Tag Archive for 'mwc09'

Developer Survival Guide to MWC09 - Update

Published
by
clewko
on February 7, 2009
in Barcelona, Jam Session, Mobile Jam Session, Mobilist, developer, mobile web, mobile world congress and wip
. 1 Comment

Update as of: Wed. February 11:
View the Mobile Version here:
http://m.wipjam.com/2009/02/developer-survivor-guide-to-mwc09-update/ ; thanks to our friends at Mobify

And download the pdf version here - one double sided page is all you need to carry around to get you thru the week!

Booth Add: Intertek (NSTL) - 2.1D70
Events: Swedish Beers change to Wed.

Heading to a big show can be very overwhelming and very tiring. But if planned can turn out to be extrememly rewarding if connecting to the right people, finding out intelligence and even making some killer sales and partnerships.

WIP has put together a Developer Survival Guide to Mobile World Congress, in order to help make the best use if your time and resources. Included are suggested exhibits to visit, special activities, and some TIPs. This is our first cut, if you want to add something please let us know asap. Our intent is to have a pdf and mobile version for you prior to the show. And we will print some hard copies to share while we are there. it’s all you will need!

THE EXHIBITS
The first step is to review the booths/exhibitions stands. There are over 1300 booths at MWC09 in 8 different buildings, and several outdoor temporary structures such as in the Courtyard. We’ve narrowed it down to 44 for you. We’ve identified these specifically for developers, as these companies have developer programs or tools for mobile development.

Recommend Booths to visit:
(Have Developer Programs or tools for development)

ACCESS Co Ltd - CY10(3-0 Courtyard)

Acision-8A86(8), 8A93(8)
AdMob-7C70(7), 7HS09(7)

Adobe Systems Incorporated - 1E05(1-0)

Bharti Telesoft AV70(Avenue)
Device Anywhere 2A17(2-0)

Canadian Pavilion 2.158

Ericsson - 8A170(8), AV07(Avenue)
Fox Mobile/Jamster 7A86(7-0)
Garmin EUROPE - 7C37(7)
Handmark 2H13(2-0 )
HTC - 1B22(1-0)
Intel Corporation - 8B109(8)
Intertek (NSTL) - 2.1D70
LG 8B192(8) 8B197(8)
LiMO Foundation - 8A125(8-0), 8B135(8-0)

Microsoft - 1D19(1-0) & Avenue

Mobile Distillery 2F49(2-0)

Mob4Hire IZ4(7-0)
Motorola - 8A159(8), 8A152(8)
Navteq 1G45(1-0)
Netbiscuits 7A49(7)
Nokia 8C167(8), 8B177(8). 8B169(8)
NTT DoCoMo 8B117(8)

O2 Litmus (Telefonica) 8B178(8)


Opera 2B77(2)
Openwave Systems - AV97(Avenue)

Oracle - AV44(Avenue)

Orange - CY03(3-0 Courtyard)
Paca Mobile Centre 2F49(2-0)
Palm, Inc. - CY09(3-0 Courtyard)
Qualcomm Incorporated - 8B53(8), 8C44(8)
Research In Motion Limited - CY04(3-0 Courtyard), 8B91(8)
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd - CY01(3-0 Courtyard),
Sierra Wireless, Inc. - AV99(Avenue)
Smaato 7A38(7)

Sony Ericsson - 8A80(8), 8B56(8)

Sun Microsystems, Inc - 2C12(2-0)
Sybase 365 - 2A15(2-0)

Symbian Foundation - 8A77(8), AV91(Avenue)

Tele Atlas - 8C118(8)
Telefonica (O2 Litmus) 8B178(8)
8B185(8)
Toshiba 8A111(8), AV68(Avenue)
Yahoo! - 7B26(7)
ZED CY11(Courtyard)

Tip#1 Try and book your meetings before you arrive at the show. Most of these booth have staff on hand specifically to meet developers and ISVs. Don’t forget to bring tons of business cards.

Note: The Little Jamm’r indicates part of the Scavenger Hunt for Jam attendees.

http://www.showplans.co.uk/mwc09/

REGISTRATION
Tip#2 Pick up your badge Saturday or Sunday. Avoid long line ups on Monday morning. Bring your Bar code, it will save you time - like hours.

MWC 2009 Registration Times:
Saturday, February 14th 9:00AM - 6:00PM
Sunday, February 15th 9:00AM - 8:00PM
Monday, February 16th 7:00AM - 8:00PM
Tuesday, February 17th 7:30AM - 7:00PM
Wednesday, February 18th 7:30AM - 7:00PM
Thursday, February 19th 7:30AM - 5:00PM

DEVELOPER EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

SUNDAY (FEB 15)

Mobile Sunday Barcelona hosted by Dotopen (CLUB MIX)
7:00-Midnite: The fourth annual MobileSunday - an unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums - will be taking place in Barcelona on the eve of this year’s Mobile World Congress (formerly known as 3GSM) on Sunday, February 15, 2009. Want to be part of it? All you need to do is register. It’s FREE!  http://www.amiando.com/mobilesunday.html

MONDAY (FEB 16)
TIP#3 The ‘Suits’ rule at this event. So ditch the jeans and t-shirts except for the parties, and don the suit and tie to impress. Oh yeah – there is lots of walking, so wear comfy shoes or bring an extra pair.

The GSMA Mobile Innovation Market: (Hall 5, Auditorium 2)
09:00 – 5:30 pm: Unique blend of elevator pitches, speed dating, thought-leading keynotes and provocative panel discussions. See developers compete for the accolade of best vertical and best consumer applications as they face the Dragon’s Den-style expert panel live on stage.

The Mobile Application Developer Garage (Hall 5, Auditorium 3)
9:30am Keynote – Jim Balsillie, RIM
1000-1045: Cross Platform Panel
11:45 to 12:30pm: Future of the App Environment
2:15 to 3:00pm Operator Developer Partnerships
4:30-5:15pm Taking Apps to Market
New event for 2009, includes a demo breakout area and reception. Requires a conference pass in order to attend. I am chairing the afternoon session.

Mobile Monday Mobile Peer Awards: (PALAU DE LA MÚSICA CATALANA)
4:00-8:00pm: The MobileMonday Mobile Peer Awards Barcelona are among the most influential events in the mobile industry and, with 1000 attendants, the point of reference in startup innovation during the MWC. . Registration required at http://www.amiando.com/mobilepeerawards .

TUESDAY (FEB 17)
Watch for some very cool developer announcements from ADOBE.

“Connect with Canada” (Hall 2, Room C)
9:00 – 10:30: Sparkling-wine Breakfast to meet cutting edge Canadian, government officials and representatives from key mobile firms from around the world
11:30- 13:30: Canada-Africa Forum the rapid growth of the mobile sector in Sub-Saharan Africa
Register http://www.canadawireless.org/MWC2009
I’m speaking at both of these events, and the Canadian government also helped us secure a room at the FIRA for JAM - so thanks!

OneAPI Seminar: (GSMA Seminar Theatre, GSMA Pavilion. Hall 7, Stand 7P01)
09:30–12:30: Find out the progress of the GSMA’s OneAPI project allowing developers to access multiple operators using a common set of APIs. The seminar is a FREE additional option with MWC registration. Acceptance will be confirmed by email.

The Mobile Innovation Market: (Hall 5,)
09:00am–5:30pm: See Monday.

Mobile Distillery - Hall 2, Stand 2F49
11:30am - Worldwide Preview Event

Forum Nokia & NAVTEQ : (Poble Espanyol)(Courtesy shuttle buses to/from Mobile World Congress will be provided)
3:30-4:00pm: Nokia Calling All Innovators awards
4:00-4:30pm: NAVTEQ LBS Challenge award
4:30-6:30pm: Reception
More info and register here: http://mktools.forum.nokia.com/invitation/callingallinnovators .

ACCESS Reception (ACCESS Hospitality Suite #CY10, Courtyard)
4:00 – 7:00pm Cocktails and Reception
RSVP www.access-company.com/news/events/mwc_2009/

TIP#4 It’s ok to nap between parties and dinner and parties. Most restaurants don’t open up til 10pm. A bit of rest is necessary to maximize networking! For the biggest listing of MWC parties go to: www.mobileslate.com

WEDNESDAY (FEB 18)
Yahoo! wil be demonstrating Blueprint, their new mobile development platform for building mobile sites, applications and widgets.

GoMo News Blender (Bella Chica Vilaruel)
18:00-22:00: GoMo News blenders are informal and!
Sign up on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=57398618712

WIP’s Pre-Jam Connecting Party (Bel Chica)
9:30pm – immediately following the GoMo Blender
Always known as the place to have fun and make good connections! Join us.

Swedish Beers
8pm to late
http://swedishbeers.blogspot.com

THURSDAY (FEB 19)
WIP Jam Session – (Hall 2, Room D)
10:15 – 16:30:
Join WIP for our popular Day for Developers at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The best mobile developers meet key leaders of the mobile ecosystem in interactive sessions where we are serious about no panels, no ppt and no ties!  The swag is looking really good.  Just a few spots left. 

Tip #5 Go Green if you can —bring your own refillable water bottle; use the subway, collect written collateral only if you are going to use it rather than it ending up in your hotel garbage.

TIP #6 Cut costs – bring an unlocked phone get a local sim card; ask the person in front of you if they are going to the same place; buy snacks at the grocery store and bring to MWC. We have booked a 5 bedroom apartment that gives us lots more room and also save us some money!

We hope you find this helpful! Again, let us know if you have any updates or comments. Follow us on Twitter for late minute updates, www.twitter.com/mobilejam
The WIP team of Caroline, Teresa, Arv and Ed looking forward to seeing you next week. If there is something we can help you with - make a connection or point you in the right direction - don’t hesitate to ask.

Announcing Speakers and Agenda for Mobile Jam in Barcelona

Published
by
clewko
on February 3, 2009
in Barcelona, Jam Session, Mobile Jam Session, Uncategorized, developer, mobile web, mobile world congress, wip and wireless
. 0 Comments

The Agenda is set, the speaker area ready!  Twenty six (26) speakers, 2 Unpanels and 8 Discussion Topics.  A few spots left for the WIP Mobile Jam session in Barcelona, so sign up now at: http://wipjam.com/subscribe/

We are really stoked to announce the speakers and topics.

We’ll get started with our UnPanel on Survival Strategies for Developers and talk about investment, revenue models, how to make good management decisions, and where to find the wins and partnerships in the ecosystem.  Speakers include: Christopher David of Sony Ericsson, Nicholas Landrin of I-Source, Jason Lim of Microsoft, and James Parton of O2 Litmus.

Our Discussion Groups are always lively - ok noisy - with lots of sharing of information, sometimes debating of points, but always valueable for everyone. Discussion groups are focused on uncovering the information, resources and people necessary for successful mobile application development.  We sit in circles of chairs for maximum participation.

Here are the topics for our Mobile Jam discussion groups and their respective speaker leads and some photos from previous Jams: 

Jam'n in San Fran CTIA

Jam

1.  TESTING
James Parton, O2 Litmus
Paul Poutenan, Mob4Hire
Chris Fromm, Eplus

2. PLATFORMS
Markus Spiering, Yahoo!
Vincent Berge, Mobile Distillery
Vildan Hasanbegovic, Sony Ericsson

3.  CONTENT
Mark Dougherty, Adobe
Alessandro Pace, Biskero
Gregory Gorman, Soonr

4. MONEY
Harold Neidhardt, Smaato
Sean O Sullivan-Dial2Do
Raj Singh, Skyfire

5. APIs
Tim Raby, OMTP
Oscar Guiterrez, Vodafone
Bill Lee, ACCESS

6. EMERGING MARKETS
Arv Singh, WIP
Amod Dadhich, Jataayu
Ongan Mordeniz, BLRSoft

7. TOOLS
Terrence Barr, Sun
Steven Cull, Oracle

8. MAPS
Patric Norstrom, Idevio

See the AGENDA for  complete descriptions of the topics.

And the winner of the most important API of 2009 is….

Published
by
clewko
on January 30, 2009
in Jam Session, Uncategorized, developer, mobile world congress and wireless
. 0 Comments

We’ve asked our discussion leaders for WIPJam session to share their insight of the mobile developer world. This post was penned by James Parton, Head of O2 Litmus, the mobile developer programme with a twist and a sponsor of the WIP Jam Session at Mobile World Congress 2009 (#MWC09). 

Open source, crowd sourcing, app stores, open networks, Web 2.0, Mobile 2.0, co-creation, user generated content. It’s clear that the future of application development is a hot industry topic.

Tip your hat to Apple. They have quickly transformed a cottage industry, struggling to find a poster child, into a serious business in a very short space of time. Through great end-to-end user experience – often overlooked by many in the area - we now have people buying apps on a regular basis. If you had asked those same people 6 months ago what kind of app they were interested in, they would have struggled to even define what an app was, let alone have a clear view on what was missing from their app life.

This wave has also beached in corporate boardrooms with many companies now launching or planning to launch app stores in reaction to the success of the Apple App Store. This leads us to ask where will the industry be in 6 months time?

Put yourself in the shoes of the customer for a second. They switch on their PCs and are be offered applications by their internet service provider. They then go to their favourite portal and may be offered applications, next they will see sponsored links for applications from their search engine.

Next they then pull their mobile phone out of their pocket and see an application store from their handset manufacturer, and sitting next that is the icon for their mobile network’s app store. Confused? Just imagine what the customer is thinking.

On the surface this explosion of app stores is a good thing for developers – more places to sell your apps means more people buying those apps, right

However, this could be misleading. Many of these app stores are using aggregators to fill them up. This may lead to the vast majority of stores containing identical catalogues.

I can see parallels between the growing app market and digital music. Research has shown that over 90% of digital music catalogues are never downloaded. It’s an extreme example of Prato’s law. Are App stores already following the same path?

If these stores are filled by aggregators, and managed by marketers believing it’s all about catalogue, how do you as a developer get noticed? You want your app to be Smells Like Teen Spirit, and avoid being the obscure Cat Stevens B side from 1967 that no one wants!

So how do you solve this problem?

Customers. They are out there. They have an opinion. They are potential consumers of your products. You should get to know them, and love them. If you want to be successful, you have to prioritise customer relationship and service. Don’t just focus on the next feature you can build into your software

Going back to my digital music analogy, we are going to see a huge attrition rate for apps. Thousands will never be downloaded or make profit. Can you afford to burn time and money speculating on what customers might want? Why not ask them before you commitment your engineering resource

How do you find and reach these customers?

You should be seeking out partners that provide the most important API going forward. The winner of the most important API of 2009? It’s the Customer API.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if a large organisation was willing to step out of the way and let you interact directly with its customers? You would be able to demonstrate, co-develop and refine your product directly with end users?

This has to be a win – win approach. You save time and effort by refining your ideas before commercially launching, the end user feels empowered by helping to improve the products they and their friends will end up using, plus they get to experience these apps before anyone else – very different to a traditional retail environment where you buy and either love or hate the app you get.

Come and check us out here and upload your apps: www.o2litmus.co.uk
or you can contact me directly via Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamesparton

Have you registered for WIPJAM yet.  Rumour has it there are 2 tickets to give-away to the O2-Telefoncia party on Tues nite…

Developer Survivor Guide to MWC09 - TIPS & discounts

Published
by
clewko
on January 30, 2009
in Barcelona, Jam Session, Mobile Jam Session, developer, mobile web, mobile world congress, wip and wireless
. 0 Comments

WIP is putting together a Developer Survivor Guide to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. 

I remember the first time I attended MWC in Barcelona, then called 3GSM.  WOW, talk about being overwhelmed from the first time walking off the plane where my luggage got lost (yes be prepared, this is a regular occurance so pack your toothbrush and an extra pair of underwear in your carry-on), to showing up at the FIRA.  The FIRA is no ordinary conference centre, it is an exhibition city! Eight different conference buildings, multi level with booths everywhere.  And outside there are many booths and pavilions outside - again no ordinary booths - buildings two stories high (Yes, lots of money gets spent for sure).  And then lots of events, receptions and parties - some open, a lot invitation only with guards at the door so they are very serious about who enters.

So where does a developer get started?  That’s what we are putting together.  So you can make the best use of your time.

The Guide will include information on the various events (day and night), great exhibitions and pavillions to visit, and Tips.  We are just collecting all the information now - so if you have something to include, please let us know by sending an email to jam (at) wipconnector (dot) com.

To get you started, here is a link to some of the events that Martin Sauther has started to gather. Events start Sunday nite - Rudy deWaele’s Mobile Sunday, and the ever popular Mobile Monday Peer Awards which I MC’d the first two years, now passing the baton to Bena  Roberts from GoMoNews.  And of course WIPJAM, Day for Developers on Thursday, February 19.!

There’s lots more that we’ve gathered, so stay tuned!  including 2 really cool reception we are involved with, which will be THE events to attend!

And the tips! - we better start with registration.  This is an event with about 50,000 people!  Trust me, as someone who waited in line for over 2 hours last year on Monday morning (a duh moment), make sure you go Saturday or Sunday to collect your badge so you can sail through on Monday.  And yes - bring your barcode - it does save you time.

If you haven’t managed to get a comp exhibition pass, and are interested in attending some of the great conference sessions such as the Developer Garage that GSMA is hosting on Monday, here’s a Tip to get your 15% discount:

Go and register here:  and use the code:  APPAB.  You can use it to get a discount from 1 day to the entire event, so good value.

One last tip, for the North Americans in the crowd.  Bring a suit and tie. Remember this is Europe and people dress up more.  I’ve given this advice every year to developers, used to wearing jeans and a t-shirt, who looked at me kinda weird when I mentioned the suit.  Every time I got a big THANK YOU for this advice.   Oh yah - and comfortable shoes are a must.

Note:  No suits or ties required for attending our WIPJam session on Thursday!  Thanks again to our great sponsors: Adobe, ACCESS, Sony Ericsson, Symbian, O2 Litmus, Oracle and Microsoft.

Send us any tips or events asap.

Have fun and good luck!