It Was Twenty Years Ago Today When Swedish Beers First Came to Play in Barcelona

Doesn't time fly! I can hardly believe it but it's 20 years since Swedish Beers first came to BCN at MWC! It wasn't even called Mobile World Congress back then, it was 3GSM and it took over La Fira at Placa Espanya. I took a last minute decision to head to Barcelona for a few days and take in the show. (I'd missed out on visiting 3GSM at Cannes due to the lack of accommodation and the huge cost of staying anywhere remotely nearby.) 

I'd already been hosting Swedish Beers in London at that point for almost 5 years so I put the word out I'd be in town and some of my regulars and some international bloggers about mobile who I'd met online turned up in a bar in a hotel in Gracia. There were about 25 of us there if I remember rightly. Not only was it lovely to hang out with my tribe but I also saw that week that there was a real need for a more grass roots style event during Mobile World Congress where people could connect on a human level. I feel that is still true today. Little could I imagine back then that I would still be doing this 20 years later! But here I am.

The next Swedish Beers party is happening next week on Wednesday 4 March from 7pm onwards and we're back at Space Cowboy where I'm sure we'll be well looked after by Adam and his team at the bar. And for conversation and good vibes, we'll have Shanks Kulam and Nick Allott with beer tokens in hand. More sponsors tba.

If you work in or around mobile, this networking event is for you! RSVP required and you can do that over on Eventbrite.

If you'd like to connect with several hundred mobilists, meet everyone on the night, and create and contribute to memories that people will be talking about for years to come, please sponsor the event. Sponsorships available from £500. All the money goes behind the bar and to the related people and admin costs of running the event. This is not a money-making exercise for me. The more sponsors, the more beer tokens and the more fun for everyone. Please contact me to discuss to help the legend live on.

Below are some memories from last year's bash.

See you in Barcelona! Tell your friends! Let's have a blast!

Skål

Helen

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Deloitte's 2016 UK Mobile Consumer Report is out 'There's No Place Like Phone'

And it's a treasure trove of the latest consumer trends when it comes to mobile usage in the UK. Well worth a look if you're interested in the British consumer at all.

From the executive summary (emphasis my own and some minor edits):

"This year’s report marks the end of the smartphone growth era, and the start of its consolidation. A mere nine years after the launch of the first full touchscreen smartphone, adoption is nearing a plateau, at 81 per cent of UK adults, and 91 per cent of 18–44 year olds.

The smartphone user base is approaching an unprecedented peak. No other personal device has had the same commercial and societal impact as the smartphone, and no other current device seems likely to. While the base may plateau, relentless innovation continues at device and network levels. Devices are likely to incorporate more functionality and get even faster. Biometric sensors, particularly fingerprint readers, are likely to see widespread adoption.

Over a quarter of smartphones now have a fingerprint reader, of which three quarters are in use. The majority of phones are now connected to 4G, and cellular networks are getting ever faster, with headline speeds now at over 300 Mbit/s.1 As speeds rise, ever more latent, high bandwidth applications become viable. It is now as easy to read the news on a phone as it is to live stream a breaking news event from a smartphone.

Businesses and consumers are still determining how best to use these devices. For the former, a common dilemma is over whether to use apps or websites. The typical UK user downloads 20 or fewer apps.

Our research suggests that apps are not the right approach for every business.

Consumers, who collectively look at their smartphones 0.4 trillion times per year, still need to identify how to use their devices in a balanced way, at a level that suits them, their other halves and colleagues. It is the sleek digital Swiss army knife that can be used at every stage of the day. How people will use their devices to communicate will be driven by consumers.

The traditional voice call has become steadily less popular over the last four years, and usage of email, social networks and instant messaging has risen in tandem."

Click here for the PDF.

Ofcom Communications International Report 2015 is out

This is a personal favourite and highly recommend Ofcom’s various communications reports. For those outside of the UK, Ofcom, aka The Office of Communications, is a UK government department and produces a range of reports looking at communications usage across the UK. It’s a brilliant, neutral resource, and what’s more, it’s completely free. Find out more about the data sets and report.
Some highlights from this year’s International Report:

“The communications sector’s total global revenues in 2014 were £1,190bn, growing by 1.5% year on year (incorporating the telecoms, television, postal and radio sectors). Global television industries had the largest increase in revenue in 2014, up by £12bn (5%), to £244bn. Telecommunications revenue, although the largest by a considerable margin, registered slow growth of 0.5% to reach £846bn.

UK communications sector revenues were the fifth highest of our comparator countries and the second highest in Europe. In 2014, as in recent years, the three largest communications markets by revenue were in the US (£316bn), China (£135bn) and Japan (£110bn). Outside the top three, the total UK revenue of £48bn was second only to Germany (£55bn).

4G mobile population coverage (from at least one operator) increased in most comparator countries in 2014, with China having the largest year-on-year increase, rising from 1% to 73%. The UK had 84% 4G mobile population coverage at year-end 2014, an increase of 21 percentage points.

The UK had the highest proportion of total mobile connections that were 4G, of the EU5 countries in 2014, at 28%. Among all our comparator countries, South Korea had the highest proportion of mobile connections that were 4G, at 63% of connections, followed by the US (40%), and Australia and Singapore (both 39%).

Around two-thirds (67%) of UK respondents use a smartphone. This is in line with France, Germany and Australia. Spain and Italy had the highest smartphone take-up, at 83% and 79% of respondents respectively, and the US reported the lowest take-up of our comparator countries, at 57%.

