‘Work and Life with the Cloud’

Dieser Samstag auf der CeBIT 2011 war gut besucht – die Halle 23 ‘Intel Extrem Masters’ übertraf wie immer alles; voll, heiß und stickig, dafür aber viel Aktion und Unterhaltung. Auf meinem Weg durch die Hallen bin ich über eine interessante Podiumsdiskussion in  der CeBIT Webciety Conference zum Thema ‘Bloggen, Twittern, Facebooken – was bring’s?’ mit Robert Basic, Jens Hardeland, Rob Vegas und Romy Mlinzik gestolpert. In der Halle 9 besuchte ich den Gemeinschaftstand des Ministeriums für Innovation, Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, wo ich neben einigen ‘alten’ Bekanntschaften wie Manuela Markus auch das Forschungsteam von Prof. Claudia de Witt mit Almut Sieber und Christina Gloerfeld traf. Später schaute ich mir noch die Seedlounge in der CeBIT Webciety an, auf der u.a. Sarik Weber sich die Jungunternehmer mit spannenden Fragen vornahm. In Hannover hatte ich heute einen Tag voller Eindrücke und Gespräche – ein Tag auf der CeBIT reicht jedoch vollkommen aus, da vom Jahr zu Jahr gefühlt weniger Hallen besetzt sind.

(Bahn 55)

App Planet – The Centre of the Apps Universe

Im Gegensatz zu gestrigen Tag, der im Fokus zahlreicher Geschäftstermine stand, habe ich heute mehr Zeit gefunden, mir auch die Fachmesse des Mobile World Congress genauer anzuschauen. Die meiste Aufmerksamkeit hat wohl der Android-Stand bekommen, der ganz schön überfüllt war, egal zu welcher Uhrzeit man dort sich aufhielt. Und auch heute kam es zu vielen zufälligen Begegnungen auf dem Messegelände mit alten Bekannten; Axel (hiogi), Malcolm (24 MAS), Felix (SponsorPay), Johannes (SponsorPay), Florian (FriendTicker), Philipp (tba: vR communication consultants), Martin (servtag), Michelle (Poynt), Helen (LAC 2.0 AS), Michael (avinotec), Daniel (M-Squad), Kasper (Sabienzia Technologies), Ilja (getjar), Patrick (getjar), Heike (Mobile Zeitgeist), Peggy (MSearchGroove), Andrew (bango), KF (buzzcity), u.v.a.

Zwischendurch haben wir uns auch die sog. MoMoLo Panel Session: Barcelona Edition 2011 angeschaut, in der unser alter Bekannter Russell (google) die Moderation hielt. Abends waren wir abschließend auf der Gomo News Blender und Smaato Party in der Incognito BAR, wo wir das ganze Smaato Team (Miriam, Sin, Petra, Harald, Ragnar, Jörg, Catherine and Markus) und viele andere Leute aus der – vor allem deutschen – Mobilefunkszene trafen, z.B. Lutz (dealzeit), Marc (Cross Travel) und Philipp (Results in Proximity). Die Veranstaltung war so gut besucht, dass es sehr schwer war nicht nur Getränke zu bestellen, sondern auch ans Essen dran zukommen – deshalb haben wir mit dem avinotec Team zwischendurch einen kleine Abstecher zum Restaurant Llantia nebenan gemacht, um an diesem Abend nicht ganz zu verhungern ;o)

Meeting place for leaders in the mobile

With your online registration you could use the “fast track” to get inside the Mobile World Congress – great idea, but also a great surprise if you have to wait 45 minutes in this waiting queue to get inside the fair. But it was just worth it. At the fair there was much to discover and great to meet so many mobile folks from all around the world. Today I had some interesting talks with new contacts from our industry, e.g.  with Paul Childs (adfonic) and Guillaume Alabert (mobpartner). At the Smaato booth I met Miriam, Sin, Harald and Jörg, but I also spot Matthäus (Xyologic) in a business meeting by accident in the crowd. After the fair we first went to the Mobile World Congress Apple iAd Reception hosted by Keren Tal and Suzy Hay in the ME Hotel. The ladies gave us some insights on the iAd world and met the German dudes Florian (FriendTicker) and Kristian (VZnet) at the reception. Afterwards we had a nice dinner at the restaurant Xorus together with Annika (netbiscuits).

