Xconomy is on its way to Sweden.
In our hearts, at least. Today marks the last day at Xconomy Boston for our Innovation Fellow, noted Swedish technology and business journalist Erik Mellgren, who will be returning home tomorrow night to Stockholm. We figure he’s doing some advance scouting for a future expansion to the Swedish innovation cluster, at which point he has a standing offer to become editor of Xconomy Sweden.
I will tell you more about Erik and his stay here, but first a request: Does anyone have two tickets to the Sox game tonight so that Erik and his wife, Tina, can fulfill their dream of seeing an American baseball game at Fenway Park? We’ll trade you four tickets to any Xconomy event, including our next Battle of the Tech Bands (but if you want to compete your band still has to qualify on its own). Just let us know at [email protected].
Erik, an editor with Ny Teknik (New Technology), has been with us four (too short) months as part of an Innovation Journalism fellowship program run out of Stanford University. It’s hard to state how incredibly helpful he has been, willing to jump in and tackle anything and everything—cloud computing, biotech, energy, even burritos—and writing almost perfect prose despite English being his second (or third) language. If I went to Sweden on a similar program, my copy would look like this: “Skål!” Which is the only Swedish word I know. (It is Swedish, isn’t it?)
And Erik surely made his mark on the Boston innovation scene. He had a great scoop—that Al Gore, now a venture capitalist, was set to make a big investment in FloDesign Wind Turbine, winner of the MIT Clean Energy Entrepreneurship Prize Competition. And the aforementioned burrito story—a simultaneously serious and hilarious look the role our neighborhood burrito stand plays in the Kendall Square innovation ecosystem—became an instant classic.
And beyond all the fantastic writing and reporting, Erik and Tina have become the great friends of everyone here—including Rhody, Wade’s dog, whom Tina has kept company all summer. Erik even kept us all from running aground during our company pontoon boat outing on New Hampshire’s Squam Lake, as you can see from the snapshot above, navigating through some infamously rocky waters with characteristic ease and good humor.
So until he’s ready to take the helm of Xconomy Sweden, join us in wishing him safe travels and good luck. Skål Erik!
