Swedish Beers

Heroes of the Mobile Fringe–will you be there?

2012-01-20T17:31:00.001Z

Sign up now to find out about the first unofficial fringe festival being held in Barcelona the same week as Mobile World Congress in February 2012!

Some of you will already know that Helen Keegan, the brains behind Swedish Beers, has also been working on the Heroes of the Mobile Fringe Festival. The plan is to let visitors know about the interesting side events that are on during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona - both on and off site: to help you find the stuff that's relevant to you; to help you make the most of your visit; to help more people get their events, happenings and initiatives seen and talked about during one of the most hectic weeks in the mobile industry calendar.

The festival will start on Sunday 26 February and finish on Friday 2 March 2012. It will include a variety of events, large and small - meet-ups, discussion panels, barcamp, demos, investor & start-up lunch, half-day conference and more, including a bunch of great parties for you to mingle with mobilists from far and wide. Most events are free to attend thanks to generous sponsors, for some there will be a charge payable to the event organiser direct to cover costs.

GET INVOLVED - Add your event

Our website is nearly ready to launch. If you're running an event in Barcelona and would like to include it in the festival, please add your details here. There is no charge to add your event, all we ask is that you link back to us and tell people that your event is part of the festival. We'll give you a logo and a URL to do that. It doesn’t matter what type of event it is or how large or small it is. All welcome. Whether it’s a geek meet-up for 10 people, a big party, a panel session, a round-table discussion, a half-day conference, a barcamp, a developer jam session or something else, we don’t mind. We just want to include the most interesting and relevant events that add to the festival vibe – and not just the parties (although they’re very important too, as Swedish Beers fans will no doubt tell you and which is why it is forming a key part of the festival – announcement coming soon about our party in Barcelona this year).

GET INVOLVED - As a helper

There are other ways to get involved too. We need more venues to run events (this could be part of your MWC stand for example), we also need helpers at each event for things like manning the registration desk or handing out badges, or looking after special guests. And any help with marketing is also much appreciated. No offer of help is too small! If that sounds like you, please tell us here. Also, if we’ve already talked about you getting involved as a helper, I may have forgotten. It’s useful for me to see who’s on board to have all the names and contact details in one place.

GET INVOLVED - Sponsor us

There is still time to join the festival as a sponsor. And as part of that, we can help with organising your event. Why not join confirmed sponsors, Pearson, Oracle and others? Get yourself more coverage at Congress and be part of this innovative festival. Please get in touch with Helen Keegan to discuss. Options available for all budgets.

GET INVOLVED - Be a media or community partner

We are also putting together our media and community partnerships right now. Perhaps you'd like to be a media partner alongside GoMoNews, Mobile Groove, GrowVC, MEF, Mobile Monday Global, TheFonecast.com, Mobile Marketing Magazine and many more. That way we can help each other engage with the mobile community and help them get even more out of being in Barcelona at this very busy time. Please get in touch with Helen Keegan to discuss.

Keep in touch

Follow the festival action on twitter. We have a Facebook page too (all 'likes' are much appreciated and it means we show up in your feed) and you can RSVP for the festival here (which means we can alert you as new events get announced). And our newsletter based on the email addresses we're collecting here will be out soon and will include details of events, sponsors and partners.

Thank you for your support so far. It hasn't gone unnoticed. We're very excited about the festival and hope you are too and will join in the fun next month.

p.s. Still after a free pass for Mobile World Congress, then have a read of this with links to apply for one.

Disclaimer: This initiative is not officially sponsored by, supported by or associated with GSMA Ltd or with Mobile World Congress.

BlackBerry DevCon–Special Swedish Beers Offer

2011-12-21T11:53:00.001Z

In case you needed something to do before Mobile World Congress next year, I thought I’d let you know that I have a discount code for the upcoming BlackBerry DevCon Europe happening on 7/8 February 2012 in Amsterdam http://www.blackberrydevcon.com/europe for Swedish Beers regulars. It’s the first time they’ve brought their popular DevCon to Europe (previously, it has only run in Asia and USA) and it promises to be a great event.

Aimed at the more technical people in our community, the BlackBerry® Developer Conference is the showcase for the latest innovations and breakthroughs with the BlackBerry® Development Platform. Thousands of BlackBerry enthusiasts come together to collaborate with platform experts from the community and attend sessions, demonstrations, hands-on labs and keynotes — all focused on developing leading mobile applications, no matter your skill level.

It's an amazing opportunity to connect with BlackBerry experts, get tips and discover ways to build for the BlackBerry platform whether in native or using web standards that allows you to extend your work onto other platforms. You'll walk away ready to reach a community of 70 million subscribers.

There’s an early bird rate (Euro 250) available until Friday 23 December and you can get 50% off that using this blog’s special offer code DSTNS0. And after that, you’ll get 50% off the standard rate (Euro 350) with the same code up until 18 January 2012. In addition, all delegates will receive a BlackBerry Playbook Tablet. Now that’s not too shabby a deal.

You need reasons to go? Well, here’s a few for you

Train on the latest developer tools first hand, like BlackBerry WebWorks, APIs, BlackBerry Messenger SDK, BlackBerry 7, and the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet
See best practices that will ensure a better understanding of the options for connecting to back end infrastructure, deploying apps, and how to use web services to our advantage
Get up to speed on not just developing apps, but how to come up with multi-endpoint strategies using web technologies
Be inspired by looking at what other companies are doing and how their approaches could benefit your company
Learn how to develop Super Apps that do more for staff while they work away from the office
Connect with the best of the best in the industry — from Research In Motion (RIM) leaders to partners and colleagues — ask questions and see if they've solved challenges you face

Hope to see some of you there. And failing that, see you at Swedish Beers in Barcelona… news on that coming very soon.

Skål

Happy 10th Birthday to Us!

2011-12-11T18:15:00.001Z

What a lovely time we all had last week, celebrating Swedish Beers 10th anniversary – yes, that’s right, 10 whole years of mobile networking events in London, Barcelona and Sydney. We celebrated in style with a little help from our lovely friends and supporters at Somo and Inspiring Interns, who generously bought all the beers, my friends and cohorts, Jenny, Gabriel, James (who took all the photos) and Catherine, the Nordic Bar for looking after us, and of course to everyone who came.

As ever, there was an eclectic mix of people covering everything from Art to Science with some marketing, brands, media and entrepreneurship in between. For me, it was particularly fun to hear stories about Swedish Beers past where friendships, business partnerships, sales, and investments have been made. It warms the cockles of my heart to hear these and to know that networking at Swedish Beers works! And it wasn’t just the old-timers who turned up in force, there were lots of lovely new faces too to welcome to the Swedish Beers family proving that we’re in a vibrant, growing sector.

Well, not much more for me to say, except thank you to everyone and hope to see a lot of you in Barcelona on Wednesday 29 February for our annual Barcelona bash (get in touch if you’d like to be a co-sponsor – two spots left at the time of writing). In the meantime, enjoy the photos from the party last week.

Created with flickr slideshow.

Skål
Helen, Jenny, Gabriel, James and Catherine

Swedish Beers–The 10th Birthday Edition–7 Dec 2011

2011-11-28T16:09:00.001Z

Rather amazingly, Swedish Beers is 10 years old. I can’t quite believe it. I can’t quite believe that I’ve been in one industry that long. The first Swedish Beers event was in the back of the Nordic Bar (our natural home) and was the brainchild of friend and colleague, Steve Flaherty. He got some of his mates together under the guise of a networking event about technology, put a bit of money behind the bar, courtesy of BT, and a royally good time was had by all and it turned into a regular thing. From the 25 or so people at the first event, we’ve grown somewhat and seen 1000s through the doors and have had parties in London, Sydney and the big one every year – Barcelona during Mobile World Congress. But for our birthday party and a bit of a pre-Christmas bash, we’re back to our old favourite, The Nordic Bar. James and his team will be looking after us.

But of course, it couldn’t happen without the financial support of our lovely sponsors, Somo, and Inspiring Interns and of course, the friendship and support of our friends and regular attendees. It’s all of you who make Swedish Beers what it is today. And for that, I really am grateful.

So back to the birthday bash. It’s the same formula as before – mingle, make friends, talk of mobiles, marketing, life in general, drink beer, talk some more, rinse and repeat. There’s no PowerPoint, no formal speeches, and no agenda. Just come with a smile on your face and be prepared to hang out with everyone from mobilists to marketers, brands, agencies, creatives, media owners, journalists, pundits and more. We hope there’ll be a good mix and friendly faces for you to chew the fat with.

We will have free* house beer, house wine and soft drinks for you courtesy of our lovely sponsors Somo Agency and Inspiring Interns. You’ll have to look for them to get your free beer tokens. There are plenty to go around. *While the bar tab lasts. If we run out of beer tokens and/or the bar tab is spent, then we’ll revert to a pay bar.

What: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking Party – The 10th Birthday Edition

When: Wednesday 7 December 2011 from 6.30pm until 11pm

Where: You'll find us at the Nordic Bar on Newman Street which is the North side of Oxford Street, nearest tube Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Circus or Goodge Street. We’ll be taking over the whole bar and there’s outside space with heaters for those who like to stand outside in the Winter. There’s no need to RSVP, just turn up. If you’re really feeling the need to RSVP somewhere, then you can do that over here https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=265361270178751

Skål

Helen, & the Swedish Beers crew

About the sponsors

Somo

Somo is the leading independent mobile marketing agency. Our mission is to help our clients benefit from the rapidly evolving developments in the mobile market. We do this by identifying the potential that mobile marketing can bring to a client’s business, then designing, building and delivering first class campaigns across all mobile platforms. We use sophisticated reporting and tracking tools to measure the success of campaigns to ensure that, whatever the objectives, they are achieved. Head honcho and very knowledgeable, Carl, and his growing team of experienced mobilistas will be on hand to chew the mobile fat with you and to hand out beer tokens.

Inspiring Interns

Inspiring Interns is today's intern recruitment solution, connecting businesses with fresh graduate talent. We search for talented, intelligent, and motivated young interns who want to learn, grow and importantly make a positive contribution through their skill sets and attitude. Any team, whether it is finance, administration, sales, marketing, HR, design or otherwise will benefit from having an intern as an additional team member.

We screen and interview every potential intern that we put forward for a position. We psychometric test them and ensure that we are dealing with highly motivated as well as talented people. If you want to meet any of our interns now you can perform a search or view via the player on our website. Search out the founders and long time friends of Swedish Beers and technokitten, Ben, Benedict, Sam and Charlie who will be on hand for fun, frolics and beer tokens.

**********Keep in touch***********

Email: Just add your email address to the Feedblitz box at the top left and you’ll get our blog posts (and therefore event notices) to your inbox.

Twitter: Follow us at http://www.twitter.com/swedishbeers

Facebook: Like us http://www.facebook.com/SwedishBeers (we’re phasing out the Swedish Beers FB group)

Heroes of the Mobile Fringe (working title)

2011-11-28T15:28:00.001Z

Cross posted from http://technokitten.com.

Not content with just running Swedish Beers…. my new thing, or at least one of my new things is the very unofficial fringe festival happening in Barcelona at the same time as Mobile World Congress. You’ll find a landing page at http://mwcfringe.com where you can add your email address to be updated, there’s a group on facebook (likes are always much appreciated and if FB is your thing, then you’ll see the updates in your stream too) and you can follow proceedings on twitter and Lanyrd.

So what’s this all about then?

The unofficial fringe festival during Mobile World Congress is down to me. I've been attending the show for many years now and the events on the side (discussion sessions, parties, lunches, roundtables) that have proved at least as valuable and interesting to me as the main event. I've been running the Swedish Beers party and a ladies lunch at MWC for the last 7 years already, and I've also organised panel sessions, dinners, discussion groups and formal lunches. Back in London, I ran Mobile Monday London for the last 4 years or so, Swedish Beers for the last 10 years, and have run my own conferences and workshops in between the day job as a mobile media consultant.

The concept for the fringe festival is pretty simple... inspired by The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the aim is to bring the grass roots mobile community together.

- The website (and hopefully mobile friendly version – funds and resources permitting), will help you find events and happenings that interest you and add them to your diary.

- If you're an event organiser, then you can apply to include your event as part of the festival (and unless it's really dull, we’d love to include it and the more grass roots it is, the better). That way, we share the marketing effort through co-branding and make the pie bigger for everyone to share. If you wish to charge for your event, or you have a sponsor for your event, that's ok with us too.

- If you've not run an event at MWC before, we will try to make it a bit easier for you...I'm currently in the process of blagging cheap/free space so that small companies and communities of interest can apply to hold an event in that space so we'll act as a bit of a matchmaker. We don't mind whether your event is for five people or for 500 or anything in between.

- There'll be an email newsletter and we'll have editor's picks - a bit like The Time Out Guide to Congress if you like. On top of that, I hope to have a roving fringe reporter sharing what's going on under the radar during the festival at Barcelona.

- And if you sign up to our service, there’ll be fringe benefits too, ranging from the big stuff – free tickets to access the exhibition to the smaller stuff – free mobile apps and services to make your week easier to who knows yet – it’s all still in negotiation.

There is no fee to include your event for the fringe festival in February 2012. The business model is sponsorship and advertising. There is also scope for media, community and association partnerships.
The festival will start the weekend before Congress (I'm just negotiating an event for the Sunday, but others may have something up their sleeve for the Saturday too) and we hope to finish a day or two afterwards. Like all good festivals, it is open to all – individuals, big companies, small companies and everything in between.

Get in touch

If you'd like to get involved or would like to discuss further (e.g. sponsorship opportunities, volunteering, media partnerships etc.), please get in touch.

*Please note that the festival is not connected to or endorsed by the GSMA*

Oh what a night! The London Comeback Edition Round-up

2011-07-29T17:52:00.002+01:00

Well, it seems to me that London was ready for a Swedish Beers night after all! It was a great night and a big thank you to all of you who joined in the fun. Many beers were supped and much mobile fat was chewed.

Kudos and a big thank you to our generous sponsors Millennial Media and Eagle Eye Solutions for the free drinks. They were joined by folks from all areas of the industry and far too many to name check them all - but included Vodafone, Openmarket, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Google/Android, Motorola, Mippin, BSkyB, We Love Mobile, BD Network, IPC Media, Ixonos, ITV, FT Conferences, Mindings, Digital Youth Project, MEF, Mobile Marketing Magazine, Disruptive Analysis, Brands2Life, IF, Speed Communications, Somo Agency, TeePee Games, BCM Solutions, Inspiring Interns, Propel London, Openfeint, Carrington Knight, Mobext, Telefonica, Clickslide, MePlease, PaperBag, Diary.com, Arcana Solutions, Closertag, Blippar, Zoonou, Dunnhumby, Bossa Studios, Bango, Miyowa, COI, In-Mobi, Longreach Mobile, Nuance and many, many more. It was great to see some familiar faces and to welcome new friends too. And I’m pretty sure there were a few sore heads in the morning.

And a *special* thank you to everyone involved in getting this particular show on the road, especially Jenny Hiley from We Love Mobile for being the catalyst to make the party happen again in London and for her help on the night alongside James Norris from Social Media Strategist, (who took all the photos), Gabriel Ortiz from Clickslide and student, Sofiana Dewi, and all the bar staff who did a great job of looking after us.

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

And when’s the next one, I hear you ask…?

It’s our 10th birthday in October, yes TEN YEARS!! And subject to sponsorship, we’ll be doing a birthday bash. And again, subject to sponsorship, the annual party in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress. Get in touch if you’re interested in sponsoring.

And a quick reminder about those generous sponsors on Wednesday night…

Millennial Media

Millennial Media is a a mobile advertising platform whose mission is to cut through the clutter and deliver real results on mobile for clients. And they’re doing pretty well at it with around 142 million global mobile customers in over 250 countries across more than 10,000 sites and applications. Oh, and that covers over 5,500 mobile devices. That’s some reach. Oh, and a bunch of happy clients and partners to boot.

Eagle Eye Solutions

Eagle Eye Solutions is all about mobilising retail. They have a very neat mobile couponing and redemption solution that makes use of existing Credit Card Terminals and EPoS technology so you don’t have to change your systems. Working with the likes of High Street retailers like Oasis and Comet, maybe you could be next.

**********Keep in touch***********

Email: Just add your email address to the Feedblitz box at the top left and you’ll get our blog posts (and therefore event notices) to your inbox.

Twitter: Follow us at http://www.twitter.com/swedishbeers

Facebook: Like us http://www.facebook.com/SwedishBeers (we’re phasing out the Swedish Beers FB group)

********************************

We’re back and we’re going back to our roots on Wednesday 27 July 2011

2011-07-15T21:13:00.002+01:00

Yes, we are. Swedish Beers is back in London after a short break and we’re going back to our roots at The Nordic Bar where it all began almost 10 years ago.

It’s the same formula as before – mingle, make friends, talk of mobiles, marketing, life in general, drink beer, talk some more, rinse and repeat. There’s no PowerPoint, no formal speeches, and no agenda. Just come with a smile on your face and be prepared to hang out with everyone from mobilists to marketers, brands, agencies, creatives, media owners, journalists, pundits and more. We hope there’ll be a good mix and friendly faces for you to chew the fat with.

We will have free house beer, house wine and soft drinks for you courtesy of our lovely sponsors Millennial Media and Eagle Eye Solutions. You’ll have to look for them to get your free beer tokens. There are plenty to go around. If we run out of beer tokens, then we’ll revert to a pay bar.

What: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking Party – The London Comeback Edition

When: Wednesday 27 July 2011 from 6.15pm until 11pm

Where: You'll find us at the Nordic Bar on Newman Street which is the North side of Oxford Street, nearest tube Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Circus or Goodge Street. We’ll be in the back bar but fully expect to take over the front bar too.

There’s no need to RSVP, just turn up. If you’re really feeling the need to RSVP somewhere, then you can do that over here http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=133200136763763&ref=mf

Skål

Helen, Jenny & the Swedish Beers crew

About the sponsors

Millennial Media

Eagle Eye Solutions

**********Keep in touch***********

Email: Just add your email address to the Feedblitz box at the top left and you’ll get our blog posts (and therefore event notices) to your inbox.

Twitter: Follow us at http://www.twitter.com/swedishbeers

Facebook: Like us http://www.facebook.com/SwedishBeers (we’re phasing out the Swedish Beers FB group)

********************************

Swedish Beers–Barcelona Edition 2011

2011-02-09T18:37:00.002Z

I can hardly believe it. It’s that time of year again and it’s all systems go for Mobile World Congress. And as part of that, your favourite networking party of the week is back to bring you more beer and more chat. We’re in danger of this year being better than ever thanks to our generous sponsors. I know for a fact there’ll be even more beer for starters. So let me introduce our generous sponsors to you…

Mesaplexx – the spectrum optimisation specialists. You’ll meet the team, including Peter Young and CEO, Mark Bole, who is an old friend of Swedish Beers from his Shozu days, so we’re very pleased to welcome Mesaplexx as sponsors this year. They are doing some very cool things to help MNOs get more out of their network. This is a good thing in my book. You can’t have too many shoes, handbags or bandwidth! When they’re not at Swedish Beers, you’ll find them at Congress in meeting room 4.OEMR07 – ground floor, opposite the VIP area. Contact Peter Young if you’d like a meeting.

Next up is AQL. Headed up by Adam Beaumont, the team will be on fine form and ready to chat to you about all things voice and messaging. Cos, that’s what they do. AQL are specialists in integrating mobile messaging and voice communications into client business processes – in fact they’ve won awards for doing precisely this. So whether you’re a carrier or SME, if you’re interested in messaging, then these are the guys to speak to. Messaging makes the world go round, right?

mxData are our third sponsor. And they’re doing very interesting things with rich and dynamic local content on mobile. Whether it’s adverts with a local angle, localised search, or a travel app – if it has a location data element to it, then this team may just have the right answer for you. I’ve been using one of their travel apps, and it’s really rather impressive. They’re also exhibiting at congress up in App Planet at Stand 7E44 so do go and say hello. And of course you know they’re going to have a stack of beer tokens to give away too.

Adfonic is our fourth sponsor. Europe’s only global advertising marketplace, they enable advertisers to bid for display advertising space on mobile sites and applications to extend their reach and optimise results and publishers to maximise the earning potential of their mobile traffic. Monetising mobile traffic is always a good thing in my book. And this team work with some long-standing Swedish Beers friends too. So if you want to talk advertising and making money, I reckon it’s worth searching the Adfonic team out.

And last, but by no means least we have Amobee. Ben and Harry have been Swedish Beers regulars for many years from their RingRing Media days and before, so it’s great to welcome them as sponsors this year. There’s not much that these guys don’t know when it comes to mobile advertising. Whether it’s planning and buying you need or a platform to manage your advertising, they’ll have something for you. When they say that Amobee powers mobile advertising, they’re not being facetious!

I really can’t thank our sponsors enough for their support, both moral and financial, for Swedish Beers. We couldn’t do this without them so please do make sure you say hello to them at the party. They’ve been really wonderful. So now you’ve met the sponsors, here’s the lowdown for the party…

Our venue for the evening is Dostrece which is a two floor bar and restaurant – a ground floor and a chillout basement.

The venue holds about 300 or so folks at any one time so there’s plenty space for everyone. There will be bars upstairs and downstairs so please make full use of both floors so that more people can enjoy the fun.

Doors will be opening at 7pm on Wednesday 16th February and we'll be open until late so there's plenty of time to drop by and enjoy the fun, meet interesting people and soak up the Swedish Beers vibe. There is no need to RSVP, but since there's a bar courtesy of our lovely sponsors, we will be distributing beer tokens on the night so you’ll have to look for the Swedish Beers crew and the lovely folks from Adfonic, Mesaplexx, Amobee, AQL and mxData. If facebook is your thing, then you’ll find us on facebook with a group and an event posting. And we’re on twitter too so do follow us there. The more the merrier I say.