Great party hosted by myspace.com

Today I tried to find some ‘free’ time to run around the exhibition and to discover some new exciting developments. After having a last meeting this year at the Mobile World Congress – with Laurence Aderemi and Thomas Schulz from admob.com – it was time to say goodbye to the booth community and the organiser, e.g. Dr. Bettina Horster. However, the real highlight of the day was to come; Matthäus Krzykowski was gracious and took me to a secret myspace party in the town. It was a really crowded experience with great music acts. Around midnight we had a snack at the La Tramoia 2000 and that followed it was definitely time to go back to the apartment.

Best networking always in the evenings

After my today’s appointments I went to an information session about AdSense for Mobile Search hosted by Hugo Barra from google. It was a quick presentation on to how brand the google tools for own services and drive traffic back into you portal. And of course how to make more money by giving your users what they were searching for. There were some familiar companies in the seven person audience; skyfire.com (Rajan Singh), fring.com (Boaz Zilberman), verizon.com and hi5.com.

The trade show ended today with a Happy Hour at our booth and I got the feeling to be back in Germany – almost every guest was speaking German. Later on, before going to the Swedish Beers in the Dostrece Restaurant Bar with my team, I went for a short visit to the MWC Cocktail Party in the Plaza Hotel hosted by Handmark. But it wasn’t so crowded as the Swedish Beers with the important people from our industry like Russell Buckley and Niren Hiro ;o)

Smaato Mobile Advertising Award Ceremony

Another busy day at the Mobile World Congress with some interesting talks with some great people from especially the mobile advertisement industry like Fabio Pezzotti (mobango), Sarah McCluskey (4th-screen), Peter Bewsher (funkysexycool) and Jonathan MacDonald (OgilvyOne). In the evening I joined the Smaato Party named Mobile Media TweetUp in collaboration with SIMYO and MOCOM 2020. After some short presentations and drinks we enjoyed the award ceremony. Surprise, surprise… we also got an award this time. Michelle Sklar (bnetTV) gave me the award and here is my statement for the documentation :o)

“As a finalist of the Smaato Award we are very proud that we were able to convince the jury with all the skills we offer with our mobile social network called peperonity.com. For us it is a confirmation that we are on the right way in an exciting and vibrant market and a big incentive to push the development in the mobile industry.”

I finished off the evening with a spontaneous dinner and a great chat in the middle of the night with Ragnar Kruse and Petra Vorsteher (smaato).  There is also a ‘Review of the Mobile Media TweetUp 2009‘ by Monty Metzger.

A very busy Mobile World Congress 2009

The first day at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was quite busy, but luckily I had a motivated team with me and the booth organisation was great, so I could relaxative focus on my business meetings. Amongst others I also had a chat with Ben Tatton-Brown and Harry Dewhirst from ringringmedia.com. It was great to see the guys, who some months ago worked for an old combatant called pitch.tv, but now started a new own business in the mobile advertisement field.

In the late afternoon I joined the Mobile Monday Peer Awards at the Palau de la Musica Catalana. Unfortunately I missed some of the presentations, but I could enjoy the networking part and the award ceremony hosted by Rudy De Waele (MobileMonday Madrid) and Carles Ferreiro (dotopen). The event was really good and jam-packed. In the crowd I met many ‘old’ contacts like Russell Buckley (admob), Andy Smith (admob), Christian Kammler (four2b), Lutz Lengemann (freenet), Sarik Weber (cellity), Jan Beckers (Team Europe Ventures), Philip (?), Stefanie (aka-aki), Matthäus Krzykowski (mobile-facts), Daniel Hartmann (mobile-facts), Philipp Hartmann (madvertise), Oliver Gerstheimer (Chilli mind), Harald Neidhardt (smaato), Mark Wächter (MWC), Harald Müller (MSID), Daniel Melter (M-Squad) and some other folks – please forgive me, if I forgot somebody :o)

Later on I had luck, because I could join the winner’s table at the Mobile Monday Peer Award Dinner and have dinner with Jakob Berg (PopCatcher AB) and Per Ek (PopCatcher AB). It was a funny evening at our table and I also had very interesting talks not only about mobile with the other people in the round; Bena Roberts (visibility mobile), Christine Perey (Perey Research), Ezequiel Ardigó (a2dm) and David J. Blumberg (Blumberg Capital).

Some more notes about the Mobile Monday Peer Award Winners by Matthäus Krzykowski and some more pictures from the Mobile Monday Peer Awards.

