You can still get involved…and be a mobile hero too

In case you hadn’t noticed, it's less than two weeks to go until Heroes of the Mobile Screen http://mobileheroes.net ... and there's still new stuff to announce... I haven’t been this busy with a project since launching ZagMe with Russell Buckley back in 2000. Anyway, I digress… back to Heroes.

So, first up - lovely sponsors who are helping to make all this happen for us. We can now confirm that Blackberry is a gold sponsor and Windows Live and Windows Phone are silver sponsors. WINplc is event sponsor. Smaato is sponsoring the lanyards, Kemp Little LLP is supporting the event and we'll have a few more to announce this week. And not only that, Blackberry has given us a bunch of Mobile World Congress passes to give away to delegates coming to the conference. Keep an eye on the Heroes twitter feed http://twitter.com/hotms and blog http://mobileheroes.net/blog to find out how to get your mitts on those lovely free passes.

Secondly, we have lots of lovely new speakers announced including Hugo Barra from Google, Oded Ran from Microsoft, George Nimeh from Iris, Phil Cox from Silicon Valley Bank, Giles Rhys Jones from Ogilvy, Mark Watts Jones from Orange and still more to be confirmed. Read all about them over at http://mobileheroes.net/speakers

Thirdly. You can still get involved. Well, of course you can buy a ticket (everyone who buys a ticket really makes our day and lots of lovely people have already bought tickets!). But there's also a way you can score a free one... We're still looking for companies who are targeting teens (age 17/18) with their mobile product, service, game, application or device and who want to get some constructive feedback from their teenage audience. Don't worry, it's not scary. Julia Shalet (pictured) is running this session and she knows what she's doing and has briefed the teenagers thoroughly. And she'll also brief the companies we choose thoroughly too so it becomes a useful experience for everyone involved. Anyway, we've had some people apply already, but we want to remind you that there's still time to apply and we really do want to see what you're made of. If you're interested, please email me ( helen [at] mobileheroes [dot] net ) or Dominic ( dominic [at] mobileheroes [dot] net ) to express your interest or to find out more about what's involved.

And finally, there are still some sponsorship opportunities to support the networking party afterwards. If you want to get involved in that, then please talk to me - ( helen [at] mobileheroes [dot] net ).

*Also a big thanks to our media and association partners for their support. Mobile Marketing Association, AIME, Mobile Data Association, IPC Media, Mobile Entertainment Magazine, Mobile Europe, Mobhappy, Mobile Zeitgeist, GoMoNews, Mobile Industry Review, The Really Mobile Project and many many more*

Don't forget to spread the word as well to your clients and colleagues. This isn't just for mobile industry insiders.

See you all on the 7th!

Heroes of the Mobile Screen – 7 Dec 09 at the BFI Southbank, London

Some of you may be wondering what I’ve been up to of late. Well, if you have, then I can reveal to you that I’ve been working on a new conference, Heroes of the Mobile Screen, which is on next month on 7 December at the rather wonderful BFI on London’s Southbank. And I’d love for you to spread the word (like our wonderful media partners), buy tickets and join the conversation.

The team behind the conference, Isabel Fox, Neil Robertson, Carlo Longino, Dominic Travers and yours truly are also involved in running Mobile Monday London, Swedish Beers Mobile Networking, Future of Mobile, Over The Air, Mobile 2.0 and Tech Media Invest events amongst other things.

The day-long event at BFI Southbank will differ from anything else around (at least that’s what we’re aiming for) and get the stakeholders of mobile involved in discussing the issues affecting them and their customers. Uniquely the event also has teenagers on stage to tell the industry what they want from their mobile, what they expect from their network operators and what’s most important to them in terms of their mobile life.

Heroes of the Mobile Screen is already attracting a number of high calibre ‘heroes’ with speakers and panellists answering the call from around the world, including Kei Shimada, JP Rangaswami and Kevin Marks, Belinda Parmar, Julia Shalet, Doug Richard and Harald Neidhardt are all confirmed. The speakers are listed here and the agenda can be found here.

Heroes of the Mobile Screen opens with a keynote from Kei Shimada sharing his experience of what’s happening in Japan and what we can learn from that here in the West. And continues with four core pillars supporting discussion throughout the day.