Spain (45%) and the UK (42%) have the highest levels of ownership of connected TVs (either smart TV sets, or sets connected to the internet via another device, such as a set-top box, video games console, or other internet-enabled device).

Nearly two-thirds (66%) of people in the UK had used an online service to watch TV or films within the past week (increasing to 81% in the past month); the highest proportion across all of the countries surveyed.

Around four in ten (44%) UK respondents had used a catch-up service from a free-to-air broadcaster within the past week, the greatest proportion of any country surveyed.”

I highly recommend you download the report and add it to your holiday reading list and gen up for the New Year.

Call for Interesting Mobile Apps, Services & Hardware in the North of England and beyond

Those of you who know me are aware that I take a keen interest in new apps, services and technologies. As part of that, I've been running demo sessions for 10 years or so - first at Mobile Monday London, and for the last 5 years, under my Heroes of Mobile banner in London and Barcelona. And they're always popular events.

These are not pitch events - they're much more relaxed. Think show 'n tell style with a bit of Q and A thrown in for good measure.

And I have one of these sessions coming up next week in Leeds - Innovation on the Fringe Goes North! - and I'd love to see you participate, especially if you're based North of Watford. Living in London, the local start-up scene is awash with new apps and services. But where are their Northern equivalents? I have a few up my sleeve, but I'd love to see many more. And I'm sure they're out there. I'm a Northerner by birth, I have friends up and down the British Isles and I know there's talent across the UK and not just centred in East London. 

Are you doing something interesting in mobile apps, services, hardware or internet of things? It can be at concept, prototype or fully-fledged stage. Are you available in Leeds on Tuesday afternoon (3 Nov) for a couple of hours to share with us what you're doing and hang out with other entrepreneurs and fellow mobilists? If so, get in touch as soon as you can so that I can slot you into the schedule. Drop me an email or fill in this quick form to tell me a little bit about what you're doing and we'll take it from there. 

And if you just fancy leaning back and seeing what's hot and what's not mobile-wise in Leeds, then please RSVP now.

And if you're not a Northerner, but you'd still like to take part with a demo, you're very welcome to!

Powered by Eventbrite

The call for apps etc for the Heroes of the Mobile Fringe Festival in Barcelona in February 2016 will open later on in November.

End of term reports from Adobe and BDO

It’s December 2013 already. Christmas is in the air and the TV is awash with Christmas TV adverts. So it’s only to be expected that there are some end of term reports from some of the big guns. And I’m afraid I’m reading them with mixed feelings which I’ll share with you.

Let’s start with BDO’s Retail Compass 2013. The survey “examined the opinions of 100 chief marketing officers at leading retailers located throughout the USA. The retailers in the study were among the largest in the country, including 11 retailers in the top 100 based on annual sales revenue. The telephone survey was conducted in September and October of 2013”.

The survey covers all aspects of retail but there is a section about mobile marketing.

In the press release, the focus for retailers is on traditional channels rather than mobile:

• 38 per cent of retailers are including mobile in their marketing strategy this year—down from 50 per cent in 2012—those who are embracing it are ramping up their efforts.
• Last year, mobile comprised an average of 5.9 per cent of retailers’ overall marketing budget; this year, that number has jumped to 15 per cent.
• With eMarketer predicting a 15 per cent rise in mobile shopping volume this year, the mixed survey results suggest that retailers remain divided as to the platform’s growth potential and its ability to convert sales.
• One strategy on which retailers are not divided, however, is print advertising: a plurality of CMOs (41 per cent) are investing most of their holiday budgets in traditional print ads, which have been a consistently popular medium over the last 4 years.
• And CMOs still believe in the power of TV to reach a wide audience: 29 per cent say they will spend the majority of their holiday advertising budget on broadcast.
• Retailers are looking towards social media, but don’t know the right mix (and probably don’t realise how much of it is on mobile and how that impacts on conversions if their offering isn’t mobile-friendly).

So good news for broadcast and print in the US, and for those who are working on mobile campaigns for retailers, it’s good news as the budgets are bigger – just fewer of them by some measure compared with 2012. I have to question what the decision making process is behind this when the growth in mobile and mobile commerce is rising at a very fast pace. Of course, I don’t know how the question was asked and it may be that the retailers are ahead of the curve and have a great mobile site and/or a range of mobile apps and that the assumption is that mobile marketing in this context means mobile advertising which maybe they feel they don’t need as their mobile offering is so strong. I live in hope of that anyway! I fear that retailers may have their heads in the sand and have not yet woken up to what’s happening under their noses and are missing out on opportunities today.

Download the full report here http://www.bdo.com/download/2972

Now let’s look at the UK. Adobe and The Guardian have just published a survey looking at the mobile marketing attitudes of 1427 executives in the UK. The free report makes for quite depressing reading about the UK state of play.

• More than 50% said their organisation had a fragmented approach or no strategy at all when it comes to mobile
• Most respondents are unconfident about their organisation’s ability to measure the success of their mobile channels (which I’m guessing is a hindrance to offering them at all)

YET

• Most respondents felt their businesses would benefit from mobile marketing

AND

• Respondents expect to see a significant shift in the number of customer interactions supported or driven by mobile

So why aren’t they taking the plunge?

Well, rather worryingly, a lot of respondents felt that mobile wasn’t going to overtake the desktop at all or within the next two years. Many don’t have the funds to support mobile initiatives or don’t believe their business would benefit at all.