Mobile Social Web – Web 2.0 für die Hosentasche

Two days ago I was asked by Mark Wächter, if I can fill in for facebook on the Mobile Media Summit at MedienForum.NRW in cologne. They didn’t ask me first, but why not :o) So I had the great opportunity to join the panel ‘Mobile Social Web – Web 2.0 für die Hosentasche’ (English: Mobile Social Web – Web 2.0 for the trouser pocket) and to discuss the developments in mobile social networks with Sarik Weber (Vice President – Marketing, cellity AG), Olaf Kroll (Director Business Development Europe, Fox Interactive Media / MySpace.com), Mark Wächter (chairman of Fachgruppe Mobile of Bundesverbandes der Digitalen Wirtschaft e.V.) and Ossi Urchs (F.F.T. Medienagentur).

Markus Nass made some pics with me in action, as carnival barker and in the panel. And here are my slides:

[slideshare id=465745&doc=20080611-peperonide-mk-mobile-summit-1213346077798560-8&w=425]

There were also other interesting lectures that day like the one by Dr. Rainer Deutschmann (Executive Vice President Mobile Internet, T-Mobile International AG), telling that they are changing more and more from a portal to a platform for third parties. And that it is important for them right now to explain to the user that they can now find the web brands like eBay – that they are familiar with on their personal computer at home – on the their mobile phone. And I just loved the statement of Michael Stenberg (Partner Director Mobile, Central & Eastern Europe, Yahoo! Deutschland GmbH): ‘the mobile internet is big’ :o)

Mobile Media Summit 2008 Agenda:

Mobile Internet – Kampf um die beste Startposition

• Keynote: Dr. Rainer Deutschmann
• Moderation: Ossi Urchs
• Panel participants: Mark Wächter, Dr. Rainer Deutschmann, Michael Stenberg, Matthias Büchs
• Presentations: Michael Stenberg, Matthias Büchs

Mobile Social Web – Web 2.0 für die Hosentasche

• Keynote: Sarik Weber
• Moderation: Ossi Urchs
• Panel participants: Maciej A. Kuszpa, Mark Wächter, Olaf Kroll, Sarik Weber
• Presentations: Olaf Kroll, Maciej A. Kuszpa

Mobile Advertising – Werbung direkt beim Kunden

• Keynote: Burkhard Leimbrock
• Moderation: Ossi Urchs
• Panel participants: Dirk Kraus, Mark Wächter, Burkhard Leimbrock, Stefan Meyer-Spickenagel
• Presentations: Dirk Kraus, Stefan Meyer-Spickenagel

Trade show and Innovators’ Pitch

And like every year CeBIT is coming and again we are going to Hanover. Before runing around in all of the exhibition halls, I went to the ‘Innovators’ Pitch Business’ organized by BITKOM e.V. This event helps young companies to find venture capital and business angels, but it was also a great experience for me to see live a ‘old’ entrepreneur like Prof. Dr. Dr. August-Wilhelm Scheer (chairman of BITKOM e.V.). And also the jury was quite prominent staffed; Dr. Dirk Kleine (SevenSenses), Rolf Kleinwächter (Fujitsu Siemens Computers), Bruno Wallraf (KPMG), Dr. Jan Bomholt (BrainsToVentures), Dr. Sven Hischke (Deutsche Telekom) and Andreas Wodtke (IBM Deutschland). There were two fights; Gabriel F. Yoran from aka-aki GmbH (winner) against Ragnar Kruse from Smaato Inc. AND Matthias Kandeler from syncing.net Technologies GmbH (winner) against Matthias Krause from TalentRun.

In the evening, after an arduous day, the Peperoni team (Marcus Ladwig, Sandra Frielingsdorf, Maximilian Stollbrock and me) went to the North Rhine-Westphalia Reception – inaugurated by Christa Thoben, Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy of State of NRW - with refreshing beer and some culinary delights. And later on to the Olá Brazil Party – Weil Hannover genau 9.782 km von Rio de Janeiro entfernt ist! – at the D-Link booth with hit brazil dancing show and great cocktails :o)

In the morning I heard a quite interesting keynote of Dustin Moskovitz (Facebook) about internationalization of a social network and ‘going mobile’. During the second day at the CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2007 I also joined a a very interesting meeting of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) Initiative “Communites” and met people like James Beddows (MSN Mobile), Dave Waldman (twistbox), Ryan Jones (twistbox), Steve Jaeger (vidiator), Steven Masur (Entertainment Technology Law), Rimma Perelmuter (MEF), Karen Allen (MEF) and Suhail Bhat (MEF). In the evenings we went to a Accel.com Cocktail Reception where we met amongst others again Bill Scott and Ilja Laurs from getjar.com :o)