BlackBerry Developer Day – London 24 June

Yes, it seems to be in the air. Developer days coming thick and fast. Well, we’re particularly pleased to be supporting BlackBerry with their upcoming Developer Day in London next week because they’ll be sponsoring our next MoMoLo event on 19th July on the hot topic of how to market your mobile application. More details will be coming soon on that but in the meantime, let me tell you a bit about the upcoming BlackBerry Developer Day next week.

BlackBerry® Developer Day brings together experts and industry insiders to provide you with the latest news and opportunities in the world of apps. With in-depth technical sessions and expert advice you can soon be on the road to creating successful applications for BlackBerry® smartphone.

This event is perfect for anyone seriously interested in app development. Whether you're a business partner, content generator or developer, if you're looking to get the most effective and commercial results this is an event not to be missed.

With over 41 million subscribers in 180 countries, find out how you can profit from developing content and applications for BlackBerry smartphones.

BlackBerry has supported Mobile Monday London and Heroes of the Mobile Screen in the past and we’re delighted to have that support continue. We’re particularly interested in the ‘Super Apps’ concept which we learned a little about on our demo night back in March. And I’m quite sure you’ll be able to find out a lot more about that, and much more, at the Developer Day next week. Sadly, I won’t be in attendance since I shall be sitting in a field in Somerset listening to some music next week at some small, insignificant music event that no-one’s ever heard of. But if I wasn’t doing that, I’d definitely be there! Spaces are limited, so if you’d like to go, please do register to confirm your place.

The event is free to attend and all you have to do is go to this page here and click the link for ‘register for an event near you’

Technorati Tags: developer day,events,Blackberry

Windows Phone 7 Developer Day – 22 June

We're very grateful to our sponsors Windows Phone for sponsoring and hosting our event last night ‘Living in a Multi-Platform World’. We’ll be doing a write-up of that in due course. But as part of that, I thought some of you might be interested in joining Microsoft's BizSparkCamp, a Technical Day focused on Building Apps in for Windows Phone 7, which will be launching towards the end of this year. There are 100 spots available and they will be holding it in the Microsoft Customer Centre in  London (which folks who attended last night’s session will tell you it is very lovely indeed) and it is free to attend. A few of our MoMoLo regulars attended a similar session last year and it was very successful for them.  See below for registration links / details.  The entire Windows Phone 7 team will be there on the day, so you will have ample opportunity to network and have all your questions answered. 

And yours truly will be there as I'm judging the pitch contest in the afternoon alongside a couple of VCs. Should be fun!

BizSparkCamp, A Technical Day focused on Windows Phone 7

June 22^nd 2010, 9:30am – 5:30pm, followed by networking drinks

Windows Phone 7 is a different kind of phone, designed to bring together what you care about most. Its smart design lets you do more in fewer steps. Its intuitive Hubs, for People, Music + Videos, Pictures, Games and Office, means we bring things together for you so you can do what you need to do more quickly and easily. With this new platform, Microsoft offers a fresh approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences that bring to the surface the content people care about from the Web and applications. For the first time ever, Microsoft will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone, exclusively on Windows Phone 7.

“Microsoft has nailed it.  Windows Phone 7 feels like an iPhone from the future” (Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo)

Microsoft BizSparkCamp for Windows Phone 7 is a technical focused day designed to offer assistance to entrepreneurs, in particular, the CTOs and developers/architects within Technology Startups.

· Learn to build new applications on the Windows Phone 7 platform (via a series of technical briefings)

· Potential Nomination for BizSpark One (an invitation only program) for high potential startups

· Generate marketing buzz for your brand

We are inviting registrations from Startups interested in Windows Phone development.  Register now for your chance to learn the latest development techniques with Windows Phone and your chance to win time in the Microsoft Labs to assist you in developing a Windows Phone 7 application in time for our launch later on this year. 

Light breakfast and lunch included, followed by a networking reception at the end of the day.

The Microsoft BizSparkCamp for Windows Phone 7 will be held in our Microsoft Customer Centre, in  the Microsoft offices, Cardinal Place, 100 Victoria Street, SW1E 5JL

This event consists of a morning of product and market overviews from the Windows Phone 7 team.  The afternoon consists of a series of Deep Technical focused presentations, so you can gain a good insight into Windows Phone 7

We are ending the day with a pitch contest, where the Top 8 Applicants are able to pitch their mobile application to a panel of experts for a top prize.  The prize will be quality time in our Microsoft Technology Centre labs, with the support of our Windows Phone Engineers and Experts, to help you design and build your Windows Phone Application in time for the product launch. 

