Yes, we're heading back to Barcelona for Swedish Beers! Join me on Wednesday 28 February.

Yes, it's that time of year mobile friends. The GSMA is expecting about 90,000 of us to descent on Barcelona at the end of the month for our annual shindig celebrating all things mobile technology. And thanks to you lovely lot making last year's reunion sooooo good, we are coming back to Barcelona one more time. If you are an executive working in or with the mobile industry please do RSVP. Feel free to share with your friends and colleagues too.

We're back at Space Cowboy as they looked after us so well last year. We'll be open from 7pm until late. No admission after 01:00. We will revert to a pay bar if/when the beer tokens run out. Photo ID (eg. your MWC pass) may be required. We reserve the right to refuse admission. 

The format will be the same as previous years - a relaxed evening, no formalities, no presentations. Please come with an open mind, be prepared to see friends old and new, chat, enjoy a drink or three (courtesy of our sponsors) and have yourself a good time. Oh, and leave the ties, the corporate personas and the sales spiel at the door! There's no need for them here. The Swedish Beers crew and the friendliest bar staff in town will be on hand to welcome you.

If you'd like to support the party by being a sponsor, please get in touch with Helen. The more sponsors, the more beer tokens. Last-minute supporter level options are available allowing you to have your own beer tokens to distribute on the night.

See you in Barcelona.

Skål

Helen and Team Swedish Beers

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Like us on Facebook http://facebook.com/swedishbeers

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/swedishbeers

See our blog for parties past http://swedishbeers.org/

Please note, RSVP'ing here or on Facebook DOES NOT GUARANTEE YOU ENTRY! We managed to get everyone in who wanted to come last year so don't be put off! The queue does move quite quickly. All are welcome to attend if you are working in and around the mobile industry and enjoy a good chat. You may be asked for ID on entry. There might be a queue which usually goes down pretty quickly - Spanish licencing law requires us to keep to a specific capacity. We reserve the right to refuse entry. Beer tokens valid while bar tab lasts. No admission after 01:00.

Swedish Beers - #13 Barcelona Edition, 2018 - Wednesday 28 February

Plans are afoot for the next edition of Swedish Beers in Barcelona in 2018! (Doesn't it come around quickly?!)... We will be in a NEW venue! More on that soon. The format will be just the same - a relaxed evening, no formalities, no presentations. Just come with an open mind, be prepared to see friends old and new, chat, enjoy a drink or three (courtesy of our sponsors) and have yourself a good time all whilst extolling (or not) the virtues of our mobile connected world.

The Swedish Beers crew will be on hand to welcome you as usual and we'll have the friendliest bar staff in town.

**Two sponsors confirmed. More to come. And there's room for more on top of that. If you'd like to sponsor and join the fun, please get in touch with Helen to discuss. All budgets catered for.** 

See you in Barcelona.

Skål

Helen

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Like us on Facebook http://facebook.com/swedishbeers

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/swedishbeers

This is a Heroes of the Mobile Fringe Festival Event

http://mobileheroes.net/ |  http://swedishbeers.org/

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There may be a queue to get in at times but we usually manage to get pretty much everyone in who wants to so don't be put off! All are welcome to attend if you are working in and around the mobile industry and enjoy a good chat. You may be asked for ID on entry. You must be pre-registered to attend the event. We reserve the right to refuse entry.

The Road to Mobile World Congress 2013

Goodness me, time doesn’t half go quickly! Thoughts are rapidly turning to what’s going to be happening in Barcelona next month and the annual shindig that is Mobile World Congress. There are a few changes to this year’s event so I thought I’d update you with what I know.
It’s bigger. Quite a lot bigger. They welcomed 67,000 visitors last year and they’re expecting that figure to go up again. It will still cover a huge variety of sectors and covers everything to do with mobile from the boxes that drive mobile telcos to the deeply technical sessions geared at mobile developers to mobile marketing and advertising to the new handsets and tablets to the start-up and entrepreneurial community and everything in between. There is a well-attended conference too but that’s really expensive to attend unless you’re speaking. And with so much going on in the exhibition halls and the fringe events in town, you won’t be able to fit everything in. The theme for this year is the ‘New Mobile Horizon’ (I’m not sure what that actually means, mind).

The event is in a new venue. Yes, that’s right. They’ve moved it up the road to an industrial zone nearer the airport. That means it’s quite a lot bigger and there’s more room for the conference so they can fit more people in. There will also be more space for exhibitors, more networking space and more food outlets onsite. The latter two are essential since there’s nothing nearby at all – not a tapas bar in sight. The nearest places you can go to enjoy off-site hospitality are the very fancy-schmancy high-rise hotels (and their prices to match), Ikea (so you can always get meatballs and a flat-pack cupboard) or a local shopping mall. That’s it. I’ve walked the whole way around the site and that’s all I could find. I took a few snaps as I walked around (see below or take a look on flickr).


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

You’ll need to allow extra time to travel to the new site as well. Your options will be a taxi, a free shuttle bus between the old site and the new one or the train. I don’t think the new Metro route will be up and running in time for this year’s show. Please do leave a comment if that’s changed. You can get an overground train at Placa Espanya. All the overground trains actually start underground and they all go through the station, Europa, which is the stop for Fira Gran Via. Then it’s a 10 minute walk to the venue. I’m not sure how often the trains run, but I think it’s probably every 10 minutes or so. So with having to change trains, navigate Placa Espanya station, get on the train and walk to the new site, it’s going to be a good half an hour at busy times. So you need to allow for that.

Rather disappointingly, once you get there, there is no historical palace for a backdrop, no gorgeous fountains and no view of the city. In fact, there’s nothing there to identify the location as Barcelona save for the odd street sign in Catalan. To get your dose of Barcelona culture, you’ll need to head back into the city as you won’t find it at Fira Gran Via. But don’t worry, I’ll be running the Heroes of the Mobile Fringe festival again and all the events will be in the city so you’ll be able to learn, network and enjoy some Catalan atmosphere there.