That last point worried me so I took at look back at the kinds of organisations the respondents came from. As this was run by The Guardian, there were a disproportionate amount of responses from the public sector, the arts, charities/not for profit and education. I’m not entirely surprised that those organisations aren’t as clued up and/or don’t have the funds or willingness to go mobile, at least not yet. I would hope that the results would be more positive if there were more brands, agencies and retailers who had responded.

You can read more here.

I guess the good news for us working in mobile marketing is that there’s still plenty work for us to do. Need to get your senior teams up to speed with what’s going on in mobile marketing and media? Get in touch. I’ve done workshops with a variety of media owners and agencies in the UK and the Nordic region. Maybe I can do one for you?

2013 is the year of Glastonbury Mobile

Well, at least according to the BBC, and the monster coverage they’re planning of Glastonbury Festival, they believe this will be the first Glastonbury that will be viewed more on mobile than any other device. It will be no mean feat to cover the festival and to deliver the content to the right people at the right time on whatever device they choose. Having delivered on the Olympics last year, this should be more straightforward – well apart from the conditions – there’s no newly-built, state-of-the-art media centre at the festival. Nevertheless, it’s still a big job.

As for the punters, like myself, who make the annual pilgrimage to the Pilton Pop Party, I wonder if there will be much improvement to mobile communications or to the festival experience via mobile? The app has never been much use to me – what we need is a really good map (where’s the Google maps version of the site?) and the mobile version of the marvellous Glasto Clashfinder. But instead, we get features that the sponsors think are a good idea but are of little use to us paying customers. Maybe this year will be different now that we have EE and their proposed investment in improved coverage for 2G, 3G and 4G…? (More on that here.)  Hey, the app sounds like it will be better too (I live in hope).

Any anyway, it’s almost impossible to see your mobile screen in the sun, or in the rain for that matter. You can’t hear your phone ring and even if you could, you can’t hear what anyone is saying. Battery life is still rubbish and mobile signal is flaky and SMS, probably the most useful feature, can be delayed by hours or even days! I will probably be leaving my fancy Android smartphone at home anyway and revert to my trusty N95 and bits of paper. I don’t want to lose a good phone in the mud as

Still, bring it on, I say. Find me dancing in my wellies to Portishead, Kenny Rogers and The Rolling Stones!

Another great slide deck from Mary Meeker–2013 Trends

As usual, it’s a ‘must read’ for anyone in business. The trends are laid out very plainly and although there is a US focus, the results and trends shared are global and it’s likely your country, or the countries you do most business in will be in there.

Mobile is showing ‘aggressive momentum’ – not that I’m surprised by that, but sometimes it needs to be restated and the information that Mary shares is compelling and shows just how fast that growth is. There are some surprising stats in there, including that the people of Saudi Arabia share most content on the internet. I must admit, I want to see the background data for that, but it’s curious none the less. The UK and US are way down the chart for that one compared with emerging economies.

Anyway, take a look for yourself and share with your colleagues.

KPCB Internet Trends 2013 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

The speed of change

I’ve been in this mobile world now for 13 years almost and I’ve seen many changes in the industry. Everyone talks about how fast it’s moving, how everything changes so quickly and the technology moves on apace. Others complain that they simply can’t keep up. Others simply don’t want to keep up – this new stuff is just too much for them and they’re hanging on to the old ways of doing things.

I do get asked pretty frequently what changes I’ve noticed over the years and I’m not sure that the changes are as profound as sometimes we think they are. I’m still having the same conversations with potential clients about the power of mobile marketing that I had 10 years ago with very similar objections that I encountered when I first started working on ZagMe back in 2000.

I’ve also just spent the last few weeks in my hometown of Worcester (that’s the one in England for my US readers). My neighbour’s wi-fi aside keeping me sane, this appears to be the land that the internet forgot. Everything pretty much happens the same way that it happened when I was living here 25 years ago. I don’t see people glued to their mobile screens in the same way I do in London. Wi-fi is available, but not readily. Although lots of businesses promote themselves on Facebook, it’s done half-heartedly and they don’t have many followers – but when you walk past the businesses, they’re busy. Local restaurant websites don’t have their opening hours listed, have menus on their sites from three years ago and don’t seem to see the need or benefit from keeping this stuff updated.

People also still read newspapers here – the printed kind. Ones that you might pay for as well as the freebies (which just seem to be property listings). And there appears to be a thriving market for glossy, local magazines too which I was surprised to see. I’ve picked up at least three in the last week in local cafes and another one arrived through the door this morning.

There is also barely any networking here. Well, not what I would recognise as networking at least. I think it’s related to the local populace being connected in real life rather than virtual life perhaps and it’s probably also linked to the fact that mobile signal is absolutely appalling in the city (no really, my signal routinely drops out here *for hours* at a time.) The networking you’ll see here are the generalist networking breakfasts and meet-ups that are organised by the likes of the local Chamber of Commerce but not a lot else. I could be wrong here and all this stuff is organised outside of Google’s ability to index it in a way I can find it and connect with it to meet new people and interact with the local community, since I will be spending more time in Worcester in the coming months.

So it got me thinking about the speed of change, and the difference between what was then and what is now and the differences between locations in, even a small country, like the UK? The future most definitely is not evenly distributed.

Whilst I was pondering this, I discovered that Cybersalon has been resurrected. This was one of the very early meet-ups looking at our digital world. They’ve been on hiatus for some years now, but they’re back with a series of really interesting events. The web world has been pretty notorious for not embracing mobile early and rubbishing the idea that the web viewed on mobile will be bigger than the web viewed on desktop or laptops. But that has indeed happened. So I was curious to find that Cybersalon had published a Mobile Manifesto back in 2000. It makes for a very interesting read. And going back to my first point about what has changed, it appears to me that what they were talking about 13 years ago is still very relevant to our mobile world today. Have a read and let me know what you think.

