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What's Inside
Letter from ED
The highlight of July was our visit to wireless clusters in the UK and Scotland, with a pause to celebrate Canada Day in London's Trafalgar Square.
Jim Maynard from Wavefront and I visited a few wireless clusters in London, Cambridge, Glasgow and West Midlands from June 30th to July 4th. The objective was to understand and learn from best practices of other clusters, to identify companies or universities who have an interest in R&D joint partnerships and doing business in BC, Canada and to promote our wireless cluster and the Pacific Northwest Wireless Summit (January 19-20, 2009 in Vancouver).
We met with more than 20 wireless companies, three wireless clusters, one government agency and one university including:
- Several innovative London-based companies and experienced VC’s, such as 3G Dating Agency, Mobyko, Redwood Technologies and AMF Ventures
- The Technology Partnership, Sagentia, and others from the Gateway Group (winners of the 2012 Olympic applications contest) at the well-established Wireless Cambridge innovation centre and cluster
- Scottish Development International (“the gateway to EU”) and the Wireless Innovation Centre and cluster in Glasgow
- The National B2B Centre at the University of Warwick and the newly-established West Midlands ICT cluster
There was keen interest in exploring opportunities from all companies, organizations and individuals we met with. We felt extremely welcome everywhere and more importantly felt that the meetings were focused, productive and results-oriented.
I believe the visit was a success because we identified specific areas of collaboration in the areas of:
- Developing wireless and new media applications for the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games
- Mobile content, mobile entertainment and mobile data services
- Curriculum development and R&D at the university level
- Participating in our 2009 Pacific Northwest Wireless Summit
By the time we arrived home we already had a commitment from Derek Dougall, Ian Morris and Mike Corish at the Scottish Development International to attend our January 2009 Wireless Summit – "We're coming and hope to bring five to six companies with us" – and another one from Rayhan Abdulmughnee at the B2B National Centre from University of Warwick and West Midlands wireless cluster, who is working with several groups in the region to bring them to our 2009 Summit.
All of the above wouldn't have been possible without the tremendous help we received from George Edwards, ICT Trade Commissioner at the Canadian High Commission in London (thank you to Neil Callow for the warm intro).
The amount of detail and logistics that went into this tour was fantastic. Our team of three covered a lot of territory in four and half days but I have to say that what I liked most was meeting people and enjoying good quality conversations about ideas, innovation and investment.
If you are a WINBC member thinking of exploring business opportunities in UK or Scotland you need to contact George Edwards. Please let me know if you are interested and I'd be happy to give you his contact information.
July 1st in Trafalgar Square was a blast – drinking Moosehead beer and listening to Canadian music. See pictures below.
Thank you for reading,
Michael Bidu
Traffic light at Canary
Wharf |
Canada Day Rock Concert
Trafalgar Square |
Canada Day Rock Concert
Trafalgar Square |
From the 7th Floor to Ubiquity
British Columbia's Mobile Content Developers and Publishers, Spring 2008 guide has just been published in co-operation with NewMediaBC, Mobile Muse and WINBC, with the support of Industry Canada’s Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Branch in the Pacific region.
It provides details on 20 companies in BC’s wireless cluster, cross-referenced by six industry categories related to mobile content. Those categories are:
- Mobile games
- Mobile publishers
- Mobile communities
- Mobile information services
- Mobile social networking
- Mobile data casting
Cross-referencing by category makes it easier for you to search the guide to find the kind of company of interest. Each listing provides photos and graphics related to the company and its products, as well as, detailed contact information, and a concise description of the company and what it produces. The guide also provides a summary of a company's strategic partnerships, current markets and other markets it wishes to target.
Neil Callow, A/Director of the (ICT) Branch of Industry Canada's Pacific Regional office in Vancouver says the guide was created two years ago in response to a growing worldwide interest in mobile content.
 Although Industry Canada and its partners took pains to be inclusive, some companies may have been missed. "If you feel you should have been included, we urge you to contact the Executive Director at WINBC (michael@winbc.org) to be included in next year's guide."
To download a copy of this informative guide, please go to www.winbc.org.