And as happens every year, I’m asked the same question, ‘how do I get a ticket?’. Read on for hints and tips on how to secure your free exhibition ticket. The emails have started, so I’ve updated my top tips for you. And just to be clear, I don’t have a secret stash of tickets! I don’t even have one myself yet.

Buy a ticket. A ticket that gives you access to the exhibition is 699 Euros. The price is the same as last year so that’s some consolation. Yes, I know it’s not free but thought I’d better get this one out of the way. Not such a big deal for a senior exec at a large corporate maybe, but certainly a big deal for us lesser mortals who have to watch our budgets more closely. Conference tickets are even more expensive. The good news is that with an expo pass, there are still plenty of sessions you can attend and plenty of things to do do and see.

Buy a reduced price ticket. This one is aimed at SMEs. If you sign up to the B2B Matchmaking service, they put on a speed networking service where you can meet a lot of people in a relatively short space of time. The meetings are all held on site and for the Euro 310 registration fee, that includes your exhibition ticket. So you get some meetings and you get to access the exhibition. Not a bad deal. More info on their 'how it works' page.

Apply to attend one of the App Planet days. This is where the bulk of the tickets get allocated within the developer community. Several App Planet days are scheduled and each host will have an allocation of tickets to give away to ensure attendance at their developer sessions. I know that most of the WIPJam passes have now been allocated, but the others have not yet been allocated. So press the big button on this page to ‘indicate your interest in attending Featured Programme Sessions’. These tickets should be allocated over the next three weeks or so. If you’re allocated a ticket, you’ll get a reference number and a URL and you have to go and claim your ticket. If you don’t claim in good time, your code will be allocated to someone else. So if you do get a code – use it or lose it. At the time of writing, you can apply via Nokia, the Car Connectivity Consortium, Plantronics, Samsung and WIP.

Apply to attend one of the MPowered Theatre days. This is a relatively new stream for Mobile World Congress and is geared towards brands, media owners and the agencies who look after them. Nielson and InternetQ are confirmed partners for this, with more partners tbc. Here’s more information about those sessions and you can click the big button to register your interest for them.

Get a press pass. If you have an audience or community in the 1000s, then you may qualify for a press pass. Details of how to do that are here. I have never done this so do not know what’s involved or how hard it is to get a press pass. If you do have experience of this, then please share it in the comments.

Make friends with colleagues and contacts who are exhibiting. Each exhibitor gets an allocation of exhibition passes to distribute at their discretion. This includes stands organised by trade bodies representing countries and regions. Ask, and maybe you shall receive. This one is going to be down to your existing relationships and networking skills. So check the MWC website and see who is exhibiting who you can ask. They’re expecting 1500 exhibitors this year. The site may take a little time to load for you to be able to search.

Keep an eye out on social networks. Every now and then, tickets become available and get allocated through social networks (twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) and/or through various mobile and developer communities such as Mobile Monday chapters globally or local developer user groups. These are either competitions (sign up to our newsletter, add your app to our app-store) or they’re fairly last minute and get allocated very quickly, so you need to be quick off the mark. The twitter hashtag for Mobile World Congress this year is #mwc13 or #mwc2013. Current competitions to win a pass include Appsfuel and InMobi.

So that’s how to score a ticket. Last year, I ran a competition to win free expo passes, but at the time of writing, I have no plans to run a competition. Obviously, if that changes, you’ll hear about it!

So what about the networking? How do I make the most of it?

Good questions.

Congress is huge and quickly  becomes overwhelming. With 1500 exhibitors, after the first hour, every stand seems to look the same and they all merge into one. At least, that’s how it feels to me. Everyone seems to be your ‘best mobile partner’ or ‘best mobile solution’ or carrier grade technology’. Not terribly helpful when you’re trying to navigate around eight very large halls. Equally, everyone is in town and it’s the ideal opportunity to network, to build on existing relationships, to discover new things and to make things happen. However, you have to put the legwork in. So this is what I recommend…

1. Shameless plug alert! There will be a wide selection of events, meet-ups and things to do, see and get involved in at the Heroes of the Mobile Fringe Festival. Background to last year’s festival is here and I’ll start to list events later this week over at http://mobileheroes.net. Most events will be free to attend.

Heroes has moved on somewhat from last year’s festival. Although the festival will be similar in flavour to last year, we’re also running events throughout the year in other cities. Next month in Barcelona, we’ll be covering a wide range of topics from start-ups to security to finance to emerging markets to mobile marketing and lots more besides. And there’ll be a whole bunch of parties to attend too. So allow yourself some time to attend some of these sessions as you will most definitely meet people there.

2. Create your own event. That’s what the fringe festival is for. Create an opportunity for like-minded people to get together, whether that’s a round-table discussion, a panel session, a lunch or dinner, or something else, then go for it. You can promote the event yourself and we can promote it on the fringe festival site too. Please get in touch. I’m very happy to discuss.

Please note, the Heroes of the Mobile Fringe Festival is not associated with or endorsed by the GSMA or MWC in any way. I just want to make that clear. Also, all our events will be in the city centre. We will not be including anything at Fira Gran Via this year.

3. Schedule meetings in with people you *can’t* see easily at home. There’s no point having a meeting with someone who is in an office down the road from you. You can do that any time the rest of the year. Make your meetings brief and to the point and at sensible times. If you’re partying into the wee hours (and some of the best networking happens then), then a 8am breakfast meeting may not be appropriate. Also allow time to get to and from meetings. At peak times of day, and the main drag is very crowded, it can take a good 20 minutes or more to get from the front entrance of La Fira to App Planet (assuming you know where you’re going). And with the new venue being even bigger, it could take even longer. Plus you won’t know the layout until you get there.

4. Be clear on who it is you want to meet there  and why so that when you’re at a networking event, you can say that. The person you end up talking to may not be the right person, but they may know someone who is if they know who and what you’re looking for. Hone that elevator pitch.

5. Attend the parties. To some people, these will seem like jollies and just an excuse to get drunk as a skunk. And true enough, there is an element of that. However, the mobile industry is very sociable and the parties and meet-ups are where I have always met the most interesting people. You need to allow for serendipity at large shindigs like MWC. Hint, Swedish Beers will be on the Wednesday night as usual.