This event is completely *free* to attend, and the agenda (subject to slight changes)  is below:

9:00 for 9:30 start Registration and breakfast

9:30 --  9:45 Introduction and Welcome

Bindi Karia, VC / Emerging Business Lead, Microsoft UK (@bindik)

9:45 – 10:45 Introduction to Windows Phone 7, a different kind of phone:

Oded Ran, Head of Consumer Marketing, Windows Phone UK  (@odedran)

10:45  -  11:45 Windows Phone 7 – It’s all about The Developer

Will Coleman,  UK OS and Mobile Product Manager Lead  (@will_coleman)

Find out how you can leverage your existing knowledge as well as built-in standardised access to web services and hardware capabilities to develop for Windows Phone 7

11:45  - 12:30 Lunch and networking

12:30 – 13:30  Mobile User Experience 101: a summary of designing for Windows Phone 7 and other touchscreen devices

Antony Ribot, Mobile UX designer/developer/entrepreneur. Co-founder of ribot (and Mobile Monday London regular) (@ribot)

Windows Phone 7 includes a new and industry-unique panoramic user interface with a new smart design system that enables developers and designers to create their own visually stunning applications and games based on Silverlight & XNA. Discover how to take advantage of this new user experience.

13:30 – 14:15  Windows Phone 7 tools, Silverlight 

Mike Taulty, Technology Evangelist  (@mtaulty)

This session gives an overview of the functionality for Silverlight applications that is unique to the Windows Phone application platform; covering new input paradigms including multi-touch, software keyboard, accelerometer and microphone, as well as the APIs to leverage phone applications and the new application model, updated control templates and themes.

14:15 – 15:30 Windows Phone 7 tools, XNA

Paul Foster,  Windows Phone 7 Evangelist (@paulfo)

Get to grips with the XNA on Windows Phone 7. XNA THE game building platform extends its consistent framework and developer environment to Windows Phone 7 bringing the enormous world of indie games development to mobile. No more isolated gaming, mobile gaming is big, bold and connected. This session will detail how to use XNA to develop games for Windows Phone, with a special eye towards the characteristics of Windows Phone application platform.

15: 30 – 15: 45  Break

15: 45 – 16: 15 Windows Phone 7 Marketplace

Will Coleman,  UK OS and Mobile Product Manager Lead  (@will_coleman)

Gain insight as to how Microsoft will provide a single content focused Marketplace, allowing end users to discover, purchase and download applications, games and other content with confidence.

16:15 -17:30 Windows Phone 7 Pitch Contest

Watch your fellow Mobile startups pitch in front of a panel of expert judges

The prize will be quality time in our Microsoft Technology Centre labs, with the support of our Windows Phone Engineers and Experts, to help you design and build your Windows Phone Application in time for the product launch. 

17: 30 – 19: 30 Networking drinks

Register here: http://bit.ly/bizsparkcampWP7

Invitation Code: 1D3643

Phone Number: 0870 166 6680 ref - BizSpark

Download the latest Windows Phone 7 toolkit here: http://bit.ly/WP7devtools

Technorati Tags: windowsphone,microsoft,events,developer day

Where Mobile Meets Media #2 – event round up

Mobile Monday London volunteer, Lauren McGregor gives us her take on our latest event – Where Mobile Meets Media #2 – a follow on from our successful Barcelona session at Mobile World Congress. We had a fantastic turnout and was sponsored jointly by DCKTN and Mojiva. Many thanks to them for their valuable support.

