Hey, guys. I, John Biggs, will be in Hong Kong and Guangdong next week (November 30-December 5) to visit some folks and would love to meet up with Web 2.0 and gadget purveyors in mother China. If you would like to chat, drop me a line at john @ crunchgear.com and let me know what’s up. I’m thinking about doing an informal meet-up on Thursday so advice on places to meet in Hong Kong are welcome.

Look forward to hearing from you all and “Ni Hao!”

I’m teaming up with Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.TV for an impromptu CG meet-up in New York. We’ll be meeting at 7pm Friday at Heartland Brewery, 35 Union Square West, in Manhattan. We should be able to commandeer the back of the pub for our purposes.

I’ll be there with a Droid and the HTC HD2 if you guys want to take a gander and we can grab a brew before we all head out to points home for Thanksgiving. RSVP with a comment below so we can judge the turnout.

Remember, remember, the 9th of November! Gadgets, technology, and beer. I see no reason why gadgets and tech should ever bring little cheer.

Special thanks to BrightKite and PageOnce for sponsoring the event.

Companies: if you’d like to sponsor the festivities, even for an hour, please let us know. If you intend to come or would like to sponsor the fun, send an RSVP to RSVP. Otherwise, see you tomorrow in San Francisco.

The bar is at the top of the Marriott and has great views of San Francisco. We’ll just congregate in the bar and if something changes we’ll post an update tomorrow.

I’m pleased to report that no one dressed up in coveralls and hats at the TC/CG Helsinki meet-up at A21. The turnout was fantastic – about 100 or so folks at 8pm on a Tuesday – and everyone either worked for Nokia, contracted for Nokia, or sold their children into servitude in Nokia’s diamond mines in the heart of Northern Troll country.

Special thanks to F-Secure, the anti-virus company and the Mothership herself for sponsoring a few hours of drinks. I heard a lot of great pitches – please send me more information when you get settled – and met a lot folks who were quite excited about start-ups and the start-up scene. Special thanks to Ville and the boys at Arctic Startup, the TechCrunch of the Tundra.

Click through for some pictures and look for more information about these great folks in the next few weeks.

NOTE – The new start time is now 8pm.

We’ve decided to have the meet-up at A21 on Annankatu 21 [Google Map]. PLEASE RSVP ASAP so I can offer them a head count.

N.B. If you have a start-up to discuss, please have some information handy, preferably in electronic form. It will probably be hard to do demos unless they’re on a mobile phone, but if you contact me beforehand we can probably sit down to look at your product on a laptop.

Best of all, F-Secure, the anti-virus people, will be sponsoring an hour of drinks from about 7pm-8pm. Anyone wishing sponsor another few hours should email me.

UPDATE – Nokia is chipping in from 8pm-9pm!

For last minute changes follow me on Twitter.

See you in Helsinki!

We’ve decided to have the meet-up at A21 on Annankatu 21 [Google Map]. PLEASE RSVP ASAP so I can offer them a head count.

N.B. If you have a start-up to discuss, please have some information handy, preferably in electronic form. It will probably be hard to do demos unless they’re on a mobile phone, but if you contact me beforehand we can probably sit down to look at your product on a laptop.

Best of all, F-Secure, the anti-virus people, will be sponsoring an hour of drinks from about 7pm-8pm. Anyone wishing sponsor another few hours should email me.

UPDATE – Nokia is chipping in from 8pm-9pm!

For last minute changes follow me on Twitter.

See you in Helsinki!

I don’t have any idea where we could meet – suggestions are welcome – but this would be dinner, drinks, and, potentially, a big, pasty brodeo sauna session at about 2am when everyone is sloshed. I will post an update when we figure out the venue. Your thoughts?

UPDATE – How about Korjaamo? Does anyone know anyone there?

See you in Helsinki!

Welcome to PragueCrunch II, Prague’s foremost party to held in Prague every year around the time TechCrunch writers feel like going to Prague to drink great beer and talk start-ups, tech, and gadgets. We’ll be streaming live through Qik and posting images throughout the day.

