Adobe, Apple, Facebook, Google, Yahoo… they are all here in Silicon Valley from where I am writing this Sparkling Rendezvous.
The Silicon Valley is 60 km away from San Francisco and it is, above all, a spirit of innovation; the future of electronics and computer sciences of the third millenium starts here.
Its historical heart is the prestigious Stanford University; the first university to have combined teaching, research and the stimulation of the pioneer spirit. Founded in the 1930s in Palo Alto, Stanford remains, since then, an undisputed incubator.
The Silicon Valley and San Francisco boast the highest growth of the United States. This year, San Francisco has, for the first time, four times as many start-ups as New York. Here, everything moves swiftly, from one innovation to another: 80% of the start-ups disappear in the first 2 years, only a handful make a fortune.
Among the startups that are booming, let us take the example of Airbnb, a startup that enables you to rent your guestroom or your vacation home to individuals. Founded in 2008, several million people use Airbnb each day everywhere in the world. Visit Airbnb (if you don’t speak French, go directly to the middle of the video)
Dive into the cool attitude ‘made in California’ with the funny movie ‘The Internship’ by Shawn Levy, to submerge yourself in the atmosphere at Google
Passing by Palo Alto?
Don’t miss out on the student-guided tour of Stanford and a dinner at Buck’s of Woodside, which is one of the creative and mythical places of the Silicon Valley. Enjoy yourself!
By now you’ve guessed that the United States are our honored guest of the season.We’re celebrating! This edition is our 50th! And, as the essence of life is
about change, from now you’ll receive one Sparkling Rendezvous per month
instead of two. Tell me what you think about it!