Win MEF Connects MWC13 tickets

MWC 2013 is just around the corner and as ever MEF is hosting the hottest ticket of the Congress - MEF Connects MWC 2013. Now in its 11th year, the legendary party has moved to an exciting new location; the Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA).
 
MEF Connects MWC is an exclusive bash for MEF members and their guests only, which means tickets can be hard to come by. So for 2013 MEF has teamed up with the Heroes of the Mobile Fringe to give away ten pairs of tickets in an exclusive prize draw, meaning not only could you get to rub shoulders with the cream of MWC attendees, you get to take a friend with you too!

To enter, just head over to their website and leave your details, and if all goes well, we'll see you in Barcelona!

If you would like a bit more certainty around party admission, why not become a sponsor and get your own personal guest list? Supporting the event will give you access to network with the industry decision-makers in attendance and will allow you to bring along your team and clients. There are still sponsorship opportunities available to suit various budgets and all include at least 10 tickets to the party - just contact us today, or leave your details on the MEF webpage.

MEF Connects MWC 2012 - Save the Date!

MEF has announced the return of its legendary party held annually at MWC in Barcelona - mark the date in your diary now; Monday the 27th February (8PM) for MEF's return to the Picasso Museum, in association with Timwe.

The exclusive MEF party, open only to MEF members and their invited guests, has in its time become the sought after ticket of the congress, and is in fact this year celebrating its 10th anniversary! So be sure to join us for an exciting night of cocktails, tapas, art, and of course, some seriously top-level networking. Although the tickets are still under lock and key for the moment, you can let everyone know where you will be on Monday night via the Linkedin Event page, and be sure to follow @MEF and @MEFblog on Twitter to stay abreast of the latest developments.. stay tuned for more announcements..!

MEF Connects Dubai - GITEX Tech Week

Busy time for MEF coming up, lots of exciting events across the globe with great benefits for MEF members. Next week in Dubai it's GITEX Technology Week, and the MEF Middle East Office will have a strong showing.

In addition to it's dedicated stand and series of open panel discussions at GITEX itself, MEF ME will be hosting MEF Connects Dubai, an exclusive member invite only networking event, brought to our members in association with inMobi. Held in the Novotel in DWTC, right in the heart of GITEX on Tuesday the 11th October, MEF Connects Dubai will offer the opportunity to mingle with local and international business guests including the leading Middle Eastern companies from the mobile content and commerce value chain. Attendees will be able to leverage MEF's extensive global network in addition to networking with operators, handset manufacturers, content owners, aggregators, retailers, financial institutions and the media.

The event is strictly invite only, open only to MEF members and their guests ensuring the quality of attendees and resultant opportunities for conversation and discussion, for the lowdown on this, and MEF's presence at GITEX contact George Daaboul, General Manager of the MEF Middle East Office.

We're also offering free complimentary passes to GITEX to 20 lucky MEF members, again contact George, but it's strictly first come first served so act fast..

MEF LATAM M-Commerce Summit is resounding success

On the 22nd of September, MEF hosted its MEF LATAM M-Commerce Summit in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The event aimed to explore the topics of micro payments and virtual goods from the perspective of the many varied players in the market including content producers, online games companies, social networks, mobile carriers, billing aggregators, banks and credit card companies and more! Much to our delight, the gathering has already been hailed as a great success, with over 120 attendees from across the MEF membership and beyond giving a resoundingly positive response to the afternoon of panels and discussions, not to mention the fabulous cocktail party at the close of the day. This of course bodes extremely well for the impending MEF event in Miami, MEF Americas 2011:Mobile Content & Commerce.

Click below for a brief roundup of the afternoon, and for more pictures from this great MEF event.

MEF Connects MWC 2011 Party

We had a great time at the MEF Connects party at Mobile World Congress 2011 - and so did our attendees by the look of the photos below:

View more on the MEF Flickr photostream.

MEF Connects Cape Town 2010: “Local is lekker”

Last year’s MEF event boasted a view of the impressive new Green Point stadium which hosted the opening World Cup game in June. This year’s venue offered an alternative yet intrinsically Capetonian view – Clifton’s 4th beach – to welcome MEF members and guests to the Mira Networks-hosted MEF Connects event held in Cape Town on 10 November.

Emma Kaye, MEF EMEA board director, welcomed guests and thanked Mira Networks for sponsoring the second annual gathering in Cape Town. Gerrit Jan Konijnenberg, MEF EMEA Chairman, then confirmed the ‘tradition’ of local events would be maintained with the announcement of Vodacom’s offer to sponsor a South African event in 2011.

The topic for the panel of speakers was mobile content in Africa and ‘local is lekker’ quickly became a recurring theme in the discussion led by Konijnenberg. Google’s Nick Heller underlined the importance of relevant and local content, citing Google’s new “Baraza” service as an example – a Q&A service for Africa to encourage more people to go online and provide locally relevant information. Heller added that monetisation through mobile advertising is set to capitalise on the mobile phone functionality using interaction and location.

Vodacom’s Prins Mhlanga talked about the challenges of growing revenues at the “base of the pyramid” and taking subscription services to the next level while dealing with increasing regulatory burdens.