If you’re still vacillating and you’re in Prague, come on down! We’ll be at Hergetova Cihelna from 2pm until late in the evening. Confounded as to whether to come at like 11pm? Check my Twitter Updates to see if we’re still at the event or if we’ve moved on. Otherwise, expect to see us there.

Special thanks to the venue and all the great sponsors. Click through for live video feeds throughout the evening.

Special thanks to these fine folks:

Gold Sponsor:Dial Telecom
–

Dial Telecom provides services for both the wholesale and the retail sectors. Our wholesale sector specializes in providing cable ducts, dark fibre and backbone capacity to international and national carriers, ISPs, and ASPs.

Dial Telecom also provides IP-based services to regional ISPs over its own fibre network. The company has an exceptionally well-developed Ethernet over fibre network and DWDM connections to most major regional capitals.

Dial Telecom is connected to the world’s largest Internet exchanges (most notably to DE-CIX and KleyerEx in Frankfurt am Main, AMS-IX in Amsterdam, LINX in London and ECIX in Düsseldorf). Naturally, it is also connected to Czech NIX.CZ and Slovak SIX.SK.

The Dial Telecom company is part of the well-established international Dial Telecom Group (Dial Telecom CZ, Dial Telecom SK, eTel SK and Telecom Austria Czech Republic (Volný, a.s.). The group actively contributes to the consolidation of the fixed telecommunications market. The most significant acquisitions in the last year have been eTel Slovakia and Telekom Austria Czech Republic (Volný brand).

Adamantium Sponsors:
Ataxo

With more than 5.000 clients and 200 employees, Ataxo is the biggest Internet marketing agency in the Czech Republic and a leading Search Engine Marketing provider in Central Europe.

Ataxo has offices in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

We provide expert Search Engine Optimization and manage several thousand Pay-per-Click Campaigns for our clients from these countries as well as outsource Pay-per-Click Campaigns for clients from other parts of the world.

Binary Age

Yet another web-based site builder from the author of open-source tools FirePython, FireRainbow, XRefresh and DryDrop. There is tough competition in this space, but Darwin is going to attract developers by bringing Firebug’s CSS prototyping experience into the HashPage editor.

Geewa

Play original multiplayer casual games on Geewa.com for free! Up to 18,700 players online at the same time. More than 5,000 games to choose from. Join our growing community now.

Kerio

Innovating in Internet security since 1997, Kerio Technologies, Inc. provides Internet messaging and firewall software for small-to-medium sized businesses and organizations worldwide. Kerio is headquartered in San Jose, California, and has offices in New York, Germany, United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and Russia. Kerio is a member of CalConnect, a calendaring and scheduling consortium, and a premier member of the Apple Developer Connection. The company has 4,400 channel partners in 108 countries. Technology partners include McAfee, Inc. (NYSE: MFE), IBM Corporation (NYSE: IBM), and Notify Technology Corporation (OTCBB: NTFY).

Learn10

Learn10 is a system for language learners which enables members to quickly develop a durable learning habit. They create fresh, new content every day, limited to the length of a text message. This is distributed across the web and beyond via a popular Facebook app, widget, email, iPhone webapp, Twitter feed, affiliate ‘adverts’, as well as competitions, windows screensaver & Seesmic videos . Learn10 creates user engagement in learning by encouraging cooperation and competition between learners in a mix of free and premium flavours.

Learn10 is the work of a European team of four, split between Birmingham, UK and South Bohemia, CZ. It is inspired by the efforts of three of the founders to learn Czech, and informed by experience in advertising research analysis & English teaching. With 27,000 members this self-funded project is one year old. After extensive testing based on the prototype – LearnItLists – they have re-branded to Learn10 and are ready to launch.

TasteKid
Tastekid is a recommendation engine that lets you discover music, movies, and books. CNET recently ranked TasteKid as one of the 10 best movie sites.

WebExpo 2009

Biggest Central European conference about web development and business on internet. From web frameworks, agile management through UX and webdesign to startup contest and marketing insights. In Prague, October 16-18, 2009.

Wirenode

Wirenode is a mobile marketing platform. It allows individuals and companies to create mobile friendly websites very easily and use them for promoting their business. So far, more than 20000 mobile websites were created. The pages created in the Wirenode platform is used by companies such as European Directories, Vodafone, Telefonica O2, Ford, Reebok or Air France.

