Here are links to the posts I have done from BoomTown’s trip to Europe–with glamorous stops in England, France and Monaco (and all the videos are below too!)–in chronological order going backward:

Kara Visits the Royal Society in London

Kara Visits Cambridge University

Kara Visits a Feast!

Silicon Valley Loses to the Brits!

Kara Visits Dailymotion in Paris

Kara Visits Netvibes in Paris

Kara Visits the Monaco Media Forum: More Interviews on the French Riviera!

Kara Visits the Monaco Media Forum: Opening Dinner

Kara Visits Monte-Carlo

Even loudly declaring “Facebook, $15 billion valuation!!!” with a stiff upper lip didn’t work one bit.

Neither did: “Steve Jobs lives in Atherton”; “At least Yahoo isn’t as bad as Skype”; “You have no Dunkin Donuts and Fry’s”; or “Google could buy your country and have enough left over to pick up Ireland too.”

Here’s a video for you to see the carnage as it unfolded:

By way of background, BoomTown is in England to participate in a series of discussions with a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors, who are visiting Cambridge University and London to talk tech with students, as well as European investors and entrepreneurs.

We started with a raucous debate at one of the oldest halls of verbal parrying in existence: the Cambridge Union Society (whose crest is pictured here).

The premise of the debate: “This house maintains that Europe, not Silicon Valley, will become the best place to build the future billion-dollar companies.”

On the Ayes side: Hermann Hauser of Amadeus Capital Partners; Index Ventures’ Neil Rimer; Simon Cook of DFJ Esprit; and Warburg Pincus’s Bill Janeway.

On the Noes: entrepreneur Reid Hoffman; Allen Morgan of the Mayfield Fund; Stanford professor Ramesh Johari; and Bandel Carano of Oak Investment Partners.

The Europeans focused on the disappearance of borders, due to the explosion of the Web, which has obviated the need for a single locus of influence like the Valley. They also pointed out that the venture business is finally taking off here, along with a better record of serial entrepreneurialism.

Also, they kept noting that the greed and sheeplike behavior of Valley VCs meant a lot of substandard investing was happening in Palo Alto.

It was hard to argue with that, of course, but the Silicon Valley side tried, noting that the culture of risk, including the acceptance of failure as a good thing, was a good thing and also could not be exported.

Neither could the intricate Web of networks, relationships and history that is shared in Silicon Valley.

In addition, they correctly noted that all the major Web companies in operation today of any power were U.S.-based–from Google to Facebook to Intel to Apple.

The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones (how I wish I had a name like that to toss around with self-importance!) and I were to clean up after both sides had their say–each person got about five minutes to make their point–employing a series of insults of the other side’s performance.

As you might imagine, this is just up my alley.

All for naught. At the end of the night, more of the audience went through the Ayes door than the Noes.

As we say in America: We was, of course, robbed.

It kicks off tomorrow night with a debate at the Cambridge Union Society (see fancy seal above) with the premise:

“This house maintains that Europe, not Silicon Valley, will become the best place to build the future billion-dollar companies.”

Them’s fighting words!

The proposition, as they call it here, will be defended in the Harry Potter-sounding Chamber by Hermann Hauser of Amadeus Capital Partners; Index Ventures’ Neil Rimer; Simon Cook of DFJ Esprit; and Warburg Pincus’s Bill Janeway.

The opposition: Entrepreneur Reid Hoffman; Allen Morgan of the Mayfield Fund; Stanford professor Ramesh Johari; and Bandel Carano of Oak Investment Partners.

BoomTown will moderate and we are not the least bit biased. Except to note that Silicon Valley is totally outclassed, by the venue alone.

Also, we can’t wait to see the Valley folks pretzel themselves into unnatural shapes to explain Facebook’s $15 billion valuation (and I am guessing, “Because we said so!” is not going to cut it here).

Video report, of course, to come.