The money
What's making money, who's making money and what's being invested in and where the money's going to be in the future? The answers to all the questions we want to ask of successful mobile service providers and VCs.

The impact of social/location
What is the impact of social media and location technology? What do customers want, what are the business models, what are the solutions to privacy issues. Carriers are placing their bets in this area, but will they pay off?

Teenage heroes
Led by digital youth marketing expert Julia Shalet, this is a new format where we invite four companies to pitch their product, service or device live on stage to six teenagers and they tell us what they really think.

Real customers, real applications, real marketing
A double session with the first half covering customers and what they really want on mobile with a focus on women in particular with some new research and insight into what women want from Belinda Parmar of Lady Geek. The second half will cover mobile marketing and advertising, what's working, what's not and what's coming next.

I came up with idea around the event because we realised that most of the events I attend throughout the year all talk around the same subjects, with the same people and bring up the same issues, without resolution. It’s time for us to stop talking to ourselves, look out beyond our industry and make some changes for the better. I believe it’s important to engage our colleagues in marketing, web 2.0 and media as well as more of our mobile colleagues from throughout the value chain. The exciting stuff is going to happen when industries cross over – that’s where the innovation is. In putting the agenda together, we believe we have something that will appeal to a wide audience – whether you’re a director of marketing for an FMCG brand or a web developer toying with the idea of developing apps for android or iphone.  And to do that, we need to share real customer insight that we can use to make ours and others mobile lives better.

Tickets are now available online now for £99 (ex VAT and booking fee) at http://mobileheroes.net . We’ve kept the price deliberately low and it’s subsidised by sponsors who we’ll be able to announce shortly.

If you’re interested in sponsoring the event in some way, please get in touch with me via email.

If you’re interested in pitching your gadget, application or service to our teenagers, please email Dominic Travers to put your name forward.

We are keeping a waiting list for potential speakers and panellists. If you’d like to be considered, please contact me.

So get your tickets now and become a fan on Facebook or follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/hotms too.

Technorati Tags: conference,mobile monday,mobile monday london,events,london,mobile media,mobile marketing,mobile applications,mobile network operators,learning,networking

The Mobile Premier Awards opens – and there’s an award for female entrepreneurs

You might be familiar with the Global Peer Awards that Rudy de Waele has been running in partnership with Mobile Monday for the last few years in Barcelona. Well, he’s now extended the concept to include more networks, including the Women in Mobile Data Association (see us on Facebook and LinkedIn) and has launched The Mobile Premier Awards 2010 and it is now open for entries.

The Mobile Premier Awards recognize the year’s best in Mobile Start-up Innovation and are the largest open, global start-up competition in the mobile industry. The awards are the point of reference in start-up premiers during the Mobile World Congress on February 15, 2010 in Barcelona (yes, it’s nearly that time of year again) and are organized in collaboration with some of the main networks in the mobile industry.

We’re particularly excited about the award for female entrepreneurship… Anyway, more details about the whole shebang here. It’s free to enter and it seems to me to be exciting to be involved in it with both my Mobile Monday London hat and my Women in Mobile Data Association hat on. (Good job I like wearing hats eh).

The Mobile Premier Awards 2010 will include the following awards:

* MPA in Innovation - The best grassroots start-up innovation chosen by their peers in partnership with Mobile Monday. The Mobile Monday chapters will vote for their local most innovative start-up. An international jury of the most recognized mobile industry experts will select the 20 finalists from all the local chapter nominees to pitch at the event in Barcelona in front of investors, operators, media companies, peer entrepreneurs, and press and influential bloggers.

* MPA in Marketing - The best start-up in Mobile Marketing

* MPA in Entertainment - The best start-up in Mobile Entertainment in partnership with the Mobile Entertainment Forum

* MPA in User Experience - The best start-up in Mobile User Experience in partnership with MEX.

* MPA in Social Change - The best start-up using mobile for social change in partnership with Mobile Active.org

* MPA in Female Entrepreneurship - The best woman-led mobile start-up in partnership with Women2.0 and the Women in Mobile Data Association

Participation to these awards is free and open to any start-up with a mobile angle. Go to www.mobilepremierawards.com and take your chance to walk the red carpet in Barcelona!