Zeality

Zeality.cz is an online map-based service for real estate search. It offers relevant data for each property, such as nearby points of interest and travel times. Zeality.cz targets Prague at the moment and will cover other cities soon.

And so, my friends, it’s time to Czech your worries at the door and enter into the warm embrace of PragueCrunch 2 which will start at 2pm on Saturday, to be held at the magnificent Hergetova Cihelna.

We’ll have a few five-minute presentations from up-and-coming web services in CZ, tables for our sponsors, and plenty of beer and food. Come network, look for a job, or just drink on our dime. We’ll be posting live images from the event as well as filming some of the cooler stuff.

Until then, if you would like to RSVP, drop us a line at john@crunchgear.com with the subject line “RSVP PRAGUE” or just hit up the Facebook Event.

Special thanks to these fine folks:

Gold Sponsor:Dial Telecom
–

Dial Telecom provides services for both the wholesale and the retail sectors. Our wholesale sector specializes in providing cable ducts, dark fibre and backbone capacity to international and national carriers, ISPs, and ASPs.

Dial Telecom also provides IP-based services to regional ISPs over its own fibre network. The company has an exceptionally well-developed Ethernet over fibre network and DWDM connections to most major regional capitals.

Dial Telecom is connected to the world’s largest Internet exchanges (most notably to DE-CIX and KleyerEx in Frankfurt am Main, AMS-IX in Amsterdam, LINX in London and ECIX in Düsseldorf). Naturally, it is also connected to Czech NIX.CZ and Slovak SIX.SK.

The Dial Telecom company is part of the well-established international Dial Telecom Group (Dial Telecom CZ, Dial Telecom SK, eTel SK and Telecom Austria Czech Republic (Volný, a.s.). The group actively contributes to the consolidation of the fixed telecommunications market. The most significant acquisitions in the last year have been eTel Slovakia and Telekom Austria Czech Republic (Volný brand).

Adamantium Sponsors:
Ataxo

With more than 5.000 clients and 200 employees, Ataxo is the biggest Internet marketing agency in the Czech Republic and a leading Search Engine Marketing provider in Central Europe.

Ataxo has offices in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

We provide expert Search Engine Optimization and manage several thousand Pay-per-Click Campaigns for our clients from these countries as well as outsource Pay-per-Click Campaigns for clients from other parts of the world.

Binary Age

Yet another web-based site builder from the author of open-source tools FirePython, FireRainbow, XRefresh and DryDrop. There is tough competition in this space, but Darwin is going to attract developers by bringing Firebug’s CSS prototyping experience into the HashPage editor.

Geewa

Play original multiplayer casual games on Geewa.com for free! Up to 18,700 players online at the same time. More than 5,000 games to choose from. Join our growing community now.

Kerio

Innovating in Internet security since 1997, Kerio Technologies, Inc. provides Internet messaging and firewall software for small-to-medium sized businesses and organizations worldwide. Kerio is headquartered in San Jose, California, and has offices in New York, Germany, United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and Russia. Kerio is a member of CalConnect, a calendaring and scheduling consortium, and a premier member of the Apple Developer Connection. The company has 4,400 channel partners in 108 countries. Technology partners include McAfee, Inc. (NYSE: MFE), IBM Corporation (NYSE: IBM), and Notify Technology Corporation (OTCBB: NTFY).

Learn10

Learn10 is a system for language learners which enables members to quickly develop a durable learning habit. They create fresh, new content every day, limited to the length of a text message. This is distributed across the web and beyond via a popular Facebook app, widget, email, iPhone webapp, Twitter feed, affiliate ‘adverts’, as well as competitions, windows screensaver & Seesmic videos . Learn10 creates user engagement in learning by encouraging cooperation and competition between learners in a mix of free and premium flavours.

Learn10 is the work of a European team of four, split between Birmingham, UK and South Bohemia, CZ. It is inspired by the efforts of three of the founders to learn Czech, and informed by experience in advertising research analysis & English teaching. With 27,000 members this self-funded project is one year old. After extensive testing based on the prototype – LearnItLists – they have re-branded to Learn10 and are ready to launch.