So over to Lauren:

There has been much hype recently over the future of publishing, be it the death of print, the rebirth of paywalls or the excitement around interactive digital editions. Regardless of the headline, one name has been cropping up time again; the iPad. Heralded as the ‘game changer’ the device can fit into a number of areas including gaming/internet/eBooks/rich media, in addition one that has really caught my eye is that of publishing. As an iPhone owner (sorry) I have become accustomed to reading articles on my handset and I am not alone in this it seems: the iPhone accounts for a whopping 80% of the BBC’s mobile websites readers according to Jason Daponte – one of this week’s panellists. Yes, the iPhone has a small market share when it comes to devices in the marketplace, but blimey, those who have the iPhone really seem to use it..a lot! So I’m wondering if the same will be said of the iPad in the coming months? Many on the panel commented tonight that the iPad is a ‘coffee-table’ device and I would have to agree, but our browsing and media consumption habits are changing and the thought of reading my iPad on the sofa is actually quite a nice one. So I’m awaiting iPad usage results in the coming weeks and months with interest.

So a bit more about the panel.

The Panel discussion …

Russell Buckley, AdMob @russellbuckley – chair, Neil Johnson MD Teletext Mobile (AND), Dave Gwozdz CEO Mojiva @mojiva @gwozdz, Jason Daponte BBC @jasondaponte, David Gibbs BSkyB @dgibbs72 and our very own Helen Keegan @technokitten.

The move from print to digital is the perfect example for ensuring your brand is reaching customers through every channel available. It is no longer about a static news website; news can be shared and viewed via social media e.g. twitter so easily and the addition of location, makes the mobile phone a key target for brands. We are demanding personalised, portable, fast and relevant content through our mobile devices and advertisers need to take advantage of this. For the BBC, 50% of its iPhone page views are through WiFi further highlighting that we want content on the move.

One of the main concerns with the move from print to digital is how to make money, with much of this content previously available for free, will brand loyalty prevail? Potentially, I feel that if a news site provides me with a story that adds something I can’t find on another ‘free’ site then I will pay. That could be a video and/or image, interactive features, exclusive/personalised content or just a particular writer that I enjoy reading. There are a number of pricing models that could be applied for pay-walls including pay-as-you-go, monthly subscription or day-passes - the key here is to not make it a huge hassle every time we want to pay, a PayPal type service would be perfect … simple but feeling secure. Another option would be to use ads or sponsored apps to fund the content – media owners need to experiment with what works best for them and their readers.

The iPhone was mentioned quite a few times tonight and I understand that this can be annoying, but admit it or not, it has completely revolutionised business plans. If you own an iPhone you are five times more likely to use data then any other platform, which is a huge, and it’s also why so many target the iPhone above another platform. However, from a customer point of view iPhone only accounts for 10-15% market share and so by doing this you automatically alienating over 80% of your audience. Getting the balance right here is tricky, but one thing we can assure is that the majority of your readers will not have an iPhone or smartphone of sorts.

So what is the future of the publishing industry? Print magazines and national newspapers will be here forever or at least a lot longer … but will decline. The key take home message from today’s event is that media owners need to reduce the cost of producing good content and maximise the niche aspect of the content that they produce, be different.

Thanks for that Lauren!

This was a really in-depth panel session so it’s hard to convey everything that was covered in one short blog post. However, a few of our audience also blogged about the session – and some of them in-depth so please do have a read of the following:

Belen Barros Pena’s MoMoLo Chronicles

Life is Better On’s take on the event

And a very comprehensive round up from MoMoLo regular, Adam Cohen Rose (Adam’s also written up great round-ups of previous MoMoLo events too if you care to take a look at his archive).

Lauren also did a personal interview with David Gwozdz from Mojiva, including some top tips when thinking about mobile marketing, which you can read over at her new blog - TechTelGirl.

And if that’s not enough, you should take a look at Cait Tierney’s video vox pops that she recorded at the event for Techfluff.tv. She interviewed some of our community on their thoughts on publishing, the iPad and more. I particularly like Dan Doherty’s description of his experience with his latest HTC phone – it’s a classic.

Lauren also did a short interview with Dave Gwozdz from Mojiva who co-sponsored the event. We’ll share the link here once it’s been published.

A special thank you to our lovely sponsors for the evening – DCKTN and Mojiva – our wonderful panellists and to everyone who came in person and also to those who joined the fun via twitter. All in all, it was a cracking session.

Our next event is on 14^th June and we’re covering platform fragmentation... registration open shortly at our website.

Technorati Tags: mobile media,mobile content,bbc,bskyb,DMGT,teletext,admob,mojiva,mobile monday london,momolo,mobile monday,ipad,iphone,publishing