Technorati Tags: mobile,women,wimd,women in mobile data,mobile peer awards,mobile premier awards,global peer awards,mobile monday,mobile monday london,mobile world congress,barcelona,start-up,entrepreneurship

The postal strike isn’t bad for everyone

In case you’re not from around these parts, the UK postal service is currently taking strike action across the UK in various degrees of seriousness. Of course there are two sides to every story and it’s not fair to blame the humble postie for what’s going on there. As I understand it, the postal service isn’t actually in decline but it’s busier than ever due to e-commerce and that’s why the postal workers don’t understand the cuts that are being made to the business and the subsequent changes to their working terms and conditions.

Anyway, the strike isn’t bad for everyone. Yes, it’s annoying not to get your birthday cards or letters from your loved ones but I can’t say I’m missing the bills and statements much. And it seems it’s not been a bad thing for Sharpcards either.

Sharpcards, the world’s largest provider of mobile ecards, reveal how during the recent postal crisis people have turned to its mobile ecards service as a way of getting in touch with loved ones.
Interestingly, since the postal strikes began they’ve seen:

•    A 103% increase in visitors using Sharpcards ecard mobile application
•    A 63% increase in unique buyers compared to the monthly average
•    The highest amount of traffic on the ecards service on 22nd October – the first day of the national postal strike.

And it’s not the first time the company has witnessed such an increase because of a disruption to the postal service. During the three-day London postal strike in July (8th, 9th and 10th), earlier this year, this is what they discovered:

•    An 82% growth in visitors using the mobile Sharpcards application
•    A 64% increase in unique buyers over that period compared to the monthly average.

Will Walsh, CEO of Sharpcards said: “Greeting cards help people to express themselves, show their love for someone and say something truly personal. In times like this when the ability to get that message across is restricted, people are recognising that they can do all this on their phones too.”

I think this shows that there is a move, in some circles, towards virtual greetings and virtual gifts in general which is going to be a good thing for companies like Little World Gifts too. It’s not going to be everyone’s thing for sure, but in an age when we’re conscious of climate change and being green coupled with the economic crisis, buying lots of ‘stuff’ to show your appreciation of a friend or loved one may be becoming passé and perhaps the virtual gift is the way forward? That said, I still like giving and receiving real presents too, although I do less of that now than I did when I was younger due to being strapped for time as much as anything. And I’m not sure a small child will appreciate a virtual card in the same way that they’d appreciate a cuddly toy. I suspect there’s room for both for some time to come yet.

Technorati Tags: virtual gifts,ecards,sharpcards,mobile,postal strike

It’s Wednesday, there must be mobile stuff to write about…

Whilst I have a bit of blogging mojo going on, best share a few links with you and why I think they’re worth a look.

There’s an app for that. Or so the saying now goes.

The English National Opera joins the iPhone bandwagon and have put together a rather nice mobile application for opera buffs. I would test it, but I don’t have an iPhone. But since iPhone apps are essentially skins to a browser it shouldn’t be *that* hard to make a mobile web friendly version. I await with anticipation. And if the ENO can do this, surely it can’t be long before the rest of the West End realise that mobile is core to their digital strategy. I live in hope being partial to live theatre ‘n all.

And for the tiny tots in your life, there’s an app for potty training too. Read all about it here.

And with 65k other applications in the iPhone app store, marketing is even more critical to get your app noticed and sold. So there are some tips in this article ‘How to get to number one in the App store’. My caveat being that there is more than one App store out there and there’s more than one device where you can use and download apps. Also, the article isn’t as in-depth as one might like, but it’s a start.

There’s another ‘top tips for the iPhone app store’ type article over at AdAge as well which is also worth a look. It includes a handy checklist which they expand on in the article:

1. Make it useful or entertaining.
2. Use an analytics tool.
3. Make your app free, at least initially.
4. Release your app midweek.
5. Promote it.
6. Make it social.
7. Collect feedback.
8. Refresh continuously

Where are the women in mobile? Well Mobile Marketer wants to know and are asking the mobile community to nominate some lady experts in mobile marketing in particular. Of course, they’re hot on the heels of Mobile Entertainment Magazine’s Top 50 Women in Mobile Content 2009 list (I’m thrilled to be in the ME list, 2nd year in a row no less, alongside some eminent colleagues and friends). My take on this is simple.

Tanla Mobile Marketing & Advertising Guide 2008

View more documents from Helen Keegan.

And last, but by no means least, I’ve uploaded The Tanla Guide to Mobile Marketing and Advertising 2008 I wrote up to Slideshare. I wrote and compiled it at the end of 2007 so it’s a little out of date, but there are enough case studies and examples to keep you going that are still more than relevant today. The guide also includes essays and articles from fellow mobilists including Tomi Ahonen, Russell Buckley, Jessica Sandin, Daniel Appelquist and Mike Short. The font size is miniscule so make sure you increase that before you print off or read off your screen. Go download it, it’s free!

Technorati Tags: iphone,app store,mobile marketing,mobile advertising,guide,opera,potty training,mobile internet,marketing campaign,marketing

Vote for your favourite start-up and help them win Vodafone Mobile Clicks

Some of you may know that I’ve been working with Vodafone UK & NL on the Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition. I helped to organise it and was also one of the judges for the first heats.

We're now coming to  the end of the Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition now and we have our 6 finalists. They'll be off to PICNIC next week in Amsterdam to fight it out to win hard cash for their start-up. There's 150k Euros up for grabs so it's a tough one. And there are six excellent finalists to choose from too. It wasn’t easy to get to the final six, but we did. There are three finalists from the UK and three from the Netherlands and there are 3 cash prizes up for grabs out of a total prize fund of 150k Euros.

The jury for the final is Richard Titus, Lee Epting, Rudy de Waele, Vincent Everts & Heike Scholz.

But it's not just down to the jury. Mobile Monday London members have a part to play in the process too. There has already been public voting which closes this Friday which is open to anyone http://www.vodafonemobileclicks.com/vote/ but in addition, we have been asked to create a poll so you can choose your favourite start-up and who you would give a prize too. The votes from Mobile Monday London members will be weighted more heavily than the public vote, so your vote really does count.

I've opened up the poll over at Yahoo Groups (I couldn't find a better way to run it so that it was one vote per person). If you're not already signed up to our Mobile Monday London Yahoo Group, then please sign up and make sure you fill in the bit that says why you want to join the group so we know you're genuine.
Our friends at Mobile Monday Amsterdam are going through a similar process and have already been busy voting.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/momolondon/polls

There is just one vote so use it wisely, but please DO vote! The poll will be open for a week only and will close on 22nd September in advance of the finalists heading off to Amsterdam.

And in case you're wondering who the companies are and would like a bit more info, then here you go...

Woobius http://www.woobius.com/ (UK)
A service for the construction industry allowing them to collaborate by gathering all info & data in one place with access for the team. With the help of Woobius Eye for mobile, it is possible to solve problems & reduce build costs & the number of mistakes made.

Rummble http://www.rummble.com/ (UK)
A service that recommends content to the user, based on people with the same interests and hobbies. By sharing information and creating a trust network, the customer will get more interesting & relevant content.

Mobypicture http://www.mobypicture.com/ (NL)
Share photos, videos & audio with friends at social network sites like hyves, facebook and twitter with one press of a button.

Audioboo http://audioboo.fm/ (UK)
Directly record audio (eg interviews or quotes) & share it with social network sites like twitter and facebook. The last recorded, most popular and featured "boos" from the community can be played as well.

Layar http://layar.com/ (NL)
A browser that uses 'augmented reality' so a user can see what is in their surroundings by looking through the camera of their handset.

MyNameIsE http://www.mynameise.com/ (NL)
Connecting people on & offline by gathering their profiles on various social networks in one place. These can be shared in real life via mobile or bespoke device, The Connector.

Thanks everyone and please get voting!

Technorati Tags: Mobile Monday London,vote,Vodafone Mobile Clicks,competition,start-up,Rummble,Woobius,MobyPicture,Audioboo,Layar,MyNameIsE