by Calvin Robinson on November 8, 2008.

This afternoon I attended ‘Secrets from Silicon Valley: Sarah Lacy on the Rise of Web 2.0.’

A very entertaining interview of Sarah Lacy, by Robert Loch and Paul Carr. They didn’t seem all that prepared to be honest, but that’s okay because Sarah is never lost for words.

The interview/discussion wasn’t so much enlightening, as it was fun. I really enjoyed it – the open bar might have had an affect on that too!

I don’t know what it is about Sarah but I really like her. From seeing her talk you might think she has a chip on her shoulder, but I honestly think she’s just a girl who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to take it. Kudos to her for releasing her book. I now have both the US and UK versions;

A great read, some real inside knowledge. The kind of information only a women could get, from the mainly male web2.0 scene! Reading this book you really feel you’re looking back at history through a looking-glass, in that it’s not all fact based, it’s very emotionally written. If this was a fiction book I’d say you can really ‘feel for the characters’, but I suppose in this case, you really feel for the entrepreneurs. Although you know their businesses are striving, and most of them are multi millionaires, reading their story from the beginning gives you that ‘I hope they make it’ or ‘They deserve it’ kind of feeling.

There were a lot of interesting people at the event (Paul Walsh made a point of pointing out the 2nd winner of The Apprentice, Michelle Dewberry). I’m sure I’ll see some of those faces again.
It really looks like people are trying to bring the London web2.0/tech scene together, with things like InternetPeeps and OpenSoho.