bartbecks.com

My dad was a rock singer, my son seems to be a drummer

For the 2nd time, bad weather around Heathrow is creating a rescheduled flight. Happens, will happen again. So we took this extra day in california to arrange a couple of things (finalize accounting, brief collaborator, read book by Slash and some other trivialities).

On top of that, I have (finally) started to complete a new kinda blog. Ofcourse tweets and statusupdates are hot now, but 2010 may be the year to start writing again. To share some insights, to create context.

Ofcourse, don’t expect a scientific correctness. This other ‘blog’ will be my ’soulfground’ about Music and Startups, the 2 things that occupy me most for the moment. Give me another week – but you’ll find it here: www.beckstage.fm

Seen some of you come here – there will always be an overview on those page. On beckstage.fm you’ll find MY perspective on music and the startups that I think I can share anything about. I’ll be kind gentle – hope my boy will wants to read when he’s a little older.

Tomorrow I will start with a TOP15 of my favourite concert moments in 2010.

bart

This was recorded a couple of kilos and 12 months ago, but seen the many messages I got these last days it is being broadcasted on TV in Belgium again.
Funny to see it again at a somewhat ‘reflective’ moment in my life (my little son Charlie was a couple of months old back then), and it was a moment I decided to go for the things I fundamentally believe in… See work or profile to know a bit more.

The embed acts a bit weird sometimes – so here’s the link to the original website/episode.

Below a press release from the Belgavox organisation. To my US readers, who asked me a lot of questions about what’s going on in Belgium – some things are best done on regional level, other on national level.

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Fortis Holding, Belgium’s beleaguered bank-holding, announced the results of 2008: 22.5 Billion Euros losses. Twenty-two and a half billion euros of losses … in 1 year…

Many are loosing they reality on the perception of money, so I also did a little breakdown of the Fortis 2008 losses:
22.5 billion euros loss per year
is 432 million euros loss per week
is 61 million euros loss per day
is 2.5 million euros loss per hour
is 42.000 euros loss per minute
is 713 euros loss per second …

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Geert Noels shares some of his thoughts on his blog, and although I don’t agree all of the time, I think he hits it right with his Keynes versus Shumpeter approach.

Economists around the world are promoting Keynes to the government. Given current circumstances, if I had to chose between Keynes or Shumpeter however, I would go for the latter. This being said, ‘creative destruction’ can never be achieved without government measures.

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Hi all,
I hope the online broadcasting works, would like to see the Oscars show tonight (have no TV here).

For what it’s worth, here are the films I enjoyed most in 2008. My oscars go to…:

10. Ché: the Argentinian (only saw it last night, giving Benicio Del Torro the benefit of my doubt – even though I’m not completely convinced)
9. The Baader Meinhoff Complex (the bad things of good things)
8. the 2nd half of Frost/Nixon (starts oversimplified, ends thrilling)
7. Slumdog Millionaire
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Hi all,

that was a great evening last Tuesday! Instead of the usual 15 to 20 people that attend these ‘lectures’, over 50 of you came over to the cultural center of Bilzen. Over the last 3 years I did more than 100 speeches from a 100 to over 3000 people, but this one was very special. How often do you have your mum and dad, your sister, a group from my youth Marinusschool, but also friends I know for more than 25 years from school or football in a room? But also thanks to everyone to come to Bilzen, especially those who came from Ghent and Antwerp.

It’s wasn’t an easy crowd: only 10% ever heard of web2.0, there was 1 (one!) user of netlog, and for most of the audience ‘locaton based services’ were something completely new. That’s life of the ‘normal’ +25 generation I guess, and it’s really great to be in the real world. Yep, think I had quite a web2.0 overdose.

I think it was about the smallest audience I ever spoke for, and one of the first times of the last years in Dutch (no, not limburgs) – but one I will not forget. The interaction and the warmth – combined with the many many hours I stayed in the cafeteria with many of you afterwards – made this evening very special. I’ll post a couple of slides later on if anyone is interested.

