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

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

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!

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

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.

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About the sponsors:

Trusted Places
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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

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!

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 :)

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