Over The Air – two days of mobile goodness

After a short hiatus, Over The Air is on again this year. It’s a veritable 34-hour mobile fest starting on Friday 25th September at 9am at Imperial College, London. Proceedings close at 7pm on Saturday 26th September.

“Over the Air is a grass-roots mobile developer event that is completely unique in the mobile industry events calendar – it is free to attend, is hands-on in the style of hackdays and barcamps, covers the cutting edge of current mobile development (as opposed to glossy future-speak or sales-pitches), and features bean bags, a big party and an overnight sleep-over. There will also be a competition at the end of the event for the best categories of applications created during the event, with many great prizes.

This year’s programme is currently being put together, but will once again feature technical presentations, tutorials, workshops, and break-out rooms. Expect topics such as Open Source, Java, Symbian (Series-60), Mobile Web, Mobile Ajax, Android, Mobile Linux, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, etc. If you would like to run a session at Over the Air, please take moment to fill in our session suggestion form ( http://bit.ly/ota2009session ). (I believe there may be a couple of slots left if you’re quick - ed.) The sessions will be 55 minutes in length and while the focus of the event is on mobile development, we are also accepting sessions on user experience and design and we are putting together some sessions on mobile art including (hopefully) a mobile film festival.”

This year’s sponsors are Betavine, Lonely Planet, OMTP, Forum Nokia, Yahoo! Developer Network.

There are still places left so do sign up and join the fun with fellow mobilists from the UK, Spain and beyond.

Technorati Tags: over the air,barcamp,hackday,mobile,mobile technology,imperial college,mobile monday london,mobile developer,mobile development,mobile applications,mobile internet

Everything you need to know about being a presenter or panellist

Well, almost everything you need to know at least. Here are some links to interesting blog posts and articles about being a presenter or panellist which some of you folks out there might find useful, regardless of whether you work in tech or fashion – these tips are all relevant for you.

How to write a successful speaking proposal

http://blog.web2expo.com/2008/04/how-to-write-a-successful-speaking-proposal/

Jeremiah Oywang – how to moderate a panel – a comprehensive guide (this is a *must read*)

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/01/30/how-to-successfully-moderate-a-conference-panel-a-comprehensive-guide/

Benjamin Ellis gives us tips on working more quickly…

http://redcatco.com/blog/productivity/why-dont-you-see-what-you-can-do-in-an-hour/

and how to write a speech in 5 minutes…

http://redcatco.com/blog/communication/how-to-write-a-speech-in-5-minutes/

and finally, a presentation checklist

http://redcatco.com/blog/communication/preparing-to-present-a-check-list-for-presenting-at-a-conference-or-large-event/

Technorati Tags: conference,speaking,speaker,events,panel moderation,writing a speech,presentation

Forum Oxford round-up

Apologies for not posting this up for absolutely ages. Even though it’s from back in April, I think it’s still worth a look.

I was invited to speak at the Forum Oxford annual event at the University of Oxford back in April and a very good day it was too. It’s always great to hang out with Tomi Ahonen anyway but on top of that, there were a great range of speakers and topics covered – probably ones that I wouldn’t normally be exposed to – and it was all the better for that.

Rather than rehashing the event here for you, I’ll share some links from other people who covered the event so you can experience a taste of it for yourself.

Martin Sauter from Wireless Moves gives a comprehensive round-up of the event here.

Jonathan Marks, the roving ForumOxford reporter compiled a series of videos about the event:

· Impressions from Forum Oxford 2009 (including a couple of soundbites from yours truly)

· Interview with Professor William Webb, Head of Research and Development at OFCOM

· Interview with Simon Cavill, Chief Technology Officer / Director of Strategy, Mi-Pay

· Interview with Graham Trickey, Senior Director, GSM Association

If you have still not joined ForumOxford, which is free by the way, click here for details (if prompted, use the enrolment key forumoxford)

Technorati Tags: ForumOxford,mobile,conference,tomi ahonen,ajit jaokar

Smaato Mobile Advertising Awards

Apologies for blog silence for the last few months. I’ve been busy twittering, but haven’t quite managed to write anything over 140 characters in length. Hopefully normal service will be resuming shortly.

Anyway, back to mobile business. My friends at Smaato have just announced their Mobile Advertising Awards and it looks pretty impressive to me. It’s the second year they’ve run it and entries are now open to find ‘the coolest ad-enabled mobile content on the planet.’

There are three categories – iPhone (inevitably), mobile website, and finally, mobile applications and games running on other platforms. It’s free to enter and there’s more info available on the Smaato website.

Smaato will invite the winners of each category to participate at next year’s Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona, Spain in February 2010. In addition, they will also make a number of introductions for winners to VC's at partner level.
Additional prizes are: a booth at M-Days in Munich, Germany in January 2010, free tickets for Mobile World Congress, and many more.

The jury features a plethora of experienced mobilists and I’m quite sure they’ll have their work cut out for them with 100 or so entries for the first year’s awards. They’ll be looking at unique approach, traction in the marketplace, the idea itself, originality, company positioning and more.

The main prize of a presence at Mobile World Congress is not to be sniffed at so if you’re working in this area, I suggest you seriously think about entering. And if you do, good luck!

Technorati Tags: mobile,awards,mobile advertising,mobile web,iphone,mobile applications,mobile games,smaato,mobile world congress

Mobilists on twitter

Carl Martin has done a couple of interesting posts on why he follows mobile folks on twitter and he’s included me which is very sweet. I happen to follow a lot of these folks too, so if you’re in to twitter and mobile stuff, then these two posts are worth a look. And if you’d like to follow me, then you’ll find me here. I can’t promise that you’ll find me interesting, useful or entertaining mind you!

Blyk announces Vodafone as its exclusive partner in the Netherlands

I’ve just got this press release in from Blyk. I couldn’t see it on their website so I’m publishing it verbatim (something, I don’t usually do).

Aligned to its global expansion strategy, the mobile engagement media will launch its brand in the Netherlands in partnership with Vodafone

Helsinki, London and Amsterdam, 23 July 2009 – Blyk, the mobile engagement media, today announces Vodafone as its exclusive partner in the Netherlands.

The partnership between Blyk and Vodafone builds upon a relationship between the two companies, which started in 2008, with a view to expanding the Blyk brand. The partnership will bring the Blyk brand and media model to the Netherlands and it is aligned to both companies’ strategies for growth and leadership in mobile advertising.

“We’re extremely pleased to be extending our relationship with Vodafone. For Blyk, the partnership is part of a global strategy to bring scale and speed to our operations, while continuing to provide an innovative and valuable proposition for both consumers and advertisers. Together with Vodafone, we intend to build a game changing engagement media in the Dutch market.” says Blyk co-founder and CEO, Pekka Ala-Pietilä. “Our relationship will include a co-development of the consumer proposition for the Netherlands and audience management. Blyk will have responsibility for the advertising sales and technology.”

Eric Kip, Managing Director Blyk Netherlands, says: “The Netherlands has the third highest advertising spend per capita in Europe and is a hub for many global companies and ad agencies, so it is an obvious territory for Blyk’s expansion. The advertising market, whilst both creative and dynamic, is also cluttered and we believe youth brands will welcome a highly engaging communication channel like Blyk. We are confident that both Dutch advertisers and global advertisers will make use of Blyk’s unique ability to connect them with an important consumer segment.”