Yet again, this December Ewan Spence will be making the trip to Paris for this year’s Le Web conference, organised by Loic and Geraldine Le Meur. The theme this year is ‘Love.’

Ewan will be speaking on a panel entitled “Love in Motion: Why are Mobile Social Networks booming?” alongside Dr K F Lai (Buzz City) and Antonio Vince Staybl (Itsmy.com) with Ferhan Cook (Any Screen Productions) in the chair. The starting point may be the panellists own networks, but the conversation is likely to branch out quickly to take in a lot of the mobile market.

More info on Le Web is at their website.

After a skip from Dublin the London, I met up with Paul and caught our connecting flight to Hong Kong. Our carrier Cathy Pacific was fairly impressive.

With Paul being used to the Hong Kong hop he suggested we pick up a few munchies for the flight, a good idea given that the nuts is the only snack between meals. I found it difficult to sleep but managed to nod off for a 15 minute power nap. So, to kill the time we trashed out a few ideas and signed off some Wubud stuff.

What actually worked out very well was the fact that we both had isle seat

In true form, Paul booked us into the wrong hotel. I don’t think he should be allowed to travel beyond Guildford.

Let’s see, Paul heads over to Tech Crunch 52, sponsors a few parties, shows Wubud to about five people, and finally gets us some coverage online from (ahem) Shel Israel.

Next time, we’re hoping Paul mentions the URL for the website or does a bit more promotion rather than be completely shell shocked by an internet superstar. Thankfully he’s not in the next 60 Minutes Special from Robert Scoble…

Those of you in San Francisco this Tuesday (Sept 9th) might want to swing by the House of Shields (39 New Montgomery St) at 10pm, where Smack My Pitch Up is being held. Get enough VC’s, investors and entrepreneurs in town, you’ll get people pitching business ideas around like poor baseball pitches. ‘Smack’ is no different, but will be looking for the most terrible ideas in tech possible.

Prizes include a grand prize of $50 (in non-sequential, used single dollar bills). Bonus prizes will be available for best URL containing a pun (or a pub), most creative misuse of grammar and the Calacanis Cup for the most arrogant pitch. One more thing to note… no powerpoint presentations - flipcharts and sharpies, yes, microphones, yes, spending any real prep time, no.

Make sure you have a Wubud sticker on and the drinks are on us. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a sticker, they’ll be at the door. As Paul Carr points out, be there or pay $2,995 to be somewhere else…

In olden times, when explorers left the edges of their home countries and reached out into the unknown, their maps were sometimes labelled as ‘Here Be Dragons.’ With many of them never returning from those distant lands, the phrase acted both as a warning, but also as a handy space filler till people could talk about what was in the empty space.

Nowadays, most of the Earth is mapped out (and Google Moon has been seen occasionally as well), but exploring was never just about the coastlines, forests and hills of a country, it’s now about the people that are there, the experiences they have and the communities that grow around them

The modern day explorer (or long haul flight passenger as we like to call them) doesn’t need a map to warn them of impending dragons. No they simply need to remember one key phrase.

Here be Wubud.