Like our previous events, this is a relaxed evening, no formalities, no presentations, no business cards thrust in your face as soon as you arrive. Just come with an open mind, be prepared to see friends old and new, talk nonsense, enjoy a drink or five and have yourself a good time. Oh, and leave the ties, the corporate personas and the sales spiel at the door please. The Swedish Beers crew will be on hand – Cait, Anna, myself, Nik, Shafiq - and the friendliest bar staff in town at Dos Trece are all waiting to welcome you.

It is likely to get a bit busy at times. But don't worry, people will be coming in and out all evening. That’s kind of the point as we know there’s always a lot going on and you might want to check out more than one party. If it's very busy, there's no need to queue to get in. Just check out one of the other bars nearby and come back a little later when it's a bit less frantic.

We don't have a cloakroom so we don't recommend you bring your laptops with you - it's a liability in Barcelona I'm afraid – especially at this time of year. You won't need them anyway what with this new fangled thing called the mobile phone ;)

So just to recap:

What: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking
When: Wednesday 16th February 2011 - 7pm until we run out of steam
Where: Dostrece, Calle Carme 40, 08001 Barcelona

Dostrece is behind La Boqueria market and the nearest metro station is Liceu. Just walk up La Rambla, walk past La Boqueria and Teatro Grec, then take a left at Calle Carme (or Carrer del Carme) and Dostrece is at number 40 (Google map here). (They also have free wifi if you want to demo your latest phone app.)

See you on Wednesday 16th!

Skål

Helen and the SB crew

More Swedish Beers Love to go around from acrossair

2010-02-09T16:33:00.002Z

I do like it when a plan comes together. There is more beer to go around thanks to the lovely folk at acrossair. Yes, that’s right folks, we have another sponsor to join our merry throng! Chetan and his team from acrossair will be on hand with a bunch of beer tokens for you all and some chat and banter about things mobile.

acrossair are creators of the Augmented Reality Browser on iPhone. The browser uses amazing 3D navigation which you can see as you spin round. There is local data from property companies and big name brands which is represented in an augmented reality view. If you hold it flat, it jumps to a Google maps view and when you spin around, so does the browser to make sure you know where everything is.

It’s free to download from iTunes and works on iPhone 3GS. And, if you have an iPhone 3GS, rather usefully, one of their services is to find your nearest Metro station in Barcelona. That could come in handy. Hint, the nearest one to Swedish Beers is Liceu. Make sure you have that one saved ;)

Oh, and if Augmented Reality is your thing, then you might want to check out the AR showcase that acrossair is participating in that my pals Dan and Christine are organising on Wednesday afternoon at Mobile World Congress in the Courtyard, just before Swedish Beers.

Technorati Tags: swedish beers,mwc10,barcelona,party,mobile networking,acrossair,augmented reality,iphone

So good, Silverstreet had to sponsor it twice!

2010-02-05T10:45:00.002Z

Yes, that’s right, the super team at Silverstreet had such a good time at Swedish Beers in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress last year that they’re sponsoring it again this year! And I’m thrilled to be welcoming them back to join us :)

So who are the folks at Silverstreet then and what do they do? Well they’re a specialist in messaging (SMS) offering global reach with MT termination options covering more than 700 networks worldwide (that’s going some). They have a focus on mission critical traffic (so making sure your message gets to the right place at the right time) and high volume (wholesale) clients. On top of this, they also maintain coverage for Premium Rate SMS in 32 countries and continue to expand their portfolio.

New to the Silverstreet suite of services is the introduction of its AirTime Transfer services which are geared towards Mobile Operators around the world who are interested in offering their subscribers a service where they can send airtime credits to their friends and family overseas.

Silverstreet has grown *a lot* since they were with us last year and now has local offices in Europe (where they started), the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia and most recently opened an office in the Philippines. With 10 years under their belt in the Mobile Industry, and members of the MEF, you’ll find the team a fun bunch and very happy to talk messaging and other mobile stuff until the cows come home. Much like the rest of us really!

Eric, Timo, Mitch and Mil will be there from Silverstreet so be sure to look out for them to say hello, chat about mobile stuff – messaging, airtime, PSMS or whatever. And if you ask nicely, I expect they’ll be more than happy to share their very generous amount of beer tokens with you.

Skål

Technorati Tags: silverstreet,swedish beers,barcelona,mobile world congress,mwc10

I’m really pleased to announce Monotype Imaging as a sponsor for Swedish Beers…

2010-02-03T19:24:00.002Z

Yes, it’s true. I can confirm that the lovely people at Monotype Imaging will also be sponsoring Swedish Beers goes to Barcelona!

So you’ll be able to enjoy a beer with Monotype Imaging, the company that combines design with technology to help the world communicate consistently beautifully everywhere. Come and meet their team, a bold bunch of characters who have worked with all the leading players in the mobile world simply making text work. And I quote Julie Strawson, (who you might know already from speaking at Heroes of the Mobile Screen and being a regular at the Women in Mobile Data Association meet-ups), she says, ‘We’re proud to be sponsoring this great event.’ Hurrah!

You might want to take a look at the Monotype Imaging website before you search them out for beer tokens on the night and also download and try out their lovely little font app FlipFont. I’ve downloaded it myself and use it on my Nokia N95 and very nice it is too.

You can follow FlipFont on twitter as well if you like.

Shaping up to be a good one folks!

Skål

Technorati Tags: mwc10,swedish beers,sponsor,monotype imaging

I want, you want, we all want Swedish Beers… again!

2010-02-01T18:04:00.002Z

Yes, it’s that time of year. It’s all about Barcelona and it’s as hectic as ever. But hey, I wouldn’t like it if it was any different.

Jenny Hiley has been keeping the Swedish Beers love going Down Under in Sydney for the last year (thank you Jenny!) and I’m pleased to announce that I will be spreading some more Swedish Beers love by running Swedish Beers in Barcelona again this year with a little help from my friends.

We had such a great time last year – about 800 of you turned up throughout the night and you didn’t want to leave when it was closing time. We had folks there from as far afield as New Zealand and Brazil. We have global reach people! We also had people there from network operators, mobile marketing agencies, brands, analysts, journalists, entrepreneurs, developers of all flavours of mobile, aggregators, content creators, messaging specialists, media owners and lots more besides. You want it, you got it at Swedish Beers.

And by all accounts it was an epic night for some last year. People are still telling their ‘Swedish Beers’ tales, and not just from last year, from previous years to that too! I guess we’re doing something right then…

Anyway, we have the lovely Admob confirmed as our lead sponsor – third year running in Barcelona and I think the 5th time they’ve sponsored Swedish Beers since we started back in October 2001 in London.

We are still on the lookout for more sponsors though to help the party really go with a swing. Like last year, we can provide the atmosphere, warm bodies, great banter, friendly welcome and a good time if you can contribute towards the beer fund. Another £4,000 and I’d be *really* happy and not only would I be happy, but a lot of other people would be very happy too! Do get in touch if you’d like to make that happen :)

Anyway, the important bit…

Our venue for the evening is Dostrece which is a two floor bar and restaurant – a ground floor and a chillout basement. Yes, that's right, a restaurant too! This means that they will be serving food from their normal m enu until about 9pm so you'll get a chance to eat too if you want to. Prices are reasonable and it's a mix of Mexican, Spanish and Turkish flavours. @BCN_unlike reviews it here. We ate there last year and it was very tasty.

The venue holds about 300 or so folks at any one time so there’s plenty space for everyone. Dostrece is behind La Boqueria market and the nearest metro station is Liceu. Just walk up La Rambla, walk past La Boqueria and Teatro Grec, then take a left at Calle Carme (or Carrer del Carme) and Dostrece is at number 40 (Google map here). (They also have free wifi if you want to demo your latest iphone app.)

Doors will be opening at 6.30pm on Wednesday 17th February and we'll be open until late so there's plenty of time to drop by and enjoy the fun, meet interesting people and soak up the Swedish Beers vibe. There is no need to RSVP, but since there's a bar courtesy of our lovely sponsors, we will be distributing beer tokens on the night so you’ll have to look for the Swedish Beers crew and the lovely folks from Admob.

It is likely to get a bit busy at times. But don't worry, people will be coming in and out all evening. That’s kind of the point as we know there’s always a lot going on. If it's very busy, there's no need to queue to get in. Just check out one of the other bars nearby and come back a little later when it's a bit less frantic.

We don't have a cloakroom so I don't recommend you bring your laptops with you - it's a liability in Barcelona I'm afraid. You won't need them anyway what with this new fangled thing called the mobile phone ;)

So just to recap:

What: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking
When: Wednesday 17th February 2010, 6.30pm until we run out of steam
Where: Dostrece, Calle Carme 40, 08001 Barcelona

And of course, it couldn't happen at all without the generous support of our lovely sponsors, the first of which is Admob.

*Admob* Founded in 2006 (on my birthday as it happens!), AdMob is AdMob is one of the world's largest mobile advertising networks, offering solutions for discovery, branding and monetization on the mobile web, serving more than a gazillion mobile banner and text ads per month.

Their growing client list includes a diverse range of Fortune 500 brands like Ford, Coca-Cola, EA, P&G, Land Rover, MTV Europe, Adidas, and Paramount Pictures, as well as publishers that are pushing the boundaries of the mobile web like AccuWeather, BluePulse, CBS Mobile, EA, Flirtomatic, Hollywood.com, Peperonity, and TinyTube. Admob are the primary monetization and acquisition partner for thousands of companies.

Widely recognized as the world’s leading mobile advertising networks, Admob has won accolades from the Mobile Marketing Association, Ad Age, Business Week, Wired Magazine, and the World Economic Forum. Not bad eh!

Russell (genuine old skool mobilist and blogger), Andy, Jonathan and I suspect a few more from their crew will be around to hand out beer tokens and generally chew the mobile fat.

Hope to have more sponsors to announce soon as well! Get in touch if you’re interested

Skål

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CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK & TWITTER TOO
Join the group or follow us on twitter - you'll be in good company and can keep up to date with Swedish Beers events in London, Sydney and Barcelona.
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Technorati Tags: swedish beers,events,mwc,barcelona,party,networking,mobile networking,admob

Heroes of the Mobile Screen – 7 Dec 09 at the BFI Southbank, London

2009-11-08T23:23:00.002Z

Some of you may be wondering what I’ve been up to of late. Well, if you have, then I can reveal to you that I’ve been working on a new conference, Heroes of the Mobile Screen, which is on next month on 7 December at the rather wonderful BFI on London’s Southbank. And I’d love for you to spread the word (like our wonderful media partners), buy tickets and join the conversation. And I’m afraid this has taken our attention for the last few weeks which means we’ve had to cancel November’s Swedish Beers London event. Hopefully, this will all make up for it as this will be the *must attend* conference followed by the *must attend* after party. Well you know I like a good party!

The team behind the conference, Isabel Fox, Neil Robertson, Carlo Longino, Dominic Travers and yours truly are also involved in running Mobile Monday London, Swedish Beers Mobile Networking, Future of Mobile, Over The Air, Mobile 2.0 and Tech Media Invest events amongst other things.