If your company is listed in the guide and there is an error in your contact information, you can have it corrected by contacting WINBC.
Special Report: Great opportunities for BC companies in UK/Scotland
During our recent tour we met with several interesting companies and individuals who generously shared ideas with us for collaborating and sharing resources – especially for those of you who are involved in start-ups, innovation in mobile/Web 2.0 services, LBS, convergence, digital entertainment & media, enterprise and M2M.
Kevin Green, Partnerships Director Europe for the Calgary-based Redwood Technologies, offered us an update on what’s happening with momentem in Europe and their relationships with carrier partners, Orange in particular. Kevin says "It's good working with Orange. They know how to take products to market."
One source of information Kevin shared with us was Bluenove Opening Innovation: This is a strategic consultancy company based in Paris and ran by Martin Duval, former director of Orange Start-up Programme. Great content. It's worth a visit at www.bluenove.com.
If you are interested in partnerships in the social networking sector then you may want to visit The 3G Dating Agency, which is a brand new way to have fun with your mobile and safely meet with new friends. Romi Parmar, founder and CEO, would like to meet a few companies at the 2009 PNWS.
Alan Ranger, COO of Mobyko heads a two-year old wireless company specializing in the hot niche of Facebook services for a wireless world. Their value proposition: "Mobyko is the quick and easy way to keep your mobile life safe." They are looking for distribution partners such as email companies, search companies, or carriers. They are considering coming to 2009 PNWS.
AMF Ventures is all about ideas, knowledge, 2.0 thinking...and beyond. We met with Tony Fish, Founder & CEO, who is an experienced professional with more than 20 years of experience in Technology Media & Telecoms. He is a tough debater, author of "Mobile Web 2.0" and an accomplished public speaker whom you may have the pleasure of encountering at our wireless summit in January, 2009 in Vancouver.
Dr. Soraya Jones, CEO of Wireless Cambridge, hosted us at the Cambridge Innovation Centre. The main objective there was to get an introduction to some very cool wireless, media, LBS, tourist, and Olympic Games applications and identify opportunities for collaboration between our clusters. Cambridge Wireless is a community of companies with a shared interest in the application of wireless technologies including 3G/WCDMA/HSPA, Bluetooth, WiMAX, Ultra Wide Band (UWB), LTE, NFC, CDMA, WiFi, ZigBee and RFID.
We also met with the following:
The Technology Partnership (TTP) is an international product development company that develops technology such as broadcast multimedia for smart phones, RF antennas and more. One of their projects is "Games Buddy", an Olympic interactive guide that can be used by the tourist industry.
Sagentia is a highly innovative consulting group comprised of about 200 people who are working on such breakthrough innovations as micro financing, music exploration, biometrics & identity 2.0, sensing technologies, and new media.
This is one of the best groups I have seen in a long time where talented people play with innovation, engineering and applied science without loosing sight of consumer's needs and sound business models. "The Sports Hero" and "The Media Content Hub" are two of their proprietary Olympic/media applications. Very cool stuff!
Sagentia is looking for partners in Canada. Let WINBC know if you are interested in an introduction.
Other interesting Gateway wireless companies who made presentations included Pocket Guide (tourist service), OnMyMobile (media delivery on Bluetooth technology), and Intrasonics (participation in your pocket).
The above companies are interested in investment, technology and media partnerships, and implementation on the Blackberry (RIM) platform.
Scottish Development International (SDI) is a high-performing government agency whose role is to help any company interested in investing in Scotland or any company interested in opportunities for collaboration, with a strong focus on R&D. They are interested in partnerships and in promoting Scotland as "The Gateway to the EU" for enterprise, universities and R&D partners.
The Innovation Centre Scotland (ICS) is a modern building in downtown Glasgow where you feel the buzz of economic opportunity in the air. Busy business people are walking up and down the stairs and all meeting rooms are full. Our small BC team was hosted in one of the rooms by two fine Scotts Derek Dougall, Business Advisor Trade & Investment and Ian Morris, International Business Executive Trade & Investment.
We have identified a series of areas for future collaboration and partnerships such as wireless innovation in verticals such as financial services, life sciences, tourism, and health & wellness, market intelligence, financial assistance models, university curriculum development, content and enterprise, new media and entertainment. To increase your awareness of the dynamic Scottish economy please see the sidebar.
