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.

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.

Thanks to all who enjoyed our N97 + Ovi and Palm Pre reviews ! Some resources from Rob Manson and Oliver Weidlich for you budding Palm Pre developers:-

• The first use video
  
• The collection of video’s from CES - some interesting stuff here
  (Rob showed part of Chapter 6 at MoMoSyd)
• And definitely checkout the webOS book
  
• The developer blog
  
• And their new opensource portal (which is just really a busybox repos)
  http://opensource.palm.com/
  
• AND last but not least, Palm Developer Central
  http://developer.palm.com/

Plus, Michael Stone from Amethon also posted his fascinating mobile analytics presentation online as promised - see below:

Finally, technical snags and presenting this during intermission meant we really didn’t do justice to Chris Simon of Bracketboys’ short N95 video and remixed music - so here it is again. Enjoy!

Wide Open Space2: 2nd Vimeo Weekend Project:Independence from Chris Simon on Vimeo.

See you on the 3rd of August 2009 at our next Mobile Monday Sydney event!

The Mobile Monday Crew

We’ve got another huge Mobile Monday lined up for you next week.  The theme is iPhone applications and we’re getting presentations from a couple of different perspectives:

1. From the client side: The infamous Chris Winter is coming to talk about why the ABC decided to build an iPhone application and how it fits into their mobile strategy.

2. From the smaller mobile developers (& the amazing TigerSpike): We’re going to have quick 2 minute interviews with some local iPhone developers who have native apps on the App Store.  These include: iceTV, Check My Tubes, Optus Mobile Usage Meter, VFest, Xiao CiDian and Pocket Weather AU (Download them all from iTunes App Store before the night

3. From the iPhone/Mobile 2.0 specific developers: Keith Ahern from MoGeneration (see post below for more details)

Look forward to seeing you Monday night!

> RSVP NOW!

:: 6.30pm for 7pm, Mon 4th May 2009
:: Level 3 @ The Blacket Hotel
:: Entry on King Street via the Blacket Hotel. (Here’s a map)

App-Tastic!

Apple recently announced 1 billion iPhone apps had been downloaded from their App Store. How can your app get discovered amongst the 25,000 already there !?

To answer this question, we’re very happy to welcome Keith Ahern of mogeneration who will show us  what it takes to get a viable presence on the App Store and get noticed. Keith will also talk about when to do a mobile web site, when to do an app and when to take a hybrid approach.

Keith Ahern (Founder and CEO, mogeneration)

Keith has over 13 years of innovative software and service development, five of which has been in mobile. Keith was previously Mobile Technology Manager for News Digital Media (online division of News Ltd), where he helped grow NDM’s mobile channel from simple SMS services to engaging mobile websites with millions of page views each month. Keith’s career began  with web pioneer Netscape in Silicon Valley working on the Navigator browser and later worked for Philips Research and Development Palo Alto where he was granted two US patents. Keith has a BInfTech & Telecom (Hons) from the University of Limerick, Ireland.

MoGeneration has the following web apps and native apps for iPhone:

• Lingopal - Chat, flirt and insult in 42 languages on your iPhone
• Xumii - One iPhone Social Networking app - all social networks: Facebook, MySpace, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Flickr etc.
• OzWeather - the best weather app for Australian iPhone users - #1 in the Australian App Store (co-dev with OzPDA)
• Moo Shake! - a fun educational iPhone game for kids - #2 Kids game in the Australian & US App Store
• The Australian Business Edition for iPhone - The Australian on iPhone
• TrueLocal - Find, Plan and Share Australian businesses while on the go.

As ever, promises to be a fun + entertaining night. Bring your mobiles and business cards, and RSVP now to secure your place. Mobile Monday Sydney is a free event.

DON’T FORGET - It’s at LEVEL 3 upstairs at the Blacket Hotel

> RSVP NOW!

:: 6.30pm for 7pm, Mon 13th October 2008
:: The Privilege Bar (part of the Blacket Hotel
:: Entry on George St., (corner George and King.) Map here.

iPhone App Development - sponsored by SMSPoll
The final part of our series on Mobile Futures has us taking a close look at an exciting explosion in innovation and opportunity : the iPhone Mobile App Store phenomenon.

With event sponsorship by recent Pitch NSW ‘08 winners SMSPoll - thanks guys !

Mobile App Stores - Critical to Device Success?
Arguably pioneered by Nokia under a different (albeit clumsier guise), the App Store Concept has been a stellar overnight success for Apple via its iPhone+iTunes platform.

“In its first month, Apple’s App Store sold more than 60 million programs, pulling in an average of $1 million per day…” source: WSJ, Mon Aug 11, 2008,

The iPhone App Store let’s you buy everything from humble widget-style services to full-3D haptic-controlled computer games direct from an icon on the iPhone touchscreen (and also lets you pay using your iTunes account details). You can then manage and backup your purchases the next time you sync your music and photos via iTunes. We’ve tried it - its seamless. No wonder its been a roaring success.

Some grumbles have been heard from developers about Apple’s ‘mysterious black box app approvals process’ of course - something Google is already noting is an out-of-the-box advantage of Android and their much anticipated App store. You gotta love competition.

iPhone Web Apps - Design, Code, & Profit
We thought the best way to get up-close to this ‘phenomenon’ is to get some pals from MoMo to share their journey in this exciting space - so to that end we’re excited to welcome the experienced iPhone dev team from Key Options Development, consisting of

Marcus Schappi – Sweeper
Tim Chandler – Coder

who’ll be talking about their experiences with developing iPhone Apps, including the Qantas app available in the iTunes store now, via these themes :
Design
• The Three Rules of Designing iPhone Web Apps

Code (Tim)
• Taking advantage of the iPhone

and Profit (Marcus)
• App Store Top 100 Calculations.

Presentations and discussions will be ably compered by Mobile Monday Sydney’s own Oliver Weidlich, himself something of an iPhone app design guru.

Bring your mobiles & business cards
Should be a fascinating night with demos, stories from the cutting-edge, and fascinating personalities and people to meet. Come along and meet your peers in the Sydney mobile and wireless industry! Entry is free, but to guarantee your place click here to RSVP.

:: 6.30pm for 7pm, Mon 1st September 2008
:: The Privilege Bar (part of the Blacket Hotel
:: Entry on George St., (corner George and King.) Map here.

Do you love or hate your mobile?
The second part of our series on Mobile Futures - this time focusing on what we all know to be true : user experience is absolutely vital to humanising technology.

At the very beginning of what may well come to be known as the era of multi-touch, we’re going to be examining some different aspects of the user experience with some of Australia’s stars in the field.

iPhone Usage Analysis
James Cleary from groundbreaking Australian mobile company Amethon will speak to this topic, presenting some of their analysis of iPhone usage.

Defining Perceived Value in Mobile Media
Mobile expert Mac Walker will be discussing a new model for understanding customer perceived value in mobile services, drawing on his years as a manager of 3G mobile portals.

Mobile User Experience
Finally, Sheen Yap - Head of User Experience and Creative Services at 3 Mobile will be talking about the critical elements of the user experience on mobile.

Bring your mobile !
Should be a fascinating night with plenty of real-world insights and lots of opportunities to meet new people, make personal and professional contacts, and be inspired. Come along and meet your peers in the Sydney mobile and wireless industry!

RSVP now, and to see how we roll checkout these pictures from last month’s show. See you there !