the move to berlin

i am a 33 year old communications specialist and filmmaker from budapest and i have decided to move to berlin to the land of funny colas

[themovetoberlin]

o captain! my captain!

freshly built out of old and new parts, just like myself, the captain will soon be shipped to berlin to iron the wide streets of funny cola and hipster land. o captain! my captain! rise up and hear the bells; rise up — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle trills...

[themovetoberlin]

two interviews on german radio

[themovetoberlin]

gonna go my way

(picture source: internet)

my application to wunderkinder has been a nice experience, although, i finally did not get the job and my approach towards applications has also changed slightly. i have applied to several other positions with other startups and the more i have done that, the more it has feelt it is not my way. i do not want a job, really. i am not looking for one, at least, i have a lot to do. i have got a company to run and i have films to make. let's say i am looking for meaningful partnerships and whereever some extra work sneaks in, it is ok. so, i have kind of stopped just applying for any kind of jobs in berlin for now and try to focus on things at my hands. right now, i am editing our coming movie, the london episode of leave/stay. along with our new york episode, we screened an excerpt from it at HAU's Leaving is not an option? festival last month. once we were at the festival, we made a short documentation of it.

'Leaving is not an option?' festival documentaiton, Berlin, HAU from SpeakEasy Project on Vimeo.

here is what i am looking for now instead of a job: - a local co-producer in berlin for our berlin movie - meaningful partnerships and projects for our company in berlin and the whole world - the good moods of my girlfriend

:D 

[themovetoberlin]

am i a wunderkind? we'll see

fingers crossed

really exciting development on my move lately: 6wunderkinder responded to my application for their pr manager position. this was my pitch cover letter i forwarded to them a few weeks ago: a wunderkind to wunderkinder?

today, loránd balázs imre (33), outstanding pr professional, intrapreneur, currently on the move to berlin, submitted his application for a pr manager position at 6wunderkinder, the builder of wunderlist, killer task management app with 6 million followers. hr colleagues are considering the right response to the bold move.   

at receiving mr imre’s application, colleagues at the hr department of the company stood still for a moment, bent their heads slightly downward and let out a 'woo' sound. although, they had never heard of the guy before, they knew they were dealing with something really close to serious. some of them even said after having a quick look at his cv, 'an interview should be considered, this guy seemingly has some wunder in him'.

an open-eyed colleague gave mr imre a call, who, after receiving the question how he got this far, mr imre kindly stated the following: 'dear people, it all started with this item on my wunderlist. i needed to complete it. that is what makes me satisfied, you know, completing tasks. may it be an idea to be coined, a story to make a difference, a press release or a blogpost to be written like history, an event to rock, i have all done that, i know that all the best.‘      

to the question why he would make a good wunderkind, he replied the following 'it is in me, you know, i have been getting it out lately and now i am taking it to berlin. i thought we could share the benefits. try me, please, wunderous people!‘

it is also to be known that mr imre will be in town from november 29th through december 3rd with his right hand cramped around his smarthphone waiting for some vibration and to put another item on his wunderlist. the story is to be continued most hopefully. stay with us, we will cover on it.

working on their test task sheet now.

[themovetoberlin]

spending a night and a day in berlin

from last night till today afternoon, i was in berlin. well, via skype. i was talking to someone important.

[themovetoberlin]

