Editor’s note: The webinar has ended and all links go to the product page.
As many of you know, I am very very picky about mobile sitebuilders. I get pitches to write about them all the time on mobienthusiast.mobi, and I have so far turned every one of them down because they are clunky and don’t work or make you use a subdomain or make you pay for the service every month without removing the company’s branding.
Yesterday I attended a webinar [edit: the webinar is over and now links to a product page with a how-to video from the webinar] hosted by my friends and mentors Jason Fladlien and Wilson Mattos. I know them personally, I have been coached by both of them and have paid a lot of money in travel fees and conference fees to see them speak because they are that good. Those of you who know me, know that I rarely attend conferences because I have small children at home and the investment had better be worth it for me to leave town.
The first half of the webinar is all about mobile and marketing and stats. The host, Jason Fladlien, gives slide after slide of marketing tips and techniques for why your clients should buy a true mobile site and not just one that has been modified for mobile with a WordPress plugin. I plan to use these strategies personally, as they make total sense to me.
The second part shows a mobile sitebuilder that has an emulator inside the WordPress dashboard, allows you to create icons on the fly without much editing, and has an interface that looks like the home page of an iPhone.
There will be a second webinar today at 12 noon Pacific Daylight time, and if you are interested in working with local businesses (or online businesses) without mobile sites, there are a lot of strategies here that you won’t want to miss. I would urge you to register for it even if it is the middle of the night in your part of the world, because they will email you a link to the replay.
I don’t remember everything I saw, but here are some of the things Jason touched on in the webinar and will likely cover again in the webinar today:
- Mobile marketing
- How to find clients
- How to build a mobile site (he does it live)
- Importance of keeping a site lightweight to load quickly and keep data costs low
- Why not to use video and how to do it if you insist on using it anyway
- How to make a header for a mobile site quickly and easily
- Where to find icons
- Q&A
I am sure I am forgetting something, but the overwhelming feeling I got looking at this mobile sitebuilder is that it has what I need and what I have been wanting personally for a long time. Let’s face it, it is very difficult work to make a mobile site work on a phone, and when you add tablets like the iPad into the mix, it’s very easy to throw your hands up in frustration and say, “ok, it’s just going to look like this.” Well, as a professional web designer, you can’t afford to do that when your reputation is on the line.
Disclosure: I am an affiliate for the product because I believe in the team, their customer support, and their refund policy. I only post products with affiliate links here if I have personally tested them or if I know the developer and have experienced their customer support and refund policy to be valid.
If you see this post after the webinar, contact me and let me know.
If you happen to be in London on April 13, 2o10, you are cordially invited for drinks and mobile start-up pitches with the Mobile Brain Bank. The MoBB London synapse is sponsored by Grow VC, a crowdfunding initiative.
We convene at the Clachan Pub in SoHo at 6 pm. Registration and sign-up to pitch your start-up via here.
Mobile Brain Bank and Symbian Foundation Host Event
Everyone who knows me personally knows I moved to San Diego for a reason: the weather. I’ll tell you what, though, these invitations from Petra to go to events in Helsinki are getting more appealing. If you’re in Finland and are a mobile developer, check this out:
Develop on Symbian … or interested in why you perhaps should? Come to the Symbian Stammtisch on Tuesday, March 9th from 6 to 9 pm.
Initiated by Symbian Foundation, arranged by Mobile Brain Bank and provided by Sasken, the first ever Symbian Stammtisch Helsinki is held at restaurant Vltava. More information and registration here: (desktop link, not mobile)http://www.mobilebrainbank.org/Events.html
You don’t want to miss this, there’s refreshments, Symbian branded goodies etc. All coold kids go, why don’t you?
Petra Söderling
Mobile takes center stage at the 2010 South By Southwest Festival Interactive Track, which runs March 12 through March 16 at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, USA. The following is a partial list of seminars and training on the schedule.
What’s Hot in Mobile at SXSW
- Maps 2010: How iPad Impacts the LBS Market
- The UX of Mobile
- Touch + The Holy Grail of Delight
- Organizational Pitfalls on the Path to Multichannel Experience
- Time + Social + Location. What’s Next In Mobile Experiences?
- Mobile – the Great Channel Equalizer
- iPad: New Opportunities for Content Creators
- The Real Mobile Scoop – Agency, Manufacturer, and Carrier
- Web Evolution: The Rise of Mobile, APIs and Runtimes
- Is App-vertising the Answer
- Augmenting Your Brain With Android
- Google Hackathon: Mobile Maps, App Engine, Chrome Extensions
- What If Your Phone Had Five Senses?
- Cross Device Accessibility: Is This For Real?
- Building Mobile Games on the Windows Phone Platform
- Mobile Computing and it’s Contribution to Technology’s Exponential Growth
- The Final (Mobile) Frontier: Battery Life in Africa
- How We Built the SXSW Mobile App
- Convergence 2010: Ten Cool Things That Could Happen This Year
- Mobile Development with the Flash Platform: iPhone and More
- Augmented Reality – Gimmicky Trend or Market-Ready Technology?
- Pass it Back! Kid Apps on Grown-up Devices
- Location Beyond iPhone: Locating 100+M Phones
- Location-Based Marketing and Advertising: Targeting the Mobile Consumer
- Mobile Content is Social
- Mobile Advertising in 2010: How to Pay the Bills
- QR Codes and 2D Barcodes: Bridging Physical & Digital
- Mobile Commerce
- Mapping and Geolocation: Turnkey Approaches You Need to Know
The full SXSW Mobile schedule (may not be viewable on some phones) includes information on presenters and a summary of what each session will cover.
While you’re there, check out the updated SXSW.mobi site for mobile access to the South by Southwest Festival.
It’s Mobile Brain Bank time again in Finland.
Here’s the invitation from Petra and Peter:
Hi all,
Mobile Brain Bank and
Aalto Entrepreneurship Society are connecting at
Slush Helsinki. Read more on this in
news on our website. As a member of the Mobile Brain Bank network, you are warmly invited to take part in Slush. If you are running a brand new startup, we believe you will especially benefit from Startup Talkoot on the second day. This is your invite.
Cold. Dark. Slush on the ground.
This is the setting for the Slush Talkoot, a great opportunity for
MOBB members to discover what is going on in the startup ecosystem in
the region. At talkoot you will meet some companies that you have
never heard of, but there’s a good chance that you will in the future.
And maybe you will be part of the reason that the world will hear
about these current unknowns. The opportunity to change the world that
you have been waiting for all these years. You probably hadn’t heard
about Linux, MySQL, maybe not even about Nokia 10-15 years ago. At the
Slush Talkoot you might discover the future big thing.
Talkoot is a good old Finnish tradition of working together, you will
not get paid, but you might be offered some beer and barbeque in
return for your efforts. And of course sauna. All of which you will
find at Slush as well. And as said, you might discover the next big
thing and decide to join the ride. A little like joining Nokia in
1992;-)
Besides the cool new startups in the Slush, you can also listen in on
some interesting presentations by people like Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia,
Andreas Weigend, ex-chief scientist for Jeff Bezos/Amazon, Risto
Siilasmaa and many others. A great learning experience to be expected.
See you in the Slush!
Kind regards,
Peter and Petra
***
Mobile Brain Bank is a network of mobile experts who have left the corporate life behind them, or are thinking about a renewal in their professional life. In Finland alone, thousands of mobile experts have recently freed themselves to be able to plan new products, services, innovations, or any other type of startup activity. Mobile Brain Bank offers a forum for testing your ideas, business case, or just to network with people who are in a similar situation.
Event to feature top media and business thought leaders
Note: the links in this story are not optimized for mobile
The Naked Media show from ScribeMedia.org is offering free web viewing of their live broadcast from the Economist Media Convergence Conference in New York City on Tuesday, October 20th @ 3:15pm Eastern Time. Register now
The Future of Media: Changing Times will explore the following topics:
- How the advent of new technologies such as e-book readers, smart phones and flexible screen technology will change the media model.
- How will newspapers, magazines, book publishers, TV stations and others dependent on existing models, adapt to this change?
- The potential impact of these new technologies over the next five years.
According to The Economist,
The surge of new technologies and social media innovations in today’s environment is significantly altering the future media landscape for marketers. Consumer behaviour is changing and the way marketers reach their audience must also change. Marketers are searching for new ways to not only reach their customers, but to understand them, to peer inside their minds. As the level of consumer understanding increases, so can the knowledge of how best to reach them. However the plethora of tools at a marketers disposal is not easy to navigate and real learning comes from a real understanding of the future of media convergence.
Media Convergence forum gathers a unique speaking faculty of thought leaders, marketing psychologists, technology experts, futurists, media and marketing professionals to look into the future to consider the ideas, technologies and tactics that tomorrow’s best organisations will adopt.
Featured Speakers
- Angela Courtin, SVP of Marketing Entertainment and Content, MySpace
- Craig Newmark, Founder, Craigslist
- Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures
- Terry Davenport, Senior Vice President, Global Marketing and Brand Strategy, Starbucks
- Jack Dorsey, Chairman, Twitter
- Jeff Jarvis, Author, What Would Google Do?
If you are in New York for the live event, take $500 off the ticket price with the code NKMD on the registration page.
Sessions Include:
- Future of media: Changing times
- How the kids are doing it: Trendsetting
- The social media phenomenon: Branding success
- New media for marketers: Behind the hype
- Demonstration competition: The most exciting and game changing technologies will be showcased
You are warmly welcome to Mobile Brain Bank Helsinki this Wednesday at 6 pm. This
Mobb gathering is kindly hosted by Valve Oy, The Internet Agency. Address Pieni
Roobertinkatu 7.
This time we have a magnificently fresh line-up of fast pitches from:
- Valve Oy, Tuomo Sihvola
- Uute Design, Panu Korhonen
- Mobidarm, Pertti Lounamaa
- MySites, Ramine Darabiha
- SunTrica, Jouko Häyrynen
- Briim Center, Reidar Wasenius
Full agenda here http://www.mobilebrainbank.org/Events.html
To help our planning, please register yourself in advance here
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/429426426
See you at Valve on Wednesday.
Best regards, Petra Söderling
petra@mobilebrainbank.org
040-8343019
Mobile Brain Bank is a network of mobile experts who have recently left the
corporate life behind them, or are thinking about a renewal in their professional
life. In Finland alone, thousands of mobile experts have recently freed themselves
to be able to plan new products, services, innovations, or any other type of startup
activity. Mobile Brain Bank offers a forum for testing your ideas, business case, or
just to network with people who are in the same situation as you.
<editor's note: not all links will work on your phone>
http://www.mobilebrainbank.org
http://twitter.com/MobileBrainBank
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1981730&trk=hb_side_g
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=119409011358&ref=ts
MobileWorld invitation
The following invitation was posted on LinkedIn:
The IDG cordially invites you to be a part of the MobileWorld 2009, which is the largest mobile conference in Korea for the global industry. The event brings together and connects leaders for true information exchanges and action planning. We provide networking opportunities with the high-quality attendees of carriers, resellers, ISVs, integrators, and developers. During the conference, the global leaders in the mobile industry will share real stories of success and failure, discuss the most current issues facing our industry within 4 tracks of mobile architecture, network, application and lifestyle focusing on smartphone issues. You have two days to be entertained, educated and facilitate new business and partnerships.
Starts: Tuesday August 25, 2009, 09:00AM
Ends: Wednesday August 26, 2009, 05:00PM
Event Type: Conference
Location: JW Marriott Seoul, Korea
Price: USD $500
Website: http://conference.idg.co.kr/mobileworld2009
Program download by English: http://www.gsacom.com/events/event_185.php4
MobileWorld Speakers Line-up:
- Google Android
- China Mobile
- OMTP (Open Mobile Terminal Platform)
- SPB Software
- RIM (BlackBerry)
- Frost&Sullivan
- Funambol
- Samsung Electronics
- LG Electronics
- KT
- SK Telecom
- Salesforce.com
- Dreamwiz
- Smartplace
- ETRI
- Nowprofile
- Korea Electronics Technology Institute
- Ministry of knowledge economy
For more information: amy_mk@idg.co.kr
It’s estimated that over 10,000 people have been made redundant (now unemployed) since January in the mobile sector in Finland alone. An enterprising group of professionals has decided to do something about it. Mobile Brain Bank (MoBB) began as a group on LinkedIn (computer/iphone link) (mobile link). The group is not limited to Finland.
According to MoBB member Petra Söderling (Nokia) of Petra’s Blog,
With both online discussions, and real life meetings, people looking for jobs are linked to those who offer jobs. MoBB is not just limited to small startups and job seekers. Also people from established companies have joined the group (e.g. Nokia&NSN, Frost & Sullivan, Tieto, Elcoteq, Ericsson, EB (Electrobit), Accenture etc.) With good progress, also the startups that are now forming will be able to hire soon.
The first meeting of Mobile Brain Bank (MoBB) in Helsinki in the Havel cabinet at restaurant Vltava on Thursday, August 13th from 6 pm to 8 pm. Address ELIELINAUKIO 2 00100 HELSINKI.
On Twitter, you can follow MoBB with the #MoBB hashtag or @MobileBrainBank username. You can follow Petra on Twitter as @PetraHelsinki. Mobile Brain Bank also has a website at MobileBrainBank.org (computer/iphone link only).
If you’re out and about on a mobile phone, it can be a real hassle to find a pen and paper. One of the greatest advantages of creating a mobile website is the ability to create a link that enables web visitors to click to dial a phone number. For an example of this feature, have a look at Leucadia.mobi, a mobile website with helpful information for the community of Leucadia, California. Other than 911, all of the emergency numbers are click to call.
Until now, it’s been difficult for mobile publishers to monetize this feature. That could change soon. Commission Junction is having a free webinar on August 6 to detail the features of their pay-per-call program. I don’t know whether or not this will work to monetize a dot mobi site, but I am going to attend the webinar to find out.
Details are at cj.com (computer link). You will need your CID # to register. Your CID number can be found next to your name/company name in the upper right corner of the page after you have logged in.