The day-long event at BFI Southbank will differ from anything else around (at least that’s what we’re aiming for) and get the stakeholders of mobile involved in discussing the issues affecting them and their customers. Uniquely the event also has teenagers on stage to tell the industry what they want from their mobile, what they expect from their network operators and what’s most important to them in terms of their mobile life.

Heroes of the Mobile Screen is already attracting a number of high calibre ‘heroes’ with speakers and panellists answering the call from around the world, including Kei Shimada, JP Rangaswami and Kevin Marks, Belinda Parmar, Julia Shalet, Doug Richard and Harald Neidhardt are all confirmed. The speakers are listed here and the agenda can be found here.

Heroes of the Mobile Screen opens with a keynote from Kei Shimada sharing his experience of what’s happening in Japan and what we can learn from that here in the West. And continues with four core pillars supporting discussion throughout the day.

The money
What's making money, who's making money and what's being invested in and where the money's going to be in the future? The answers to all the questions we want to ask of successful mobile service providers and VCs.

The impact of social/location
What is the impact of social media and location technology? What do customers want, what are the business models, what are the solutions to privacy issues. Carriers are placing their bets in this area, but will they pay off?

Teenage heroes
Led by digital youth marketing expert Julia Shalet (pictured left), this is a new format where we invite four companies to pitch their product, service or device live on stage to six teenagers and they tell us what they really think.

Real customers, real applications, real marketing
A double session with the first half covering customers and what they really want on mobile with a focus on women in particular with some new research and insight into what women want from Belinda Parmar of Lady Geek. The second half will cover mobile marketing and advertising, what's working, what's not and what's coming next.

I came up with idea around the event because we realised that most of the events I attend throughout the year all talk around the same subjects, with the same people and bring up the same issues, without resolution. It’s time for us to stop talking to ourselves, look out beyond our industry and make some changes for the better. I believe it’s important to engage our colleagues in marketing, web 2.0 and media as well as more of our mobile colleagues from throughout the value chain. The exciting stuff is going to happen when industries cross over – that’s where the innovation is. In putting the agenda together, we believe we have something that will appeal to a wide audience – whether you’re a director of marketing for an FMCG brand or a web developer toying with the idea of developing apps for android or iphone. And to do that, we need to share real customer insight that we can use to make ours and others mobile lives better.

Tickets are now available online now for £99 (ex VAT and booking fee) at http://mobileheroes.net . We’ve kept the price deliberately low and it’s subsidised by sponsors who we’ll be able to announce shortly.

If you’re interested in sponsoring the event in some way, please get in touch with me via email.

If you’re interested in pitching your gadget, application or service to our teenagers, please email Dominic Travers to put your name forward.

We are keeping a waiting list for potential speakers and panellists. If you’d like to be considered, please contact me.

So get your tickets now and become a fan on Facebook or follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/hotms too.

Technorati Tags: conference,mobile monday,mobile monday london,events,london,mobile media,mobile marketing,mobile applications,mobile network operators,learning,networking

For the record...

2009-02-10T09:47:00.006Z

Swedish Beers is *not* at Belchica this year and nor is it on the Tuesday night of MWC. We still love Belchica, it's just not quite right for what we wanted this year.

So instead, we are holding it on Wednesday 18th February 2009 from 6.30pm at Dostrece which is just off La Rambla at C/ Carme 40, nearest Metro: Liceu.

Our sponsors are Admob, Palringo, Silverstreet and dotMobi.

If you spot any blogposts like this one saying otherwise, do tell them they've got it wrong.

Thanks and skål

Update: Very pleased to say that the lovely folks at Mobileslate have updated their party list. Hurrah to the power of the interwebz.

Swedish Beers are go!!

2009-02-09T17:04:00.014Z

Yes it's true. Thanks to the wonderful comments and support from Swedish Beers fans here on the blog and on twitter, I now am proud to announce that we have not only some very generous sponsors for our little party, but also a smashing new venue. Not that we don't like Belchica or anything, because we do, but it wasn't quite big enough for us for what we were after this year. Not least, because we have four super sponsors and their guests and a media partner to boot.

This year's event is proudly sponsored by Admob, Silverstreet, Palringo and dotMobi. More about them later.

And our media partner is the rather wonderful Mobile Industry Review who will be interviewing folks for their video show and blog on the night. Be sure to look out for Ewan, Dan, James and Ben to give them your pitch as to why they should include you in their show.

Our venue for the evening is Dostrece which is a two floor bar and restaurant. Yes, that's right, a restaurant too! This means that they will be serving food from their normal m enu all evening so you'll get a chance to eat too. Prices are reasonable and it's a mix of Mexican, Spanish and Turkish flavours. @BCN_unlike reviews it here.

The venue holds up to 300 folks at any one time so it's a little bigger than last year's venue, Belchica, and it can be found behind La Boqueria market and the nearest metro station is Liceu. Just walk up La Rambla, walk past La Boqueria and Teatro Grec, then take a left at Calle Carme (or Carrer del Carme) and Dostrece is at number 40 (Google map here). (They also have free wifi if you're desperate to demo your latest iphone app.)

Doors will be opening at 6.30pm on Wednesday 18th February and we'll be open until late so there's plenty of time to drop by and enjoy the fun, meet interesting people and soak up the Swedish Beers vibe. There is no need to RSVP, but since there's a bar courtesy of our lovely sponsors, we will be distributing beer tokens on the night. There will be *plenty* tokens to go round as we have very generous sponsors this year and each token will entitle you to a glass of beer, glass of house wine or a soft drink. So be sure to seek out those with the tokens on the night (that'll be the Swedish Beers crew and our lovely sponsors).

Like our previous events, this is a relaxed evening, no formalities, no presentations, no business cards thrust in your face as soon as you arrive. Just come with an open mind, be prepared to talk nonsense to strangers, enjoy a drink or five and have yourself a good time. Oh, and leave the ties at the door please.

It is likely to get a bit busy at times. But don't worry, people will be coming in and out all evening. And if it's very busy, there's no need to queue to get in. Just check out one of the other bars nearby and come back a little later when it's a bit less frenetic. And we don't have a cloakroom so I don't recommend you bring your laptops with you - it's a liability in Barcelona I'm afraid. You won't need them anyway.

So just to recap:

What: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking
When: Wednesday 18th February, 6.30pm until we run out of steam
Where: Dostrece, Calle Carme 40, 08001 Barcelona tel: +34 9 3301 7306

And of course, it couldn't happen at all without the generous support of our lovely sponsors:

*Admob* Founded in 2006 (on my birthday as it happens!), AdMob is the world's largest and highest quality mobile advertising marketplace, serving more than a gazillion mobile banner and text ads per month. AdMob allows advertisers to reach their customers on the mobile web and enables publishers to increase the value of their mobile sites. AdMob offers advertisers the ability to target and personalize advertising to their customers in 160 countries. Sample AdMob customers include Coca Cola, Starbucks, MSN, Paramount Pictures, Reuters, MTV and many more. AdMob serves ads for over 3,000 mobile web sites, including ESPN, CBS, Weather Underground, Maxim and Peperonity. Russell (genunine old skool mobilist and blogger), Andy and I expect a few more from their crew will be around to hand out beer tokens and generally chew the fat.

*Silverstreet Active Media* is a Dutch based corporation specialized in high-end as well as mission critical Mobile Messaging (SMS) offering global, verified MT termination options (covering more than 700 GSM & CDMA networks) in addition to its vast Premium SMS (25 countries) and Premium IVR (30 countries / 15 languages) portfolios. Constantly striving to excel within its role as one of the leading messaging companies in the industry, Silverstreet handles each customer case with the focus it required to meet the specific needs that each project presents. Through its competitive offering, professionalism, and customer care the company has achieved numerous successful business relationships with MVNO's, MNO's, large brands, and others. The Silverstreet team is new to Swedish Beers, so be gentle with them and be sure to search out Simon and his team for a chat and of course, your beer tokens.

*Palringo* is a communications channel designed to make Instant Messaging work on the mobile: voice if private, text if somewhere busy and photos where relevant. Vocal IM (walkie-talkie style voice) also makes it easy for users who have difficulty typing, for people on the move when it's not appropriate to text, and for users with complex languages such as Russian, Chinese, Japanese, or Arabic. People can keep in touch with friends on popular IM services and social networks like : AOL's AIM, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, Jabber, Microsoft Windows Live Messenger, QQ and Facebook. Palringo works across on the all of the major mobile platforms: Windows Mobile, Symbian S60, Java, RIM Blackberry, iPhone,Android (forthcoming), plus PC's and Mac's. Palringo has been shortlisted by the GSM Association for Best Mobile Internet Service award and will be exhibiting on UK Trade & Investment Stand (AV26 Avenida). Kerry Ritz has set up a Swedish Beers chat group on Palringo if you want to give it a go (it's a free download from your mobile) and will be on hand with beer tokens on the night.

*dotMobi* (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain Ltd.) was appointed by ICANN as the official global registry for the .mobi top level domain. It is backed by leading mobile operators, network device manufacturers and Internet content providers including Ericsson, Google, GSMA, Hutchison, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefónica Móviles, TIM, Visa and Vodafone.

dotMobi makes the mobile phone as useful as a PC for websites & services, just a lot more portable and provides the critical link between mobile operators, handset manufacturers, content providers, brands and customers to make phones the tool of choice for the mobile web. The key differentiator for dotMobi is the mobile user experience. This is driven by the dotMobi style guides which contain a mixture of mandatory and recommended best practices for developing mobile content and services. The guides cover a variety of Internet and domain-related issues and are published on our web site for the mobile web developer community, dev.mobi. And if you want to find out more, there'll be a few of the dotMobi crew in tow at Swedish Beers.

So nothing more to add except to say, have a safe journey to Barcelona and we look forward to welcoming you at Swedish Beers.

Skål

Helen (aka technokitten) and Anna

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CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK TOO
Join the group - you'll be in good company and can keep up to date with Swedish Beers events in London, Sydney and Barcelona.
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I want, you want, we all want Swedish Beers!

2009-01-22T14:26:00.005Z

Update 01/02/10: 2010's event details are here. Same place, same time, same day (Weds). See you there. Skål.

It's that time of year when the Mobile Industry goes to Barcelona and we're now in the final planning stages with our respective companies, clients, colleagues and what have you. And obviously, Swedish Beers, I'm very pleased to say, has become an integral part of the Barcelona experience for many in our mobile community.

Tis true that I haven't organised anything yet because that is very much dependent on sponsors getting involved so I'm putting a shout out to you all to get involved and dig deep and help us make sure we can put on another Swedish Beers event.

To make the party go with a bang, we need about 4,000 Euros and that will keep 500 or so mobile execs merry for several hours. And we're happy to have several sponsors - it doesn't just have to be one. You bring the money, we'll bring the warm bodies, good cheer and random chat.

So if you have some budget for this and would like to get involved, or you know someone who might have budget, then please get in touch via email. And if you don't have money, you can still help by showing your appreciation for Swedish Beers by leaving a comment as to why you think we should have a Swedish Beers party this year in Barcelona... can you believe it, some folks don't know much about Swedish Beers? So your testimonials would be a great help to us. We want to know what Swedish Beers means to you... so over to you my Swedish Beers chums...

