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While the Mobile Sunday gathering passed the +250 registrants, and the Mobile Jam Session - a developers focused event, announcing its final program, speakers and topics (check also list of companies attending), the Mobile Monday Peer Awards Barcelona event is heading for another exceptional roll.

+700 attendants signed up already to attend the event. There are some 100 entries left. Don’t wait any longer to register and to be part of this unique networking event. The awards will be issued at 6:30pm (18H30) following our - not to be missed - MobileMonday networking cocktail including walking buffet - between 5pm and 6:30pm (17H-18H30)
The finalists presenting in the 2 categories (early stage and emerging start-ups) have been selected now, as well as the jury panel members for each category. Each finalist has 3 slides and 3 minutes to convince the jury of its great idea and business model. You can download the agenda in PDF here. Also a PDF-file with directions how to get to Espacio Movistar (only 10 minutes with metro line 3 from The Mobile World Congress at Plaça Espanya).

Also on the agenda two great keynotes: Luis Jorge Romero, Director of Standards and Innovation in Telefónica España, and Pekka Ala-Pietilä, CEO and Co-Founder, Blyk.

There will also be a premier view on barcelona.mobi mobile website.

Below the finalists presenting:

3:00-4:00pm - Category 1: Early-Stage Start-Ups

Amsterdam - Movels
Bangalore - Mobisy
Barcelona - skuair
Berlin - ViiF
Boston - SnapMyLife
Brussels - Mobixx
London - The 3G Dating Agency
New York - BuzzD
Paris - WebWag
Rome - Nanology
Shanghai - DuoGuo
Singapore - mBit.tv
St. Petersburg - 4Mobi.TV
Taipei - Toro

4:15-5:15pm - Category 2: Emerging Start-Ups

Chennai - Mobile-worx
Dublin - Sentry Wireless
Dusseldorf - Cellity
Helsinki - Fromdistance
Istanbul - Mobinex
London - Taptu
Madrid - Kimia
Milan - Waymedia
Mumbai - Ziva
Munich - Qiro
Oslo - Adactus
Silicon Valley - Funambol
Stockholm - Momail

See you on Monday!

The Mobile Jam Session event - focused on developers - I’m organizing with Caroline Lewko of the Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP) during the Mobile World Congress, is taking its’ final shape. Hosted by MyStrands in their new MyStrands offices, the event takes place on Tuesday, February 12, 2008. It is a day to inspire new ideas and innovate solutions to existing challenges.

The event is free of charge for all participants, coffee breaks, lunch and networking cocktail included. Check the attendants list, we’re quite surprised and happy with the enthusiastic reactions and feedback we got so far!

Attendants include developers from companies like Admob, Accenture, Access, Bango, Vodafone Betavine, Bebo, Kyte.tv, Dell Mobile, Facebook , Future Platforms, GetJar, Google Inc., Idean, Intrinsyc, Kimia, LemonQuest, mBricks, Mippin, Mobile Complete, Mobile Distillery, MyStrands, Nokia, OpenID, Peperoni, PixSense Inc, Qualcomm, Reuters, scanR , Seesmic, Six Apart, Shozu , Skyhook Wireless, Sun Microsystems, Telecom Italia, Telefonica I+D, Truphone, Trutap, UIQ Technology, Vertu, Vodafone, W3C, Wavefront, WURFL and Yahoo! to name the most prominent. It’s a great combination of big and small companies; carriers/operators, device manufacturers, content aggregators, platform and developer programs reps and some great start-up companies with a lot of experience in mobile and web convergence.

You can still sign up here if you’d like to attend the morning and/or afternoon sessions or want to join us for our closing networking cocktail.

Check out the Speakers and Topics designed on feedback we received by participants:

• OPENING PANEL
• IMPROV SESSIONS
• CLOSING ENCORE PANEL

Check out the Topics and Speakers:

1. Open ID
2. Mobile Web Development Frameworks – Widgets/Ajax etc
3. Mobile OS / Platforms
4. Usability / UI / Localization / Mobile Interfaces
5. Mobile media / Web Convergence
6. Open Source in Handsets

10:30am – 12:00 noon
Pre-Session for Developers Only

Come early to grab some talk time, croissant and coffee with your peers about what you are developing and your important issues. These will then be brought forward for the rest of the day.

12:00 Noon – 1:00pm
Registration, Lunch, Networking

OPENING PANEL – 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
We have a complete line-up of players to open up our Mobile Jam session. A great combination of big and small companies; a carrier, a device manufacturer, an aggregator, a platform, reps from developer programs and two great small companies with BIG experience. What a great way to get started – don’t miss this one!

The Players:

• Daniel Appelquist, Senior Technology Strategist at Vodafone Group
• Carl Uminski, CTO, Trutap and formerly of Yahoo!
• Souheil Gallouzi, CTO, Intrinsyc and formerly of Qualcomm
• Terrence Barr, Technical Evangelist, SUN Microsystems
• Tom Libretto, VP of Forum Nokia
• Ray Anderson, CEO, Bango

IMPROV SESSIONS 2:30pm – 4:30 pm

The Six (6) Improv discussions are designed for more one-on-one discussions and a deeper dive on topics. Also a better way for you to meet the speakers and your fellow participants.

Note: As this is about improv and flexilbity, so the speaker list still has room for some last minute additions!

1. OpenID
Discussion Leaders:

TBC

2. Mobile Web Development Frameworks – Widgets/Ajax
Discussion Leaders:

• Representative from Forum Nokia
• Dominique Hazael-Massieux, W3C

3. Mobile OS / Platforms
Discussion Leaders:

• Vincent Berge, Co-Founder & General Manager, Mobile Distillery
• Rich Killmer, Sr. Sales Director, Mobile Complete
• Oscar Gutierrez, Vodafone Betavine
• Terrence Barr, Technical Evangelist, SUN Microsystems

About this topic:
From Mobile Java to other platforms like Symbian, BREW, FlashLite, Android, PalmOS, Access Garnet and Windows Mobile.

4. Usability / UI / Localization / Mobile Interfaces
Discussion Leaders:

• Mikko-Pekka Hanski, Idean
• David Mery, Editor - Developer Program, UIQ Technology
• Morten Hjerde, Senior Interaction Designer at mBricks

5. Mobile Media / Web Convergence
Discussion Leaders:

• Carmen Sales - Product Development Coordinator, Kimia
• Jakub Danilewicz - Alembik project architect

About this topic:
Return of Prometheus: bringing the web to mobile devices. Giving the power of free media transcoding and web rendering to the mortals.

6. Open Source in Handsets
Discussion Leaders:

• Bill Lee, Developer Relations, ACCESS
• Luca Pasani, Admob and founder of WURFL

CLOSING PANEL: MOBILE JAM SESSION - ENCORE 4:45pm – 5:30pm
We’ll start off with some closing remarks from our panelists and then add in other players from the audience to ‘jam’ with them.

The Players:

• Fabio Ricciato, Mobile Handset Evolution, Telecom Italia, Mobile (TIM) Access and Terminals in Technology Division
• Bill Lee, Developer Relations, ACCESS
• Karel De Beule - co-Founder, Kimia
• Open seats to rotate audience members.

Jam - gather and play without extensive preparation or predefined arrangements.

5:30pm – 7:30pm
Reception
Let’s end the day raising a toast – Salut! Other player’s will join us.

Rudy and Caroline will choose their favorite Jazz picks for a perfect cocktail mood.

MobileMonday has announced its Peer Award nominees. 25 chapters from around the world have chosen companies that have demonstrated exceptionally innovative mobile technologies, products, services and concepts.

This year’s nominees are:

Amsterdam - Movels
Bangalore - Mobisy
Barcelona - skuair
Berlin - ViiF
Boston - SnapMyLife
Brussels - Mobixx
Chennai - Mobile-worx
Dusseldorf - Cellity
Helsinki - Fromdistance
Istanbul - Mobinex
London - The 3G Dating Agency / Taptu
Madrid - Kimia
Milan - Waymedia
Mumbai - Ziva Technologies
Munich - hiClip
New York - BuzzD
Oslo - Adactus
Paris - WebWag
Rome - Nanology
Shanghai - DuoGuo
Silicon Valley - Funambol
Singapore - mBit.tv
St. Petersburg - 4Mobi.TV
Stockholm - Momail
Taipei - Toro

Additional information is available at
http://www.mobilemondaybarcelona.com/peerawards/

Register here if you’d like to attend, don’t wait too long. Over 500 people registered already to attend the event!

Two weeks before the opening of the Mobile World Congress, the third annual Mobile Sunday Barcelona - an unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums - has already over 100 people subscribed to the wiki!

Here’s your chance to meet some of the key mobilist bloggers, key industry people from carriers/operators, device manufacturers, mobile applications and service providers companies. This is also an occasion to hear about the exciting stuff happening during the congress and learn about start-ups and interesting projects and launches, the evening before the big show. If you’re not on the list yet and would like to attend, just add your name + info to the wiki.

There’s also a Mobile Sunday Facebook group for picture and video uploads of the evening. FYI: it’s recommended to add your name to the wiki to make sure you’ll get in in case it gets too crowded! Thanks to our friends at MyStrands, who will generously provide some ‘more’ free beer this time.

List of current attendants:

Coming to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress? Don’t miss the MobileMonday Peer Awards Barcelona 2008! Sticking with MobileMonday’s recipe for success, the event will cook up a bunch of fresh innovations mixed with honest feedback and a dash of fun. Served with plenty of juicy networking at the NEW Espacio Movistar in Barcelona on Monday February 11 starting at 2:30PM.

The MobileMonday Peer Awards are recognised by the industry as one of THE interesting events in the mobile industry. Last year’s Barcelona Peer Awards event attracted 23 competitors, the MoMo community award went to Mobile Complete, the audience award to Plazes, and the expert jury award to Realeyes 3D. Check the Peer Awards 2007 Flickr Group pictures and winners’ announcement here.

Mr. Pekka Ala-Pietila, former president at Nokia Corporation and currently chief executive officer of Blyk Corporation, a virtual mobile operator in the UK, will be the keynote speaker.

The event concept is pretty similar as last year: every MobileMonday chapter is invited to nominate one startup to the Peer Awards Barcelona 2008. This year, we’ll divide the start-up finalist presentations in two categories: early-stage start-ups (founded in 2007, early-stage financing) and emerging start-ups (founded in 2005 and after, inbetween Series A & B funding). The organizing committee and jury selects the finalists to present at the awards event. Entrance into the running is free! Check the Peer Awards website for details.

There will be three awards in each category: jury, audience, and community (MoMo chapters). This year’s winners at the MobileMonday Peer Awards Barcelona will also be invited to participate in the Innovation Pad activities at the MobileMonday Global Summit in conjunction with the World Congress on IT in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 18-22, 2008.

Master of Ceremony is once again Mrs. Caroline Lewko, from the Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP).

The jury consists of some of the most recognized mobile industry experts and thinkers, currently confirmed:

• Carlos Domingo, General Director, Telefonica R&D;
• Ann Mei Chang, Mobile Engineering Director Google;
• Bena Roberts, Founder and Chief Analyst at BKI Media / GoMo News;
• Russell Buckley, Managing Director, AdMob Europe / Vice-Chairman of MMA’s EMEA;
• Carlo Longino, Mobhappy;
• Daniel Appelquist, Senior Technology Strategist, Vodafone Group;
• Madamohan Rao, Editor, The Asia-Pacific Internet Handbook;
• Jed Rice,VP, Market Development, Skyhook Wireless;
• Peter Vesterbacka, Founder, Some Bazaar;
• Jouko Ahvenainen, Chief Operating Officer, Xtract;
• Michael Wendell, General partner, Nexit Ventures;
• Sirous Kavehercy, Strategist and Consultant, Market Development Director at Acision;

The MobileMonday Peer Awards Barcelona 2008 are being organized collaboratively by the MobileMonday community and hosted by MobileMonday Barcelona. The event is free but you must register in advance since the 800 places will go quickly.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at Torre Mapfre in Barcelona.

Infused with the spirit of the early days of Jazz, the Mobile Jam Session is a day to inspire new ideas and innovate solutions to existing challenges. The purpose is focused, but the agenda is improvised along the way.

Caroline Lewko of the Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP) and myself are ‘jazzed’ about working together to bring you the first of - hopefully - many Mobile Jam Sessions. The idea emerged to open up the mobile ecosystem and connect experienced and talented developers, with industry experts and decision makers.

Most importantly we want this event to be driven by developers – what they want to hear, who they want to talk to, what they want to say… Any mobile developer can propose a hot topic he would like to to discuss with other mobile value chain players in a workshop and productive environment, simply add your name and topic to invitation list. Be prepared to be an active participant in the sessions.

The event is free of charge for all participants, coffee breaks, lunch and networking cocktail included. We’re looking for passionate, exciting and talented developers. We have confirmed participations from Telefonica, Vodafone Group, Telecom Italia, Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Yahoo!, Mystrands, Mobile Distillery, Trutap, Kimia, …

The event is hosted in the new MyStrands Barcelona offices in the Torre Mapfre at the Villa Olympica. MyStrands generously offers us the superb 350 square meter space on the 20th Floor of the building with a breathtaking view on all Barcelona, the city, the Olympic port and its beaches.

New tunes often come from unlikely associations, so… Jam on!

The Mobile World Congress is coming near, so I’m starting to announce some side events I’m involved in.

The third 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).

Last year’s event, which was also organized by myself with the much appreciated help from blog pal Stuart Mudie, and was attended by over seventy people (check who attended last year here). This time round, there’s going to be some more free Belgian beer, generously provided again by the good people at MyStrands.

I you would like to catch up with some mobile passionates, Mobilists and MobileMonday founders, mixed with some healthy dose of ususal suspect bar-hangers, this is your spot to be. What possible reason can you have not to join us? To confirm your attendance, simply add your name and URL to the Mobile Sunday Barcelona wiki.

This gathering will be held at the BelChica bar (10 minutes walk from the Congress).

More cool event announcements coming here any day soon now, so stay tuned!

I wanted to thank my readers, collegues, online buddies and friends for sharing some great moments with me this year. Some of you I just met but already left an impression, and others I enjoyed working together on innovative projects and events, or just exchanged opinion on the mobile phone and its interaction between people and objects.

One of the main drivers in my work is to innovate through collaboration, meet wonderful and diverse people that keep things interesting, dashed with spirit and surprise and truly unique… it really enriches my life.

From the Peer Awards in Barcelona, ¡nnovate!Europe in Zaragoza, TechTalk in Menorca, the Global Summit in Helsinki & St. Petersburg, Mobile 2.0 in San Francisco, Under The Radar in Mountain View and LeWeb3 in Paris, there were man great moments and events, not to forget the many MobileMonday events we organised this year in Barcelona and launched in Madrid … I enjoyed every bit of 2007.

I’m already looking forward to some new projects starting in 2008 and events like DLD Munich, Lift 08 in Geneva and another Peer Awards in Barcelona, stay tuned on mTrends!

Special kudos to Kelly and Lisa at gotomedia, Russell and Carlo at MobHappy, Caroline, Carles, Francesco and Gabriel, Jari and all MobileMonday chapter organizers, Carlos and his team, Debbie and her team, Peter and his team, Markus, Barcelona Media, IE Business School, Gregory, Mike, Peter and Daniel from Mobile 2.0 Conference, Steve and his team at Taptu, Prash, Raimo and last but not least my collegue bloggers and anyone working on innovative mobile technology.

I wish you all a very happy new year and a prosperous and successful 2008.

Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!

Many readers have been contacting me regarding interesting side events during the Mobile World Congress (formerly known as 3GSM) from February 11-15 here in Barcelona. There’s too much happening in too few days - as usual - I’m working on a couple of networking parties involving many blogger friends and mobile value chain industry people, developers, VCs, and press. Anyone interesting in sponsoring such events, please contact me directly (email in sidebar).

The next MobileMonday Barcelona event on November 5 covers Mobile Web Applications. The last 2 months the action and debate on web & mobile convergence has been intenser than ever. We’ll have a closer look on popular mobile web applications such as WidSets and the recentlly launched Mippin and we’ll have a discussion on the challenges of innovative interfaces for mobile applications.

Invited speakers this time are Andrés Lozano Sañudo (Nokia) who will present the latest on WidSets, Prashant Agarwal (Refresh Mobile) who will introduce their new service called Mippin; and Raquel Navarro from Barcelona Media - Innovation Centre will talk about the challenges of innovative interfaces for mobile applications. I will do an introduction and overview on the topic.

More details at MobileMonday Barcelona website.