For more tips on networking at tech events, you could do worse than check out Kevin McDonagh’s post on how to attend a conference.

Let’s not forget personal safety.

My last bit of advice is about safety. Barcelona is still notorious for theft. I’ve written about this before. Please be street smart and heed the warnings. It can happen to anyone. And it is an all too frequent occurrence. There are 60,000+ gadget-geek execs in town with pockets stuffed full of devices. It’s like bees to a honeypot where thieves are concerned. Consider yourself warned.

And where to stay.

I always stay in an apartment. I’ve never stayed in a hotel the week of MWC so have no pointers there.
Please feel free to add your own top tips in the comments.

Last year’s Road to Mobile World Congress post can be found here. The comments are worth a look for more advice.

Swedish Beers–The 10th Birthday Edition–7 Dec 2011

Rather amazingly, Swedish Beers is 10 years old. I can’t quite believe it. I can’t quite believe that I’ve been in one industry that long. I can’t quite believe I’m old enough to have done anything for 10 years! The first Swedish Beers event was in the back of the Nordic Bar (our natural home) and was the brainchild of friend and colleague, Steve Flaherty. He got some of his mates together under the guise of a networking event about technology, put a bit of money behind the bar, courtesy of BT, and a royally good time was had by all and it turned into a regular thing. From the 25 or so people at the first event, we’ve grown somewhat and seen 1000s through the doors and have had parties in London, Sydney and the big one every year – Barcelona during Mobile World Congress. But for our birthday party and a bit of a pre-Christmas bash, we’re back to our old favourite, The Nordic Bar. James and his team will be looking after us.

But of course, it couldn’t happen without the financial support of our lovely sponsors, Somo, and Inspiring Interns and of course, the friendship and support of our friends and regular attendees. It’s all of you who make Swedish Beers what it is today. And for that, I really am grateful.

So back to the birthday bash. It’s the same formula as before – mingle, make friends, talk of mobiles, marketing, life in general, drink beer, talk some more, rinse and repeat. There’s no PowerPoint, no formal speeches, and no agenda. Just come with a smile on your face and be prepared to hang out with everyone from mobilists to marketers, brands, agencies, creatives, media owners, journalists, pundits and more. We hope there’ll be a good mix and friendly faces for you to chew the fat with.

We will have free* house beer, house wine and soft drinks for you courtesy of our lovely sponsors Somo Agency and Inspiring Interns. You’ll have to look for them to get your free beer tokens. There are plenty to go around. *While the bar tab lasts. If we run out of beer tokens and/or the bar tab is spent, then we’ll revert to a pay bar.

What: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking Party – The 10th Birthday Edition

When: Wednesday 7 December 2011 from 6.30pm until 11pm

Where: You'll find us at the Nordic Bar on Newman Street which is the North side of Oxford Street, nearest tube Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Circus or Goodge Street. We’ll be taking over the whole bar and there’s outside space with heaters for those who like to stand outside in the Winter. There’s no need to RSVP, just turn up. If you’re really feeling the need to RSVP somewhere, then you can do that over here https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=265361270178751

Skål

Helen, & the Swedish Beers crew

About the sponsors

Somo

Somo is the leading independent mobile marketing agency. Our mission is to help our clients benefit from the rapidly evolving developments in the mobile market. We do this by identifying the potential that mobile marketing can bring to a client’s business, then designing, building and delivering first class campaigns across all mobile platforms. We use sophisticated reporting and tracking tools to measure the success of campaigns to ensure that, whatever the objectives, they are achieved. Head honcho and very knowledgeable, Carl, and his growing team of experienced mobilistas will be on hand to chew the mobile fat with you and to hand out beer tokens.

Inspiring Interns

Inspiring Interns is today's intern recruitment solution, connecting businesses with fresh graduate talent. We search for talented, intelligent, and motivated young interns who want to learn, grow and importantly make a positive contribution through their skill sets and attitude. Any team, whether it is finance, administration, sales, marketing, HR, design or otherwise will benefit from having an intern as an additional team member.

We screen and interview every potential intern that we put forward for a position. We psychometric test them and ensure that we are dealing with highly motivated as well as talented people. If you want to meet any of our interns now you can perform a search or view via the player on our website. Search out the founders and long time friends of Swedish Beers and technokitten, Ben, Benedict, Sam and Charlie who will be on hand for fun, frolics and beer tokens.

**********Keep in touch***********

Email: Just add your email address to the Feedblitz box at the top left and you’ll get our blog posts (and therefore event notices) to your inbox.

Twitter: Follow us at http://www.twitter.com/swedishbeers

Facebook: Like us http://www.facebook.com/SwedishBeers (we’re phasing out the Swedish Beers FB group)

Swedish Beers is back and it’s going back to its roots on Wednesday 27 July 2011

Yep, that’s right, Swedish Beers is back in London after a short break and we’re going back to our roots at The Nordic Bar where it all began almost 10 years ago.

It’s the same formula as before – mingle, make friends, talk of mobiles, marketing, life in general, drink beer, talk some more, rinse and repeat. There’s no PowerPoint, no formal speeches, and no agenda. Just come with a smile on your face and be prepared to hang out with everyone from mobilists to marketers, brands, agencies, creatives, media owners, journalists, pundits and more. We hope there’ll be a good mix of friendly faces for you to chew the fat with.

We will have free house beer, house wine and soft drinks for you courtesy of our lovely sponsors Millennial Media and Eagle Eye Solutions. You’ll have to look for them to get your free beer tokens. There are plenty to go around. If we run out of beer tokens, then we’ll revert to a pay bar.

What: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking Party – The London Comeback Edition

When: Wednesday 27 July 2011 from 6.15pm until 11pm

Where: You'll find us at the Nordic Bar on Newman Street which is the North side of Oxford Street, nearest tube Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Circus or Goodge Street. We’ll be in the back bar but fully expect to take over the front bar too.

