Tonight around midnight I will fly to Amsterdam to particpate in the Creative Amsterdam 2011 conference. The event will take place Wednesday-Friday in Pakhuis De Zwijger, close to Amsterdam city center. I will give keynotes on “The Creative Industry in Shanghai” (Wednesday afternoon) and on “Dutch Digital Pride – The Story of Spil Games” (Thursday). A planned talk on “New Business Models in the Fashion Industry” was rescheduled to Friday afternoon, right before my flight back to China leaves, so I can’t do that one.

To quote the organizers of the event:

Creative Amsterdam will host leading Dutch creative entrepreneurs operating outside the Netherlands. We will celebrate the talent and hard work of these successful go-getters with a varied program: from open design sessions, business dates and export circles to talk shows, an award show and the first Open Studio Night.

Creative Amsterdam is proud of these designers, architects, artists, photographers, authors, filmmakers and other pioneers, and is delighted to offer them a stage to share their achievements and international experience, inspire others and start up new partnerships. What they have in common? Ideas and dreams that exceed our national borders.

Creative Amsterdam is more than merely three days of inspiration. The program challenges visitors to be part of the discussions and to take advantage of the business opportunities that are presented.

Coincidentally my uncle Victor van der Chijs (Managing Director of Rem Koolhaas’ architecture company OMA and also figurehead of the Dutch Creative Industry) is also speaking at the event. He will do the opening ceremony and is doing a session about entry strategies into China (OMA among others designed the new CCTV headquarters in Beijing).

Particpation costs EUR 150 per day, EUR 250 for 2 days and EUR 350 for 3 days. You can buy your tickets here.

The article below is based on a Dutch post at Marketingfacts.nl, written by Spil Games’ Scott Johnston with help of several others at Spil Games. It is not a direct translation, but the core points are the same. I wrote this article for the Business Insider where it was published this morning.

When I tell people that I work in the online gaming industry for

Tonight we had dinner at South Beauty 881, one of my favorite Chinese (Sichuan) restaurants in Shanghai. I don’t go there very often on the weekend as it’s located close to downtown, and therefore at least a 20 minute ride from my home. But because my sister and a friend are visiting we decided to go there for a spicy meal.

The dishes were great as usual, but after a while Scott had had enough food and wanted to play. So I walked around the garden with him (we were sitting outside) looking at the water and the fountain. While walking back I suddenly heard someone calling out my name. I look around and suddenly see my former professor Kees Koedijk! He is now dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics at Tilburg University, but when I knew him he was still a young professor of Finance at Maastricht University.

Kees may not realize this, but he influenced my life in a big way, starting during my last year in Maastricht. Together with Piet Eichholtz he had just set up Global Property Research (which they later sold to Kempen & Co.) where I did a 6 month internship and also wrote my thesis about the research we did there. Kees and Piet both where my thesis advisers.

While writing my thesis Kees introduced me to the corporate recruiter at Mercedes-Benz in Holland, and through that contact I eventually ended up in the international management trainee program at Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Stuttgart. Mercedes-Benz was the company that “sent” me to China back in 1999.

While doing the research for my thesis (in 1995) I considered doing a PhD, but I still remember the honest advice Kees gave me: he told me that he didn’t think I would be able to focus 4 years on one research topic, I would want to do more than that. I guess he knew me very well, I just didn’t realize it myself yet.

I see Kees Koedijk and Piet Eichholtz’ names in the media every now and then, but I hadn’t seen either one of them in person in years. So it was a real surprise to see Kees suddenly here, it’s a small world! He told me about some of the projects that he is working on, and there may be connections with the things that I am doing. So I look forward to catching up with him again in the near future, either in China or in Holland.

A very smart marketing idea from Lufthansa: If you are a KLM frequent flyer you can get a Lufthansa frequent flyer card at the same level in their Miles & More program. Or actually you can get an even better deal, because both KLM Gold and Platinum card holders are eligible for a Lufthansa Senator card. And you will keep your status until February 2013!

The only thing you need to do is book one return flight on Lufthansa or one its European partners, fill out a form and upload a copy of your KLM Flying Blue card.

Despite flying way too much I was downgraded from Platinum to Gold in the KLM program last year. KLM is incredibly stingy with their miles, only for full fare trips you get normal points. And of course I always try to avoid full fare flights, I prefer non-changeable non-reroutable economy or economy plus fares and then upgrade myself with points to business class (I still have over 800,000 frequent flyer miles that I can use).

So I might consider taking Lufthansa’s offer. On the other hand, I already have frequent flyer cards from 2 other Star Alliance members (Singapore Airlines and United Airlines). And for the United one I am just one or two flights away from their Premier Executive status, so the Lufthansa card doesn’t add much value for me.

But if you are a KLM Flying Blue member without a Star Alliance card you should certainly consider this offer. It’s really smart marketing and I think it might convince a lot of frequent flyers to change from KLM-Air France to Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners. If I would be KLM I would immediately offer all Miles & More flyers the same benefits. Smart marketing Lufthansa!

Although the May issue of Apparel Magazine does not seem to be out yet, we already received a press release saying that UnitedStyles.com won a top innovator award from the magazine.

“UnitedStyles is one of 40 visionary apparel retailers, brands, and manufacturers that have achieved noteworthy success in the highly competitive global apparel marketplace. UnitedStyles will be featured in the 4th Annual Top Innovators Report, which will be published as a special issue in May and online at apparelmag.com.

UnitedStyles shares the Top Innovator award with other companies such as Burberry, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Columbia Sportswear.”

Once the magazine article is out and available online I will link to it from here, or I will write an extra post about it. Congrats to the team!

Update: The article is out, you can read it here: http://apparel.edgl.com/magazine/May-2011/2011-Top-Innovtors72609 (registration required…)

Chinese race car driver Ho-Pin Tung announced that he will be competing in this year’s Indianapolis 500 race! He is making history by being the first Chinese ever to compete in this event. Ho-Pin told me the news already during last month’s Formula One race in Shanghai, but at that point it was not official yet. I am very happy for him that he managed to get qualify for the 500-mile race.

Indycar.com writes about Ho-Pin Tung’s participation in the race: