At Silicon Sentier and La Cantine in Paris, the goal is provide a environment in which to foster ecosystems and have companies collaborate and make projects emerge and happen.
I spent some time there with folks from Invest in France and Cap Digital recently during our Traveling Geeks Paris tour.
Meet Paul Richardet at La Cantine who helped make our event happen.
Says 37 year old engineer Louis Montagne, who’s the founder of af83 and Bearstech, as well as the vice president of Silicon Sentier: “We consider that every entrepreneur is a hacker, and that he may need to fulfill what Steven Levy called the “hacker ethic” (sharing, openness, decentralization, free access to computers, world improvement, and pleasure), he needs to have support, to have elder brothers (companies he can tell the stories to explain his project), he needs financing, to be able to fail, he needs to meet with people.”
That’s basically what they do at La Cantine, which is the co-working space Silicon Sentier created. The group has 150+ members and a number of innovative companies with dynamic projects.
Centrally located, La Cantine has more than 25 events every month, and it has become a meeting point in Paris for technology people, geeks, nerds, hackers, artists, funders, and startups.
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