There’s no need to RSVP, just turn up. If you’re really feeling the need to RSVP somewhere, then you can do that over here http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=133200136763763&ref=mf

Skål

Helen, Jenny & the Swedish Beers crew

About the sponsors

Millennial Media

Millennial Media is a a mobile advertising platform whose mission is to cut through the clutter and deliver real results on mobile for clients. And they’re doing pretty well at it with around 142 million global mobile customers in over 250 countries across more than 10,000 sites and applications. Oh, and that covers over 5,500 mobile devices. That’s some reach. Oh, and a bunch of happy clients and partners to boot. Gavin Stirrat, MD EMEA, and his team will be on hand on the night to talk about mobile advertising and to hand out beer tokens.

Eagle Eye Solutions

Eagle Eye Solutions is all about mobilising retail. They have a very neat mobile couponing and redemption solution that makes use of existing Credit Card Terminals and EPoS technology so you don’t have to change your systems. Working with the likes of High Street retailers like Oasis and Comet, maybe you could be next. Anyway, search out CEO, Steve Rothwell and CMO Russell Buckley for mobile chat and beer tokens.

**********Keep in touch***********

Email: Just add your email address to the Feedblitz box at the top left of the Swedish Beers blog and you’ll get our blog posts (and therefore event notices) to your inbox.

Twitter: Follow us at http://www.twitter.com/swedishbeers

Facebook: Like us http://www.facebook.com/SwedishBeers (we’re phasing out the Swedish Beers FB group)

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I want, you want, we all want Swedish Beers… again!

Yes, it’s that time of year. It’s all about Barcelona and it’s as hectic as ever. But hey, I wouldn’t like it if it was any different.

Jenny Hiley has been keeping the Swedish Beers love going Down Under in Sydney for the last year (thank you Jenny!) and I’m pleased to announce that I will be spreading some more Swedish Beers love by running Swedish Beers in Barcelona again this year with a little help from my friends.

We had such a great time last year – about 800 of you turned up throughout the night and you didn’t want to leave when it was closing time. We had folks there from as far afield as New Zealand and Brazil. We have global reach people! We also had people there from network operators, mobile marketing agencies, brands, analysts, journalists, entrepreneurs, developers of all flavours of mobile, aggregators, content creators, messaging specialists, media owners and lots more besides. You want it, you got it at Swedish Beers.

And by all accounts it was an epic night for some last year. People are still telling their ‘Swedish Beers’ tales, and not just from last year, from previous years to that too! I guess we’re doing something right then…

Anyway, we have the lovely Admob confirmed as our lead sponsor – third year running in Barcelona and I think the 5th time they’ve sponsored Swedish Beers since we started back in October 2001 in London.

We are still on the lookout for more sponsors though to help the party really go with a swing. Like last year, we can provide the atmosphere, warm bodies, great banter, friendly welcome and a good time if you can contribute towards the beer fund. Another £4,000 and I’d be *really* happy and not only would I be happy, but a lot of other people would be very happy too! Do get in touch if you’d like to make that happen :)

Anyway, the important bit…

Our venue for the evening is Dostrece which is a two floor bar and restaurant – a ground floor and a chillout basement. Yes, that's right, a restaurant too! This means that they will be serving food from their normal menu until about 9pm so you'll get a chance to eat too if you want to. Prices are reasonable and it's a mix of Mexican, Spanish and Turkish flavours. @BCN_unlike reviews it here. We ate there last year and it was very tasty.

The venue holds about 300 or so folks at any one time so there’s plenty space for everyone. Dostrece is behind La Boqueria market and the nearest metro station is Liceu. Just walk up La Rambla, walk past La Boqueria and Teatro Grec, then take a left at Calle Carme (or Carrer del Carme) and Dostrece is at number 40 (Google map here). (They also have free wifi if you want to demo your latest iphone app.)

Doors will be opening at 6.30pm on Wednesday 17th February and we'll be open until late so there's plenty of time to drop by and enjoy the fun, meet interesting people and soak up the Swedish Beers vibe. There is no need to RSVP, but since there's a bar courtesy of our lovely sponsors, we will be distributing beer tokens on the night so you’ll have to look for the Swedish Beers crew and the lovely folks from Admob.

Like our previous events, this is a relaxed evening, no formalities, no presentations, no business cards thrust in your face as soon as you arrive. Just come with an open mind, be prepared to talk nonsense to strangers, enjoy a drink or five and have yourself a good time. Oh, and leave the ties at the door please.

It is likely to get a bit busy at times. But don't worry, people will be coming in and out all evening. That’s kind of the point as we know there’s always a lot going on. If it's very busy, there's no need to queue to get in. Just check out one of the other bars nearby and come back a little later when it's a bit less frantic.

We don't have a cloakroom so I don't recommend you bring your laptops with you - it's a liability in Barcelona I'm afraid. You won't need them anyway what with this new fangled thing called the mobile phone ;)

So just to recap:

What: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking
When: Wednesday 17th February 2010, 6.30pm until we run out of steam
Where: Dostrece, Calle Carme 40, 08001 Barcelona

And of course, it couldn't happen at all without the generous support of our lovely sponsors, the first of which is Admob.

*Admob* Founded in 2006 (on my birthday as it happens!), AdMob is AdMob is one of the world's largest mobile advertising networks, offering solutions for discovery, branding and monetization on the mobile web, serving more than a gazillion mobile banner and text ads per month.

Their growing client list includes a diverse range of Fortune 500 brands like Ford, Coca-Cola, EA, P&G, Land Rover, MTV Europe, Adidas, and Paramount Pictures, as well as publishers that are pushing the boundaries of the mobile web like AccuWeather, BluePulse, CBS Mobile, EA, Flirtomatic, Hollywood.com, Peperonity, and TinyTube. Admob are the primary monetization and acquisition partner for thousands of companies.

Widely recognized as the world’s leading mobile advertising networks, Admob has won accolades from the Mobile Marketing Association, Ad Age, Business Week, Wired Magazine, and the World Economic Forum. Not bad eh!

Russell (genuine old skool mobilist and blogger), Andy, Jonathan and I suspect a few more from their crew will be around to hand out beer tokens and generally chew the mobile fat.

