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This year will be the sixth time I set out to got to the 3GSMWorldCongress for a week packed with excitement and new wireless impressions and thoughts. Since Web 2.0 grew up and I started blogging, my 3GSM experience has changed dramatically. Before, I mainly went to the congress to listen to presentations and to discover new things. I rarely met new people and if at all, conversations where short and usually revolved around the product the person’s company was working. In many ways my real live behavior reflected the static web at the time, where information was mainly flowing in one direction, i.e. from big news web sites to people.In the meantime, the web has changed a lot and so has my 3GSM congress experience. I think I am quite well anchored in the Web 2.0 these days with my blogging activities. Over time, these activities have brought me together with quite a number of extraordinary people, mostly bloggers and information has started to flow both ways. My web experience has changed completely and instead of 1 to many broadcast communication I am now much more involved in many to many conversations. Web 2.0 at it’s best!

The same has happened for me at the congress. Last year was the first time I ever met some people at the congress (or at the Mobile Sunday to be precise) with whom I communicated before but never met in real life. It were only a few but during that week I made the acquaintance of many more who’s writings I’ve been following on the web since then. This year’s going to be even better. The mobile blogging sphere is well established by now and judging from the list of participants of the Mobile Sunday and the hundreds of people having registered for the Mobile Monday Global Peer Awards, personal communication and meeting these people again have become almost more important than the congress itself.

For those of you being unable to come to Barcelona this year I expect the coverage of the congress and exhibition on the net to be as good as never before, thanks again to Web 2.0 and the Mobile Web 2.0. I’ll keep you posted about my thoughts and experiences here at m-trends and on my technology blog and will send the pictures I take directly from the mobile phone to flickr.

Russell Buckley just announced about the Carnival of the Mobilist “Host of the Year” award to be anounced at the Mobile Monday Global Peer Awards taking place during 3GSM in Barcelona.

The winner receives a sponsored trip (airfare and accommodation) to the Mobile Monday Summit in Helsinki later in the year and everlasting fame, respect and awe among the Mobilist community. And this is on top of any prize money they may have won from the nice folks at Khosla Ventures for Host of the Month.Here are the rules:

Only previous hosts are eligible to vote. Vote by dropping an email to Russell (russell AT mobhappy DOT com) with “Host of the Year” in the title. A list of hosts can be seen here, so you have to be on this list to vote and be eligible to be voted for.

Russell withdraws from the competition as an organiser, but in the event of a tie, he’ll cast the deciding vote, so be nice to him Cast your votes now before you forget.

You can vote for me of course, Carnival of the Mobilists #33, I previously got selected for best host of the month in the awards sponsored by Khosla Ventures for June. You can still vote for my post of the week from August in the 41th edition of the Carnival of the Mobilists of Justin Oberman at his MOpocket site. That post relates actually to the “Connecting cultures through Music” article I wrote for Vodafone Receiver.

Back to the Peer Awards, check also the list of nominated finalists presenting for the best mobile innovation in the last year, at the Mobile Monday Global Peer Awards. Each MobileMonday chapter nominated a local company and an expert jury gets to choose the best, there is an audience award and a MoMo chapter award, complete program here. If you haven’t registered yet, don’t wait any longer not to be left out, registration closes this Wednesday, only few seats left.

Many of you have been sending mails with questions related to 3GSM World Congress info, events and parties, MobileMonday and mobilists gatherings happening around. I tried to answer to everyone but sorry if you’d have been looked over, my mailbox looks pretty bold these these. If you want to know where the action is going to be, here’s where I will hang out during 3GSM, good chance you’ll find some other mobile bloggers or mobilists around

You can drop me an email of course if you want to get together at the conference or if you want to catch up with me somewhere around. Here is where you can find me during that busy week. I’m really looking forward to meet the real people behind the screens, meet friends and buddies and make new and interesting business contacts!

