About

Traveling Geeks is a consortium of entrepreneurs, thought leaders, authors, journalists, bloggers, technology innovators and influencers who travel to countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote new, innovative technologies. The initiative was founded by Jeff Saperstein and Renee Blodgett in 2008.

Trips are funded by sponsorships from corporations, organizations and governments. The first tour was sponsored by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a trip that successfully marked the proof of concept that could expand to other countries around the world.

In the UK, the Traveling Geeks spoke on panels at Reboot Britain, Royal Society for the Arts and the Guardian, participated in roundtable discussions at Cambridge University and Econsultancy, interviewed and mentored startups from Seedcamp and Accel Partners, and engaged with leaders from East of England International, Microsoft & Nokia Research Labs, NESTA, British Telecom, Intel, Skype and more.

Together, corporations, government and organizations can help shape history by teaming up with technology thought leaders and bloggers to gather and share ideas, further development and growth and take what we have learned across borders and back again.

mission……

  • The mission of Traveling Geeks is to collaborate with innovators and influencers, and then share that knowledge and insight to a collective global audience through blogging, video, social media tools, traditional media and meet-ups.
  • We customize the composition of participants for each trip for the needs of the region. The organizers of each trip conduct a peer review process to recruit a balanced group in experience, gender, expertise, and compatibility with the host region.
  • As educational emissaries, writers and thought leaders, our hope is that we can inform, educate and connect on behalf of innovators who are changing the world with like-minded people on the planet. We also come to listen and learn so we can take the wisdom of the region and spotlight it to the global innovation economy.
  • By bringing the wealth and depth of technology knowledge from the U.S.(and from other tech clusters) to regions, our goal is to increase global awareness of innovation in a region, share our expertise in areas that may benefit regional economic development and create and enhance professional relationships between American content providers and global technology innovators.

purpose……

We provide a unique role:

  • Increase global awareness of innovation in a region
  • Bring Silicon Valley expertise and other innovators and experts from the globe. to benefit regional economic development
  • Create and enhance professional relationships between North American media content providers and global technology innovators
  • Serve as free speakers and panelists to regional technology conferences as part of our visit

We do this through a multi-functional team that organizes each trip to interact with the region for the following:

  • Government and host coordination
  • Corporate sponsorships
  • Site visits and formal and informal events
  • Global and local media coverage
  • Organization and management of the group of Traveling Geeks for the trip
  • Technology requirements and web site development and maintenance

who we work with……

  • Regional economic development agencies
  • Corporate sponsors
  • Foundations dedicated to economic development through innovation and entrepreneurship
  • Start-ups in all stages of development
  • Venture capitalists
  • Technology Incubators, Research Institutes and University Tech Transfer Operations
  • Global and regional media focused on emerging technologies, the future of the web, life sciences, innovation and the economy

the founders……

Jeff Saperstein

Jeff is an author, teacher, consultant and enabler in how technology can be used to create organic growth in economic development for regions and success for organizations.

His work and personal fulfillment is in helping others to be successful through applications of education, business, and relationships. Jeff teaches at San Francisco State University, European School of Management in Paris, at Cisco and other corporations.

His published books and case studies are focused upon best practices for innovation (Toyota: Driving the Mainstream Market to Purchase Hybrid Electronic Vehicles is one of the top ten most popular business case studies for business schools). Jeff has worked with government, private corporations, and NGO’s to use marketing leveraged by technology, metrics, and processes to increase growth.

Renee Blodgett

Renee is the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media consultancy dedicated to communications, social media, viral marketing and branding strategies and campaigns, where she coaches and consults to organizations, individuals and companies worldwide. She has launched companies and products from 11 countries, lived in 10 and explored more than 65.

She is also the founder and editor of We Blog the World, a blog dedicated to global storytelling and the latest developments in social, cultural and technology trends and blogs at Down the Avenue, a blog that focuses on technology, social media trends, marketing, PR and culture. She has been blogging for more than ten years and is passionate about where emerging technologies and social media can bridge the gap across the continent.

Renee has held advisory board positions on b5 Media, a global new media network, Cozmo Media, which taps into community to put video content in front of the right audience, Toktumi, a virtual home office VoIP phone solution, Radus, a dynamic media rich social network and content aggregator, BlogHer, the first conference and group blog dedicated to women bloggers, which now has nearly 20,000 blogs in its global network and PopTech, an innovation conference whose goal is to accelerate the positive impact of world changing people and ideas.