Hope to have more sponsors to announce soon as well! Get in touch if you’re interested

Skål

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CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK  & TWITTER TOO
Join the group or follow us on twitter - you'll be in good company and can keep up to date with Swedish Beers events in London, Sydney and Barcelona.
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Technorati Tags: swedish beers,events,mwc,barcelona,party,networking,mobile networking,admob

Swedish Beers are go!!

Yes it's true. Thanks to the wonderful comments and support from Swedish Beers fans here on the blog and on twitter, I now am proud to announce that we have not only some very generous sponsors for our little party, but also a smashing new venue. Not that we don't like Belchica or anything, because we do, but it wasn't quite big enough for us for what we were after this year. Not least, because we have four super sponsors and their guests and a media partner to boot.

This year's event is proudly sponsored by Admob, Silverstreet, Palringo and dotMobi. More about them later.

And our media partner is the rather wonderful Mobile Industry Review who will be interviewing folks for their video show and blog on the night. Be sure to look out for Ewan, Dan, James and Ben to give them your pitch as to why they should include you in their show.

Our venue for the evening is Dostrece which is a two floor bar and restaurant. Yes, that's right, a restaurant too! This means that they will be serving food from their normal menu all evening so you'll get a chance to eat too. Prices are reasonable and it's a mix of Mexican, Spanish and Turkish flavours. @BCN_unlike reviews it here.

The venue holds up to 300 folks at any one time so it's a little bigger than last year's venue, Belchica, and it can be found behind La Boqueria market and the nearest metro station is Liceu. Just walk up La Rambla, walk past La Boqueria and Teatro Grec, then take a left at Calle Carme (or Carrer del Carme) and Dostrece is at number 40 (Google map here). (They also have free wifi if you're desperate to demo your latest iphone app.)

Doors will be opening at 6.30pm on Wednesday 18th February and we'll be open until late so there's plenty of time to drop by and enjoy the fun, meet interesting people and soak up the Swedish Beers vibe. There is no need to RSVP, but since there's a bar courtesy of our lovely sponsors, we will be distributing beer tokens on the night. There will be *plenty* tokens to go round as we have very generous sponsors this year and each token will entitle you to a glass of beer, glass of house wine or a soft drink. So be sure to seek out those with the tokens on the night (that'll be the Swedish Beers crew and our lovely sponsors).

Like our previous events, this is a relaxed evening, no formalities, no presentations, no business cards thrust in your face as soon as you arrive. Just come with an open mind, be prepared to talk nonsense to strangers, enjoy a drink or five and have yourself a good time. Oh, and leave the ties at the door please.

It is likely to get a bit busy at times. But don't worry, people will be coming in and out all evening. And if it's very busy, there's no need to queue to get in. Just check out one of the other bars nearby and come back a little later when it's a bit less frenetic. And we don't have a cloakroom so I don't recommend you bring your laptops with you - it's a liability in Barcelona I'm afraid. You won't need them anyway.

So just to recap:

What: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking
When: Wednesday 18th February, 6.30pm until we run out of steam
Where: Dostrece, Calle Carme 40, 08001 Barcelona tel: +34 9 3301 7306

And of course, it couldn't happen at all without the generous support of our lovely sponsors:

*Admob* Founded in 2006 (on my birthday as it happens!), AdMob is the world's largest and highest quality mobile advertising marketplace, serving more than a gazillion mobile banner and text ads per month. AdMob allows advertisers to reach their customers on the mobile web and enables publishers to increase the value of their mobile sites. AdMob offers advertisers the ability to target and personalize advertising to their customers in 160 countries. Sample AdMob customers include Coca Cola, Starbucks, MSN, Paramount Pictures, Reuters, MTV and many more. AdMob serves ads for over 3,000 mobile web sites, including ESPN, CBS, Weather Underground, Maxim and Peperonity. Russell (genunine old skool mobilist and blogger), Andy and I expect a few more from their crew will be around to hand out beer tokens and generally chew the fat.

*Silverstreet Active Media* is a Dutch based corporation specialized in high-end as well as mission critical Mobile Messaging (SMS) offering global, verified MT termination options (covering more than 700 GSM & CDMA networks) in addition to its vast Premium SMS (25 countries) and Premium IVR (30 countries / 15 languages) portfolios. Constantly striving to excel within its role as one of the leading messaging companies in the industry, Silverstreet handles each customer case with the focus it required to meet the specific needs that each project presents. Through its competitive offering, professionalism, and customer care the company has achieved numerous successful business relationships with MVNO's, MNO's, large brands, and others. The Silverstreet team is new to Swedish Beers, so be gentle with them and be sure to search out Simon and his team for a chat and of course, your beer tokens.

*Palringo* is a communications channel designed to make Instant Messaging work on the mobile: voice if private, text if somewhere busy and photos where relevant. Vocal IM (walkie-talkie style voice) also makes it easy for users who have difficulty typing, for people on the move when it's not appropriate to text, and for users with complex languages such as Russian, Chinese, Japanese, or Arabic. People can keep in touch with friends on popular IM services and social networks like : AOL's AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, Jabber, Microsoft Windows Live Messenger, QQ and Facebook. Palringo works across on the all of the major mobile platforms: Windows Mobile, Symbian S60, Java, RIM Blackberry, iPhone,Android (forthcoming), plus PC's and Mac's. Palringo has been shortlisted by the GSM Association for Best Mobile Internet Service award and will be exhibiting on UK Trade & Investment Stand (AV26 Avenida). Kerry Ritz has set up a Swedish Beers chat group on Palringo if you want to give it a go (it's a free download from your mobile) and will be on hand with beer tokens on the night.

*dotMobi* (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd.) was appointed by ICANN as the official global registry for the .mobi top level domain. It is backed by leading mobile operators, network device manufacturers and Internet content providers including Ericsson, Google, GSMA, Hutchison, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefónica Móviles, TIM, Visa and Vodafone.

dotMobi makes the mobile phone as useful as a PC for websites & services, just a lot more portable and provides the critical link between mobile operators, handset manufacturers, content providers, brands and customers to make phones the tool of choice for the mobile web. The key differentiator for dotMobi is the mobile user experience. This is driven by the dotMobi style guides which contain a mixture of mandatory and recommended best practices for developing mobile content and services. The guides cover a variety of Internet and domain-related issues and are published on our web site for the mobile web developer community, dev.mobi. And if you want to find out more, there'll be a few of the dotMobi crew in tow at Swedish Beers.