Sunday, February 11, at 6pm

MobileSunday Barcelona, an informal meet-up in Barcelona of mobile bloggers and anyone with an interest in mobility. If you like football (soccer!), Barcelona Football Club is playing that evening at 7pm and there will be screens for you to watch the game. Before and after the match, partyStrands will be running.

Where? Belchica; Sign up here!

Monday, February 12th, at 3pm

Mobile Monday Global Peer Awards 2007 . The event I have been organizing with
Carles Ferreiro and Barcelona Media for MoMo Barcelona. MoMo Italy, MoMo Helsinki, MoMo London and MoMo New York have also taken active roles setting up this project.

Check here for the finalists (list has grown to 23 now!), all of them exceptionally innovative companies in mobile from all over the globe who will present in front of a world-class jury including:

• Carlos Domingo, General Director, Telefonica R&D
• Carlo Longino, analyst, Techdirt Corporate Intelligence
• Daniel Appelquist, Senior Technology Strategist and Program Manager, Vodafone Group Research & Development
• Kelly Goto, principal at gotomedia, LLC
• Michel Wendell, General Partner, Nexit Ventures
• Oliver Starr, serial entrepreneur, editor MobileCrunch
• Peter Vesterbacka, founder of Some Bazaar
• Russell Buckley, Managing Director, AdMob Europe

and moderated by Caroline Lewko from Wireles Industry Partnership, all this for FREE, can you digg?

Where: Espacio Movistar

Don’t wait any longer to register, seats are getting scarse and we’re closing subscription by Wednesday.

Tuesday, February 13th, from 6,30pm to 8,30pm

Swedish Beers. Swedish Beers is an ad-hoc London based mobile networking event run by Steve Flaherty of Keitai Culture and Helen Keegan of BeepMarketing. During 3GSM, the bar Belchica (just a stone’s throw from the Congress) will be the place to meet. partyStrands will be running here too!

More info: Swedish Beers

Tuesday, February 13th, from 8pm to 2am

Ericsson social event. Awaken your senses. Based around senses, guests will experience an exciting and stimulating multi-sensual evening with good food, drinks and entertainment. partyStrands here again with food for your eyes and music for your ears! This is a VIP party so don’t send mails for tickets, I cannot get any!

Wednesday, February 14th, evening

I will normally attend the Wireless World Forum / iHollywood networking party at Camp Nou but haven’t received latest details yet, I’ll update here asap I’ll receive them.

MobileMonday Barcelona anounced the first 11 finalists for the Global Peer Awards 2007 event earlier this week, now MobileMonday anounced all 20 finalists that will compete for the awards in Barcelona on February 12 at Espacio Movistar.

Here are the 2007 MobileMonday Global Peer Awards finalists — congratulations to all, and good luck during the competition!

• Bangalore — mChek
• Barcelona — MyStrands
• Beijing — Silk Road Telecommunication
• Boston — Skyhook Wireless
• Brussels — Ontrack Navigation
• Delhi — Wirkle
• Geneva — Plazes
• Helsinki — UpCode
• Italy — Barefoot Software
• London — Reporo
• Melbourne — Locatrix
• Paris — Realeyes3D
• Silicon Valley — Mobile Complete
• Singapore — Tagit
• Shanghai — mInfo
• St Petersburg — Jamango
• Tokyo — Naviblog
• Ukraine — Nival Online
• Vancouver — RX Networks
• Washington, DC — Rave Wireless

Stay tuned, first hand news on this event here at m-trends.org!

MobileMonday Barcelona anounced the first series of finalists for this years MobileMonday Global Peer Awards.

The Global Peer Awards finalists are best-in-breed companies who have demonstrated exceptionally innovative mobile technologies, services and concepts. Most finalists have reached this point by prevailing in a local selection process organized at the local MoMo chapter level.