Mobile Monday London & Swedish Beers birthday party round-up

2008-12-04T20:29:00.001Z

Yes, I know it's been a while coming but it's been kinda busy at technokitten towers lately so I haven't manage to catch up on everything yet but I thought it was about time to tell you about our Mobile Monday and Swedish Beers birthday party.

If you weren't there, you missed a treat. Tim Green, editor of Mobile Entertainment Magazine did a wonderful job in the role of Parky to host our chat show stylee event with guests Dr Mike Short (VP R&D O2 Telefonica), Russell Buckley (MD Europe Admob and Chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association), Madhuban Kumar (Founder, Ereni Partners) and the infamous Bill Thompson from the BBC's digital planet amongst other things. And the mid-way entertainment was provided by the wonderful guys at MIReview. More on that later.

As I was busy organising everything I was in and out of the room so didn't hear the whole thing but since the rooms was packed there were plenty people who did and some of them even wrote about it including Tom Hume, Russell and James Cameron.

And the MIReview guys were fab. They recorded their weekly show live (the first time they've done this) and also did some vox pops at Swedish Beers afterwards. Below are the links to the official segments and the last clip is from Ribot, who recorded the live recording in all its glory so you can see the before and after, effectively.

MIR Show - Week 45 - MoMo London Live from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

MIR Show - Week 45 - Omar Hamoui, founder of AdMob from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

MIR Show - Week 45 - Justin Davies, Co-Founder of NinetyTen from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Mobile Industry Review invade Mobile Monday London from ribot on Vimeo.

The Swedish Beers party afterwards at Bar 101 was a blast as usual and special thanks has to go to Future of Mobile and MX Telecom for their generosity and support in sponsoring the evening. There were already lots of people waiting for us by the time we got there, which was great. And there were folks there from all areas of the industry and far too many to name check them all - but included Future Platforms, O2, Vodafone, dotmobi, IIR, Carsonified, NinetyTen, Rummble, INQ, Admob, Ereni Partners, IQinc, MX Telecom, Spinvox, Ring Ring, Media, Trutap, Ribot, Fred's Talent, Hai Media, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, Six Degrees, Yahoo!, Google, Kizoom, AdIq, NitroMobile, Symbian, Truphone, Nokia, Synchro Arts, Flirtomatic, Mippin, Ericsson, MMA, Splendid Communications, Vertu, MobGeo, Sony Ericsson, Yiibu, and more besides. It was good to see some familiar faces too and have a catch up over a beer and also good to meet some new faces too.

And a *special* thanks to everyone involved in getting this particular show on the road, especially Sevgi, Stephanie, Lisa and Bryan for their support and help on the night.

Update: in case you're interested, quite a few folks blogged about the evening too so feel free to browse the following blog posts.

http://www.msearchgroove.com/2008/11/11/engagement-is-conversation-admob/
http://mobhappy.com/blog1/2008/11/11/happy-birthday-dear-momo/
http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2008/11/were_live_at_momo_london_swedish_beers_tonight.html
http://www.tomhume.org/2008/11/mobile-monday.html
http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2008/11/momo_london_swedish_beers.html

Mobile Monday & Swedish Beers celebrate together on 10th November

2008-11-03T16:30:00.003Z

Yes, it's true. Both Swedish Beers and Mobile Monday London have their birthdays round about now - 7 years and 3 years respectively. And to celebrate, we're joining forces and having a big bash combining the best of both events in one big night out on Monday 10th November.

So the format's going to be a little bit different, but we hope you will still enjoy it immensely. So what's in store then...?

The Mobile Monday bit:

Well we have Tim Green, editor of Mobile Entertainment Magazine who is going to be our host with the most on the evening. And he's going to be interviewing four mobile industry celebrities for our delectation, talking about the year just gone and the year ahead and the odd anecdote or three in a chat show stylee. Our esteemed guests are Dr Mike Short from O2, Russell Buckley from Admob, Bill Thompson, a regular from the BBC's Digital Planet plus a mystery guest. There will be time for questions from the audience too.

We will have the MIReview Show joining us too and in the spirit of the evening, they will be presenting and filming some of their show LIVE on stage. (If you don't know them already, think Top Gear but about mobile technology instead of cars.). And we're still hopeful for a surprise or two.

This will all be happening at the CBI at Centrepoint (Tottenham Court Road tube) - Doors opening at 6pm for a 6.30pm start. Don't be late, otherwise you'll miss the Mobile Monday Chat Show as it will only be on for about an hour to an hour and half.

The Swedish Beers bit

Then once the show's a wrap as they say in TV land, we'll move on straight away to Bar 101 (it's underneath Centrepoint at the back) to join the Swedish Beers crew and enjoy some free beer, random chat and general good cheer courtesy of our very generous sponsors - The Future of Mobile and MX Telecom.

There's no formality at Swedish Beers, just turn up, be friendly, drink beer (or soft drinks), chew the fat, talk about mobile stuff (or not) and generally enjoy the vibe. To claim your free drink, you'll need to find one of the generous sponsors, one of the Swedish Beers crew or one of the Mobile Monday organisers to claim your beer token. Without the token, it's a pay bar. But it's open until late, so we can talk mobile nonsense until the wee hours if you like.

RSVP

If you'd like to come to the Mobile Monday Chat Show, please RSVP here by 'adding record' with your name and company details. No RSVP required for Swedish Beers. You don't have to come to both parts of the evening, but it would be fun if you did. The more the merrier as they say and both venues can hold a lot of us mobile types. So spread the word!

See you Monday 10th November in celebratory mode.

Swedish Beers in London and Barcelona needs you!

2008-08-01T13:11:00.002+01:00

Yes, that's right. Swedish Beers needs you, dear mobilist. The Swedish Beers team members are currently planning forthcoming events in London for the Autumn this year and Spring next year and are also planning ahead for Barcelona in February 2009 to coincide with Mobile World Congress (MWC 2009).

Swedish Beers is one of the most popular mobile networking events on the circuit but it can't happen without the financial support of very generous sponsors. And if you're reading this, the chances are you already know how good our events are because you've been to one of our events or someone you know has and they've lived to tell you the tale! So if you fancy being one of our generous sponsors, making friends and influencing people, and joining the ranks of being a Swedish Beers friend alongside BT, Admob, Bango, Trutap, Sponge, Major Players, Tanla Mobile, ARN Consulting, PINoptic, MyMart, Colibria and MyStrands please get in touch to discuss the detail of how you can reach the mobilists that other events cannot reach.

skål

Swedish Beers Down Under (#2) – drink beer, talk mobile, drink more beer, talk nonsense…

2008-08-01T12:40:00.005+01:00

Good news for all you mobilists Down Under. The last event was so good that the fabulous Jen² team have pulled it out of the bag again and have organised the second Swedish Beers Down Under.

Well, mark your diaries for Wednesday, 27^th August 2008 at the Redoak Boutique Beer Café, Clarence Street – same venue as last time. Once again, drinking commences @ 5.30pm. This month, Swedish Beers is being sponsored by the lovely people at BlueCentral, so when you have a drink, you’ve got them to thank!

A lot has happened in the mobile industry Down Under since the last bash – 3G iphones launched in Australia to people queuing round the block in freezing temperatures, BlueCentral is launching a mobility solutions arm, NZ’s Hyperfactory is setting up shop in Oz, Telstra is embracing QR Codes in their new Olympics advertising campaign, Xumii is launching, Mega is pitching, Big Brother has finally died a death and there is a new AIMIA Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index Survey about to launch. In addition, we’re all wondering if it's winter or the economic downturn that has us all shivering a little.

At our inaugural event, the place was packed with over 80 people coming and drinking beer. There was a lot of mobile talk going around, a few job offers here and there, some quiet business pitches being made and, later in the evening, a lot of nonsense being talked. Come and meet your competitors, friends, colleagues, clients and suppliers in a not-so-chilly environment and get talking over a not-so-Swedish beer.As one of the attendees at the first Swedish Beers (held just after Mobile Content World Australasia) said ”I really enjoyed the last one. To be honest the networking was more useful than it had been sitting through those seminars all day at MCW.” Praise indeed.

Please feel free to invite anyone else who you find interesting enough to attend!

skål

Swedish Beers Sydney event is brought to you by Sydney mobilists, Jen², who are Jennifer Hiley of 5^th Finger & Jennifer Wilson of Lean Forward

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ABOUT OUR LOVELY SPONSOR without whom the night would just not be as much fun:

BlueCentral is a hosting and mobility solutions provider. At BlueCentral we provide all of your hosting needs, from domain names to dedicated hosting. We have recently expanded our product portfolio to offer mobile messaging aggregation, mobile billing and delivery.

BlueCentral provides a platform to enable your company to achieve future growth, our mobile gateway provides your company with international reach. BlueCentral mobility allows its clients to add mobile messaging to their business without incurring large infrastructure setup costs. We take care of all the complexities involved with these solutions to make it easier for you to manage.

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ABOUT SWEDISH BEERS

Swedish Beers www.swedishbeers.co.uk is an ad-hoc mobile networking event (run roughly quarterly) by British mobilists, Helen Keegan (aka technokitten) and Steve Flaherty of RespondMobile . It has been running in London since 2001 and Barcelona since 2006. Nothing formal, no speakers, no powerpoint, just turn up and mingle and hang out with folks from the mobile, marketing and media worlds.

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CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK TOO

Join the group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2456995682- you'll be in good company and get more details about this and other events, check out some photos and meet some of your fellow Swedish Beer lovers.

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Swedish Beers is launching Down Under

2008-05-21T15:10:00.004+01:00

Not content with London and Barcelona, we're very excited to announce that Swedish Beers is launching Down Under with its inaugural event next week in Sydney.

The team behind the launch is Jen² (Jennifer Hiley of 5th Finger and Jennifer Wilson of Lean Forward) and they've booked the charming Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe for your pleasure.

We all know Aussies love their beer and with mobile penetration at more than 100%, it looks like we also love our mobiles so we reckon you'll also love Swedish Beers Mobile Networking. Come along and join us for a beer or three and plenty of chat at The Redoak Boutique Beer Café. Drinking commences @ 5.30pm. Nothing formal, no speakers, no powerpoint, nothing flashy, just turn up and mingle and hang out with folks from the mobile, marketing and media worlds. So if you're friendly, enjoy mixing and have a passing interest in mobile, then come and hang out with the nice Swedish Beers folks Down Under. No need to RSVP unless you'd really like to but do spread the word to your colleagues and friends.

If the London and Barcelona events are anything to go by, this promises to be a good 'un so you'd better be there to check out the action!

What: Swedish Beers launches Down Under

When: Wednesday 28th May from 5.30pm

Where: The Redoak Boutique Beer Café, 201 Clarence Street, Sydney, Australia. (Here's a map)

Unfortunately the London crew won't be there to enjoy the first event Down Under, but we've left you in the capable hands of Jen² in our absence.

skål

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What is Swedish Beers?
Swedish Beers www.swedishbeers.co.uk is an ad-hoc mobile networking event (run roughly quarterly) by British mobilists, Helen Keegan (aka technokitten) and Steve Flaherty of RespondMobile. It has been running in London since October 2001 and in Barcelona for the last 3 years. Find us on facebook too.

