Tomorrow I’m head to Paris on a very last minute trip with Kevin that combines business and pleasure, which for those of you who know me means it is 100% fun.  I had requested a press pass from LeWeb back in October in hopes that I’d be able to cover the event for Seattle 2.0.  When I didn’t get one, I shrugged it off – but then last week on a whim I searched for LeWeb and an email popped up in my spam inbox with my press pass!  I’m so fortunate to have my wonderful team at Twilio, who gave me the okay to go and represent our company as well as Seattle 2.0

Kevin’s plane ticket was paid for with Amex points I had been stockpiling for just such an occaison, and we’re staying with a friend who Kevin worked at on the Sharepoint team who just moved back to Paris today (can you say serendipity?!) and we will be staying with him at his parent’s house – which is near the center of the city.  Altogether I can’t believe how easily it worked out, and I’m even more excited about  this trip than I was for Beijing!  I’ve never been to Europe, and neither has Kevin.

What I’ll Be Reading on the Flight

We’ve got a two leg trip, because I hate direct flights longer than 8 hours.  First leg is Seattle to Toronto, then Toronto to Charles De Gaulle airport.  We leave Monday at 8am PST and arrive on Tuesday at 9:40 am local time (12:40am in Seattle).  I’ll be working hard for inbox zero and some serious email processing, but I’ve also got a handful of books I’ve read but have been meaning to revisit.

Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

Highly relevant to what I’m doing day-to-day, building a branding using social technologies.  I’m looking forward to reading the examples most of all, and I’m sure this will get new ideas churning with a second read through.

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agrreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury

Super useful book for business, and also for life.  This one is more for my personal development of rhetoric, defending philosophical and political ideas, etc. but I am sure it will have applications to all parts of my life.

Rules for Revolutionaries by Guy Kawasaki

I’ve never read his through, only skimmed because it is Kevin’s.  Anything that says “Capitalist Manifestor” gets my attention, I like to think Guy Kawasaki and I have something in common: we’re both mercenaries.  And “Create Like a God, Command Like a King, Work Like a Slave” – yeah, that appeals to me, too.  I’m doing the 3rd thing at least, need to work on the other two.

Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore

The classic book on bringing a disruptive product to market through the niche beachhead strategy.   Fun to read as we broaden the marketing efforts around Twilio to reach out to more developers in 2010.

The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking by Barbara Minto

My previous boss implored me to read this book in order to improve my communication skills, and that is definitely an area of expertise that I want to keep very sharp.  Minto focuses on the order in which we present concepts and build upon ideas to ultimately communicate complex ideas.  There are a lot of exercises in this book that I can do while on the plane.

Honorable Mentions – Didn’t Make the Suitcase This Trip

• Getting Things Done
• Made to Stick by Dan Heath and Chip Heath
• Blue Ocean Strategy
• Guns, Germs, and Steel