TasteKid
Tastekid is a recommendation engine that lets you discover music, movies, and books. CNET recently ranked TasteKid as one of the 10 best movie sites.

WebExpo 2009

Biggest Central European conference about web development and business on internet. From web frameworks, agile management through UX and webdesign to startup contest and marketing insights. In Prague, October 16-18, 2009.

Wirenode

Wirenode is a mobile marketing platform. It allows individuals and companies to create mobile friendly websites very easily and use them for promoting their business. So far, more than 20000 mobile websites were created. The pages created in the Wirenode platform is used by companies such as European Directories, Vodafone, Telefonica O2, Ford, Reebok or Air France.

Zeality

Zeality.cz is an online map-based service for real estate search. It offers relevant data for each property, such as nearby points of interest and travel times. Zeality.cz targets Prague at the moment and will cover other cities soon.

The program will be fairly off-the-cuff this weekend and I encourage those who’d like to speak for about 5 minutes during the event to drop me a line ASAP (john@crunchgear.com). We’ll also have a job hunt portion to the event with colored name tags for networkers, job seekers, and employers. Robin Wauters will dance.

If last year is any indication, you’re going to meet the cream of the Prague tech community at this even so if you’re out of work or looking for a crack COBOL programmer, you’ll be in the right place. Finally, special thanks to our amazing sponsors:

Wirenode
Geewa
Ataxo
Learn10
Kerio
Dial Telecom

We’ll be breaking out a post for them as we get closer to the even. Until then, if you would like to RSVP, drop us a line at john@crunchgear.com with the subject line “RSVP PRAGUE” or just hit up the Facebook Event.

We’re fast approaching our super fun CrunchNetwork Prague Meet-up and getting ready for the big night. We’re going to have some surprises coming up so watch this space but until then feel free to RSVP by email or on Facebook.

Remember the event is on Friday, May 23, 2008 from 7pm until ?? at Restaurace Zvonařka.

The program will be fairly basic but I’m planning an elevator pitch face-off, allowing 10 start-ups the chance to do a 2 minute presentation to the entire audience using limited tools. We’ll then pick the best pitch and that team will get an as-yet-to-be-undetermined really great prize (think plasma TV). If you’re interested in participating, please contact Jack DeNeut at jack @ nelso dot com.

If you have something you want to discuss with me for consideration on TechCrunch, MobileCrunch, or CrunchGear, please have a paper presentation handy with a detailed description of your project — powerpoint and business plans are right out. Consider creating a press-release for the event.

Special thanks to all these sponsors:

Nelso – Multi-language local search for Europe

Geewa – Multiplayer games for PC and mobile

Newstin – Connecting people through news to create global communities
of interest

Wirenode – Simple-to-use tools that allow anyone to create a mobile website

GoodData – A complete, on-demand business intelligence platform

Ataxo – More from your SEM campaigns!

We’re fast approaching our super fun CrunchNetwork Prague Meet-up and getting ready for the big night. We’re going to have some surprises coming up so watch this space but until then feel free to RSVP by email or on Facebook.

Remember the event is on Friday, May 23, 2008 from 7pm until ?? at Restaurace Zvonařka.

The program will be fairly basic but I’m planning an elevator pitch face-off, allowing 10 start-ups the chance to do a 2 minute presentation to the entire audience using limited tools. We’ll then pick the best pitch and that team will get an as-yet-to-be-undetermined really great prize (think plasma TV). If you’re interested in participating, please contact Jack DeNeut at jack @ nelso dot com.

If you have something you want to discuss with me for consideration on TechCrunch, MobileCrunch, or CrunchGear, please have a paper presentation handy with a detailed description of your project — powerpoint and business plans are right out. Consider creating a press-release for the event.

Special thanks to all these sponsors:

Nelso – Multi-language local search for Europe

Geewa – Multiplayer games for PC and mobile

Newstin – Connecting people through news to create global communities
of interest

Wirenode – Simple-to-use tools that allow anyone to create a mobile website

GoodData – A complete, on-demand business intelligence platform