Call-for-entries--Mobile Rules business plan competition
For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, you know that last year I created a business plan competition (originally called Web2Mobile) for mobile innovations on behalf of my client FinNode. Well, on Monday we're announcing the call-for-entries to the second annual Mobile Rules Business Plan Competition (the name was changed... long story). Nokia is very involved and they've expanded the competition to include tracks for mobile phone applications as well as business plans that foster or leverage the growing mobile ecosystem. Prizes also have been expanded this year to allow for up to six winners.
Web2Mobile/Mobile Rules is open to all qualified entrepreneurs and developers anywhere in the world. There will be one Grand Prize winner and two Runner-Up winners in each track. Prizes will be a combination of cash, development assistance, high-level industry introductions and free products.
The competition was inaugurated in 2006 as the Web2Mobile Business Plan Competition, and attracted tens of thousands of entrepreneurs from around the world. The final winners came from Singapore, Finland, United Kingdom and the United States.
Competition Details & Entry Deadlines
Visit www.web2mobile.org and complete the appropriate online entry forms. Final submission deadlines are:
- Mobile Business Plans (novel ideas that create new value within the mobile ecosystem) – deadline: November 16th, 2007
- Mobile Applications (including multiplayer/connected games, multimedia, enterprise and infotainment) – deadline: January 25th, 2008
Good luck. -Mark Addison
Labels: business plan competition, Mobile Rules, Nokia, Web2Mobile
Rocket Science vs. Super Bowl XLI
What do Rocket Science and the Super Bowl have in common? We are both finalists in the PR Platinum award for best Event Marketing. We submitted a case study of the Web2Mobile event that we conceived and produced for an agency of the government of Finland, and last week we received notification that we are one of 5 finalists—in a field of some pretty outstanding names, including Sprint’s Super Bowl XLI event! Here are the others:
- Chrysler Group and Clear! Blue - Jeep Stick in the Mud
- Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and rbb Public Relations - Chihuly at Fairchild 2005/2006
- Rocket Science - "FinNode: Web2Mobile"
- Mall Of America - World's Largest Gingerbread House
- Sprint - Sprint at Super Bowl XLI
We are listed as a finalist at the award website, and the winner will be announced October 16th at an awards banquet in New York.
Labels: award winning PR, launch event
Business Models for Web 2.0 (a.k.a. ‘Getting Paid 2.0’)
Notwithstanding a few billion-dollar acquisitions, Web 2.0 is still maligned by many for being the next wave of Internet hype without a business model attached to it. But as the technologies and definitions of Web 2.0 mature and get sorted out -- distributed services, AJAX, crowd-sourcing, mash-ups, etc. – the business models are starting to emerge. This CXO Forum will bring together real entrepreneurs to discuss and share real business models and how to make payroll in the Web 2.0 age.
Leading the discussions will be Scott Rafer, a 7-time serial entrepreneur. Scott is currently co-founder and director at Mashery (www.mashery.com) and he has been helping Internet publishers and users develop the ‘next big thing’ since 1995. As CEO of MyBlogLog and Chairman of Winksite, Rafer helped deliver services for media publishing and discovery. Previously, Rafer was CEO of Feedster from 2001 to 2003; he co-founded WiFinder, an online tool for finding public wireless access; BookBroadband, the broadband hotel finder; Fresher Information, a real-time search engine using RSS back in 1999; and FotoNation, a creator of connected photography solutions.
Before the 1995, Rafer headed-up the Internet products group at Kodak Hollywood, worked in investment banking at Needham & Company, and graduated from the management of technology program at the University of Pennsylvania.
Date: Wednesday, June 13th
Time: 11:30-1:30 (lunch is included)
Place: Montgomery & Hansen LLP
525 Middlefield Road
Suite 250
Menlo Park
Sign up: http://svase.org/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=149&extmode=view&extid=698
This event is a collegial luncheon designed to foster discussion in a confidential format among founders, officers and managers (CEO, CFO, CTO, CMO) of startup technology companies. We request that participants be involved in the management of a technology company.
Advance registration only, limited to 25 registrants, no walk-ins admitted.
Labels: business models, mashery, rocket science, svase, web 2.0
Pondering PR 2.0
First of all, I readily confess that calling this ‘PR 2.0’ is a shameless grab at some of the Web 2.0 hype. But ‘Next-Gen’ was taken by the gamers and, besides, there *is* a little bit of Social Media, AJAX and RSS involved here. So, please read on…
Some recent conversations with investors and serial entrepreneurs, coupled with a launch project that Rocket Science just completed, have convinced me that the practice public relations is poised for a change. And it’s not just because of the bloggers; there’s Metcalfe’s network effect at work as well.
Indeed, for the past couple of years we have welcomed the bloggers but we’ve pitched them as just another medium. Wrong! What has changed is the number of bloggers has grown and bloggers started blogging other blogs, so the ability for the blogosphere to push your message to every corner of the earth is now astounding. Have you ever been in the middle of a blog storm? Or been named on Slashdot? I have, and you’d be surprised how much it causes the telephone to ring. We have to respect this trend as a whole new animal.