It’s 2013… what might be coming?

It seems to be the done thing to do a key trends post at the start of the year. It is something I think about but rather than coming up with my own key trends, I’m going to share MEF’s key mobile trends for the upcoming year. They canvassed their global membership and also looked at the results of their second annual MEF Global Mobile Consumer Survey (9,500 respondents) and have come up with their top 10. Let’s take a look at them.

1. Convenience becomes paramount: convenience will exceed entertainment as the primary mobile content and commerce driver globally.

I don’t think this is new for 2013. We’ve seen an increase in mcommerce in the last few years and convenience is the main factor. The smartphone (or tablet) is the nearest/most convenient / quickest to boot up device to get stuff done. It’s a good enough experience to make the shopping process successful. I find myself squinting at my tiny mobile screen for bargains on eBay, when clearly, my laptop or large tablet would be better for the job, but my phone is nearer and I can’t be bothered to move. I’m guessing I’m not only in this consumer behaviour. This can only get bigger.

2. Shift in Payments: operator billing will be overtaken by other mobile payment systems in developed markets.

This isn’t news to me either. At least not when looking at the UK market. The rise of iOS, Android, apps and mcommerce (as in shopping for stuff that isn’t mobile content) is all being done in the online way which is credit or debit card or PayPal. I have never really understood why operators thought they deserved such a huge amount in revenue share when it comes to mobile payments. The value exchange has never seemed fair to me, even less so now when the web is very real on mobile devices. It’s a tough gig for the operators. They’re losing control and/or money in all areas of the business, or so it seems. We still need them to make the infrastructure work but I wonder how they will create new value in the coming years when mobile payments isn’t it?

3. Big Data will drive mobile engagement: widespread rollout of personalised recommendations and alerts based on context and behavioural data enabled by mobile.

Big Data is the new black for everything it seems. Everyone I know who is in tech, and a lot of those who aren’t, are bandying around the phrase ‘Big Data’. I wholeheartedly agree it’s important but most businesses, even large ones with deep pockets, don’t really understand how to data mine in a meaningful way – at least not yet. Soooooo much data has been collected by our network operators, our loyalty card providers, our banks, our ISPs, our email companies, Google, Facebook, foursquare and more. How do you make sense of it all? So I wonder if the breakthrough in 2013 will be that we’ll begin to understand this Big Data thing better this year and make meaningful business decisions from it rather than the stabs in the dark I’ve seen to date.

4. Trust as a critical asset: consumer trust around privacy and data collection will become a critical asset for apps and brands in 2013.

This was an emerging theme last year. MEF covered this in their Heroes of the Mobile Fringe podcast session in Barcelona (blog post here). Security, data, privacy, trust are all murkily lumped together in the consumer’s eyes. They’re different things, but certainly overlap and these are most definitely very real issues. But they’re not just related to mobile or to tech. What we do in our offline worlds also matters in our online worlds and vice versa. Even the most clued-up of us can get caught out. Cloning is a very real issue and Android is full of holes – largely due to poor implementation by OEMs and lazy app developers. And also down to human nature. Ultimately, if your choice is to get instant gratification from a mobile app right here right now vs. not, the chances are, the average punter, will take a risk and download the app or game. How can you protect someone who is making that split second decision? And how can we track what data is being collected, by whom, when and where does it get stored, how is it used etc.? It is an absolute minefield. How do you correct it if it’s wrong, how do you remove it, what happens with it when you’re dead and buried? This one will run and run I think.

5. Usage Convergence: The dividing line between consumer and enterprise-focused services will melt, transforming the way companies use mobile.

I’m not sure what I think about this one. We’ve certainly seen convergence of devices in that business people have chosen to use iPhone as a business device and BlackBerry as a consumer device so I guess we’ll see something play out here when it comes to services. Anyone else have a view?

6. Growth in health and education services: 2013 will see a significant uptake in the use of health and education services, based on interactive mobile content and device penetration. Growth markets will drive this but also developed markets will complement and develop existing systems.

No question there is investment going into these areas. And where resources go, things tend to happen. This is no bad thing. Health and education are critical to modern society. I can see growth markets driving the education element, I’m yet to know where the drivers are for mhealth services. I’m certainly keeping an eye on both sectors.

7. Crowd-sourcing of mobile content: mass-curation of content, such as large-scale photo integration enabling crowd-sourcing of public events imagery, will emerge as a defining mobile apps category, but will experience scaling issues, including transparency and privacy concerns.

I’ve seen several services try to do this but have been unable to get any kind of critical mass to date. I’m not sure they will. For everyone at a mass event to use the same app to do something is going to be hard unless it’s something we all use already like Googlemaps, Facebook, or Twitter. Would I download an app so I could share a photo to a pool? Erm, no. But maybe I’m just too old for this. I’m also not convinced of the longevity of the app ecosystem. It’s seriously hard to make money with apps and the trend I’m seeing is a move to web and less of a focus on apps. But maybe I’m biased because I forget to use pretty much every app I’ve ever downloaded save for a handful that I use on a weekly, if not daily basis.

8. The March of Multi-Screens: In 2013 much of the mobile ecosystem’s energy will target the integration of multiple connected screens, such as TV companion services, to deliver a consistent and complimentary experience across every connected device. 

