:: 6.30pm for 7pm start, Mon 1st February 2010
:: Note: New Venue is Level 1, The City Hotel (www.cityhotel.com.au)

:: Entry on King Street corner Kent Street.

We’ve survived the GFC!
It’s 2010!  We survived the noughties and more importantly the GFC.  Though we may bear the battle scars of 2009, it’s onwards and upwards for the mobile industry. We’ve got Apple launching iPad, the iPhone apps saving lives, Google launching their new phone and Mobile phones replacing stand alone sat-navs. And hopefully researchers do get to prove that mobile phone usage does decrease and reverse Alzheimer’s disease!

Here at Mobile Mondays, we’ve moved to higher ground and found ourselves a new home for 2010!  We’re now at the newly refurbished Kent Street Living Room - 1st floor of the City Hotel, corner of King and Kent Street, still very much in the heart of the city!

To open 2010, we’ve got:

Mobile Service Design

Smartphones, iPhones, iPads … more connected than ever before, mobile technology is increasingly intertwined with our personal, professional and social needs. Our mobile experiences are becoming blurred and blended into our sense of daily life. We no longer purchase a mobile device, we invest in a lifestyle. For businesses, this connectedness represents considerable opportunities, and challenges. Today, providing remarkable mobile user experiences requires us to recognise and design for key user and business drivers across multiple touch points and customer journeys, identifying the critical moments of engagement that influence customer motivations for service uptake. This presentation briefly discusses the role of Service Design in designing remarkable mobile experiences.

Sharing his thoughts on Mobile Service Design is Dr. Rod Farmer, who currently leads Online Experience Strategy for Vodafone Hutchison Australia. Rod promotes a systemic-view of design, bringing together Business, Design and Technology teams to view delivering valuable experiences as so much more than just the UI.

Innovation Patents
So, you’ve got this great new concept for a mobile app.  You’ve done your business case, you’ve got a project team with kick-off in sight, you even have a keen client waiting in the wings for you to deploy.  But wait, how do you protect and claim ownership to this IP?  Can you do so even if a similar (but not the same!) concept exists?

Bernard Adcock of ImpactIP joins us on Monday to explain Innovation Patents and how they’re even easier to obtain than the usual patent!  Bernard used to work for a number of start-up businesses including CommSoft, Edgematrix, B33hive, MIA and most recently for Soundbuzz.

Mobile ScreenFest
The first ever mobile phone film festival of its kind is coming to Australia!  Ground-breaking mobile film festivals such as this where participants use mobile phones to shoot a film and/or mobile phone photogoraphs have drawn large crowds around the world.  The highlight of the festival is the Festival Screening Day in late August where the mobile films and photographs are viewed on the big screen at a live event.

Presenting Mobile Screenfest is Dr. Avi Ratnanesan from Araya Pictures.  Avi is an award-winning filmmaker, entrepreneur and a member of the Screen Producers Association of Australia.  Araya Pictures is an innovative company in the film and digital entertainment industry that explores new ways of engaging audiences.

RSVP here to secure your place!

Don’t forget to get your tickets for ad:tech 2010! There’s a great range of topics and speakers on mobile, including:

- Integrating Mobile Apps into your Marketing Plan

- The Mobile Future: What You Won’t Be Able to Live Without

- The Key Drivers for Marketing on Mobile

Check out the full program here

ad:tech is the most thoroughly researched & targeted digital media event in Australia & NZ with a focus on how best to use mobile as part of your digital strategy and campaigns. The event includes the ad:tech EXHIBITION & ad:tech CONFERENCE so you can choose the level of participation that’s right for you.
Mobile Monday Members get at 15% discount off the full CONFERENCE - quote ATMM
Follow ad:tech on Twitter at #atsyd

——————- ——————- ——————- ——————-

Mobile Monday Sydney is a free Monthly networking event organised by Shane Williamson, Oliver Weidlich and  Gia Villondo part of the global Mobile Monday family. E-mail <firstname> @ mobilemondaysydney.com to get in touch with project presentation requests, sponsorship offers and speaking engagements.

Yes! it’s that time of year again; holidays and Christmas etc.  This year has been a great one for the mobile industry and for Mobile Monday.

Our end of year event is always a relaxed one and this year at Bungalow 8 down at King Street Wharf (from 6.30pm) there’ll be no presentations, just catching up with friends, drinking, and a little networking so you can line up all those deals for 2010.  We’ve got a couple of great sponsors who are going to put some money over the bar for a drink or two.

The first sponsor is Oliver Palmer and the gang at Tigerspike who are regular attendees and speakers at our events.  Check out some of their very impressive mobile case studies.

Then there’s also David McWhirter and the team at Touchpoint who have their own interesting case studies of interactive digital marketing solutions.

More sponsors are also welcome, so if you want to support the local mobile industry getting together for a chat and a drink, then feel free to contact us.

Unfortunately we have to move from our home at The Blackett Hotel, due to renovations, but we’ll be back in February 2010 to start the new year for Mobile Monday Sydney in a new venue.

So it’s going to be a huge Mobile Monday Sydney on November 2nd:

1. Opening with Michael Harries talking about the future of mobile

2. Danny & Nick from Insqribe talking about their QR Code/AR marketing solution

3. Last, but not least: Rob from MOB talking about:

Imagine looking around and seeing rich images, videos and
information overlaid upon each of the items you see.

This is no longer a sci-fi promise - it is available on your iPhone and
other modern mobile phones right now.  This presentation looks at where
this technology is today, the tools MOB have used and developed…and
where it’s headed in the near future.

We will look at the implications for developers, business, Government
and the Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums (GLAM) industry.
We will explore how this changes the concept of Public and not so Public
Spaces and how you relate to your customers/users.

Bio:
Rob Manson is Managing Director of MOB, an Innovation Lab based in
Sydney.  He has been working with cutting-edge technologies since the
early 90s and is focused upon creating tangible experiences that change
the way you see technology, business and the world around you.

MOB create innovative iPhone, Mobile and Internet based Applications and
have created Augmented Reality (AR) applications and ARt installations
for public display and consumer markets.

MOB’s customers include the Sydney Opera House, Sculpture by the Sea,
The Royal Eastershow, IAG, Warner Music and St George to name a few.
Recently MOB have created a Mobile Augmented Reality experience using
historic images of Sydney that the Powerhouse Museum released to the
Flickr Commons, a Mobile AR experience for Sculpture by the Sea and MOB
regularly contribute to the Open Government/Open Data movement in
Australia including mentoring on Mobile & AR development at
http://govhack.org and http://hackfest.openaustralia.org

:: 6.30pm for 7pm start, Mon 2nd November 2009
:: Level 3 @ The Blacket Hotel
:: Entry on King Street via the Blacket Hotel. (Here’s a map)

We’ll be having a couple of talks about Augmented Reality at our next Mobile Monday, the first will be by the guys at Insqribe (Danny Housseas - Co-founder and Chief Product Officer & Nick Gonios - Business focus and growth dude

Acratus Pty Ltd has launched a real-time marketing platform called Insqribe. The Insqribe platform uniquely enables brands, marketing agencies and mobile developers to present, track and measure mobile Augmented Reality (AR) and QR codes on mobile consumer services in real time.

The Acratus team will present successful QR code case studies & insights and also demonstrate the Insqribe mobile AR platform.

Insqribe

:: 6.30pm for 7pm start, Mon 2nd November 2009
:: Level 3 @ The Blacket Hotel
:: Entry on King Street via the Blacket Hotel. (Here’s a map)

For our November event we are looking into the future!

To set the scene we’ve invited Michael Harries to come and present, here’s an overview of his talk:

The mobile internet is exciting today and continues to rapidly evolve – this talk will touch on some of the forces driving the phenomena today and tomorrow, ranging from the pragmatic - such as access to business applications with the Citrix receiver – and voice as the killer app, through to design, animism, and ultimately a new era of ambient devices.

Michael will be presenting at November Mobile Monday Sydney

Dr Michael Harries is Director of Strategy and Communications at Citrix Systems, CTO Office and Citrix Labs. As part of the Research and Development team, Dr Michael’s remit is to keep Citrix ahead of technological and market innovation. Within the CTO Office, Dr Michael acts as a technology futurist with broad interests across new computing technologies. In Citrix Labs, he steers research and investigation activities toward innovative new technologies and strategic entry to new markets. Michael holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and a Bachelor of Economics.

The second part of the evening will see some presentations by Augmented Reality companies.  We’ll find out what’s happening in this new field and hopefully get a demo or two.  We’ll post some more details over the next couple of days…

:: 6.30pm for 7pm start, Mon 2nd November 2009
:: Level 3 @ The Blacket Hotel
:: Entry on King Street via the Blacket Hotel. (Here’s a map)

MOBILE MARKETING PITCH CHALLENGE

Heads up - the next Mobile Monday Sydney event will be a live Pitch Challenge with up to five mobile marketing firms pitching ideas to our real client - to be judged by a select panel of experts.

THE CLIENT

We’re delighted to be welcoming Green Pages (www.thegreenpages.com.au) to the Mobile Monday Sydney fold. The exact detailed brief will be given on the night (at 6.30, before the main event begins), allowing Pitch Teams to prepare their responses.

Green Pages (or GP for short) has as its mission “To grow the green economy by providing positive, fun and informative media that inspires people to purchase green products and services.”

…PITCH TEAMS : 2 SLOTS TAKEN, 3 STILL FREE!

Two firms have already answered our challenge, and we’ve got three free places to go. You only need two team members, and to have done a mobile marketing campaign for a paying client. The client will verbally brief all teams from 6.30pm on the night, and each team will have 45 minutes to put their ideas together, either as slides or selective creds, or whatever they think will convey their concept. Send your agency details, names of team members and a link to your agency website/credentials to pitch <at > mobilemondaysydney.com, and the first qualifying entries will be in the spotlight on the night, and promoted via our Monday e-mails and blog post updates to the entire industry.

…INTRODUCING OUR JUDGES

Our esteemed panel includes Green Pages founder Katie Patrick, The Project Factory’s mobile marketing svengali and veteran Jennifer Wilson (fresh from MIPCOM in Cannes), and News Digital Media’s Carrier Relationships Manager (and ace industry veteran) Carl Poplett. They’ll be hard, but fair - and at the end a winner will be declared !

HAVE A GO !

There’s nothing like the rush of competition so if you’re up for a stimulating challenge, have a go and pitch in. It should also be fun to spectate on the night so don’t forget to bring your business cards because it’s proving to be another big night for Mobile Monday Sydney.

We look forward to seeing you there! RSVP here.

Following on from last night’s very well-attended m-commerce event at Mobile Monday Sydney, here’s a link to a Terrapin event website for m-commerce Asia 2010:

… the key stats from this event flyer are worth extracting :

“In Asia, mobile commerce transactions are expected to reach almost $500 million, according to Gartner research. Gartner also forecasts 2.4 billion transactions will take place in Asia, more than anywhere else in the world.”

This of course in stark contrast to the low-key predictions of our speakers Harold (m-Hits), Chris (Pay by Snap) and Tasha (PayPal) about the glacially slow progress of m-commerce in Australia where ‘there’s just no compelling need for anyone - especially banks - to change the status quo’.

Comments on that anyone ?

Photos!

Above: the erudite Gia Villondo in full swing :

Above: our panellists Chris, Tasha and Harald tackling questions around a nascent m-commerce industry in Australia

See you next month on the 5th of October for our live client-agency pitch event !

Mobile Payments!

Its time to focus in on that bridesmaid of the Mobile sector, m-payments - at least in Australia, and find out how the market is evolving as we move towards internet-device ubiquity.

Joining us on Monday will be:

mHITs

PAYbySNAP
PAYbySNAP is an innovative mobile payments product that allows businesses to offer mobile payment options to consumers at a fraction of the cost of existing services, opening up mobile opportunities to companies that were previously unimpressed by the high cost and poor accessibility of existing offerings.

Chris Noone is a Director of Nitro Media and Grabber Pty Ltd and is spearheading the launch of the PAYbySNAP mobile payments product. Following a successful career in marketing, Chris became involved in the digital industry in 1995, when ‘digital’ pretty much meant ‘video games’. First joining Roadshow Interactive and then managing the Asia Pacific business for video games publisher MicroProse, he then moved to London to manage the international business for Hasbro Interactive. In 2001 he established the mobile games business for Vodafone in Europe and later became Head of Business Development & Content. Chris was Managing Director of Gamer.tv in, an innovative television production company that pioneered the production of made for mobile video. In 2005 Chris returned to Australia as Group Mobile Director for ninemsn where was responsible for the company’s diverse mobile interests including Hotmail, Messenger, 5^th Finger, HWW entertainment guides, mobile advertising and content services.

The Business of Mobile (sponsored by Message Stick Communications)

Our next Mobile Monday Sydney is all about how Australian businesses are working with mobile. Come along for some FREE DRINKS at our Level 3 venue at the Blacket Hotel sponsored by Message Stick Communications.

http://www.messagestick.com.au

Message Stick Communications is a successful Aboriginal-owned communications company that has been operating since November 2003.

Message Stick provides niche communication services to Australia’s top corporates including Macquarie Bank, Insurance Australia Group, Bupa Australia, St George Bank, Seek, MBF Health, Federal Government, NSW Department of Education, CitiBank, QBE Insurance, and Accor Hotels.

Sourcing innovative and exciting applications both domestically and internationally to provide to its corporate clients, Message Stick are now looking to partner with mobile services companies to expand their offerings to corporate Australia.

Michael McLeod is the CEO and Founder and he will deliver a quick presentation about his life and his company.

The drinks are on Message Stick so come along and meet Michael and his team!

We are also very fortunate to have Warren Chaisatien who is the Principle Analyst of Mobile & Wireless at Telsyte. Warren will be talking about the latest statistics and trends in mobile usage in Australian businesses.

Then to close the night off we will indulge our panel of professionals on Mobile in Australian Businesses.

Look forward to seeing you there! RSVP here.

MEGA - Growing Australia’s Digital Economy

MEGA is an Entrepreneurial Masterclass delivered by digital industry leaders running in parallel in Melbourne and Sydney from Aug - Nov 2009. MEGA gives digital creatives, mobile experts, technologists, developers, the tools, networks, personal insights and street wisdom to launch new products, build support networks, raise finance, and start new businesses in digital, online, mobile and greenIT.

Checkout the video :-

There’s also more info in the slideshare :-

We’ve got a world-class line-up of mentors, and places are filling fast. Applications for the Sydney program close this Friday 31st July 2009 - checkout MEGA.org.au for application forms.

MEGA NSW is supported by AIMIA, Telstra, News Digital Media, The Australia Council, the NSW Dept. of State and Regional Development, the University of Technology, Metro Screen, Design Centre Enmore, The Project Factory, TigerSpike, mogeneration, Digital Ministry, mHits, Ideal Interfaces, and of course Mobile Monday Sydney.