The best Swedish Beers event yet

2008-03-20T14:37:00.002Z

Yes, thats right folks. Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, we had our best event in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress.

We had 100s of mobile executives through our doors throughout the evening right through until closing time in the wee hours of the morning. There were free beers galore (we drank the bar dry of draught Stella!) and definitely lots of chatting and mingling going on.

There were too many people there to mention but one of the things I really enjoy about the event in Barcelona is that we attract visitors from all over the world and it really adds to the atmosphere on the evening. I know we had folks there from Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Israel and dear old Blighty of course.

Some of the folks we met there included IPC, Manchester United FC, Yahoo, Google, Peperoni, Mobvision, Perform Group, Fred's, ARN Consulting, Respond Mobile, Acxiom, Medio Systems, Airwide Solutions, Flixwagon, Spinvox, Mobile Monday, Vodafone, Reactor, Aditon, MX Telecom, Ribot, Future Platforms, Mippin, Vertu, Jajah, Betavine, Ionsquare, We Love Mobile, MSN, Sponge, Rok, Truphone, Reuters, m-spatial, Device Management Forum, Moblica, Radius-Ed, Wizzfone, Greenwich Consulting, CScout, RRD.tv, Sofia Digital, Carmunity, Leiki, M:Metrics and a load more besides. If you were there, then add a comment below and tell me!

And if you think it's just me who thought it was a good night, then some folks have said lovely things about us too...

"Cheers for a superb Swedish Beers night in Barcelona! Really good
turnout and good fun of course!"

"Swedish Beers has been the best networking event I’ve been to, and I
don’t just mean Barcelona."
"It was a great event, lots of interesting people having a great time. I even met someone from Sweden - how cool is that!"

"Thanks for a great do in Barcelona, I know everyone said it but it was
the best one! Here’s to the next!!"

And we couldn't have done it without our very generous sponsors - PINoptic, Trutap, MyMart and Admob so a special thank you to them for their generosity with beer tokens. And a huge thank you as well to Belchica and the bar staff there who made it such a fun evening for us.

Skål

Swedish Beers in Barca sponsors announced

2008-02-04T11:15:00.000Z

Just in case you haven't heard, Sw edish Beers is coming to Barcelona for MWC. Yes, it's that time of year again and everyone who is lucky enough to be heading to the sunshine and frolics in Barcelona is organising their MWC social life. The Swedish Beers crew *will* be in town as many of you already know and we'll be living it up at Belchica courtesy of our very generous sponsors Trutap - David and Carl, PINoptic - Colin and Jenny, MyMart - Adam and Ben, and Admob - Russell and Andy. So the first few beers will be on them. The proceedings kick off at 7pm and will go on until late (the bar's open very late so we won't get kicked out) so feel free to drop by and say hello, or should I say hola, during the evening.

Like last year's Swedish Beers in Spain in a Belgian Bar, on the night the very generous sponsors (this year's are David, Carl, Colin, Jenny, Russell, Andy, Adam and Ben) and the Swedish Beers crew (that's me, Steve, Anton and Gillian) will be the ones armed with the beer tokens. So come and search us out to claim your free beers.

It'll be the usual eclectic mix of media, marketing and mobile types but since we're in Barcelona for the night, it's a chance for our friends from outside the UK to join the fun too. There's sure to be lots of familiar faces as many of the London regulars will be there, but we're looking forward to welcoming new folks too. So if you fancy a drink and a chat and a mingle with the nice Swedish Beers folks, then come along and join in. You don't have to talk about mobile and you don't even have to drink beer if you don't want to, but it would be nice if you were friendly and enjoyed hanging out with other friendly folk who happen to have a passing interest in things mobile. There's no RSVP required unless you'd like to. If we're full when you arrive, don't panic, just come back a bit later. Folks will be coming and going all evening I expect.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

THE LOWDOWN:

Where: Belchica, Villarroel 60, 08011 Barcelona. Entrance on Gran Via de Deputacion. Metro L1 Urguell (so very near Congress).

When: Tuesday 12th February 2008 19:00h onwards

What: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking Drinks

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
ABOUT OUR LOVELY SPONSORS without whom the night wouldn't be possible

*Trutap* is an easy-to-use free mobile service that for the first time, globally, combines all the elements of a young person's social life into one application. With trutap users can easily connect and converse with friends and family, wherever they are, whenever they want. trutap currently operates in over 200 countries across the world and will operate in more shortly. Carl and David will be with us and if you want to know what they look like, their pictures can be found here! I'm quite sure David and Carl will keep you amused as well being Swedish Beers old-timers.

*PINoptic* applies its Visual Probabilistic One Time Password (VPOTP) next-generation software to high security authentication applications. This delivers an easy to implement yet innovative, universal security solution with the strength required by even financial institutions. PINoptic maintains user simplicity through the use of pictures and symbols which appeals to a global market with differing literacy levels. Applications range from financial through to internet, mobile telecoms, corporate IT and access control. PINoptic's vision is to become a defacto security standard and replace 99% of existing pin and password systems by 2012. Jenny and Colin will be on hand to explain all and it's pretty cool. Oh, and they'll have tokens for free beer.

*MyMart* is leading the way in mobile retail by providing mobile shop technology and services for operators, agencies and retailers. Adam and Ben are looking forward to building strategic relationships at the mobile world congress. They're also interested to chat about wheree mobile retail may be heading. Adam and Ben will have beer tokens in hand and are generally fun to hang out with too. And no, they won't try and sell you anything on the spot via one of their mobile shops... Well, I don't think they will anyway ;)

*Admob* Founded in 2006 (on my birthday as it happens! Ed), AdMob is the world's largest and highest quality mobile advertising marketplace, serving more than 2 billion mobile banner and text ads per month. Founded in January 2006, AdMob allows advertisers to reach their customers on the mobile web and enables publishers to increase the value of their mobile sites. AdMob offers advertisers the ability to target and personalize advertising to their customers in 160 countries. Sample AdMob customers include Coca Cola, Starbucks, MSN, Paramount Pictures, Reuters, MTV and many more. AdMob serves ads for over 3,000 mobile web sites, including ESPN, CBS, Weather Underground, Maxim and Peperonity. Russell (genunine old skool mobilist and blogger), Andy and I expect a few more from their crew will be around to hand out beer tokens and generally chew the fat.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CHECK US OUT ON FACEBOOK TOO
Join the group - you'll be in good company and get more details about this event
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Skål

The Swedish Beers crew: Helen, Steve, Anton and Gillian

The Swedish Beers crew are back in Barcelona in February

2008-01-14T17:29:00.000Z

Yes, it’s that time of year again when the world’s mobilists land in Barcelona to obsess about all things mobile for a few days for the GSMA's Mobile World Congress (the conference formerly known as 3GSM). So of course, the Swedish Beers Posse will be in town too and we're running our Swedish Beers Mobile Networking event too and would love you to join us.

So if you're friendly, enjoy mingling and have a passing interest in mobile, then mingle with the nice Swedish Beers folks. Don't worry, you don't have to talk about mobile technology, handsets or whatever and you don't even have to drink beer if you don't want to but we would like you to be friendly and enjoy mingling with us.

We have some lovely sponsors lined up and the first few beers will be on them - more details as they're confirmed.

Where: Belchica, Villarroel 60, 08011 Barcelona. Entrance on Gran Via de Deputacion. Metro L1 Urguell (so very near Congress and the same place we went to last year).

When: Tuesday 12th February 2008

Time: 7pm onwards

What: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking drinks

skål

Helen, Steve, Anton, Seth and the crew who are too numerous to mention!

Swedish Beers Mobile Networking, Weds 12 Sept 07

2007-08-30T16:43:00.000+01:00

Right, slight change of plan...

We're back to the Nordic Bar, our usual haunt, on Wednesday 12th September. We'll be in the back bar from 6ish for all the usual chat, mingling and talk of mobiles, marketing, media and life in general. And if the last few events are anything to go by, we'll probably overtake the whole bar pretty quickly. You'll find the Nordic Bar on Newman Street which is the North side of Oxford Street, nearest tube Tottenham Court Road or Oxford Circus.

Unfortunately, the bad news is that our sponsor has had to postpone their sponsorship of Swedish Beers as they're not quite ready to shout out about the wonderful things they're up to. So it would be *really* marvellous if another generous sponsor could help us out with the bar. Otherwise, it's buy your own drinks night. And if it's the latter, it will be your challenge to find someone who has a works expense account to buy drinks for you all evening ;)

But seriously folks, the Swedish Beers night goes on and do get in touch with me if you're up for sponsoring the bar. Probably best to call my mobile, +44 794 053 8802, if you're interested as I'm away from the internet until Tuesday afternoon and time is quite short as Swedish Beers night is only two weeks away.

So, the night is definitely on, we're just waiting to see if someone will generously sponsor the bar to help the evening go with a swing and at the same time meet loads of folks who will think lovely things about them *and* benefit from lots of lovely publicity and immense good mobile karma for their efforts.

So see y'all there on the 12th September, from 6pm in the Back Bar at The Nordic Bar.

Skål

p.s. If you plan to use Oxford Circus on the night, please note that the Victoria Line is undergoing maintenance right now and is closed from about 10pm every night. Don't worry, all the other lines are fine and the buses still work, it just might take you a little longer than usual to get home that's all, as you find an alternative route. More info on the TFL website.

A date for the diary - Wednesday 12th September

2007-07-25T13:58:00.000+01:00

Our next event Swedish Beers Mobile Networking event will be on Wednesday 12th September 2007 in a new venue and courtesy of a fab new sponsor. Watch this space for more details coming soon.

We've started a group on facebook as well if you're interested. Feel free to join up.

And finally, I'm planning ahead for the two events after the one in September and actively seeking sponsors - I'm currently toying with the idea of doing a bash in the Winter, probably in late November or early December and then our annual jaunt to Barcelona in February for the Mobile World Congress (was 3GSM). Please get in touch with me if you're interested to discuss further.

Skål

Oh What a Night! Again!

2007-04-16T16:04:00.000+01:00

A huge thank you to everyone who came to Swedish Beers last week. It was, by all accounts, a rip-roaring success and we were incredibly busy with both old and new faces and everyone seemed to have a good time. Some of the feedback to me personally was lovely:

"Wicked event, you really move the (mobile industry) crowd!"

"Thoroughly enjoyed the evening and met some great people...This dude had a great time and is eagerly looking forward to the next one!"

"Well that worked then didn't it! Congrats on a really good night out!"

"Wow! When's the next one?"

"Thanks for a very good event last night at Nordic Bar"

"many thanks for a successful evening – it was a warm welcome from a good cross section of UK/London’s mobile community"

And a HUGE thank you to our very generous sponsors Tanla Mobile who were out in force making everyone feel thoroughly welcome.