screening our movie at szimpla

this is how it went (shot on iphone5, edited in avid) speak easy project, a company we have built up together with a university mate and very good friend, laci, happens to be the producer of a documentary series on "the new mobility", called menjek/maradjak (leave/stay). last year, we decided to film some worthwhile stories of the contemporary migration from eastern europe. to have a less loaded-bloated term than emmigration, we call this phenomenon the new mobility. we went to new york to shoot a pilot. we took back to europe the stories of two young hungarians, a girl and a guy, trying their luck overseas. we kind of expected to fulfill a need for such stories told in film and the new york episode, indeed, became quite successful, some 50k people have seen it on the web and even the hungarian national television bought it. we are now working on the london episode, and yes, berlin is on the list too, planned to be shot next spring with me on the very ground. one more reason for my move. when i came to berlin on my first research trip in september, i decided to screen our movie at szimpla, a bar in the friedrichshain run by some cool hungarians. fortunately, it was not too hard to convince them. the screening took place in a small room so packed, some people had to watch the movie from outside, through the window. at least, this one guy, adrian did, to whom i did buy a drink afterwards just to show my love and respect.  the reception of the movie by these wonderful people was another warm welcome from the city after the unexpected success at the uncubed conference.

[themovetoberlin]

my paper-napkin-pitch story

me paper-napkin-pitching the uncubed berlin audience

i saw this berlin uncubed startup confenrence by wakefield on linkedin one quiet night and thought right away it would be a nice excuse to take part and make my first research visit to berlin, since i decided to move there. i have always been interested in the startup scene and berlin is now definitely the new prodigy in europe.

so, i bought the ticket, booked a flight and went to the conference. even told doransky, a friend, about it, who decided to join that very day, although it was not sure that he would show up at the conference. indeed, the conference turned out to be a really cool one with lots of interesting and funny people, startup enthusiasts, reps from soundcloud, groupon, billpay, dawanda, 6wunderkind, etc. as well as actual founders from tech open, surf berlin, demifi, to the organizer wakefield.

a video of the event by startuberlin

interestings thing started happening in the afternoon, when doransky did arrive and after some beers and having talked to brian from wakefield, we decided to enter the paper napkin pitch with our revolutionary startup ideas. cannot remember how many people actually entered, nevertheless, three of us were chosen to the final pitch: doransky, myself, and a third guy, who did not show up. so, it was the two of us, a one minute pitch straight to the audience.

dorasnky went first and presented his idea of the "happiness machine", basically a mobile application to help people achieve happiness through habit internalization and self-confirmation. applause followed. then right came i with my slightly more complex idea of turning each and everyone's life into an endless (documentary) movie with a smartphone and a set of well-rounded and easily applicable tools. i called it "documentary of your lives". enough said. intrestingly, the audience liked my idea at least as much as the happiness machine.

piece of my napkin pitch

conference host and wakefield media founder, tarek pertew decided that we both won. as the napkin pitch sponsorship remained blank, we won lifetime attendeeship to all uncubed events, which is pretty cool, isn't it?

this is what it felt like winning well, i must admit i spent the entire next day at görlitzer park trying to actually specificate my idea and i ended up admitting that it would not really work, unless...

[themovetoberlin]

my sunglasses have already run the berlin marathon. me: not yet

peter gusztos having just finished the 40th berlin marathon in my glasses the distance between budapest and berlin is apprx. 875 kms. since this time last year, i have run about 130 kms according to my sports tracker. not much. anyways, if i wanted to run this budapest-berlin distance until the beginning of next year, which is my target date for the move, i should run a good 9 Ks every day, if i ran everyday. would be such a nice (and pretentious!) goal. not gonna happen. for one excuse, my knees hurt like bitch, after i run a bit more than 5 Ks. this is what's gonna happen, though. i will run more and more to prepare for a future marathon, why not the berlin one, right? until then, i will also offer my swimming kilees to the berlin move milage, just to look better. well, i know, i gotta do a lot more than that to get a nice landing in berlin. so, i have started looking for opportunities now: jobs, commissions, a flat, friends, maybe not in this order, just as they come. i am visiting berlin this weekend second time within a month time. this time, i am actually visiting a friend i made on the previous trip, which turned out to be such an adventure. i should tell you about that in another post.

[themovetoberlin]

einfach. berlin

a picture taken in downtown budapest this summer

my goal is berlin, a couple relaxed years, a beginning me, a girl, a job, a flat' cooking twice a week loving till mild madness doing it, doing it, together 'preferably in prenzlauerberg