Here are the 1st series of winners, more will be anounced the next days at mobilemonday.net. (in alphabetical chapter order)

• Barcelona - MyStrands
• Beijing - Silk Road Telecommunication
• Brussels - Ontrack Navigation
• Geneva - Plazes
• Helsinki - UpCode
• London - Reporo
• Delhi - Wirkle
• Paris - Realeyes3D
• Singapore - Tagit
• Tokyo - Naviblog
• Ukraine - Nival Online

Stay updated at MobileMonday Barcelona website for more news on the event!

The MobileMonday Global Peer Awards 2007 during the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona is being organized collaboratively by the MobileMonday community. Hosted by MoMo Barcelona, MoMo Italy, MoMo Helsinki, MoMo London and MoMo New York have also taken active roles.

Xen Mendelsohn hosts the 59th edition of the Carnival of the Mobilists at Xellular Identity. Check it out, as always, probably the best in blog writing on mobility issues from last week, summarized for you in one blogpost. Great job, Xen and thanks for the MobileSunday Barcelona and MoMo Global Peer Awards 2007 reminders!

Last year, as a starter for 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Stuart Mudie came up with the idea to get together with some other mobile bloggers. We hadn’t decided on a place to meet until one week before the event, since we wanted to consider any good suggestion for a cool bar…

Stuart just anounced he activated another wikipage to prepare for another informal MobileSunday Barcelona getting together in Barcelona. Expect some mobile passionates, mobilists and founders of MobileMonday chapters mixed with some healthy dose of ususal suspect bar-hangers. As for any good gathering, women (working) in mobile are highly appreciated to join us for a drink to keep some healthy gender equilibre in our sector.

If you want to kick off your week at 3GSM by attending “an unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums”, simply add your name to the MobileSunday Barcelona wiki and turn up on the night, place to be anounced later.

If you like football (soccer!), FC Barcelona is playing that night and there will be screens for you to watch the game, in a true Barcelona tradition. Before and after the match, we will have partyStrands running.

FYI: Stuart will not be present this time but since we like some magic once in while, we’ll intend to connect with him in a non-presential, 21st-century mobile kind of way. Stay tuned for more details.

MobileMonday created a Global Peer Award miniwebsite where you can find all the related info to participate to the Global Peer Awards 2007 in Barcelona on February 12. Information on the program, the awards, how to subscribe, how to mominate a company, how to become a sponsor, venue, etc. This is your chance to witness some of the world’s best mobile innovations. Selected by industry peers, peer award finalists will compete live before the community and a world class jury.

The offical nomination registration is now open for companies to become a nominee and make it to the final. Each MobileMonday chapter will choose their favourite mobile startup company on January 31st to present it’s project to the jury of experts at the event in Barcelona.

Also on the menu: The Carnival of Mobilists will select their ‘Host of the Year’ and win a complimentary trip to Helsinki for the MobileMonday Global Summit in May.

Note that some chapters have chosen already their winner, and some MobileMonday’s are still helding pre-selections to name their winner. Some interesting events happening still this month:

MobileMonday Ukraine is holding it’s pre-selection on January 22 to announce the company-finalist of the Ukrainian selection for the Global Peer Awards 2007.

MoMo London has published a short-list that comprises UK based start-ups that have demoed to London MoMo since the last MoMo Global Peer Awards in May 06 in Helsinki. Voting on the short list will take place after the event on Monday 15th Jan and will remain open till Friday 19th Jan.

Check also the MobileMonday New York on Monday January 29th at the Samsung Experience in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle. In collaboration with Antoine Quint of SVG.org, Dan Appelquist of Vodafone and MobileMonday-London, and Scott Weiss of Usable Products cordially invite you to join for this month’s event titled “Rich Mobile Experiences with SVG”. This half-day event will run from 3:00pm to 8:00pm followed by a networking reception.

Do not hesitate to register your attendance for the Global Peer Awards 2007 in Barcelona, the event is heading rapidly for a +500 event so seats might become limited after next week.

MobileMonday will start releasing some participating finalist companies next week!