I also want the share the sweet nature of the organisers. Normally they pay a (small) fee to the speakers, but I told them that wouldn’t be necessary. But if there would be something that ‘reminds’ me of my hometown Bilzen that would be really great. The more abroad, the more I miss the little things from home.

And I got something amazing. The original ‘poster’ of Jazz Bilzen of the very first edition. Plus a reproduction of every Jazz Bilzen festival poster of each and every year. Waaw. Really am very touched by it. You must know music is something important in my life. But also my mother and father met there, so in a weird way I probably would not have here (here = planet), if Jazz Bilzen hadn’t become the Rock festival it turned out to be.

That said, I was looking back at Jazz Bilzen’s edition of 30 years ago.
Jazz Bilzen 1979 opened (yes, opened!) with The Cure, and during the 3 days also The Police, The Pretenders, Whitesnake (with ex-Deep Purplers), Nils Lofgren, Van Morisson and AC/DC were there, to name a few. Even if this is the line up of 30 years ago – I think it could still sell out today!!

You can understand why Jazz Bilzen is still considered the “mother” of music festivals, and why I am so grateful for this gift.

bart

Over the last days I got a number of messages of people indicating ‘why the hell’ I am selling a number of porn movies on BelgacomTV under the name ‘Preview Skynet ’. Some people still think I’m ceo of Skynet.

Initially, I didn’t get it. But just to explain: BelgacomTV has a great collection of OnDemand movies, and in order to make it easier for the audience to choose a movie, there are a number of categories: new, drama, comedy, documentaries, etc… And now there is also a category ‘Skynet Preview’. I initially explained that it’s probably a mistake, and that Belgacom is (finally) using the Skynet for what they should use it on BelgacomTV: a collection of movies on demand for kids with the Kidcity brand (that’s Skynet’s kid portal), or a selection of user generated clips that’s suitable for TV screen, or other cool content or innovative format.
But I kept getting messages for days – and got this screenshot. And it is indeed true: a category for preview of porn movies!??

I could write a post about the missed opportunities, about the fact that a lot of people have left the Skynet boat (mainly due to a lack of the disinterest from Belgacom in the company), or lack of ‘web’ leadership that made that TV is doing great, but web/mobile innovation and products are rather poor. But I guess it’s just an error and it will be corrected today.

And it’s maybe the begin of using the company and the talent in the way it should. Skynet has moved into the Belgacomtowers, and maybe it has put them back in the eye and attention of the belgacom management. There’s still an incredible team in place, plus some new hires that I met over the last months that are really good.
The financial and economic crisis is pushing the industry to change drastically, and change creates opportunity.
The creativity and can-do attitude from Skynet, combined with the marketing and distribution power of Belgacom + the mobile connections of Proximus + the BelgacomTV media product can lead to a new and reinvented team and company, the can be a leader in the domain in no time.

I tell you: the talent is there, the momentum is there, and the opportunity is there. And a team that can innitiate/launch products like free internet, ADSL, web portals, blogs or BelgacomTV (to name a few) have the ability to be near the pulse of what’s next ! Guide them well, allow to dream and trust the team. Simple ways to have skynet be one of the technology and digital media leaders again. Sounds like a newyearswish.

bart

Sometimes days turn out crazy.

After driving from Death Valley to Vegas, and attending an amazing Nine Inch Nails concert- we decided to take it easy and stroll around vegas for another day. Weird city, but actually liked it this time. Walked into the different mega-hotels (venetian, ceasar’s, bellagio, wynn, paris, …), it’s something you have to see once. Last times we spent most time around the Grand Canyon, but I hadn’t seen much of the city. It has something fake to it, but also the extreme beauty of nature in the canyons versus the created city of sin in the desert.

I had to be in LA again for some meetings, and it’s only a little over 4 hours away by car, so we left around noon the next day. It was a weird sight to see vegas and large parts of the Mojave dessert covered in white. So beautiful – actually our first snow this year. I didn’t even know it could snow in the dessert … Read the rest of this entry »