So nothing more to add except to say, have a safe journey to Barcelona and we look forward to welcoming you at Swedish Beers.

Skål

Helen (aka technokitten) and Anna

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CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK TOO
Join the group - you'll be in good company and can keep up to date with Swedish Beers events in London, Sydney and Barcelona.
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Mobile Monday & Swedish Beers celebrate together on 10th November

Yes, it's true. Both Swedish Beers and Mobile Monday London have their birthdays round about now - 7 years and 3 years respectively. And to celebrate, we're joining forces and having a big bash combining the best of both events in one big night out on Monday 10th November.

So the format's going to be a little bit different, but we hope you will still enjoy it immensely. So what's in store then...?

The Mobile Monday bit:

Well we have Tim Green, editor of Mobile Entertainment Magazine who is going to be our host with the most on the evening. And he's going to be interviewing four mobile industry celebrities for our delectation, talking about the year just gone and the year ahead and the odd anecdote or three in a chat show stylee. Our esteemed guests are Dr Mike Short from O2, Russell Buckley from Admob, Bill Thompson, a regular from the BBC's Digital Planet plus a mystery guest. There will be time for questions from the audience too.

We will have the MIReview Show joining us too and in the spirit of the evening, they will be presenting and filming some of their show LIVE on stage. (If you don't know them already, think Top Gear but about mobile technology instead of cars.). And we're still hopeful for a surprise or two.

This will all be happening at the CBI at Centrepoint (Tottenham Court Road tube) - Doors opening at 6pm for a 6.30pm start. Don't be late, otherwise you'll miss the Mobile Monday Chat Show as it will only be on for about an hour to an hour and half.

The Swedish Beers bit

Then once the show's a wrap as they say in TV land, we'll move on straight away to Bar 101 (it's underneath Centrepoint at the back) to join the Swedish Beers crew and enjoy some free beer, random chat and general good cheer courtesy of our very generous sponsors - The Future of Mobile and MX Telecom.



There's no formality at Swedish Beers, just turn up, be friendly, drink beer (or soft drinks), chew the fat, talk about mobile stuff (or not) and generally enjoy the vibe. To claim your free drink, you'll need to find one of the generous sponsors, one of the Swedish Beers crew or one of the Mobile Monday organisers to claim your beer token. Without the token, it's a pay bar. But it's open until late, so we can talk mobile nonsense until the wee hours if you like.

RSVP

If you'd like to come to the Mobile Monday Chat Show, please RSVP here by 'adding record' with your name and company details. No RSVP required for Swedish Beers. You don't have to come to both parts of the evening, but it would be fun if you did. The more the merrier as they say and both venues can hold a lot of us mobile types. So spread the word!

See you Monday 10th November in celebratory mode.
Skal

Other stuff I've been up to lately

So apart from the uber-festival that is Glastonbury, I've actually been up to plenty other stuff too in the last month or so...

I chaired MoMo London in June on What Mobile means to Media and Marketing. James Cooper and Ben Matthews did great write-ups of the event too which saves me having to do it!

I spoke at a couple of conferences - namely Stuart Whitaker's EDM08: Search in the Mobile Era (where I shared a panel with Russell Buckley of Admob and Mobhappy fame talking about mobile marketing and advertising and also enjoyed Mike Short's wonderful opening keynote) and Being Digital which was fun. It was good to catch up with some friends old and new like Rummble's Andrew Scott, Singtone's Jeff Bloom, Taptu's Steve Ives, Three's Carl Taylor and Techcrunch UK's Mike Butcher, amongst others. What's more, both of these events were at BAFTA which is a top venue. After Being Digital, I spent the afternoon at the rather wonderful One Alfred Place with the equally wonderful Oli Barrett and then I hung out with a bunch of mobilists at Ewan MacLeod's lovely SMSTextNews Unlimited Drinks event.

And as if that wasn't enough, I participated in an in-depth panel discussion at Fleishman Hillard's Digital Influence Index launch at Interbrand's offices and talked about mobile, blogging, social media, digital marketing, customer trends and more besides with Fleming Madsen and James Whatley. The Digital Influence report is worth a read as are the accompanying slides.

Client stuff fills up most of the rest of my time but I do manage to squeeze in Interesting 2008 which was, indeed, very interesting. Lloyd's singing with ukelele was a welcome highlight and I absolutely adored Jim Le Fevre's zoetrope demo. Lloyd Davis also did a rather good write-up of the day, so again, I don't have to!

When I get back from Glastonbury, I return to find that I'm featured in Mobile Entertainment magazine's Top 50 Women in Mobile list and I'm absolutely chuffed to bits with this news and what they say about me:

"If there’s anyone in the world that knows mobile marketing as well as Keegan, we haven’t met them. Great networker too – she organises the very popular London-based Swedish Beers evenings and is a prominent force in the Mobile Mondays organisation too. She even finds time to blog prodigiously."

And to celebrate, I go hang out with my Women in Mobile Data Association pals at the Playphone sponsored meet-up event at the lovely MyHotel in Bloomsbury.

I missed Mobile 2.0 in Barcelona - it was just one event too far with having had such a busy few weeks and a sleepless Glastonbury, but I'm working my way through the resulting materials which make for a good read. But managed to hang out for a bit with the Tuttler's instead and also go for a mobilists dinner courtesy of Carsonified where we obviously put the mobile world to rights! It was good to spend some quality time with Carl Uminski, Andrew Grill, Mike Stead, Whatleydude, Dan Lane, Vic Keegan (no obvious relation!), Simon Rockman, magician Amardeep Dhanjal and the Carsonified crew - Dominic and Keir. A fun night indeed.

Technokitten's upcoming London gigs

I'm a busy lady this month with several speaking engagements and workshops lined up both public events and clients. I thought it might be useful to let you know about the public events in case any of you lovely readers were in London town and fancied coming along to share your knowledge and wisdom with us.

