Mobile Monday London

Hello everyone

Helen here from the Mobile Heroes and Mobile Monday London team…

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...

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!

Labels: applications, conference, demo, devices, Heroes of the Mobile Screen, networking

Ok, admittedly that’s a song title from the rather marvellous Rumours by Fleetwood Mac which I’m listening to as I write this, but it also describes where we’re at with location based services. LBS seems to be the new black, it was big news at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year and there seem to be various location based apps cropping up out of the iphone woodwork. But it’s not all rosy in the location based world. Sure, we can use pretty maps on our phones but what else is out there and does anyone actually care?

That’s why I was particularly interested to read Stuart Dredge’s article recently in Mobile Entertainment magazine where he dispels some myths of mobile entertainment (and arguably the rest of the mobile world too and number 9 particularly resonated with me:

"Location-based technology is intrinsically exciting for consumers...

No it's not. The phrase "location-based technology" intrinsically puts most people who aren't in the mobile industry to sleep. And they look equally unimpressed if you promise them their phone can guide them to the nearest cashpoint.

That was the big selling point of the early days of LBS, until the industry realised that even half-cut consumers can womble their way to the nearest bank machine under their own steam. Now the buzz is around social location, and mashing up your handset's GPS with social media and Web 2.0 services.

The problem is that this is all still technology-led. The assumption that everyone wants to track their friends - and especially that they regularly go out in town with no specific plans in mind of who to meet or where to go - is unproven at best. As is the idea that people want to geotag all their photos and videos and share them with the world, all the time.

The next year or two will see some really smart, desirable mobile services launch that use location. But it's the ones that are actually based on stuff people want to do that will succeed.

It's more about great, desirable services that happen to have location elements in the mix.”

So that’s exactly what we’re going to take a look at on 12th October. Stuart Dredge has kindly agreed to chair the session for us where we’ll find out what services out there, challenging how we position and market them, how much location matters (or not), and what customers really want or need. We reckon it’ll be a lively debate kindly supported by Skyhook Wireless and GetJar. We have some great panellists lined up for you which we’ll be announcing in a few days. And we’ll have some demos for your delectation. We’re also still interested to find out which LBS apps and services you use and why so do keep contributing to the email thread on the topic.

What: Go your own way? A fresh look at location based services.

When: 12th October 2009 – 6pm for a prompt 6.30pm start.

Where: CBI at Centrepoint

Register and RSVP here

Photo credit Smiling_Da_Vinci on flickr.Used under Creative Commons licence.

Labels: applications, events, lbs, location based services, mobile, mobilemedia

Graham from Learning Without Frontiers has been in touch to tell us about the conference he’s organising – The Handheld Learning Conference 2009. It’s in its fifth year (so nearly as old as Mobile Monday London then!) and features a wide variety of speakers (including some famous names) and 1500 or so delegates and will be held at The Brewery at The Barbican from Oct 5 – 7. More details on the conference and speakers later on in this post.

Anyway, there’s a couple of reasons Graham has been in touch. The first is obviously to promote the event (which looks rather good I have to say) and offer Mobile Monday London members a 15% discount off the list price – the early bird  price is just £375 (valid until 25th September) and the late booking price is £425. So 15% off those prices is not to be sniffed at. To take advantage of the discount, please use code momohhl09 on the registration page.

Not only that, there’s a free element to the event. Yes, we all like free! The first day of the event, Monday 5th October, is open to the general public and is free to enter. So that means anyone with a passing interest in mobile learning related stuff will get a chance to sample the exhibition and some free seminars as well. And not only that, there’s going to be a party and awards ceremony that night, hosted by The Gadget Show’s very own Jason Bradbury, which us MoMoLo’ers are all invited to to hang out at, especially it being a Monday evening ‘n all. Turn up from 7pm and the jollity will be going on until 10.30pm. I imagine there’ll be a few familiar faces there, mine included!

So here’s a little bit more about the conference lifted from their website to give you a flavour of what’s on offer…

The Handheld Learning Conference is the world’s leading event about learning using mobile and inexpensive access technologies, attended by more than 1,500 international delegates.

Lead speakers for 2009 include:

• Ray Kurzweil, Inventor and Futurist
• Zenna Atkins, Chairman, Ofsted
• Malcolm McLaren, Artist
• James Paul Gee, Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University
• David Braben, Founder & Chairman, Frontier
• Professor Elizabeth Hayes, Arizona State University
• John Davitt, International Learning Advocate, NewTools.org
• Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, CEO and Co-Founder of Tinker.it
• Tim Brighouse, Former Commissioner for London Schools
• Donald Clark, e-Learning Expert
• David Cavallo, Chief Learning Architect, MIT OLPC
• Tim Rylands, Teacher & Innovator

With many others soon to be announced.

Now in its fifth year the event has become the largest of it’s kind; bringing together thought leaders, innovators, practitioners, developers, policy and decision makers from the education, technology and entertainment sectors.

Over 3 stimulating days this group will demonstrate, debate and explore how mobile technologies such as phones, entertainment devices, GPS locators, and netbooks can be deployed to enable transformational improvements in learning across schools, home, further education, training and business.

This year’s theme is "Creativity, Innovation, Inclusion & Transformation" recognising that 2009 is the European year of creativity and innovation, and the value these elements have to learning, whilst identifying that real transformation will only occur following universal inclusion e.g. Home Access.

As always the conference will stage an excellent mix of inspirational talks from leading thinkers and practitioners, lively interactive debates, learners and practitioner showcases, special interest breakouts, networking and social sessions, plus an exhibition featuring the principle industry leaders.

Labels: applications, Awards, conference, devices, education, events, learning, networking

Just to remind you of the logistics first... Our lovely sponsors this month are IPC Media (whose fantastic offices we'll be seeing on the night) and Samsung Mobile Innovator (who will be making a special announcement on Monday evening). Doors will open at 6pm for a *prompt* and we mean *prompt* start at 6.30pm as we have a LOT to get through and I didn't want anyone to miss out. The demos should be done by 8.30pm and we'll have drinks and networking then and if it's a lovely evening, we'll be out on the stunning roof terrace. You'll find IPC Media's offices at The Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street up on the 10th floor (nearest tubes Waterloo, Southwark, London Bridge).

Please allow enough time to get through security on the ground floor and
take the lift up to the 10th floor where we'll be holding the event. Also please
make sure you are registered well in advance so we can whizz you through security. We cannot guarantee you entry unless you are registered.

We have capacity for 155 across three rooms and we'll be rotating the demo teams across all three rooms so that you'll get chance to see everything. You won't miss out by not being in a particular room.

Each demo company will have 3 minutes to pitch their wares, and not just show what their product does but also share at least one insight. At the end of each section, there'll be chance for questions from the audience. This process will be repeated three times with the three groups of demo companies. The products and services you'll see on the night are:

Vopium - like Skype but fully integrated into your mobile's phonebook
Peepr.TV - webcam streaming to mobile
0870.me - standard rate calls instead of 0870
Photofit - photo mashup application
Total Hotspots - Rummble your nearest wifi hotspot
Audioboo - audio micro-blogging as much loved by Stephen Fry amongst others
Artilium - making LBS easy for developers
Proxama - the latest in NFC wallets
Ookl - mobile learning
Singtones - karaoke on your phone
Masabi - rail ticketing
Corebridge - CRM on the go
Spoonfed - London restaurant finder

Labels: applications, demo, mobile, mobile monday, momolondon