Seamless synchronisation seems to be talked about a lot but not delivered that well. Friends rave about how kindle has a seamless synch experience and I know many people would like to see that same attention to detail for other services but we’re not quite there yet. It’s tricky to do, but we will see it as we work out how to do this stuff better. And if our M2M world with our connected fridges and cars is to work, we really do have to sort this stuff out.

9. Third mobile ecosystems: Windows Phone 8, Firefox OS and BlackBerry 10 will make progress globally, especially in growth markets.

There is everything to play for when it comes to mobile ecosystems. I’ve had a play with all three of the above, and they all have their strengths and will appeal to different groups of customers. We have also heard that there’s an Ubuntu phone coming out (not sure why we need one, but hey, what would I know), Bada and Tizen are on the market, and I’m interested to see if Jolla can break through. Nokia’s N9 Meego device was a thing of beauty and maybe Jolla, son of Meego, may make headway. And with news that Samsung is moving from Android to Tizen, the game definitely isn’t over.

10. China is coming: Chinese mobile content and commerce vendors will expand into global markets, but will struggle with the complexities of mobile ecosystems and IPR.

China is most definitely coming. No question. I am most definitely not qualified to comment beyond that. Anyone else care to add anything on this point?

I also read Dean Bubley’s Telco anti-trends for 2013 which also make for an interesting read. 

Comments and discussion welcome.

The Guardian Tech Weekly Podcast–I’m in it!

In case you missed it a couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be invited in to The Guardian’s offices to join Alex Krotoski, Jemima Kiss, Martha Lane Fox (yes, *the* Martha Lane Fox) and Suw Charman-Anderson to discuss why the tech industries need more women and what we can do about it. This was part of Ada Lovelace Day on 16 October.

We clearly didn’t have long enough to chat and we didn’t have all the answers for sure. But hopefully there are some gems in there that makes it worthwhile listening to. This is a recurring theme. We know that where there is a gender balance on high performing teams – they do better than single-sex high performing teams. Boards who have female directors have more profit. This isn’t rocket science. So have a listen and let’s do something about it.

Click here for the links to download or listen http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/audio/2012/oct/16/tech-weekly-podcast-women-in-tech

Heroes of Mobile Day: London Edition 17 Oct

Following on from the great success that was Heroes of the Mobile Fringe Festival in Barcelona earlier this year, we’ve decided to do some smaller scale events starting in London to keep the buzz going and help build up to the main event in Barcelona next February.

With that in mind, we have three discussion panel sessions happening at Mozilla HQ on St Martin’s Lane on Wednesday 17th October. All being well, these will be live webcast, but if you’re in London, you can join the audience as well and participate in a bit of networking at the same time. Each session will run for about 45 minutes with some time for refreshments before and after. You’re welcome to come to one, two or all three sessions, as you wish. They’re free to attend but we are limited in space as we want to keep the atmosphere intimate and to encourage discussion and questions from the audience.

State of the Mobile Nation

This session is sponsored by our friends at Hotwire PR and chaired by Russell Buckley. The discussion will be a review of where we are and where we’re going in the mobile industry and what that might mean for your business. More details and RSVP here. Doors open at 09.30 for a 10.00 start.

Mobile Advertising Will Eat Itself

This session will also be chaired by Russell Buckley and look at the latest innovations (or not) in the world of mobile advertising. More details and RSVP here. Doors open at 11.00 for a prompt 11.15 start.

 

(Mobile) Money Makes the World Go Around

This session will be chaired by Tim Green and will take a look at the world of mobile money, from payments to mobile wallets to the future (if any) for NFC and more. Details and RSVP here. Doors open at 12.30 for a prompt 13:15 start.

We will be finished by around 14:00 but you’re welcome to stay for further networking and refreshments. There is free Wi-Fi at Mozilla Space London and you’re welcome to stay to do some work if you wish.

About our sponsors

Hotwire is an integrated PR and communications agency. Founded in 2000, the agency spans a number of industries including telecoms, media, marketing, consumer, technology, financial services and cleantech. Quickly becoming a global offering, Hotwire has offices in the UK, across Europe, Australia and the US. Suffice to say, the team are passionate about all things mobile and will be on hand to chew the fat with you.

Mozilla Spaces are open working environments where Mozillians can hack,code, design, research, create, engage and contribute to building a brighter future for the web and they are hosting this session. You may be familiar with Mozilla's brilliant Firefox browser for desktop and mobile and more recently, they announced their Firefox OS for mobile. 

And there’s more… Swedish Beers is 11 years young and we’re celebrating!

To round off the day, we’ll be celebrating Swedish Beers’ 11th Birthday Party at The Nordic Bar from 18.30 with our friends from Millennial Media, LoopMe Media, Yuilop and Inspiring Interns. Again, free to attend. No formalities, no presentations, just good company, good chat and some free drinks (beer, wine and soft drinks a-plenty courtesy of our sponsors). More details here.

2012 Wirehive 100 Digital Agency Awards

Yes, it’s most definitely award entry season. I’ve just spent the day reviewing and scoring the entries for the Meffys. The Mobile Marketing Magazine Awards are still open for entries here. And just in, I’m going to be a judge on the Best Mobile/Tablet category for the Wirehive Awards which are new this year and supported by Digital Donut and BIMA and sponsored by RecruitmentRevolution.com and Mundays with individual award categories also sponsored.

Some might ask why I’m involved with judging yet another awards… well this one is a bit different as it’s very regional. It’s designed to celebrate the work of digital agencies who are outside of London but in the South or South East. And there are *a lot* of them. These are often the agencies servicing local businesses well but don’t always have the scale to compete for the larger national or international accounts. But they’re still doing good work in digital and they’re still innovative and still working in mobile and more. So from judging the global Meffys today, I’m going to the other end of the scale with these highly regionalised awards.

