This year we’re doing something different for Mobile World Congress. Oh yes. I’ve teamed up with Rafe Blandford and the team at All About Symbian. We’re combining the resources of Mobile Industry Review (“MIR”), Mobile Developer TV (“MDTV”) and All About Symbian (“AAS”) to deliver what I hope will be some of the best content we’ve ever published.
This is all possible because of the brilliant support of the Symbian Foundation. Getting to the event, taking all the camera and production equipment, hotels, flights — the costs mount-up, especially when over 50,000 mobile industry people converge in one city.
As a result, the Mobile World Congress coverage you read on MIR, MDTV and AAS will be brought to you courtesy of the support of Symbian. I’d like to point out that this arrangement renders Symbian absolutely no editorial control whatsoever. In fact I’ve been pushing them quite remorselessly to give us unprecedented access to their people. To my delight, they have risen to the challenge — and you’ll see the fruits of that online shortly. For my own peace of mind, I’ve asked that Symbian fact check some of the more in-depth content I’m planning. Whilst Rafe knows the operating system inside out, I don’t want to keep bothering him with silly questions. I’ve also agreed to allow Symbian to re-publish some of the video content we produce on their own site.
So what kind of content can you expect to see before, during and after the event?
Well, both Rafe and I will be on the ground in Barcelona from Saturday to Saturday. That’s right, no messing around, no flying in Monday morning, watching a keynote and flying out that evening. Oh no. We’ll be right there to witness it all.
Expect the following: –
- Hands-on handset/phone/gadget videos galore
- Interviews with movers and shakers — we’ve got some fabulous senior Nokia executives lined up already
- Coverage of the various press events — in particular MobileFocus and ShowStoppers
- Rafe Blandford’s official Mobile World Congress walk-about
- Mobile developer profiles (do contact us if you’re going to be on the ground and would like to be on-camera)
- Live perspective and updates direct from the show floor
Here are some of the things I’m excited we’ll be able to bring you:
- Microsoft. I still believe they have the might to cause some serious waves in the industry. Come on Balmer, make us all proud. No egg-timers *please*.
- Sony Ericsson. The giant was on the ropes, I’m hoping it’s back for more.
- Samsung. Just how relevant is Bada? We shall see and we’ll take a look at their handsets too.
- Lee Williams. We’ve got Lee Williams — the CEO of Symbian — doing a walk-about tour. Rafe and I are hoping to take him to the Microsoft stand and see if he will spontaneously combust (or, more likely, tell us exactly what he thinks of the other mobile operating systems out there).
- Nokia. They’re not officially at the event. They’ve saved millions by booking the function rooms and suites across the road from the Congress. Smart. We’ll be on top of all their announcements — with bells on.
- WipJam. The delightful Caroline Lewko is hosting another excellent developer event — we will be there bringing you the best we can find.
- Bloggerama. Just what do the other bloggers make of MWC? We’ll be capturing their MWC heartache, the joy, the tears — all for your viewing pleasure. I’m going to try and see if we can find Mattahus from VentureBeat to swearsmile at the camera again.
- The rest: We’ll be taking a tour of the event to try and bring you the most interesting technology, hardware, software and services we can find.
If you’ve any suggestions for things you’d like Rafe and I to take a look at — or if you’re going and you’d like a bit of coverage, get in contact, we’ll absolutely do our best.
If you’re a PR and you’d like me to do an on-screen interview, I’ll do my utmost but I’m getting crunched on time already. At the moment we’re prioritising smaller mobile developers.
If you’d like to do a Mobile World Congress diary — that is, send me 200 words each day on what you saw, what you liked, what surprised you, then I’m game. Drop me a mail to discuss as soon as you can.
Make sure you’ve got our feeds locked and loaded:
- www.mobileindustryreview.com
- www.mobiledeveloper.tv
- www.allaboutsymbian.com (read Rafe’s announcement)
Once again, thank you to everyone at the Symbian Foundation for making MWC possible for us here at MIR, MDTV and AAS. Fantastic!
