I love the idea of Europe as a "distributed" version of Silicon Valley. Not a single cluster where everything is put together, but where actors are spread out -- but is nonetheless as effective as Silicon Valley at pumping out great entrepreneurs and technology. You start to see the beginnings of it.
Most big EU VCs are in London but they invest all over the continent. Skype was started on the shores of the Baltic, but is headquartered in Luxembourg, has programmers in Eastern Europe and offices in London.
Saul is right, it would take a very long time to have Europe be a "distributed Silicon Valley", and maybe it's impossible, but it's still a very encouraging thought (dream?).
It's a big task, but so far Saul, Reshma, et. al. have done an amazing job of approaching that goal.
When we participated in SC week we got over 10 hours' mentoring from entrepreneurs, VCs, angels, marketing people from all over Europe and some from the US. The benefits of being plugged into the network are immense.
The region is still fragmented, but at least now there is a focal point.
Most big EU VCs are in London but they invest all over the continent. Skype was started on the shores of the Baltic, but is headquartered in Luxembourg, has programmers in Eastern Europe and offices in London.
Saul is right, it would take a very long time to have Europe be a "distributed Silicon Valley", and maybe it's impossible, but it's still a very encouraging thought (dream?).