Sean Conde of Mira Networks highlighted the need to work with local partners when doing business in Africa: “It’s absolutely essential to use local partners but the challenge of course is how to find the right partners?” Conde stated. He also pointed out that not all African markets are regulated to the same level and encouraged companies to use MEF as a resource on regulatory matters and tap into their expertise from other regions.

DStv mobile has recently launched in South Africa offering 11 channels and video on demand on weekly or monthly subscriptions using 3G streaming as well as DVB-H trial. DStv’s Mark Rayner said: “Our speed to market has been quite frankly shocking in South Africa mainly due to regulatory challenges. However elsewhere in Africa, we’ve had a much more positive experience. The authorities in Nigeria and Kenya for example, view mobile tv as an innovative service that they want to encourage and spectrum availability has been much less of an issue.”

New mobile entrant 8ta, owned by the Telkom group, launched as a mobile network last month and has an ambitious goal of reaching 12% market share by 2015. Dawood Patel admitted: “Currently we’re focusing on text and encouraging more communication, content will become a priority later.”

Nokia’s Woon Peng highlighted how the OEM’s work is making life easier for farming communities in India, Asia and now Africa. “Ovi Life Tools has been launched in Nigeria allowing farmers to check the latest crop prices, weather forecasts and livestock information via their handsets,” stated Peng. Other ways to encourage content consumption include embedded content on new devices offering free games on a trial basis, as well as the Ovi store which profiles Nokia users to ensure they receive relevant content and information. This is in addition to Nokia’s ongoing training of coders and media providers.

An audience member asked about Nokia’s strategy for micro-payments. Peng replied: “We’ve trialled mobile payments in Senegal by partnering with the bank Societe Generale. However I think the most important goal is to work towards simple ‘1 click purchases’ and to team up with network operators to achieve this.”

Another question pointed out that content is bandwidth intensive and, given the increasing downward pressure on pricing, asked what was the answer. Google’s Heller replied that caching local content and using ever more innovative compression technology were part of the solution.

The lively panel discussion concluded and was followed by cocktails, canapes and the serious pursuit of networking late into the evening and long after the sun had set on 4th beach.

MEF Connects South Africa

Undeterred by the unseasonable clouds and rain, the South African mobile entertainment sector turned out in force for the MTN-hosted MEF Connects event in Cape Town on 10 November 2009.

Emma Kaye, MEF EMEA’s sole African board representative, welcomed over 80 guests to the Lightbox Studios (with stunning views of the city, a cloud-enshrouded Table Mountain and the iconic Green Point football stadium) before handing over to Chairman Gerrit-Jan Konijnenberg to MC proceedings. Gerrit thanked MTN for sponsoring the evening as well as the speakers who had all flown in especially for the event.

With the 2010 Championship fast approaching, Gerrit pointed out that sporting events are proven in driving mobile entertainment usage. Recalling the experience of the 2002 World Cup when (although at the time groundbreaking) fairly rudimentary technology brought goals to your mobile, GJ observed that this had often led to bill shock and a dead phone battery. Fast forward 7 years, the speed and capacity of networks can deliver a much richer experience like the award-winning video goal alert service offered by Turkish operator Turkcell.

Sony Music’s Ian Henderson described MEF as a ‘global networking forum’ through which he was able to meet new business partners and said that mobile was a bright spot that enabled labels to monetise content in regions where they could previously never even have sold physical product.

When asked about exciting mobile trends, Ian pointed to Europe as a “hotbed of innovation: as well as an explosion in smartphone platforms, you’ve got subscription services such as Spotify (originated in Sweden) and TDC (the Danish telco)". Spotify offers free streaming with upselling of mobile access via paid subscription, whereas TDC has been bundling a free music subscription service with their overall customer offering as a successful customer retention tool. “We need the free tier to attract users then combine it with different levels of service that customers will hopefully pay for,” he added.

When asked about Nokia’s ‘Comes with Music’ project, Ian admitted that, despite a slow start, Nokia remain extremely committed to making it a success. Concern was also raised by an audience member about the lack of margins on music sold via premium rate, but Ian was confident that other business models will lead to lower billing.

Mobile advertising specialist 4th Screen’s Mark Slade talked about the possibilities of targeted mobile marketing where customers opt-in to a database which can open up a whole range of user information.

MTN’s Sharoda Rapeti stated that MTN had joined MEF to send out a clear message about the operator’s commitment to entertainment. She referred to 2010, saying, “The 2010 tournament has simply accelerated the planned infrastructure development required to cope with increased capacity.” With exclusive 2010 mobile rights and a partnership for DVB-H with MultiChoice, MTN is poised to offer subscribers an array of rich media content around the World Cup.

On the question of handset functionality, Sharoda pointed to good market growth in low cost smartphone handsets and MTN’s increased marketing efforts around application stores to encourage users to experiment more with mobile entertainment.

We’d been warned that Capetonians don’t go out in bad weather and, if they do, that they’re tucked up in bed by 9pm. Fortunately neither claim proved correct and MEF members and guests networked till late in the evening.