Event Recap: Larry Page talks Wireless at “Google Unwired”

The power of Twitter (when it is up) is amazing.  The other day I saw an update from my friend Chris Parandian of MobileDiner about a new America Foundation event with Larry Page of Google, who was coming to town to talk wireless spectrum stuff.

I decided to go and sit in, it is not every day you can hear one of the Google founders talk.  It was a really interesting talk as Larry delved into a lot of issues to include:  internet openess, the amount of open wireless spectrum not being utilized, Google’s recent bid on a block of spectrum which Verizon ended up winning, and even touched on the Microsoft/Yahoo dealings.  He talked for about an hour and then took audience questions.

Some of the topics that he spoke on that interested me were their recent bid on that highly sought after 700Mhz block of spectrum.  More and more it seemed that it was simply a way for Google to force the closed carriers to open up and in the end they got their way.  While Verizon won the bid, the Google bid had many stipulations put onto the winner, to include openness.  Larry kept reiterating, “We would have found something to do with all that spectrum.”  Leading me to believe that they never truly wanted it in the first place.  But good for them for forcing the issue.  It is a bit daunting when someone says that the $4.6 billion bid they had to put up was not that big of a deal …..

Something else that I thought was conceptually a pretty revolutionary idea by Larry, was a suggestion to totally revamp the spectrum bidding process.  As it is right now, companies that get these spectrums, do so for a very very lenghty amount of time.  Larry stated that spectrum should be auctioned off, almost down to the minute, as carriers had the need.  Almost a stock exchange for spectrum.  It was fascinating.  Below is a full video of his talk, it is almost an hour long so sit back and enjoy.

A Great Idea From NY Video 2.0 We Can Use for DC

Many of us here in the area have been kicking around the idea of a “Meet the VC” event. One where local peeps can throw their idea out to a VC and get feedback on it. Is it a good idea ? Is it a bad idea ? Nothing pressure packed, rather a friendly exchange to kick your ideas and get valuable feedback from a good source.
We have not gotten around to holding the event yet, but I came across a post by Allen Stern of CenterNetworks about an event very similar to this they help in NYC recently. It was the NY Video 2.0 meetup. he had a great video up of the event where 5 companies gave a short talk and demo of their product and at the end, 3 VC’s gave their opinions. It was perhaps a little more formal than I had in mind, but nonetheless a great example for us to follow. I got his permission to post the video here, so please watch and let us know what you think.

Reminder: Don’t Miss Jessie Newburn on the Par-Tay

Everyone knows that we are huge fans of Jonny’s Par-Tay here at East Coast Blogging.  We love the weekly shows, I mean who wouldn’t.  Last week they had a professional yo-yo champion!

Tomorrow is sure to match that.  My good friend up Baltimore way Jessie Newburn is the featrue guest on the show.

Jessie Newburn is a social media coach, cross-generational marketing maven, speaker, hula hooper and Iconic GenXer living in Columbia, Md. She applies how and why the varying American generations use communication technologies and has a unique perspective on generational use of social media.

The talk is sure to be a good one, as they dive into the various generations and addressing social media at the various levels.  It is sure to be an enlightened chat that I for one will not miss.  Thank god they have the interwebs here in St Louis !!

See everyone in the Par-Tay chat room !