The Mobile Premier Awards Barcelona is one of the most influential events in the mobile industry and, with over 1000 attendants, the point of reference in startup innovation during the Mobile World Congress (3GSM).

Participation to these awards is free and open to any startup with a mobile angle. It will all lead to the Mobile Premier Awards event to take place in Barcelona during the Mobile World Congress.

Lucky for me, I have been selected to be part of the international jury that will evaluate the startups nominated to the Mobile Premier Awards in Innovation - The best grassroots startup innovations chosen by their peers in partnership with MobileMonday.

This year over 250 startups have applied for the Mobile Premier Awards in Innovation. Local selections in over 50 MobileMondays around the world have narrowed down the list. I have been asked to select the 20 finalists from the list MobileMonday chapter nominees.

This is a great opportunity for me to keep up with industry innovation - I’ll do my best to share the conclusions with you in a later post. Here goes =)

MWC 2009 Barcelona is the world’s largest conference for the mobile industry. The conference is taking place next week.  I have invested many efforts in compiling a list of networking events I should attend and now I’ve decided to publish it to make your life easier. A big thank you goes to the Mobileslate website which compiled a comprehensive list of events which I used as a basis.

Personally, I would also love to meet potential partners at the event. My company, Mo’Minis, offers a one-stop-shop for rapid mobile games development, porting and distribution. Our platform allows fast creation of mobile games with automated porting to a wide variety of handsets. It is currently being used by our large community of developers (independents and small studios), which boost our catalog with original and creative mobile games.

We are seeking partnerships with distribution channels of mobile content - mobile operators, mobile content portals, content aggregators and large internet portals wishing to enter the mobile arena.
If you wish to meet me or contribute additional events to the list, twitter me @aviv_revach or email me: avivr [AT}mominis DoT com

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Networking & Meeting Systems
Networking Tool for Canada at Mobile World Congress 2009

Connect UK

Mobile World Congress - Networking 2009 LinkedIn Group (500+ members & growing)

Symbian’s MobileWorldCongressActivities WIKI

GSMA B2B Brokerage Event – Now Closed

Searching twitter for #MWC and #MWC09 and following @GSMA_MWC_2009.

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Sunday, February 15, 2009
EVENT: Mobile Sunday Barcelona RSVP
TIME: 19:00 -
LOCATION: Club Mix, Comerç 21

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Monday, February 16, 2009
EVENT: LiMo Information Briefing and Reception RSVP
TIME: 15:30 - 19:00
LOCATION: Salon Saria, Hotel Barcelo Sants, Plaza Del Paisos Catalans

EVENT: Mobile Monday Peer Awards RSVP
TIME: 16:00 - 20:00
LOCATION: Petit Palau, Palau de la Música Catalana, calle Palau de la Música, 4-6

EVENT: MACH Networking Event
TIME: 17:00 - Close
LOCATION: Hall 1, Stand 1D67

EVENT: ‘MEF Connects’ Networking Event Invite Only
TIME: 8:00pm - 12:00 am
LOCATION: Carpe Diem Lounge Club, Passeig Maritim 32.

EVENT: Symbian Foundation Party Invite Only
TIME: 20:00 - Late
LOCATION: For tickets please contact your Symbian Foundation representative at Hall 8, Stand 8A77

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009
EVENT: Mobile Distillery - Worldwide Preview Event RSVP
TIME: 11:30 -
LOCATION: Hall 2, Stand 2F49

EVENT: ACCESS Cocktail Party RSVP
TIME: 16:00 - 19:00
LOCATION: Courtyard (CY10) at FIRA

EVENT: Canada - UK Networking Reception RSVP
TIME: 17:00 - 19:00
LOCATION: Hall 2, Room C

EVENT: Sandisk Cocktail Party RSVP
TIME: 17:00 - 19:00
LOCATION: Hall 8, Booth 8C 129

EVENT: Yahoo! RSVP
TIME: 17:00 - 19:00
LOCATION: Hall 7, Booth #7B26

EVENT: MACH Networking Event
TIME: 17:00 - Close
LOCATION: Hall 1, Stand 1D67

EVENT: Scottish Development International (Whisky Reception) No RSVP Required
TIME: 17:00 - 19:00
LOCATION: Hall 1, Stand E66

EVENT: Jefferies Cocktail Party Invite Only
TIME: 17:30 - 20:30
LOCATION: Plaza Dante s/n, Montjuic

EVENT: Forum Oxford Future Networks and Applications - RSVP
TIME: 18:00 - …
LOCATION: Stand D46 in the Content Hall (7)

EVENT: Telefónica/O2 Cocktail Party Invite Only
TIME: 18:00 - 21:00
LOCATION: AYRE HOTEL, Gran Via de Les Corts, Catalanes, 322 - 324

EVENT: Netsize Guide Launch Party 2009 RSVP
TIME: 19:00 - Late
LOCATION: Shôko Lounge Club, Passeig Marítim (La Barceloneta) 36

EVENT: Mobile Media Tweet-up and Smaato Advertising Awards withMOCOM 2020, SIMYO Invite Only
TIME: 19:00 -
LOCATION: Broadbar Club Barcelona, Carrer d’Aribau 191

EVENT: Accel Partners Invite Only
TIME: 19:30 - 22:30
LOCATION: Casa Batllò, The Julol Rooms, 2nd floor, 43 Passeig de Gracia

EVENT: Enterprise Ireland No RSVP
TIME: 19:30 - 23:55
LOCATION: George Payne Irish Bar, Plaza Urquinona, 5

EVENT: The Ink Studio - Go Rouge Party RSVP – Now Closed
TIME: 20:00 - 23:00
LOCATION: Dostrece, calle carme 40

EVENT: Vantrix Invite Only
TIME: 21:00 - 02:00
LOCATION: Bel Luna Jazz Club, Rambla Catalunya 5

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Wednesday, February 18, 2009
EVENT: Handmark Cocktail Party INVITE ONLY
TIME: 16:00 - 20:00
LOCATION: Catalonia Barcelona Plaza Hotel

EVENT: Tweet Up at Mobile World Congress No RSVP
TIME: 17:00 -
LOCATION: 7 Sins, Muntaner 7

EVENT: Rapid Mobile Whisky Tasting No RSVP
TIME: 17:30 - 19:00
LOCATION: Hall 7, Stand D84

EVENT: Gomonews Blender RSVP
TIME: 18:00 - 22:00
LOCATION: Bel Chica, Carrer de Villarroel, 60

EVENT: Swedish Beers, with Admob, Palringo, Silverstreet and dotMob No RSVP
TIME: 18:30 -
LOCATION: Dostrece, La Rambla at C/ Carme 40

EVENT: PocketGamer / Mpowerplayer Party Invite Only
TIME: 19:00 -
LOCATION: El Lliure, Pg. Santa Madrona, 40-46 Placa Margardia Xirgu

EVENT: FierceWireless Networking Event @ Mobile World Congress RSVP
TIME: 19:00 - 22:00
LOCATION: TBD.

EVENT: WIP Mobile Jameoke No RSVP
TIME: 21:30 - Late
LOCATION: Bel Chica, Carrer de Villarroel, 60

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Thursday, February 19, 2009
EVENT: WIP Jam Session RSVP
TIME: 10:30 - 17:00
LOCATION: Hall 2, FIRA

EVENT: TechCrunchTalk Mobile 2.0 RSVP
TIME: 15:00 - 21:00
LOCATION: TBD

The MobileMonday Mobile Peer Awards Barcelona is one of the most influential events in the mobile industry and, with over 1000 attendants, the point of reference in startup innovation during the Mobile World Congress (3GSM).

It is the first time Israeli startups are able to participate in this prestigous contest since the Israeli chapter, Mobile Monday Tel-Aviv, was formed only last year. In a special MobileMonday event, we had 15 Israeli startups competing to be Israel’s representitive. Our distingushed panel of judges included Yuval Baharav (Sequoia Capital), Ziv Koren (Amdocs), Zvika Rubinstein (Samsung) and Ofer Shmueli (orange Israel). After the judges viewed all presentations and asked the companies various business questions, they had chosen to hand out the first place to fring.

fring is a successful startup which provides a mobile internet service & community that enables end users to access and interact with their social networks on-the-go, make free calls and live chat with all of their fring, Skype®, MSN® Messenger, Google Talk™, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo!™ and AIM®* friends using their handset’s internet connection. According to Fring, 400,000 new fring users (”fringsters”) are born every month from 220 countries worldwide. Very impressive.

This year, the Mobile Peer Awards had 163 startups participating and 42 nominees were selected by their respective chapters. An international Jury then selected the 20 finalists to present at the Peer Awards event in Barcelona. The results were published earlier today and I was really glad to find out that fring got to the finals!

This company makes me proud of the Israeli mobile industry and I wish them good luck in the upcoming Barcelona contest. The entire list of finalists to present at the Mobile Peer Awards is:

EARLY-STAGE STARTUPS

• Addict Digital Media - Mobile Monday Buenos Aires
• aka-aki networks GmbH - MobileMonday Berlin
• Babajob.com - MobileMonday Bangalore
• Big in Japan Inc. - MobileMonday Dallas
• bioLocate - MobileMonday Jakarta
• Dial2Do - MobileMonday Dublin
• Fortumo - MobileMonday Estonia
• Mob4Hire - MobileMonday Vancouver
• Orbster GmbH - MobileMonday Munich
• Oxynade - MobileMonday Brussels
• Tellmewhere - MobileMonday Paris
• Xumii - MobileMonday Sydney

EMERGING STARTUPS

• fring - MobileMonday Tel Aviv
  
• Aradiom - MobileMonday Istanbul
• Getjar Networks - MobileMonday Lithuania
• Keynetik - MobileMonday Washington DC
• Mobintech A/S - MobileMonday Copenhagen
• PopCatcher AB - MobileMonday Sweden
• Soonr - MobileMonday Silicon Valley
• Unkasoft Advergaming - MobileMonday Madrid

Mobile Monday is a global community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influentials fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets. The Mobile Monday community holds events and informal gatherings on the first Monday of each month. Usually the events have a certain theme with some lectures by people from that field, a “launchpad” in which a few startups showcase their technologies and most importantly - networking in a nice atmosphere.

We lunched the Israeli chapter, MobileMonday Tel-Aviv, almost half a year ago and it has been a major success ever since. Although we keep the community exclusive, we already have ~700 members, and 150-200 participants in each monthly event.

Tomorrow we will have our first 2009 event. I have invested much efforts in it so I hope everything works out fine =) The topic is “Mobile Apps & Games Monetization” and the agenda is:

* Introduction and upcoming MoMoTLV 3GSM Activities - Aviv Revach
* Mobile Apps&Games Monetization Overview - Aviv Revach, Co-Organizer, MoMoTLV and Co-Founder, Mo’Minis.
* From Palm through Java ME to iPhone - Tzur Sayag, CEO, Nogasoft.
* iPhone Apps - Barak Ben-Ezer, Co-Founder, ApParty (iFog Application).
* Monetization through the eyes of an aggregator - Doron Kagan, CEO, Rayfusion.

I will probably publish my presentation here soon.

If you wish to find out more about MoMoTLV, visit our website.

My friend Ayelet Noff from Blonde 2.0 recently received a brand new Samsung Omnia phone as part of Samsung’s promotional campaign with McCann Digital. McCann is taking this campaign to a whole new level by giving the Omnia for free to top bloggers to use in their everyday lives and share their thoughts about the product with their friends.

It seems that the Samsung Omnia i900 is a great phone for bloggers. Not only does it come with the Opera mobile browser for easy internet access but it also comes with apps which offer easy access to RSS feeds and podcasts, and the full Microsoft Office Suite so that bloggers can work on posts on the go.

McCann’s decision to target top bloggers was definitely a smart move. By targeting these bloggers, McCann has easily tapped into a large reader base by getting positive reviews from bloggers with high authority and reaching thousands of perspective customers. It’s exciting to see companies like Samsung turning to social media for promotional campaigns.