So here’s the deal. If you’re outside of London and you’re a digital agency, you can apply to be in the Wirehive 100 League Table. This is free, gratis, no charge. Plus it gives you a vote for a peer agency in the Most Respected category and automatic entry into the Fast Growth and Most Efficient if you want to submit them. These are all free.

Other categories cost just £50 each to enter and you can enter for as many categories as you like.

You may be wondering what constitutes the South or South East? It excludes London but does include all the Home counties and all southern counties. It does not include the South West – i.e. Bristol and beyond. Not sure if you qualify? You can always ask here.

But what if you have offices in say, Manchester and Brighton? If you have an agency with an office in the eligible area and the billing entered is specific to that office, then that’s just fine. However, if your billing includes the billing for the Manchester office (in this example), then then that wouldn’t qualify. Still not sure? Then please ask here.

You have until 13 August to get your entries in http://100.wirehive.net/ and then it’s a month until the big awards bash itself hosted by Gadget Show’s Suzi Perry no less. I look forward to going through the entries for the Mobile & Tablet category.

Brand Perfect Tour hits San Francisco

I’m very pleased to tell you that I will shortly be heading to San Francisco, on of my favourite cities to visit, and while I’m there, I will be one of the facilitators at the Brand Perfect Tour event on 8 May 2012. I was involved in the London event last year and this time, we’re in search of seamless brand experiences on mobile. The event is aimed at brands, retailers, media owners, agencies and developers. And whether you’re a veteran or a newbie to this world of mobile marketing, you’re sure to get something out of it. With a mix of keynotes, discussion and hands-on exercises, there’s plenty to get your teeth into.

We’ll be talking with major brands, agencies and expert developers about where opportunity in the mobile channel really lies:

• How should a brand view the mobile channel in their marketing mix?
• What are the challenges and rewards?
• What are the success stories that show the way forward?
• How do you plan and implement a mobile strategy to reach the mass market that’s on-brand?
• What are the technologies involved and what can brand owners expect to be able to deliver?

Then put it all together by working in cross-disciplinary teams with your peers covering the business, design and development elements of creating a mobile experience based on a real brand brief. You'll not only have plenty of great ideas by the end of the day; you'll have made a lot of new friends tool.

The event is free for brands, retailers and media owners to attend.

If you're an agency or developer and you bring a brand buddy with you, then you both attend for free.

If you're a journalist or blogger and would like to cover the event, please get in touch with me for a press pass. I have a few available. Otherwise, the ticket price is USD395

Registration is required: http://www.brandperfect-tour.com/events/next-stop-on-the-tour/

Spread the word and see you there! You’ll also find Brand Perfect Tour on Facebook, the event is also listed on Facebook and LinkedIn to make it easy for you to add to your calendar and share with friends and colleagues. And you can follow the twitter action here.

Oh, and there are some super pictures from the London event in November for you below from photographer Paul Clarke. And you can view some of the London presentations here.

Created with flickr slideshow.

MiM Award 2012 deadline is 4 March 2012

The MiM Award 2012 (deadline 4th March; finals 22nd March) are go and I’m very pleased to be on of their judges this year. There’s always a good selection of mobile apps and services to look at and I hope this year’s is no different. It’s free to enter and by entering, The MiM Award can get you in front of customers, investors and the press. The MiM Award is for privately owned mobile businesses that are making their customers' businesses mobile.

"For Masabi, winning the BLN MiM Award has been a real boost. In particular winning the award facing such strong competition, and having been judged by a wide range of respected industry experts and investors, has been terrific for the company in terms of raising awareness and building credibility. On
the back of this platform, Masabi has continued to generate significant momentum, securing new customers and launching new products. If you want to raise your profile with decision makers in the mobile world, you should definitely enter the MiM Award 2012." -- CEO, Masabi

How does it work? Mobile businesses (that's you!) spend 2 minutes applying here before the deadline at midnight 4th March 2012. It's free to apply. Twelve finalists will be chosen to present at MiM 2012 (22nd March) and our judges choose a winner. Easy.  So get that laptop out and get filling in the form.

The Best of British Apps

You can’t move these days for mobile apps. There is an app for everything and sometimes it’s hard to see the wood for the trees. But never fear, Stuart Dredge, journalist and app fanatic has just done a report on the Best of British Apps and it’s rather good too. As you can imagine, many of my friends and colleagues are included as being Best of British which is very gratifying.

Well worth a read anyway. Enjoy. http://www.theappside.com/2012/02/24/free-report-from-the-appside-best-of-british-apps/

Notes and links from Friday's Mobile Monday Edinburgh Accessibility Workshop

I was lucky enough to go to Edinburgh on Friday to chair an accessibility workshop in association with Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards, ICT KTN and Mobile Monday Edinburgh. We had a great range of speakers and demos and it certainly gave me a lot of food for thought.
Some key learnings came out of it for me:
1. It’s still an us and them situation and it shouldn’t be and it needn’t be. We’re all people. Accessibility can seem very complicated as the range of capabilities you’re dealing with are so diverse. However, if common sense tactics were applied and we thought more about people and how we really behave instead of the technology, we’d be getting somewhere.
2. Following on from the first point, there’s a lack of understanding about disabled people and their needs. Unless we have a personal friend or relative with a disability, we’re unlikely to have much contact with disabled people for any kind of focus group or user testing. This needs to change to allow for more dialogue and real life testing instead of making assumptions.
3. There were some tools that people would love access to. Dr Nava Tintarev talked about using visual icons to help children with limited abilities to communicate. It turns out that currently those icons, unless you create them yourself, are nearly impossible to licence. A few folks were wondering if it were feasible or possible to create a visual language that could be open-sourced so that more people could implement them in their apps and services – be that web or mobile. Can that happen?
4. Accessibility works both ways. Disability groups could offer more assistance and support to help the rest of us to help those who do have some kind of impairment. The trouble is, most of us just have no experience of this and need to be guided as to how best to help. We don’t know what questions to ask or things to look out for. Legislation isn’t the answer, but communication is.
5. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Scotland.

