Welcome to 33% Wallflowers of Web 2.0 in Australia

(none of the above are wallflowers!)

Other comments:

As people subscribed to my twitter.com/nickhodge feed experienced, I attended the Web 2.0 Futures Conference hosted by Ross Dawson at KPMG today.

Ross recently wrote an article for Read/Write web on the Top 60 Web 2.0 applications in Australia.

My random, assumptive breakdown of the audience of about 140 people:

10% < 25 years old, 80% gen-x, 10% baby boomers
<20% female
45% of men in suits, 15% wearing ties
33% had money, 33% had ideas but no money, and the last 33% of us were wallflowers watching the first 66% in a subtle dance.

I met my first Web 2.0 celebrity (not including Microsoft’s Jeff Sandquist; but that’s being a little twee) – Richard MacManus of Read/Write Web. I have a feeling he’s enjoying the latter slightly more than the former part of his blog (ie: more writing than reading)

The first part of the day involved an interesting discussion on what is Web 2.0, and what is Australia? Is the notion of borders relevant, anyway? My assessment is that language and/or culture are greater than timezones and borders. The “digital natives” see borders in different ways than previous generations.

Being that there were many VC’s in the audience, and many people wanting their startup funded: the discussion around revenue models was also quickly covered.

The highlight of the day were the 5 minute demonstrations from the following Australian Web 2.0 companies: