Monthly Archive for April, 2008

Full MEX Conference Agenda 2008 Published

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One of my favorite conferences last year, the MEX Mobile User Experience Conference, has published its agenda for this years’ conference on May 27-28 in London. Check the agenda and speaker list for full details.

A special discount is offered to mTrends readers (check details at the bottom of this post).

The conference helps executives to gain a deeper understand of customer behaviour and translate that knowledge into better mobile products. The key objective is raising awareness of user experience issues as a strategic priority for everyone in the value chain, encouraging the mobile business to put consumer needs at the heart of the industry.

It is a very different style of conference. Each event is researched and developed by a team with a passion for mobile and unique insight drawn from years of industry experience. Corporate pitches are outlawed, everyone plays a role in setting the agenda and we go to extraordinary lengths to provide the highest standards of service.

This years’ conference programme is based around a 10 point Manifesto (download pdf here) for enhancing the mobile user experience. Each of the 10 Manifesto statements is addressed through a diverse range of presentations, panel discussions and collaborative breakout groups.

Topics include…

  1. Content itself will be the interface of the future
  2. Handsets are no longer just for the hand
  3. Fragmentation is the enemy of innovation
  4. Fashion is a stronger motivator than functionality
  5. The developing world is the new frontier for mobile user experience
  6. Search requires a radically different approach in the mobile environment
  7. Intelligent contact lists are the future centres of the user interface
  8. Mobile payments herald the next generational shift
  9. Users as individuals: uniquely complex and contradictory
  10. The potential of smart voice

Some of the speakers include:

  • Carl Taylor, Director of Applications & Services, Three
  • Cyrus Allen, Director of Customer Experience, Telstra
  • Scott Jenson, Manager for Mobile User Interface Design, Google
  • JD Moore, User Interface Designer, Nokia
  • Steve Chambers, President, Mobile & Consumer Services, Nuance
  • Steve Ives, CEO, Taptu
  • JoEllen Kames, Senior Manager for Experience Planning, Motorola
  • Dr Norman Lewis, Chief Strategy Officer, Wireless Grids Corporation
  • Mike Short, Vice President of R&D, O2 and Chairman of the Mobile Data Association
  • Jo Rabin, Co – founder and consultant, MobileMonday London
  • Allen Scott, General Manager, NeuStar NGM
  • Sofia Svanteson, CEO and founder, Ocean Observations
  • Paul Adams, User Experience Researcher, Google
  • Fabio Sergio, Creative Director, Frog Design
  • Thomas Kleist, Director of Interaction Experience, Native
  • Simon Crowfoot, Strategic Business Development Director, Spinvox
  • On the opening night there is also a reception to announce the Winners of the 2008 MEX Design Competition. Check it out, some really great stuff out there! If you design interfaces and have a compelling idea or product to delight customers and enhance the mobile user experience, you can still participate, the deadline for entries is 23:00 GMT, Friday, 2nd May 2008.

    MEX is now less than 5 weeks away and, as with all previous MEX events, the organizers target to sell out well in advance on the conference date. If you’ve not yet reserved your place at the event, now is the time to do so – passes are selling out fast.

    mTrends readers can get a 10% discount on a conference attendance pass (priced at GBP 1499). Go to the registration form and enter ‘MM24′ in the ‘partner code’ box on the registration form.

    Hope to see you there!

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    Mobile Monday Andalucía launching

    This weekend and early next week I’m off to Sevilla for an exploratory workshop on Mobile 2.0, organised by the European Commission Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), for its project on mobile content evolution and its socio-economic impact.

    The project is looking at user adoption and acceptance issues, the promotion of innovation in this domain, the new emerging mobile 2.0 applications, and the possible existence of bottlenecks with the aims to explore techno-economic models and their viability, to assess the position of Europe in this field and to identify EU possible policy options. The workshop will also serve to identify key areas for future EU research and innovation policies. Most European operators and handset manufacturers will participate, together with some application providers and experts. Looking forward to catch up again with Ajit Jaokar.

    If you have any question or input related to the topic I can bring to the attention, leave me a comment or contact me on Twitter.

    Mobile Monday Andalucía

    Monday April 28th is also the launch of the first Mobile Monday Andalucía and will take place in Sevilla and covers Mobile Innovative Services. The event will focus on new technologies such as digital signature or Near Field Communication (NFC). Mobile Monday Andalucia is organised by the Andalusian Regional Ministry of Innovation, Science and Enterprise.

    I will moderate a panel including Alejandro Romero from Yahoo, Antonio Navas from Kimia, Angel Romero from AT4 wireless and Rafael Selma from TB-Solutions. I’m really excited to discover some more about the field work on new technologies trialed here in Spain recently on digital identity and Near Field Communication (NFC). Note the recent trial launch of Orange Spain to bring NFC mobile ticketing to public buses in Málaga.

    Anyone who’ll be in the neighborhood and who’d like to get in touch with me, don’t hesitate to ping me.

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    Mobile 2.0 slides @ Over The Air

    Here are my Mobile 2.0 slides of the keynote I did last Friday in London at the Over The Air event, a great initiative by Daniel Appelquist and Ian Forrester. Over the Air was organised by Mobile Monday London, hosted by Imperial College and supported by the BBC.

    Kudos to the whole team who made this happen, this was more than just a developers’ conference, more than just a workshop or a barcamp… It was a 48 hours of mobile and wireless development experiment bringing together some +400 developers and mobile industry experts with great sessions on various industry related topics… Lots of great people and ideas gathered during these 2 days. Check the Over The Air website to view the presentations from other keynotes and sessions.

    The were 21 competition entries for the mobile application prototype competition. The winners were:

    * Overall Best Prototype – Mr. Tomm (Future Platforms)
    * Best Mobile Widget – Auto Widget Configurator (Owen)
    * Best Hardware hack – Phone Fight (lastminute.com labs)
    * Best Use of Multimedia – 21st Century Fridge Door (Orange Pirate)
    * Best Use of Wireless, Bluetooth or RFID – Bluetooth FOAF (Owend)
    * Most elegant solution – Twitter Client for Windows (Dale Lane)
    * Most over engineered – Clever Social Tool (Alex squared)
    * Most practical / ready for market – Social Network Open Butler (SNOB)
    * Best mobile web application – Browser Sync
    * Best design / user experience prototype – Phone Fight (lastminute.com labs)
    * Best Location Aware Award – Capture the Flag (Location based games)

    * Audience Favorite – Capture the Flag by the Pink Pirates
    And the winners in the unofficial categories were:

    * Fun Award – Phone Fight (lastminute.com labs)
    * Most likely the succeed with the CIA – (Social Tracker)

    More info on the winners, pictures, and other follow-ups will be posted on the Over The Air website later on.

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