Upcoming workshops in Belfast and London on 26 September.

Have a look at the storify below and lanyrd pages for more links and notes from the day.


Thank you to Geoff Ballinger at Mobile Monday Edinburgh and Mobile Acuity, Alisdair Gunn from Interactive Scotland, Mark Daniels from Inspace, Deaf Action for finding the wonderful Rosie who BSL signed the event for us, ICT KTN and Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards for their financial support and to all our speakers – Ian Osborne from ICT KTN, Kate Ho from Interface3, Nava Tintarev from Aberdeen University, Gary Macfarlane from Assist Mi and Access4AllApps, Alison Smith from Pesky People, Tim Willis from Flexpansion and Matthew Aylett from Cereproc.

Accessibility Workshop in Edinburgh

Some of you who know me know that I’m putting together some accessibility workshops on behalf of Mobile Monday London, The Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards and ICT KTN. Well, the first one is this Friday in Edinburgh. And I’m really excited about it.
Accessibility really isn’t my area, although it’s becoming increasingly important to me and many of those around me. Both my parents are partially deaf and my mother’s eyesight is failing her. Despite their agility and good health bearing in mind their age, there are so many things I take for granted that I know in years to come, I just won’t be able to manage. In the same way my Mum is frustrated that she can’t thread a needle easily or manage to read a newspaper, I expect in the future I’ll be frustrated that I can’t type at speed, that I can’t manipulate a touchscreen or access my digital files to watch TV/listen to music/interact with the world. TV viewing is already a more complex operation than before and all the things I’m used to now may become just too difficult unless we start thinking about accessibility now.
The more I’ve looked into this area, the more I realise that accessibility issues have to enter the mainstream and have to be everyone’s area. This is not a niche consideration. Nor is it a nice to have any more. This is certainly a business consideration. I think it’s 10% of the UK have some kind of disability and about 40% of the population are classified as elderly, that’s an awful lot of people that we may, unwittingly, be excluding. But it’s also a human consideration. We should be helping each other as best we can and surely technology is one of the ways to do that? I for one, am hoping to come away with some top tips and some inspiration of how this accessibility jigsaw puzzle fits together and how it can and needs to be applied day to day.
So, if you’re in Edinburgh on Friday, and fancy joining me and the Mobile Monday Edinburgh crew to chat with some other people about this area and how it relates to mobile apps and services, then come and join us. Registration is open here and it’s FREE to attend. The agenda is a good one with a mix of demos, discussion and presentations. We kick off at 3pm and we’ll finish around 6.30pm with drinks and networking afterwards.
The presenters will be:

* Jonathan Anderson of Vodafone will tell us about their Smart
Accessibility Awards http://developer.vodafone.com/smartaccess2011/

* Ian Osborne of ICT KTN , @ianfosborne, will speak briefly about what ICT KTN is and how they can support businesses interested in this area.

* Kate Ho of Interface3, @kateho, will share some thoughts on how multi-user multi-touch interfaces can be used to help people with particular challenges.

* Dr Nava Tintarev on the How was School Today Project http://howwasschooltoday.computing.dundee.ac.uk/. Nava will describe the functionality of a (partially mobile-based) system which helps children who have severe cognitive impairments and have trouble speaking, talk about their day at school. She will also highlight some of the challenges of developing this sort of system, and share her experiences of deployment in a special needs school.

* Gary McFarlane of Access4AllApps on the business case for accessibility. Assist Mi, their first app which launches next month, is the first mobile LBS services to offer comprehensive access to disability-related information and services for people on the move helping you find disabled parking spots and
virtual booking capability. You can also request and book assistance and services from a wide range of places including restaurants, cafes, hotels, cinemas and more.

* Alison Smith of Pesky People, @peskypeople & @alisonvsmith, will tell us about her personal experience with disability and digital and share with us the background, research and insight that went into building Go Genie.

* Anthony Ashbrook of Mobile Acuity, @anthonyashbrook, will show a brief demo of their "What Can Is That?" prototype - helping visually impaired people to shop and cook independently.

* Matthew Aylett of Cereproc will show off some of their mobile voice generation technology, and talk about the work they have done in recreating the voices of people who have lost them due to illness - in particular Roger Ebert.

The full agenda is on lanyrd http://lanyrd.com/2011/mobile-monday-edinburgh-accessibility-workshop/ and that's where we'll be adding resources and links too.

The event is being held at Inspace, 1 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9AB. There is wheelchair access and we will have a BSL sign interpreter available for some of the sessions.
Further workshops will be happening this month in London and Belfast (26 September) and Manchester (tbc).

Vodafone Smart Accessibility Awards open for entries

As you may already be aware, the lovely people at Vodafone Foundation have set up the Smart Accessibility Awards http://developer.vodafone.com/smartaccess2011/ which I am actively involved in. To remind you quickly, these awards are to celebrate apps that help people in four key areas: Social participation, independent living, mobility and well-being. The awards are open for entry now and the closing date is 15 October. These global awards are open to businesses of all sizes. This one isn’t just about start-ups.

