16 Sept 2009

Handheld Learning Conference, London, 5 - 7 October 09

 

Graham from Learning Without Frontiers has been in touch to tell us about the conference he’s organising – The Handheld Learning Conference 2009. It’s in its fifth year (so nearly as old as Mobile Monday London then!) and features a wide variety of speakers (including some famous names) and 1500 or so delegates and will be held at The Brewery at The Barbican from Oct 5 – 7. More details on the conference and speakers later on in this post.

Anyway, there’s a couple of reasons Graham has been in touch. The first is obviously to promote the event (which looks rather good I have to say) and offer Mobile Monday London members a 15% discount off the list price – the early bird  price is just £375 (valid until 25th September) and the late booking price is £425. So 15% off those prices is not to be sniffed at. To take advantage of the discount, please use code momohhl09 on the registration page.

Not only that, there’s a free element to the event. Yes, we all like free! The first day of the event, Monday 5th October, is open to the general public and is free to enter. So that means anyone with a passing interest in mobile learning related stuff will get a chance to sample the exhibition and some free seminars as well. And not only that, there’s going to be a party and awards ceremony that night, hosted by The Gadget Show’s very own Jason Bradbury, which us MoMoLo’ers are all invited to to hang out at, especially it being a Monday evening ‘n all. Turn up from 7pm and the jollity will be going on until 10.30pm. I imagine there’ll be a few familiar faces there, mine included!

So here’s a little bit more about the conference lifted from their website to give you a flavour of what’s on offer…

The Handheld Learning Conference is the world’s leading event about learning using mobile and inexpensive access technologies, attended by more than 1,500 international delegates.

Lead speakers for 2009 include:

With many others soon to be announced.

Now in its fifth year the event has become the largest of it’s kind; bringing together thought leaders, innovators, practitioners, developers, policy and decision makers from the education, technology and entertainment sectors.

Over 3 stimulating days this group will demonstrate, debate and explore how mobile technologies such as phones, entertainment devices, GPS locators, and netbooks can be deployed to enable transformational improvements in learning across schools, home, further education, training and business.

This year’s theme is "Creativity, Innovation, Inclusion & Transformation" recognising that 2009 is the European year of creativity and innovation, and the value these elements have to learning, whilst identifying that real transformation will only occur following universal inclusion e.g. Home Access.

As always the conference will stage an excellent mix of inspirational talks from leading thinkers and practitioners, lively interactive debates, learners and practitioner showcases, special interest breakouts, networking and social sessions, plus an exhibition featuring the principle industry leaders.

15 Sept 2009

Vote for your favourite start-up and help them win Vodafone Mobile Clicks

We're coming to  the end of the Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition now and we have our 6 finalists. They'll be off to PICNIC next week in Amsterdam to fight it out to win hard cash for their start-up. There's 150k Euros up for grabs so it's a tough one. And there are six excellent finalists to choose from too. It wasn’t easy to get to the final six, but we did. There are three finalists from the UK and three from the Netherlands and there are 3 cash prizes up for grabs out of a total prize fund of 150k Euros.

The jury for the final is Richard Titus, Lee Epting, Rudy de Waele, Vincent Everts & Heike Scholz.

But it's not just down to the jury. Mobile Monday London members have a part to play in the process too. There has already been public voting which closes this Friday which is open to anyone http://www.vodafonemobileclicks.com/vote/ but in addition, we have been asked to create a poll so you can choose your favourite start-up and who you would give a prize too. The votes from Mobile Monday London members will be weighted more heavily than the public vote, so your vote really does count.

I've opened up the poll over at Yahoo Groups (I couldn't find a better way to run it so that it was one vote per person). If you're not already signed up to Yahoo Groups, then please sign up and make sure you fill in the bit that says why you want to join the group so we know you're genuine.
Our friends at Mobile Monday Amsterdam are going through a similar process and have already been busy voting.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/momolondon/polls

There is just one vote so use it wisely, but please DO vote! The poll will be open for a week only and will close on 22nd September in advance of the finalists heading off to Amsterdam.

And in case you're wondering who the companies are and would like a bit more info, then here you go...

Woobius http://www.woobius.com/ (UK)
A service for the construction industry allowing them to collaborate by gathering all info & data in one place with access for the team. With the help of Woobius Eye for mobile, it is possible to solve problems & reduce build costs & the number of mistakes made.

Rummble http://www.rummble.com/ (UK)
A service that recommends content to the user, based on people with the same interests and hobbies. By sharing information and creating a trust network, the customer will get more interesting & relevant content.

Mobypicture http://www.mobypicture.com/ (NL)
Share photos, videos & audio with friends at social network sites like hyves, facebook and twitter with one press of a button.

Audioboo http://audioboo.fm/ (UK)
Directly record audio (eg interviews or quotes) & share it with social network sites like twitter and facebook. The last recorded, most popular and featured "boos" from the community can be played as well.

Layar http://layar.com/ (NL)
A browser that uses 'augmented reality' so a user can see what is in their surroundings by looking through the camera of their handset.

MyNameIsE http://www.mynameise.com/ (NL)
Connecting people on & offline by gathering their profiles on various social networks in one place. These can be shared in real life via mobile or bespoke device, The Connector.

Thanks everyone and please get voting!

14 Sept 2009

Over The Air – two days of mobile goodness

After a short hiatus, we’re glad to be supporting Over The Air again this year. It’s a veritable 34-hour mobile fest starting on Friday 25th September at 9am at Imperial College, London. Proceedings close at 7pm on Saturday 26th September.

“Over the Air is a grass-roots mobile developer event that is completely unique in the mobile industry events calendar – it is free to attend, is hands-on in the style of hackdays and barcamps, covers the cutting edge of current mobile development (as opposed to glossy future-speak or sales-pitches), and features bean bags, a big party and an overnight sleep-over. There will also be a competition at the end of the event for the best categories of applications created during the event, with many great prizes.

This year’s programme is currently being put together, but will once again feature technical presentations, tutorials, workshops, and break-out rooms. Expect topics such as Open Source, Java, Symbian (Series-60), Mobile Web, Mobile Ajax, Android, Mobile Linux, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, etc. If you would like to run a session at Over the Air, please take moment to fill in our session suggestion form ( http://bit.ly/ota2009session ). (I believe there may be a couple of slots left if you’re quick - ed.) The sessions will be 55 minutes in length and while the focus of the event is on mobile development, we are also accepting sessions on user experience and design and we are putting together some sessions on mobile art including (hopefully) a mobile film festival.”

This year’s sponsors are Betavine, Lonely Planet, OMTP, Forum Nokia, Yahoo! Developer Network.

There are still places left so do sign up and join the fun with fellow mobilists from the UK, Spain and beyond.