On 15 February, one of the most exciting showcases of mobile innovation of the year will be on display in Barcelona: the Mobile Premier Awards in Innovation. The awards are the largest start-up competition in the mobile sector and they are a unique grass-roots discovery tool: each chapter of the global community of Mobile Monday chooses one candidate. 49 candidates have been chosen (have a look further down). An international jury (I am flattered and proud to be a member) selects 20 finalists who will pitch in Barcelona at the Palau de la Musica on the afternoon of the first day of the Mobile World Congress.
It is a wonderful display of the innovation and creative power the mobile industry has to offer and I invite you to have a good look at the candidates.
If you are in Barcelona that week (and who isn’t?), you should make sure to book your ticket for the event here.
I hope to see you in Barcelona to celebrate innovation in mobile!
To stay in touch with everything around the awards, follow them on Twitter (@mobilepremier), become a fan on Facbook,
And, once your in Barcelona, you should not miss Mobile Sunday Barcelona 2010, which has fast become an unofficial kick-off event to MWC for mobile bloggers. It is on on Sunday, 14 Feb, from 7pm CET onwards.
Here’s a list of the 49 candidates (with links here):
- MobileMonday Austria – Mobilizy
- MobileMonday Barcelona – fonYou
- MobileMonday Belfast – SpeechStorm
- MobileMonday Bergen – ComCom
- MobileMonday Berlin – spendino
- MobileMonday Bogota – RedSalvavidas
- MobileMonday Brussels – Getyoo
- MobileMonday Buenos Aires – Beepoint
- MobileMonday Caracas – Consorcio Si-SMS
- MobileMonday Chennai – mobiSiteGalore
- MobileMonday Copenhagen – Cepa Mobility
- MobileMonday Dallas – Wave Integrated Marketing Solutions
- MobileMonday Dublin – Locle
- MobileMonday Dusseldorf – Yoose
- MobileMonday Edinburgh – Mobile Acuity
- MobileMonday Estonia – TaxiPal
- MobileMonday Frankfurt – match2blue
- MobileMonday Hamburg – apprupt
- MobileMonday Hungary – InfomatiX
- MobileMonday Jakarta – dotus indonesia
- MobileMonday Kuala Lumpur – CWorks Mobile
- MobileMonday Lithuania – SendFlow
- MobileMonday London – Audioboo
- MobileMonday Madrid – Tooio
- MobileMonday Malmö – Color Monkey
- MobileMonday Medellin – Wanbee
- MobileMonday Melbourne – Callernizer
- MobileMonday Mexico – Binbit
- MobileMonday Mid-Atlantic – Amphetamobile
- MobileMonday Milan – Soundtrckr
- MobileMonday Mumbai – Umundo
- MobileMonday Munich – Aloqa
- MobileMonday New Delhi – Voicetap Technologies
- MobileMonday New York – PercentMobile
- MobileMonday Oslo – Bipper Communication
- MobileMonday Paris – Presselite
- MobileMonday Rest of EMEA – Layar
- MobileMonday Rio de Janeiro – iMusica
- MobileMonday Rome – Mobnotes
- MobileMonday Sao Paulo – Atope
- MobileMonday Shanghai – mInfo
- MobileMonday Silicon Valley – CloudMade
- MobileMonday Singapore – Just Mobile
- MobileMonday Slovenia – Visionect
- MobileMonday Sofia – Bianor
- MobileMonday Stockholm – MoSync
- MobileMonday Tel Aviv – waze
- MobileMonday Toronto – Fonolo
- MobileMonday Vancouver – Sort Shots
The biggest event in 2010 is, distinct to certain fanboys opinion, the launch of the iSlate or new iPhone or iAnything nor, as Canadians will have us think, the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, but the Football World Cup this summer (and, no, my dear American readers, this is not the Super Bowl). And whereas one could already see mobile rearing its beautiful head at the last World Cup 2006 in Germany, many people think that South Africa 2010 will provide a breakthrough in mobile service provision around this.
and many, many more including yours truly (and as a licensee, I will be cheering the reigning World Champions, Italy, on this time, believe it or not!). Besides all that, the venue is the best: Arsenal’s home ground, the Emirates.
Gemalto, SIM card maker turned “world leader in digital security” (I wonder how many companies claim that title; it’s like boxing, it seems) 
Besides these points, cross-selling opportunities would appear to be fairly obvious, too. The only mismatch could be that Gemalto focuses on digital security (they list mobile connectivity, identity and data protection, credit card safety, health and transportation, e-government and national security). Alas, no messaging and entertainment here, the two main areas of Netsize’s business.
It is conference season and one of the more exciting ones kicks off in Berlin this week: Mobile 2.0 opens its gates on Tuesday and boasts an exceptional line-up to look at the future of mobile.