Caroline Phillips

Artist, Brainstormer, Business leader, Concerned citizen, Consultant, Entrepreneur, Environmentalist, Idea generator, Musician

I am both entrepreneur and musician. I own and run the global communication agency PIC DIGITAL located in the south of France, in the Basque Country and in Paris. As a musician, I compose and perform with my group, called "Bidaia" play the hurdy-gurdy and sing. We just came out with a new album called "Hitza". As for my web agency, PIC DIGITAL, I founded the company in 1996 after observing that France was like the Wild West at the time - and not many .DOT COM gunsligners were around. Like most of the NetGeneration, I am mostly self-taught through hours of surfing, thinking, reading and attending industry conferences. I believe that quality of life is important which is why I choose to live in the south of France in the beautiful area called the Basque Country. I was born in Northern California's Bay Area, hothouse of a rich and varied artistic culture. Thanks to the benevolence of ultra-liberal parents and a singularly genteel and cultivated grandmother, my childhood was a cultural cornucopia of music, performing arts and provocative pursuits. My summers were spent learning French in a camp in the Sierra Nevada Mountains called "La Joie de Vivre". I moved to the Basque Country in 1992 and have made it my home base. I learned both Basque and Spanish which I speak somewhat fluently and founded the group Bidaia with Mixel Ducau. I discovered the Web in 1995. My passion for the Internet drove me to create the web agency P.I.C. In May 1996 I integrated a start-up incubator in the south of France (Biarritz) and founded Phillips Internet Consulting in December 1996. Today : I own PIC DIGITAL an interactive web agency specialized in branding and web application design (Elasticsearch, Node, etc ... to name a few of our tools) for companies, government agencies, and non-profits. Musicwise : I play with my group "Bidaia" - play the hurdy-gurdy and sing in basque. I also direct a women's choir. I practice Ashtanga yoga and meditate whenever I can. I'm a TEDx organizer and held three TEDxBasqueCountry events in Biarritz in 2010 and 2011 and in Bidart in 2013. I'm also involved in community development in the Basque Country as the President of Lantegiak, a non-profit that promotes social and environmental responsability for companies.

Economic intelligence, attending conferences, learning new languages, reading voraciously, travelling.

Intercultural dialogue. Tolerance.

eBusiness, economic intelligence, Emarketing, hurdy-gurdy, Music, Regional Development, women's leadership, Yoga and Meditation

Went to TEDIndia, loved it, submitted to talk at TEDU in 2010 .. and did it ! Look up 'hurdy-gurdy' :) Organized TEDxBasqueCountry.

Cooking southern Indian cuisine from Kerala. Standing on my head for 10 minutes.