Did we manage to stick to our tried and tested formula "drink beer, talk mobile, drink more beer, talk nonsense"? Well, you'd have to ask those who were there from as far afield as Australia, Italy, USA, Germany and Finland including [drum roll please]...

Sky, Skype, Phoniq, News Optimus, Financial Times, Warwick Worldwide, Yahoo!, Google, Vodafone, BeepMarketing, O2, Leiki, flytxt, ARN Consulting, Sony Pictures, Respond Mobile, Otodio, MBlox, Fathom Partners, W2Forum, OITG, Mobile 365, Arcarnus, Bango, Telemix, PNC Telecom, Phuser, Gisdata, Metastorm, ShopQwik, Renzoo, Xtract, Mbites, Mobile Entertainment Magazine, VSC Consulting, W2Forum, ENO, Mercury Mobility, Minick, MIG, Chinwag, Masabi, Mobizines, Future Platforms, Hotxt, Colibria, Ymogen, Admob, m:metrics, LinguaFranca, AdInfuse, Moblog UK, PeekabooTV, ICSTIS , Informa, Pitch, and a ton of other people too. If you were there, feel free to add a comment below. Indeed, perhaps you can fill in some gaps on the photos on flickr as to who's who? And if you have any photos yourself, please either let me have them or add them to the Swedish Beers group pool on flickr.

If you want to find out about the next one via email, then please add your email address to the Feedblitz box on the left-handside or click the feedblitz link here.

See you at the next one!

skål

Our next Swedish Beers event in London is NOT on Thursday 5th April

2007-03-20T16:39:00.000Z

It's on Wednesday 11th April instead and is proudly sponsored by Tanla Mobile.

Yes, it's that time of year again when we feel the need to drink beer and talk about mobile. And after the success of our last Swedish Beers event in Barcelona, we thought it was about time we had another one in London at our usual haunt of the Nordic Bar in W1.

So if you have a passing interest in things mobile and like to chat to other people from media, mobile, creative, tv, and marketing about where mobile fits into the bigger scheme of things, then Swedish Beers is for you. It's a friendly and informal event, no powerpoint, no speeches, just networking with interesting people and chatting about mobile things (or not!).

The Swedish Beers Mobile Networking proceedings kick off at 6pm on ~~Thursday 5th April~~ Wednesday 11th April ~~(that's the day most of us break up for Easter)~~ (that's just after the Easter break) a sponsor will be announced shortly so with a bit of luck the first few beers will be on them (we hope - if you're interested in sponsoring, then please let me know... it's a fab way to raise your profile within the industry). And our proud sponsor is Tanla Mobile.

See you there!
skål

Helen, Steve and Seth

Barcelona was a blast

2007-03-20T16:14:00.001Z

So much so, that it's taken me all this time to recover! No but seriously, we all had a thoroughly good time at Swedish Beers courtesy of our friends Gabi at MyStrands and Alex at Colibria. We had a fabulous turnout - definitely our best yet - with Belchica rammed full of mobilists from all over the world (UK, USA, Spain, Germany, France, Sweden and even Australia) and it was a pleasure to welcome them all. Companies who joined the fun included Sponge, Mixipix, flytxt, Admob, Leiki, TekoLondon, FT, The Times, ZoneMedia, MoMedia, Intelli-call, WeLoveMobile, ARN Consulting, Mobiq, RespondMobile, Tanla Mobile, BeepMarketing, M-Trends, Mobhappy, Techdirt, Midnight Communications, QArea, Vodafone, Future Platforms, Briing, Rok, 5th Finger, m:metrics, zingmedia, w2forum, hotxt, and loads more besides. There is photographic evidence up on flickr and we were even filmed for German TV by 3Sat - how cool is that!

It’s Barcelona, it’s 3GSM, and the Swedish Beers Posse are in town 13th February 2007

2007-01-31T17:16:00.000Z

Yes, it’s that time of year again when the world’s mobile executives land in Barcelona and take over the city for a few days of obsessing about all things mobile (well the bit by Congress anyway). So, of course, the Swedish Beers Crew will be there too and we'd love you to join us at our little Swedish/Belgian/Norwegian/Spanish Beers Mobile Networking do.

So if you fancy a beer (it’ll be Belgian beer on the night as we're in a Belgian bar just to confuse matters) and a chat and a mingle with the nice Swedish Beers folks, then come along and join in. You don’t have to talk about mobile and you don’t even have to drink beer if you don’t want to, but it would be nice if you were friendly and enjoyed mingling with other friendly folk who have a passing interest in things mobile.

And not only that, there’ll be a few FREE beers as well courtesy of our lovely sponsors Colibria and MyStrands. Alex from Colibria will be around to chat to you about any interesting applications you may have to include in his fabulous IM platform and there will be several MyStranders and we will have partyStrands running during the evening.

Where: Belchica, Villarroel 60, 08011 Barcelona. Entrance on Gran Via de Deputacion. Metro L1 Urguell (so very near Congress) for more info on the bar, and here's a map. We'll be in the back bar.

When: Tuesday 13^th February 2007 6.30pm to 8.30pm

What: Swedish Beers Mobile Networking drinks

skål

Helen, Steve, Alex and Gabriel

About our lovely sponsors

Colibria, from Norway, provides next-generation messaging and instant messaging platforms, clients and apps for mobile operators worldwide. Specifically, their UK-based apps team works with mobile developers to integrate existing SMS/MMS/WAP products into next-gen IM/IMS systems. They would like to hear from companies or individuals who have innovative services and want to investigate partnering to produce demos/prototypes to present to their existing operator customers. Yes, that means you! For more info, talk to Alex Linde on +44 7966 204 616
or meet him on the night.

MyStrands develops behaviour-based recommendation technologies to help people organise and discover digital media. It works using internet connected devices (PC, mobile etc) to discover both content and people with similar tastes both on and off-line. MyStrands mobile solutions include MyStrands for Symbian, MyStrands for Windows Mobile and of course partyStrands which we'll be sampling on the night. Find out more from Gabriel Aldamiz-Echevarria on +34 665 5524 18 or meet him on the night.

Belgian Beers Tuesday 13th February 2007 in Barca

2007-01-10T14:23:00.000Z

For one night only we'll be enjoying Belgian rather than Swedish beers during 3GSM in Barcelona. We'll be holding the event at Belchica (hence the Belgian Beer theme for the night) and we'll more or less have the place to ourselves for the event provided there are enough of us to fill it.

Not only do they sell Belgian Beer, but also spirits, wine and cocktails and some tasty snacks too if you're feeling peckish, it has wi-fi and Michel, who runs the place, has promised to look after us. We'll be there from 6.30pm onwards.

The bar is really centrally located and very near to Congress on Villarroel 60 with the entrance on Gran Via Y Diputacion. The nearest metro station is Urgell on L1.

Not sure yet whether or not we have a sponsor for the evening... watch this space as they say.

So please put the date in the diary and we look forward to seeing you in sunny Spain :)

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-23T14:15:00.000Z

Wishing all our Swedish Beers buddies and sponsors a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous New Year.

Hope to see you all at 3GSM... probably on Tuesday 13th February. Watch this space for details to be announced in the New Year.

Skal

The Mega Christmas Bash was a blast

2006-12-11T01:25:00.000Z

And a huge thank you to Ian, Matthew and their team at BBC Backstage for being wonderful hosts. A big thank you as well to our generous sponsors who helped the evening go with a swing by providing us with food, drink and raffle prizes - Admob, Skills Matter, ConnectMeAnywhere, O'Reilly, Trusted Places, Techcrunch UK, and Chinwag.

It was also good to catch up with friends old and new - Priya, Deirdre, Seth, Sam, Mike, Nicole, Andrew, Anusha, Paul and Matt, Jan and Savka, Stu, Sarah, Rob, Andy, Ian and Matthew, Margaret, Catherine, Sasha, Sheila, Ben, Rune, Devi and Ribot, Gillian, Julia, Trevor and about 300 others! Suffice to say, I spent the day rather quietly today whilst grimacing at some of the photos of the night appearing on flickr.

_________________
About the sponsors:

Trusted Places
--------------
TrustedPlaces is a social network around people’s interests and favourite places. It is the people’s, local guide to original and undiscovered bars, excellent restaurants and traditional pubs that constitute the hidden gems in cities like London. Find out what’s great (or not) in your neighbourhood.

Skills Matter
-------------
Skills Matter provides the UK’s largest selection of training on Open Source technologies and agile software development and is a leading provider of training, mentoring and skills based transfer.

Chinwag
-------
Chinwag is the UK's leading online community for the new media and digital marketing industry, including the uk-netmarketing email discussion group -

Tech Crunch UK
--------------
TechCrunch UK & Ireland is here solely to help promote local entrepreneurs and events by reporting and reviewing them. The last twelve months have been very exciting seeing the UK community take shape once again and gel together. Since its inception 4 months ago, TechCrunch has co-sponsored a number of other events and participated in many more. The BBC Backstage Party is both the culmination and celebration of many people's hard work and energy over the last twelve months. TechCrunch is very pleased to be a sponsor of this celebration.

O'Reilly
--------
Josette Garcia and Craig Smith from O'Reilly look forward to seeing old friends and making new acquaintances on December 9th. We'd love to hear about any projects you have or suggestions for new books, blogs or blags.

AdMob
-----
Are delighted to be a sponsor. In addition to their sponsorship AdMob gave away over $10 000 of mobile advertising funds on the night.

Connect Me Anywhere
-------------------
ConnectMeAnywhere is the clever way to stay connected with overseas contacts without the expensive call charges. ConnectMeAnywhere's vision since its launch has been to offer smart solutions to take the pain out of making international calls and to make its user experience as effortless as possible.

BBC Backstage
-------------
This event would not be possible without the hard work and community focus of BBC Backstage. BBC Backstage may have started off as a developer network, but its growing and maturing into the destination for creative and talented people, who want to remix BBC data.

Mega Christmas Bash 9th December in London

2006-11-18T17:07:00.000Z

Ok, so I'm a bit late writing about this - what with being away in Budapest and busy with clients. Anyway, excuses to one side...

There's going to be a big Christmas Party being hosted by BBC Backstage at The Cuban Bar on Saturday 9th December in conjunction with Swedish Beers, London Girl Geekdinners, Geekdinners, London Perlmongers, London Webstandards Group, London Ruby User Group, Open Rights Group, London 2.0 , Mobile Mondays and London SEO.

It's already over-subscribed (we've got over 500 names so far) however, having run many a networking event, there is inevitably a drop-out rate so it's worth putting your name on the waiting list. I also think that some folks will come early and leave early and some will come along later and leave at closing time (1am). So we should be able to accommodate everyone with a bit of luck. For insurance purposes, I believe the venue needs a list of all names in advance so get your name on the list sooner rather than later.

Oh and if you're interested in sponsoring some drinks and or food at the event, please get in touch.

Oh what a night!

2006-10-21T14:21:00.000+01:00

Swedish Beers 5th Birthday Party was a blast and a big up to Bango who very generously sponsored the bar and helped the proceedings along very well.