MoMo London
I kick off on Monday 2nd June at MoMo London with "Wassup in Mobile Media and Marketing?"
I'm chairing a high-level panel discussion on current mobile web, services and applications from a media and marketing perspective. We'll take a look at everything from mobile web to proximity to messaging to games and highlight creative execution and effective campaigns. We'll also discuss what media-owners and agencies want and how we as an industry should or could respond. We will also be challenging our expert panel to take a glimpse into the future and tell us what's catching their eye on the mobile horizon and what they think will capture the public's attention in the future.

Panellists include Matthew Postgate from the BBC and Stephen Pinches from the Financial Times and the event is being held at the Royal Statistical Society near Moorgate tube

Those details again:

Theme: Wassup in Mobile Media and Marketing?
When: Monday June 2nd (doors open at 6pm as usual)
Where: Royal Statistical Society, 12 Errol Street, London, EC1Y 8LX, UK (http://www.rss.org.uk)
Our kind sponsor: Wireless Foundry!

To register, please add yourself to the list here: http://snurl.com/2aup4

EDM08
Next up, on Monday 9th June, I'm leading a panel on mobile advertising at this one-day conference focussed on mobile search and the impact it will have on different sectors of the mobile industry. There's a discount code available for this conference available over at mashable.


Being Digital
Third time lucky is the Being Digital conference on Tuesday 10th June where I'm opening the day with a panel session on digital advertising. As well as the usual conference type discussions, there will also be a dedicated demo area and presentation sessions showcasing the latest offerings from companies breaking new ground in the digital world.

Cass Creatives
More details to come on this one but basically Cass Creatives is celebrating their 5th birthday and are inviting back some of their favourite speakers to join the birthday panel session to see whether the interactive revolution has actually happened in the last 5 years. More details to come as I get them. In the meantime, there's a facebook group to join.

Then on the social side, there's Minibar Mobile this Friday, the NMA social on 18th June, The Guitar Hero on Mobile launch night courtesy of Mobile Entertainment Magazine on 5th June, an Unlimited Drinks night from SMStextnews.com (date tbc), a Women in Mobile Data Association reception on 1st July and a Mobile Geeks of London night at the end of July. I'm also heading out to Barcelona for Mobile 2.0 and plan to hang there for the weekend (subject to flights and accommodation). Who knows, I might even try and squeeze in a Swedish Beers night in too at some point as I'm gutted I can't make the Sydney launch party tomorrow night.

Phew, and on top of all that, I do actually have a day job and clients to work with... oh yeah, and a festival season to squeeze in too. When will they invent a human cloning machine?!

Swedish Beers launche Down Under

Not content with London and Barcelona, we're very excited to announce that Swedish Beers is launching Down Under with its inaugural event next week in Sydney.

The team behind the launch is Jen² (Jennifer Hiley of 5th Finger and Jennifer Wilson of Lean Forward) and they've booked the charming Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe for your pleasure.

We all know Aussies love their beer and with mobile penetration at more than 100%, it looks like we also love our mobiles so we reckon you'll also love Swedish Beers Mobile Networking. Come along and join us for a beer or three and plenty of chat at The Redoak Boutique Beer Café. Drinking commences @ 5.30pm. Nothing formal, no speakers, no powerpoint, nothing flashy, just turn up and mingle and hang out with folks from the mobile, marketing and media worlds. So if you're friendly, enjoy mixing and have a passing interest in mobile, then come and hang out with the nice Swedish Beers folks Down Under. No need to RSVP unless you'd really like to but do spread the word to your colleagues and friends.

If the London and Barcelona events are anything to go by, this promises to be a good 'un so you'd better be there to check out the action!

What: Swedish Beers launches Down Under
When: Wednesday 28th May from 5.30pm
Where: The Redoak Boutique Beer Café, 201 Clarence Street, Sydney, Australia. (Here's a map)

Unfortunately the London crew won't be there to enjoy the first event Down Under, but we've left you in the capable hands of Jen² in our absence.

skål

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What is Swedish Beers?
Swedish Beers www.swedishbeers.co.uk is an ad-hoc mobile networking event (run roughly quarterly) by British mobilists, Helen Keegan (aka technokitten) and Steve Flaherty of RespondMobile. It has been running in London since October 2001 and in Barcelona for the last 3 years. Find us on facebook too.

What's the buzz at MWC? A Women in Mobile Data Association event in Barcelona

It's the annual Mobile World Congress a chance for us ladies to get together for an informal meet-up to discuss the buzz at this year's MWC in Barcelona. There'll be wine, women & informal chat. This will be a welcome chance to sit down & escape the bustle of the exhibition & relax for an hour or two, networking with women within this luxurious hotel bar.We have a great sponsor this year, Airwide Solutions who will be providingthe first few drinks. The lovely Brenda Suarez from Airwide Solutions marketing team, will be joining the session so this is a great opportunity to get to know more about them..

What: Women in Mobile Data Association meet-up

Where: Café Viennese bar at the Casa Fuster hotel. Passeig de Gracia 132. Barcelona. +34 932 553 000. The nearest Metro station is Diagonal and it’s just a few stops from Congress or a short taxi ride. Casa Fuster is gorgeous posh hotel. The Cafe bar is on the left as you go in.

When: Wednesday 13th February 2007, 3.30pm to 5.30pmIf you would like to come, please RSVP to Gillian Kennedy putting WiMD in the subject field of your email. This is so we can get a rough idea of how much space we might need to reserve in the bar.

Please feel free to forward this invitation on to your female colleagues and friends who work in mobile data, content and associated sectors – we’d love to meet them too. Men are welcome on the arm of a lady; we like to keep the numbers balanced.

About our sponsor: Airwide Solutions
Airwide Solutions is the global-market-leading provider of next-generation mobile messaging and wireless internet infrastructure, applications and solutions, Airwide Solutions has one focus: To enable your revenue to keep pace with the burgeoning consumer-driven mobile messaging and wireless internet market. Find out more at their website and listen to some podcasts about different aspects of the industry including mobile marketing and mobile messaging.

More about the Women in Mobile Data Association:
Web: http://www.womeninmobiledata.com
Join us on facebook -The WiMD group is live and kicking and find out more about this WiMD event.