Here’s a case example: Rocket Science recently conceived and organized a business plan competition called Web2Mobile sponsored by the Government of Finland and Nokia. To promote the competition we tapped the entrepreneur social networks and called upon nine of my blogger friends to engage in dialog and spread the word if they saw fit. In less than six weeks we had 14,388 unique visitors to the competition site and served 2,184 downloads of the entry form to places as far away as New Zealand and Afghanistan. That’s 340 people per day, and none of the traditional media ever picked up the story. It’s not just that we pitched the bloggers; we set in motion a chain of influential, grass-roots conversations that grew exponentially.
So... is PR still about getting that trophy article in the Wall Street Journal or getting that product review in C/net? Often yes, but sometimes no. I believe that technology is now allowing PR to head back to its roots – back to personal relationships, informative dialog, and engaging the accidental influencers. I'd love to hear your comments. -Mark Addison
Labels: future of PR, PR 2.0, public relations
DEMO redux
For those of us who have been involved in high-tech for a while, being invited to present at Chris Shipley's
DEMO Conference has always represented a right of passage for a start-up. A very select few companies made the grade and tons of press coverage was almost guaranteed. It was worth the $10K.
Unfortunately, Chris sold the conference and now the new owners have expanded the event to three days and 60 companies -- hardly an exclusive or prestigious honor anymore. And the price went up.
So it's no wonder that Valley entrepreneurs have stepped in to fill the vacuum. Two DEMO-esque opportunities crossed my radar screen recently:
1)
Jason Calacanis and
Michael Arrington are actively planning "TechCrunch 20" for later in the Fall of this year. It will showcase 20 companies over two days and companies will be invited based on the merits of their demo, and not on their ability to pay. You can read more
here.
2) My guys over at
SVASE are planning their second annual "Launch: Silicon Valley" for June 5th. This event will showcase 30 companies in one day. Learn more or submit your application to be a presenter
here.
So if you have a great idea and don't (yet) have the bucks, you have some options. Good luck!
In case of broken links, the full URLs are:
1) http://www.calacanis.com/2007/01/31/taking-the-payola-out-of-demo-ing-the-techcrunch-20-conference/
2) http://svase.org/index.php?option=com_extcalendar&Itemid=149&extmode=view&extid=780
AND THE WINNERS (FINALISTS) ARE....
Happy New Year everyone! For those of you who have been eagerly awaiting the results of the FinNode / Red Herring / Nokia business plan competition, we have selected the list of 10 finalists:
- AiroMediaTech (USA)
- Childs Capital LLC (USA)
- Extreme AI, Inc (USA)
- Geniem Ltd. (Finland)
- GDM Group (Russia)
- Intellareturn Corp (USA)
- Mobile Backstage (Finland)
- N2N Consulting (Singapore)
- SMS Card (United Kingdom)
- TalkPlus, Inc (USA)
In the six weeks that we had our call-for-entires open we had 14,388 visitors to the competition site, served 2,184 downloads of the entry form and received 95 completed business plans. We had entries from all over the world including India, Singapore, Russia, Finland, Italy, UK and even Afganistan.
The 10 finalists above will be making their presentations in-person in front of an expert judging panel later this month. We have recruited an A-list set of judges including Janice Roberts from Mayfield, Nokia Ventures, Nexit Ventures, Garage Ventures and others. Moderating our panel will be Joe Jasin from Helio. If you want to be considered for an invitation to attend the after-party on January 24th in Santa Clara, send me an eMail to mark 'at' rocketscience 'dot' com.
Best to all, -Mark
Blogger Confidential: a conversation with Tom Foremski
If you missed my CXO Leadership Forum on Nov. 7th, you missed a great episode. You are reading this blog so no doubt you understand the influence of bloggers on opinions, trends and company stock prices. At my forum I had none other than Tom Foremski -- the *original* blogger, as my guest.
If you don't know about Foremski's history, it's pretty fascinating. He was the U.S. Technology reporter for the Financial Times and was the first major newspaper journalist to start covering Silicon Valley way back in 1984. Then, two years ago, Tom left the FT to become the first journalist to leave a major newspaper and make a living as a full-time blogger -- starting the popular "Silicon Valley Watcher" blog. It was a pivotal event that made both Silicon Valley companies and the media suddenly take notice and start to treat bloggers seriously. Foremski now writes for his own blog as well as ZDnet and some other major outlets. He's a very influential guy!
During the discussions I was expecting to get a lot of questions about how to get Tom's attention and adoration and coverage of XYZ company on his blog site. Instead, most of the people who attended were more interested in publishing their own blogs, and were asking questions about the business model of blogging. I should have known... this is an entrepreneurial Valley, after all.
In addition to blog business models (which are still being shaped, we learned), we talked about CEO bloggers like Jonathan Schwartz at Sun, the pros and cons of "citizen journalists" with no editorial supervision, the conflicts of interest potential with advertiser-supported blogs, how blogs can promote books and other nifty topics. It was truly excellent.
if you missed it, don't dispair. I have other CXO Forum topics coming up including: Confessions of a Marketing Rock Star – part II (March), Migration Strategies for Web 2.0 Business Models (May) and Sex, Lies & Internet Marketing (November).
All will be held at Fenwick & West's awesome offices in Mountain View (Fenwick is our very excellent sponsor of the CXO Leadership Forum series -- please consider them for your corporate legal services). Hopefully I'll see you there. -Mark
