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Appsterdam 2 Launch Party Weekend

The Appsterdam 2 Launch Party Weekend went off without a hitch. As soon as we clear the song rights for the Space Pirate movie, we’ll have a video of the 90-minute keynote online. If audience response is any indication, you will enjoy yourself.

Which is not to say you didn’t miss out if you weren’t there. Feedback from the keynote was universally positive, but it was dwarfed by the positivity people felt for “the vibe,” to use the exact words.

Friday night we got together like we always do at Cafe Bax, except there were way more people, it was Friday instead of Wednesday, and Microsoft bought the drinks. Saturday I delivered the keynote with some dozen guests on stage and by video.

In a deeply symbolic act, I shared the stage with Microsoft and Google and declared that the time of petty politics between platforms, business models, and specialties is over. Now is the time for tolerance and collaboration. Let us put aside our differences and work together.

Together we can make Amsterdam into not just the best place in the world to be an App Maker, but the best place in the world to become an App Maker. People will come to Appsterdam to become App Makers, the way people went to Hollywood to learn to make movies. This will create a surplus of technical labor, which will attract attention from abroad, creating jobs and bringing the world’s knowledge to Appsterdam.

Our Weekly Wednesday Lunchtime Lectures and Guru Sessions let us capture and share knowledge, not just with the world’s foremost experts, who are each making their way through Amsterdam in turn, but also with each other, providing training for the Appsterdam Speaker Bureau.

The craziness of Museumnacht was made even crazier as a group of Knowmads led a larger group of Appsterdammers on a whirlwind tour of the city’s many strange museums. Judy and I ended up giving up our tickets to out of town guests, so we just sort of wandered around. We found a lot of people who had lost the tour and they all had crazy stories to tell.

Sunday that whole vibe thing came into sharp focus as we had our potluck family brunch at the incredible venue, De Balie. Of course, we could never afford De Balie, nor was it available as it was booked by Amsterdam Film Week. We had our brunch in the back offices on a secret floor up a secret elevator.

All because one of the Appsterdammers, Marieke Schoutsen, works at Boven de Balie. One of the main volunteers worked at one of the sponsors, which is how we made the connection. That’s the community taking care of itself. That’s how we develop the vibe that people keep talking about.

Through all this people came to understand that Appsterdam is a paradise for App Makers built by App Makers so they can live in that paradise. There are no ulterior motives here. It’s App Makers all the way down.

And so we come to the close of another Appsterdam Launch Party Weekend. It was an awe inspiring and humbling thing to see the volunteers do their thing, akin to the scene in Fight Club when Jack figures out there are people who work for him who he doesn’t know doing things he doesn’t know about. Let us thank:

• Axel Roest
• Dan from Chicago
• Diederik Hoogenboom
• Eugen Martynov
• Gavin Morris
• Igor Sutton
• Jerrol Spier
• Judy Chen
• Klaas Speller
• Laurens Bon
• Leonie van de Laar
• Louise Koopman
• Magnus Dahl
• Marga Keuvelaar
• Markus Palmanto
• Martinus Meiborg
• Matt Williams
• Matteo Manferdini
• Merel Ivens
• Olga Paraskevopoulou
• Paul Darcey
• Robert Sheperd
• Ron Jones
• Sjoerd van Geffen
• Vijay Kiran

I’d like to thank the people who took the time out of their own schedule to get on stage and support what we’re doing here, to strengthen their relationship with the community. In order of appearance:

• Marco Bottaro of Sogeti
• Dan Nacht of IceMobile
• Mark Voermans of Microsoft
• Jonathan Wisler of SoftLayer
• Jan Gerard Snip of Sping
• Lauwerens Metz of Appsterdam Delft
• Marleen Stikker of the Waag Society
• Don Ritzen of Rockstart
• Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten of The Next Web
• Joris van Mens of Google
• Aaron Hillegass of Big Nerd Ranch

I’d like to give a special thanks to the people who joined us from abroad. I spoke to people from the US, the UK, including the Northern Ireland contingent, Germany, France, Italy and a bunch I’m sure I’m forgetting. Thank you all so very much for coming so far to be with us. I hope you had a great time, and that we’ll see you all here again soon.

Finally, none of this would have been possible without a few members of the community donating some resources to make this happen. Let us thank:

• Boven de Balie
• IceMobile
• Knowmads
• Microsoft
• Pakhuis de Zwijger
• SoftLayer
• Sogeti

We’ll see you in Summer 2012 for the Appsterdam 3 Launch Party Weekend.