Swedish Beers Mobile Networking, Weds 12 Sept 07

We're back to the Nordic Bar, our usual haunt, on Wednesday 12th September for Swedish Beers. We'll be in the back bar from 6ish for all the usual chat, mingling and talk of mobiles, marketing, media and life in general. And if the last few events are anything to go by, we'll probably overtake the whole bar pretty quickly. You'll find the Nordic Bar on Newman Street which is the North side of Oxford Street, nearest tube Tottenham Court Road or Oxford Circus.

Unfortunately, the bad news is that our sponsor has had to postpone their sponsorship of Swedish Beers as they're not quite ready to shout out about the wonderful things they're up to. So it would be *really* marvellous if another generous sponsor could help us out with the bar. And I'm working on that right now. Otherwise, it's buy your own drinks night. And if it's the latter, it will be your challenge to find someone who has a works expense account to buy drinks for you all evening ;)

But seriously folks, the Swedish Beers night goes on and do get in touch with me if you're up for sponsoring the bar. Probably best to call my mobile, +44 794 053 8802, if you're interested as I'm away from the internet until Tuesday afternoon and time is quite short as Swedish Beers night is only two weeks away.

So, the night is definitely on, we're just waiting to see if someone will generously sponsor the bar to help the evening go with a swing and at the same time meet loads of folks who will think lovely things about them *and* benefit from lots of lovely publicity and immense good mobile karma for their efforts.

So see y'all there on the 12th September, from 6pm in the Back Bar at The Nordic Bar.

Skål

p.s. If you plan to use Oxford Circus on the night, please note that the Victoria Line is undergoing maintenance right now and is closed from about 10pm every night. Don't worry, all the other lines are fine and the buses still work, it just might take you a little longer than usual to get home that's all, as you find an alternative route. More info on the TFL website.

Are you free on Wednesday morning in London?

Got an interest in mobile, media, things webwise or marketing? Then come along and have brunch with blogger and journalist, Mike Butcher at his inaugural BrunchBites. I'll be there and a few others from the mobile, web, media and marketing worlds and we'll be setting the world to rights and exchanging ideas 'n stuff over a latte (or cuppa) and a piece of toast at Soho's Breakfast Club. So if you have time, and you fancy a coffee morning, 2.0 stylee, then come and join us between 10.30am and midday.

Last chance for a reduced rate ticket for Chinwag Live's PR Unspun event

Chinwag Live is running an event on Tuesday 24th April (that's next week) in Central London called PR Unspun. It will look at how the PR industry is adapting now that social media is heading for mainstream adoption. It's just £20 if you book before midnight tonight (19 April). Check it out at http://live.chinwag.com/prunspun. Judging by past events of theirs that I've been to, it's always a good panel and discussion followed by great networking. Well worth it.

And if you do go, be sure and say hello to the Chinwag team, for they are lovely.

Oh What a Night!

A huge thank you to everyone who came to Swedish Beers last week. It was, by all accounts, a rip-roaring success and we were incredibly busy with both old and new faces and everyone seemed to have a good time. Some of the feedback to me personally was lovely:

"Wicked event, you really move the (mobile industry) crowd!"

"Thoroughly enjoyed the evening and met some great people...This dude had a great time and is eagerly looking forward to the next one!"

"Well that worked then didn't it! Congrats on a really good night out!"

"Wow! When's the next one?"

"Thanks for a very good event last night at Nordic Bar"

"many thanks for a successful evening – it was a warm welcome from a good cross section of UK/London’s mobile community"

And a HUGE thank you to our very generous sponsors Tanla Mobile who were out in force making everyone feel thoroughly welcome.

Did we manage to stick to our tried and tested formula "drink beer, talk mobile, drink more beer, talk nonsense"? Well, you'd have to ask those who were there from as far afield as Australia, Italy, USA, Germany and Finland including [drum roll please]...

Sky, Skype, Phoniq, News Optimus, Financial Times, Warwick Worldwide, Yahoo!, Google, Vodafone, BeepMarketing, O2, Leiki, flytxt, ARN Consulting, Sony Pictures, Respond Mobile, Otodio, MBlox, Fathom Partners, W2Forum, OITG, Mobile 365, Arcarnus, Bango, Telemix, PNC Telecom, Phuser, Gisdata, Metastorm, ShopQwik, Renzoo, Xtract, Mbites, Mobile Entertainment Magazine, VSC Consulting, W2Forum, ENO, Mercury Mobility, Minick, MIG, Chinwag, Masabi, Mobizines, Future Platforms, Hotxt, Colibria, Ymogen, Admob, m:metrics, LinguaFranca, AdInfuse, Moblog UK, PeekabooTV, ICSTIS , Informa, Pitch, and a ton of other people too. If you were there, feel free to add a comment below. Indeed, perhaps you can fill in some gaps on the photos on flickr as to who's who? And if you have any photos yourself, please either let me have them or add them to the Swedish Beers group pool on flickr.

If you want to find out about the next one via email, then please add your email address to the Feedblitz box on the left-handside on the Swedish Beers blog or click the feedblitz link here.

See you at the next one!

skål

As if one event's not enough... Swedish Beers next event is Thursday 5th April

*please note date change to Wednesday 11th April*

We had such a blast in Barcelona (courtesy of MyStrands and Colibria) that we thought it was about time we got together againfor the fun that is Swedish Beers in London at our usual haunt, the Nordic Bar, London W1. A sponsor for the bar is yet to be confirmed (anyone want to volunteer?) but the usual rules apply.. i.e. no powerpoint, no speeches, just mingling and networking with friendly people like you who are also interested in things mobile. We attract all sorts from within and without the mobile industry, which makes it interesting. You can read about our past events over at the Swedish Beers blog.

So the date for the diary for Swedish Beers Mobile Networking is Thursday 5th April - that's the day most of us break up for Easter Wednesday 11th April (so it's *after* Easter) and the proceedings will kick off from 6pm.

Our event sponsor will be the wonderful Tanla Mobile so the first few beers will be on them.

skål

Steve, Seth and Helen