As part of this initiative, Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards, ICT KTN http://www.ictktn.org.uk and the UK-based Mobile Monday chapters have teamed up to bring you a series of half-day workshops looking at this area specifically which will run in September and early October. Registration is now open for the workshops in Edinburgh and Belfast and we’ll have details in the next few days about further workshops in London, Manchester, Amsterdam, Madrid and hopefully Frankfurt.

Sign up here to attend the workshops in either Edinburgh or Belfast.

And if you’re interested in attending one of the other workshops, please add your name on this form and we’ll notify you when the registration goes live for the workshop you’re interested in.

A bit more about the workshops…

The goal of the workshops is to inspire and enable application developers to create useful tools for people who have visual, aural, cognitive or other impairments by helping them understand and empathize what life is like for people in this situation. This empathy and understanding is created by bringing together developers and accessibility advocates and people with impairments to exchange information, and allowing developers to experience simulations of being impaired.

App developers who have had the opportunity to experience as directly as possible, first or second-hand, what it means to live with specific impairments, and have been put in touch with the larger community around accessibility, create more effective apps to better the quality of life for everyone. The result not only helps people with major disabilities, but also people with minor or temporary impairments, for example due to ageing or illness.

The format of the workshops will be discussion based and there will be technical people on hand to answer specific questions related to Android, but there will be different speakers and contributors to reflect the local scene.

In planning these workshops, I’ve been researching this area as it’s not one I knew anything about. But I’ve come across some fantastic case studies and personal stories so I think the workshops will be both interesting and useful if you’re into any kind of mobile app development. And it has really made me think differently about what accessibility means as it’s all to easy to think that it’s just about severe disabilities. My plan is to share some of the workshop findings and case study examples here, time permitting.

Does enough thought go into mobile design?

Mobile Design is a hot topic these days. I heard a great story the other day… it seems that not enough attention is paid to the role of design when building mobile applications, sites and services. At a mobile event, the audience of mainly technical developers were asked if they designed their own assets for the products they built. And pretty much everyone put their hand up. Then they were asked if any of them felt qualified to apply for a job as a designer. Almost none of them raised their hand. Hmm. Something to think about I’d say.

So if this did make you think, then you might be interested in this Study of Trends in Mobile Design from Smashing Magazine http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/12/02/a-study-of-trends-in-mobile-design/ . It’s in-depth and because of that, may be worth investing in the e-book which should be easier to navigate and read. This was recommended reading from Stephanie Rieger of Yiibu, who also happen to be a great little mobile design company and who are also behind this great article and presentation on Rethinking the Mobile Web.

The Meffy’s are open for Entries

BREAKING NEWS: DEADLINE EXTENDED FOR ENTRIES UNTIL 23 APRIL!

I’m really pleased to be part of this for the second year in a row. This means I get to judge the mobile marketing related entries which is always lots of fun and absolutely fascinating. An honour and a privilege no less.

So what’s this all about then? Well The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF), the global trade association of the mobile media industry, is running its 7^th Mobile Entertainment Awards, known as the ‘Meffys’. And they are now open for entries until 16th April. The Meffys span the entire mobile entertainment & media industry, from apps to social media so there should be a category for everyone.

Companies wishing to enter should visit: http://www.meffys.com/ and submit their entries by 16th 23rd April 2010.

Now I know folks will be wondering if it’s worth entering, and I’d have to say I think it is which is why I personally support it and why Mobile Monday London supports it too. These are world class awards and genuinely do attract entries from across the globe. Which also means that the winners and runners-up are on a global stage with the appropriate reach – not just to the MEF membership (which is not insignificant) but also the associated media partners. Of course, not everyone will win. And yes, there is an entry fee. But it’s not unreasonably priced at £300 for non-members and £100 for members.

Further details below. And if you do enter, good luck!

For highlights from the 2009 awards ceremony and a list of 2009 winners, please visit http://www.meffys.com/about/2009-highlights

This year’s new Meffys categories include Content Discovery & Personalisation, Cross-Platform, App Store Blockbuster, M-Commerce and Mobile Connected Device. These new categories not only reflect the growth in the number of apps and apps stores, such as the App Store Blockbuster Award that will recognise the best app on an individual app store, but also reflect current and future trends. Two such awards are the M-Commerce award and the Cross-Platform award, which reflect the 2010 trends identified by MEF at the beginning of the year.

In addition, the MEF board will once again present the Outstanding Contribution Award to a talented individual whose work has had a critical impact on the growth of the mobile entertainment industry.

Entering the Meffys 2010

MEF will be accepting entries for the 2010 Meffys awards from today. Companies interested in entering the awards or nominating a candidate for the Outstanding Contribution Award should go to the new Meffys website at http://www.meffys.com/ for full details. Entry costs have been frozen from last year and are as follows: £100 per entry for MEF members and £300 for non-members.

Meffys 2010 Categories:

Games Award
Music Service Award
TV & Video Service Award
Video Content Award

Content Discovery & Personalization Award
Cross-Platform Award

Social Media Award

Ad Campaign Award

App Store Blockbuster Award

Innovative App Award

Consumer Experience Award

Technology Innovation Award
Innovative Business Model Award
Mobile First Innovation Award

M-Commerce Award

Business Intelligence Award

Mobile Connected Device Award

Outstanding Contribution Award

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