Cheers, All, and you so knew that was coming, what, eh?

Yes, still on the other side of the pond and we must say that the British Airways Face to Face program is/was an absolutely stellar event from beginning to end and would highly recommend that, if you’re planning to do business internationally, you enter the competition later this year.  Winners are flown to London on a BA chartered plane, and don’t expect to grab some sleep, as it’s literally non-stop networking – and you haven’t lived until you’ve done a pitch at 30,000 feet. Talk about a captive audience, and you do make a lot of connections – heaven for compulsive networkers like yours truly – not to mention FITs (Friends in Transit). BTW, it’s not just a popularity contest. You can submit either a 2-minute video or an essay and there is an online voting process open to one and all. However, BA does have their own judging panel and choose a certain number of winners based on compelling content. Just FYI. Oh, and did we mention that BA will then fly you on to any destination in the world where the airline flies – business class, and admittedly, does make it difficult to go back to steerage.

Speaking of which – it’s Social Media Week across the world this week – February 7-11, or if you’re in one of the nine participating cities, anyway, including NEW YORK, SAN FRANCISCO, ROME, PARIS, TORONTO, SÃO PAULO, LONDON, HONG KONG, ISTANBUL, plan on attending. I’ll be at Hub, King’s Cross, if you happen to be in London this week.

Our next Find A CoFounder event will be February 22, and this month, we’re doing it in conjunction with Entrepreneurs Roundtable and Digital Media MBAs. You can also register now for the early bird rate: http://bit.ly/ftIK71
The schedule:
6:30p – 7:00p: Have a cocktail and meet some of your fellow entrepreneurs
7:00p – 7:45p: What is the best way to get started and find a co-founder?
Q&A and presentations on detailed step-by-step instructions on how to get started and how to find a co-founder.
7.45 on – networking!
Panelists include:
Somak Chattopadhyay, Principal at GSA Venture Partners and Matt Meeker, Co-founder of Meetup.com and Executive in Residence at Polaris Ventures. Hope to see you there!

Don’t forget: DreamIt Ventures is now accepting applications for their next program, which runs from May to August 2011. Deadline to apply is March 16 (http://dreamitventures.com/apply/ and DreamIt is also hosting an Alumni Night on February 15 at Solas and you’re all invited to attend. To RSVP: http://www.dreamitventures.com/news/events.php).

For our new members:  Our friends at Movable Ink are powering the section below. This email will update with the latest tweets from SOSlist throughout the day. We’ll use it to call attention to breaking news, new events, and things we simply find interesting. Try it out by re-opening this email tomorrow. Warning: we like to tweet ‘em as we see ‘em, and again, since we are out of town and doing Social Media Week events, it will depend on that all important connectivity. On both continents, but we will do our best.

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This week’s reading:

Since we are here, from the Telegraph: Start-Up 100: Why I ditched Europe for Silicon Valley (http://bit.ly/hP7719) Guest columnist Loic Le Meur explains why he chose to build his company on the West Coast, including that, according to him first and foremost, it’s about concentration. In the Valley, the best companies, entrepreneurs and investors are all in one place. For the record, Le Meur is the founder of Seesmic and the LeWeb conference, which attracts 3,000 entrepreneurs from 60 countries each year – and which takes place in Europe. Hmmm.

Next up: You Don’t Need A Good Idea To Start A Great Company Startups are not about working on a great idea – they are the relentless pursuit of doing stuff for customers. http://bit.ly/hzIeUS

Since we do have our next Find A Co-founder coming up: Why I want to learn to code – which introduces HowToProgram.tv, a new and interactive way for people to learn to code or to improve their programming skills and share ideas and resources. Just in case you decide you might want to be on the other side of the table at a future FAC… http://bit.ly/eRnrP2

Two more things: CNN did a piece on Why more Americans don’t travel abroad (Of the 308 million citizens in the United States, only 30% have passports). http://bit.ly/hphS9U But there’s more to it then that. The world can be just plain confusing at times and for your amusement this week: The United Kingdom Explained: http://devour.com/video/the-united-kingdom-explained/

By the way, this is a busy week for events, what with it being Social Media Week and many of them are listed on the SMW site that we’re only going to mention events that are not there – and/or which aren’t full or sold out. As far as we know.

Finally, a quick nod to the two big football matches that took place this past weekend and to the winners: Liverpool and the VW Mini Vader, from what we hear. Back next week and see you on the other side. In the meantime, as always, help is on the way…