The MobileMonday Global Peer Awards 2007 during the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona is being organized collaboratively by the MobileMonday community. Hosted by MoMo Barcelona, MoMo Italy, MoMo Helsinki, MoMo London and MoMo New York have also taken active roles.

Check MobileMonday webiste for a full list of chapters and new chapters to be opening soon. You may want to consult the Mobile Events calendar at upcoming.org for more MobileMondays around and other interesting events in mobility.

Coming to Barcelona for the 3GSM World Congress? Then don’t miss the MobileMonday Global Peer Awards 2007 on Monday, February 12th starting at 3PM. This is your chance to meet some of the world’s best mobile innovations. Selected by industry peers, peer award finalists will compete live before the community and a world-class jury.

Sticking with MoMo’s recipe for success, the fiesta will cook up a bunch of fresh innovations mixed with honest feedback and a dash of fun. Served with plenty of juicy networking at one of the hottest new locations in Barcelona, this is the perfect 3GSM appetizer.

Event Concept

15 to 20 global start-ups, previously selected by MobileMonday local chapters, will have a brief time slot to perform at centre stage and present their innovation in front of the audience and expert jury.

Innovation Awards

Among all the finalists at least 3 awards will be given:

• Expert Jury Award (see The Jury below);
• MoMo Community Award: MoMo organizers (from each chapter on site) will choose their winner;
• Audience Award: All participants will vote for their winner via SMS.

The Jury

For the Expert Jury Award, an independent jury of some of the most recognised mobile experts will evaluate the presentations, deliberate and select their winner.

Jury composition (confirmed):

• Oliver Star, MobileCrunch
• Carlo Longino, TechDirt Wireless, Mobhappy
• Kelly Goto, Gotomedia/gotomobile.com
• Russell Buckley, Mobhappy
• Peter Vesterbacka, Some Bazaar
• Daniel Appelquist, Senior Technology Strategist, Vodafone Group (Dan’s Blog)

After each performance, the jury will provide valuable feedback about the innovation.

Carnival of the Mobilists Award

There will be a voting for the ‘best host of the year’ from the Carnival of the Mobilists. The ‘mobilists’ as they call themselves have had an enormous impact on last years blogging community and have done a lot to bridge, reveal and support latest mobility developments.

The ‘prize’ for the Mobilist blogger of the year is sponsored by MobileMonday Global and consists of a sponsored trip to Helsinki for the Global Summit in May 2007 (including airfare and hotel accommodation).

The Venue – Espacio Movistar

Telefónica Móviles, the mobile arm of the Telefónica Group, opened in September 2006, the Espacio Movistar. This innovative, multidisciplinary, next-generation venue has been conceived to bring people closer to the latest creative trends in technology, music, art, cinema and entertainment, especially the young.

This space is a step further to consolidate Movistar as a reference brand associated to innovation, creativity, entertainment, communication and fun….

Nominations

Next to the MobileMonday chapter organizers, anyone will be able to nominate a mobile app or service for a MobileMonday Global Peer Award at the Peer Award website for this event. Entrance into the running is free. The only criteria for companies applying are the following:

• Companies willing to show off mobile-related innovations (products, services, technologies, concepts).
• Smaller, lesser-known, unestablished companies. Start-ups.
• Willingness to travel to the event at its own cost.

You can register at the MobileMonday Barcelona website if you’d like to attend the forthcoming MobileMonday Global Peer Awards 2007 in Barcelona, or to stay updated with information on MobileMonday events globally.

Oliver Starr’s got a thorough writeup of the latest edition of the Carnival of the Mobilists over at MobileCrunch. Check it out for the week’s best blogging about mobile. Check my review of a partyStrands beta-party in Madrid last week at the just launched partyStrands blog.

And here some pictures from host Caroline Lewko from the 2nd CTIA Gathering of Mobilists in LA last week. Next one scheduled during 3GSM 2007!