We had our biggest turnout to date with friends old and new. We had visitors from far and wide, Mobhappy's Carlo from Austin, Texas, Noodlepie from Asia via France, the Future Platforms crew had travelled en masse from Brighton, and the Bango team travelled from Cambridge. Wow, we're honoured you folks made the effort to join us.

If you weren't there, you can read about it over at Ewan's blog - there are a fair few posts and some seriously dodgy pictures. Ewan, I recommend photography lessons ;). Tom also took a few pix which aren't *quite* so dodgy and we're still waiting for Ribot's masterpieces.

Thank you to everyone who turned up and helped make the party such a success.. Emap, Fathom Partners, IPC, Vodafone, Nokia, Gareth, UIQ, ARN Consulting, NMK, Antersite, Mobhappy, Chinwag, Juvino, ZingMedia, BT, Equal, W2Forum, Sponge, Allaboutsymbian, Telecom Express, MoMoLondon, HW&H, Ben, Leiki, Communicating Media, AlienPants, Sendmytxt, Gemalto, Noodlepie, Morpheme, Rob M, Phoniq, RespondMobile, Textfo, Buddyping, Mi-Pay, Mobmart, MoblogUK, Shopqwik, Mindmatics, Airplay and many more who I just didn't get to meet or didn't take their card or who have just slipped my mind - cut me some slack, it was a busy night!

Our next bash will be a joint Christmas Party with a few of the other key London networking groups and is on Saturday 9th December somewhere in London. Venue and details to be announced shortly. It'll be a big bash so put the date in your diary now and watch this space for more info....

In the meantime, if you still need a fix of mobile networking, then come along to the next MoMoLondon event on Monday 6th November. I'll be talking about mobile trends alongside an esteemed panel. Should be interesting!

Til next time

Skål

It's a party :)

2006-09-30T18:56:00.000+01:00

Ok, so the nights are drawing in and the weather is on the turn and we're into Autumn. But never fear, Swedish Beers is here! And not only that, it's our 5th birthday (how time flies) so come and help us celebrate with a beer or two on Tuesday 17th October courtesy of our wonderful sponsor for the evening Bango (http://www.bango.com). If you fancy a drink and a chat, have a vaguely passing interest in things mobile and media then Swedish Beers is for you. No presentations, no speakers, nothing formal - just turn up and mingle.

Swedish Beers – Tuesday 17th October, 6.30 pm at the Nordic Bar.
Swedish Beers is held in London at the Nordic Bar at 25 Newman St, London W1 – (nearest Tube – Goodge St or Tottenham Court Rd). The Nordic Bar’s web page is at http://www.nordicbar.com/. You’ll find us in the back bar.

About our sponsor
Bango helps content providers maximize their mobile revenue opportunities. The mobile internet is opening up a huge potential market for content providers and using Bango's open, global platform, you can take advantage of this opportunity immediately. Bango removes the complexity of selling content off-portal by understanding the direct-to-consumer market and what content providers need to be successful. Follow the lead taken by MTV, The Sun newspaper, Discovery Networks and Sony BMG to build a profitable, direct relationship with consumers on mobile.

Check them out at http://www.bango.com and of course, I'm sure a few of the team will be with us on the 17th. As will a fair few of their clients I expect.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Skål

Helen, Steve and the team from Bango

Swedish Beers 5th Birthday Party

2006-08-23T22:36:00.000+01:00

It's Swedish Beers 5th birthday in October so our next bash is the birthday one and we hope a good one. It'll be on Tuesday 17th October at our usual venue, the Nordic Bar and we'll be announcing sponsor details soon. Just wanted to let you know so that you can put the date in the diary and join us in our mobile networking and Swedish Beer drinking celebrations.

Skål

Swedish Beers was a blast last night

2006-06-15T09:45:00.000+01:00

We had a great time at the Nordic Bar last night with folks from all kinds of industries, roles and companies - News Optimus, Emap, Mi-pay, Admob (our lovely sponsor), Zone Vision, Phoniq, MTV, BeepMarketing, Future Platforms, O2, Telecom Express, Intelli-call, Supersonic Films, Sentinel Entertainment, Botonics, Luup, Retail Internet, Perfect Path, Deloitte, ARN Consulting, the lovely KDD and Siobhan and loads more who I just didn't get round to talking to.

It was also very cool catching up with my two old bosses from ZagMe days - Bill and Russell - it was almost like a family reunion!

Big up to our fab sponsor for the night, Admob. Russell Buckley, who's heading up Admob's European division did a sterling job of paying for a lot of drinks and generally being lovely to everyone. So a very big thank you to him.

Our next event will be in October when it's our 5th birthday and we're on the hunt for a sponsor or two. Watch this space as they say...

Skål

Swedish Beers Mobile Networking on Weds 14th June

2006-05-27T18:26:00.000+01:00

The rain may be pouring, we may be on drought alert in the South East but the beers will be flowing at Swedish Beers at the Nordic Bar, Newman St W1, on Wednesday 14th June, 2006 courtesy of our wonderful sponsors Admob. So if you fancy a drink and a chat about mobile, media and anything else that takes your fancy, then Swedish Beers is for you - no presentations, no speakers, nothing formal - just turn up and mingle. We'll be there from 6.30pm in the back bar. The first few beers are on Admob - look out for Russell at the bar.

About our sponsor:
AdMob is a start-up headed by Russell Buckley in Europe, who will be coming to the event too (in fact, you might have read Russell's blog over at Mobhappy - he's a bit of a mobile veteran). AdMob is an advertising network for mobile websites. They serve text-based, pay-per-click ads on their partners’ websites, when they are seen on a mobile handset. So far, their beta advertisers have experienced 4 times the ROI as online campaigns. So well worth a try, we'd say.

AdMob is looking for more mobile website owners and more advertisers to try the channel – especially content sellers. Talk to Russell on the night, sign up at their website or drop him an email.

About the Nordic Bar:
The nearest tubes are Tottenham Court Road or Goodge Street or Oxford Circus. Newman Street is one of the streets off Oxford Street on the north side and it's in a basement. Check out the website for more details. We'll be in the back bar from 6.30pm on the 14th June.

About Swedish Beers:
It's an informal networking event for people who have an interest in mobile and like a chat over a beer or two.

Looking forward to seeing you there.
Skål

Helen, Russell and Steve

Belated round-up of our last event

2006-04-18T20:39:00.000+01:00

It was pretty good by all accounts [here and here and here]. People travelled from far and wide to attend (well Birmingham and Brighton at least). And we had around 70 people or more chatting about all things mobile over a glass of Swedish Beer. Big up to our sponsors, Major Players, who put a goodly amount of cash behind the bar to oil the proceedings. And thanks to everyone who came along including - Future Platforms, Phoniq, MoblogUK, Warwick Worldwide, Sliced Bread Animation, Sponge, WinPLC, Osney Media, Abadi Films, BT, RespondMobile, BeepMarketing, Mobile Networking, Mobile Mondays, Mi-pay, New Media Edge , Echovox, ARN Consulting, mbites, Ionsquare, Intelli-call, MonsterMob, Zone Vision and lots more besides who I just can't remember or simply didn't get round to chatting to . I didn't get chance to meet everyone I'm afraid, but there's always next time (probably in June or July sponsor permitting - anyone fancy sponsoring the next one?).

skal

Swedish Beers next mobile networking event Tuesday 4th April 06

2006-03-24T14:07:00.000Z

We'll be at the usual venue - The Nordic Bar in Newman St, W1 - and the drinks for the first hour or two are courtesy of the lovely recruitment folks over at Major Players. You'll find us in the back bar.

If you've not been before or just need a reminder of what Swedish Beers is about, it's for anyone with a passing interest in mobile. We get all kinds of folks along from developers to aggregators, film makers to publishers, content creators to network operators, consultants to journalists and lots more besides.

It's not a formal affair - no powerpoint, no speeches, just turn up and mingle and be prepared to talk to strangers!

Hope to see you there.

skål

Swedish Beers Mobile Networking in Barcelona at 3GSM

2006-02-08T00:40:00.000Z

We've decided to have a Swedish Beers meetup on Wednesday 15th February whilst we're in Barcelona as a few regulars are going to be there anyway. And we wanted to facilitate further networking and a little partying at 3GSM too...

If you'd like to come along (assuming you have some vague interest in things mobile which you probably have if you're going to be in Barca for 3GSM), then here are the details:

Location - Café Viennese in Casa Fuster. The hotel is located on the Passeig de Gràcia, just above the Avenida Diagonal and next to the famous Jardinets. Thanks to Rudy De Waele for recommending such a great venue. You can find information on the hotel at their website .

Time - 19:30 to 21:30 on Wednesday 15th February.
Vibe - Casual

We're not looking for a sponsor this time so bring your expense accounts!

Let me know if you can make it - either leave a comment here or drop an email to swedishbeers [at] beepmarketing [dot] [com].

Skål

Swedish Beers Mobile Networking last night (29/11/05)

2005-11-30T16:40:00.000Z

First of all a big thank you to our wonderful sponsors Sponge who helped lubricate the evening by sponsoring the bar. Alex Meisl and Douglas McDonald were there representing them so I hope those of you who were there got to meet them and find out more about what they're doing in mobile marketing which is pretty impressive.

Secondly, thanks to everyone who came along and helped make it the success it was. We had all kinds of folks there including Sponge, Flytxt, MobyJoe, Diageo, IPC, Intellicall, KeitaiCulture, Mobiq, Respond Mobile, ICSTIS, Sliced Bread, BeepMarketing, Formation, Lloyds TSB, MonsterMob, Resourceful People, ARN Consulting, Glu Mobile, mbites, and many more besides from techies to consultants to creatives to aggregators to developers and some...

It was great to meet those who I did manage to meet and hopefully catch up with those I missed another time.

Watch this space for news of our next event in Spring 2006.

skål

Sponge is sponsoring Swedish Beers next week

2005-11-25T14:49:00.000Z

Hurrah, we have a sponsor for Swedish Beers at the Nordic Bar on Tuesday 29th November. The lovely boys at Sponge have stumped up the cash to pay for some drinks for us. It should be a really good night too. Lots of people have told me they're coming and I think it will be a good mix of creatives, geeks, analysts and marketers. So, no, we won't all be extolling the virtues of Symbian vs Windows Mobile! You'll find we talk about other stuff too. See you there.

Next Swedish Beers Mobile Networking Event - 29/11/05

2005-11-17T16:04:00.000Z

Swedish Beers Tuesday 29/11/05 - 6.30pm onwards.

Swedish Beers is back after a few months absence. It's for anyone with a vague interest in things mobile and is a very straightforward drinks evening at the Nordic Bar, 25 Newman Street, London W1 - you'll find us in the back bit. No speakers, nothing formal, just turn up and mingle.

You'll find all kinds of people there from network operators, developers, aggregators, mobile content providers, brands, consultants, recruiters, writers and generally interesting folks.

Our sponsor this time is yet to be confirmed and I'll post details once it is so hopefully the first few drinks are on them. If anyone's interested in sponsoring the event we are all ears!

Looking forward to seeing you there.

skål