. Activities are focused in biotech/life sciences, information and communication technology, and advanced manufacturing and materials science. Its role is to act as a neutral convenor, facilitator, catalyst and advocate on issues and opportunities related to its R&D mission. TRRA provides dynamic, neutral leadership to help forge a regional consensus on strategic priorities.

MaRS Discovery District

MaRS (Medical and Related Sciences) is a convergence innovation centre dedicated to accelerating the commercialization of new ideas and new technologies by fostering the coming together of capital, science and business. Located in Toronto’s downtown “Discovery District,” MaRS sits at the epicentre of one of North America’s most concentrated clusters of biomedical research and expertise – literally steps from world-renowned teaching and research hospitals, the University of Toronto, Canada’s financial core and the Ontario legislature. MaRS was created in 2000 to capitalize on the research and innovation strengths of the Province of Ontario, and to position Canada for leadership in the highly competitive global innovation economy. MaRS is focused on helping Canadian innovators turn great ideas into great companies – and supporting those companies as they become global market leaders.

BioDiscovery Toronto

BioDiscovery Toronto is an organization linking nine of Toronto’s internationally recognized biomedical research institutions for the commercialization of research. It provides a one-stop shop for companies seeking break-through biomedical and related technologies and expertise.

Thursday, April 12

Ministry of Research and Innovation, Government of Ontario

City of Toronto Economic Development

The terrace season has begun about 3 weeks ago, during our Toronto trip the plants have grown strongly. And the weather had been such that sitting outside in April was quite feasible.

And BBQing has started as well!

After a journey of finally 22 hours we were safely back in Berlin. The flights as such were fine, but to get a cheaper ticket we had to settle for a planned stopover in London Heathrow, which turned out to be extended to 9 hours due to a strike at Berlin Tegel airport. To overcome jetlag the reclining seats in Terminal 3 however are quite useful!