Here’s a video of one of tech’s best-known entrepreneurs, Reid Hoffman, speaking at the U.K.’s Cambridge University during an annual pilgrimage made by a group of Silicon Valley players.

There are several other speeches from others on the site at Silicon Valley Comes to Cambridge, which BoomTown did a few years ago too.

Here’s Hoffman:

Keynote 9 – Reid Hoffman from Svc2c on Vimeo.

(Full disclosure: My partner, Megan Smith, was on this year’s trip and is featured in one of the videos–although I will not feature it here, of course.)

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

Here’s a video about the visit to Cambridge, including interviews with three cool locally based start-ups–one mobile content play called Bango; Cambridge Temperature Concepts, a fertility company; and Grapeshot, a search algorithm technology business.

All are typical of the “Cambridge phenomenon”–that is, start-ups growing up around the area due to the proximity to the university, which is also known as the Cambridge Cluster or Silicon Fen:

Of course, badly losing the debate at the Cambridge Union Society about where the future home of billion-dollar companies would be was harsh, but there were benefits too.

One of the great things about the discussions at the Judge Business School here–which have been organized by Ellen Levy of Silicon Valley Connect and UK-based tech entrepreneur Sherry Coutu, in partnership with the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts–was the chance to pick your ostrich head up out of the insular hole that is Silicon Valley.

The two days of talks and dinners were useful too to see how much other tech cultures want to learn from Silicon Valley, and also how much tech leaders in California can learn in turn.

(There was also a feast.)

One of the most important things a number of Europeans pointed out, for example, was our obsession with the ultra-trendy (this year, that would be Facebook), at the expense of the much more important paradigm shift (a significant shift toward a more mobile Web experience).

Today, we are all in London at the Royal Society–the U.K.’s top science academy–for another series of talks with students and Web company execs here about the landscape of the Internet.

Indeed, the college was founded in 1596 by the Countess of Sussex, Lady Frances Sidney, who was close to Elizabeth I and then was not and then was again (those royals back when were worse than the ones today!).

The event, which was very Harry Potter, with flowing robes and a portrait-festooned Great Hall, even included a traditional “loving cup” ceremony. We seemed to be dubbed by the very cordial British people who met us all night as: “Those people from California, right?”

Right!

And, in keeping up that spirit of Britain, here’s the Rolling Stones’ version of “Loving Cup” from its “Exile on Main Street” album:

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.