Tech Industry Players Meet Up in Menorca

Posted by: Jennifer L. Schenker on May 10

Tech industry players from around the globe gathered on the Spanish island of Menorca May 8-11 at serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky’s “finca,” a 340 hectare farm that overlooks the ocean. The property contains several restored 17th century houses with enough bedrooms to comfortably accommodate 65 guests.

Varsavsky made his fortune by being a master at all kinds of networking. He built tech companies in the U.S. and Europe, including Viatel, Jazztel, and FON, and is an expert schmoozer. About ten of the guests were people that Varsavsky met while he attended the World Economic Forum as a young global leader. He also has connections with Skype, Google, and Silicon Valley techies.

The idea behind the gathering was for people from China, Japan, Europe, the U.S., and Latin America to brainstorm about net neutrality, carbon footprints, and business model issues. Attendees included lots of start-ups plus Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito, Megan Smith, director of Google’s new business development and strategy, Technorati CEO Dave Sifry, French blogger and entrepreneur Loic Le Meur, and LastMinute.com co-founder Brent Hobermann.

Varsavsky, who was born in Argentina but is now based in Madrid, entertained guests with the story of how he came to buy the farm. Seems he was surfing the Internet on his laptop, looking at real estate listings, while sailing off the coast of Menorca, when he realized that that he was passing a property for sale. He phoned the real estate agents, met them on the beach, and took a quick tour. The place was in ruins and overrun by squatters. He persisted anyway and did what lots of other potential buyers could not: convinced the owner, an elderly Spanish general, finally to part with the land.

It has taken six years of the work but the effort was worth it. The landscaping and homes are stunning. Many of the conference attendees were looking forward to mountain biking, sailing and swimming but cold, rainy weather kept everyone huddled indoors. With so many geeks gathering in one place it is unsurprising that the WiMax signal—which was converted into Wi-Fi—was quickly overloaded by laptops, iPhones, and Blackberries. Those who weren’t feverishly blogging, e-mailing and dealmaking amused themselves playing Wii.