SDI organized a successful trade and investment mission to Canada last November. They visited Vancouver then and, based on that record, we made the invitation to our 2009 Pacific Northwest Wireless Summit and SDI responded positively. They have committed and it would be our honor and pleasure to host SDI and a few Scottish leaders in the wireless and new media space at our open-to-the-world summit.
We have also met with Alisdair Gunn, Wireless Innovation Manager with Wireless Innovation and Kevin McDowall from Stream Communications and Don Cameron from Mobiqa.
Wireless Innovation is providing support to over 140 companies across Scotland and, according to their website, their growth areas are in the Mobile Applications & Content, M2M and RFID.
Stream, with offices in Glasgow and Munich, is a full service MVNO providing core, specialist and related mobile network services to the data, M2M and telemetry sector. This includes GSM, GPRS, 3G, Managed Fixed IP and billing services in the UK, Pan-European and elsewhere worldwide. They have a great management team and Kevin told us that their challenge is to talk with less established network providers/carriers.
There are some good opportunities for collaboration for BC wireless companies in the M2M, telemetry or loss prevention business.
Mobiqa is a Edinburgh-based company that specializes in delivering barcodes (i.e. boarding passes, ticketing, couponing) via mobile devices. They support 2,000 mobile phones in 35 countries on both GSM and CDMA. Their focus is on live events and airline ticketing (fast-growth sector).
BC wireless companies in the mobile entertainment, airline transportation or 2010 Olympic Games might be interested in talking with Mobiqa.
Last stop in our UK/Scotland tour was visiting West Midlands ICT Cluster at The National B2B Centre at the University of Warwick. This was a special event organized by Rayhan Abdulmughnee, E-Business Architect and it was designed to increase the awareness of our BC wireless cluster in the relatively new West Midlands wireless cluster. More than 40 entrepreneurs, high level decision makers, influencers and academia attended the one day event. The networking was excellent!
George Edwards presented the trade & investment opportunities and support offered by his department. I presented the strengths of our wireless and new media community while Jim Maynard presented the unique value proposition of Wavefront. See photos below.
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| BC team at The B2B Center at University of Warwick |
The following companies and organizations made presentations: West Midlands Mobile & Wireless, Advantage West Midlands ICT Cluster (regional development body), Ofcom (State of Mobile & Wireless in the UK), BT, Greenwood, Marr Communications, Data2Go and Rapide.
We have identified lots of opportunities for collaboration in the R&D, innovation, curriculum development, RFID, ICT security and M2M. We have made the invitation to 2009 PNWS and hope to see some of the wireless companies from this region joining us in January 2009.
Rayhan has posted details of Friday's visit on his blog at: http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/b2bcentre
For more info go: www.wmmw.org and www.advantagewm.co.uk
WINBC wants to make 2009 PNWS as relevant and valuable as possible to our members and our international partners. What UK or Scottish wireless companies would you like to meet in January 2009?
If you need more information, want to make a contact or are ready for a potential technology or distribution partnership with any of the above companies or organizations then please contact your Executive Director at michael@winbc.org today!
New: C-level round tables
Do you know Fred from AirG or Erik from Lypp? Have you always wanted to meet Sig, the CTO extraordinaire of Zeugma Systems or Jeff from EQO Communications? How about meeting the Director of Marketing for Novax or WebTech Wireless? Have you ever asked yourself if you can meet Pat, the VP HR at Sierra Wireless?
One very effective way for industry associations like WINBC to respond to real member needs is to increase the level and quality of participation of the C-level officers of its member companies.
Recent research shows that the roundtable format is a quick and effective was for busy executives to fill in the gaps in their knowledge in specific areas such as financing, human resources, or nurturing innovation.
Beginning this September we'll start organizing round tables with CEOs (leadership and global issues); CTOs (technical and product development challenges); CMOs (marketing barriers and opportunities); and VPs of Human Resources (attracting and retaining talent).
The benefits of these events are simple:
- Great networking
- Better leadership
- Smarter decisions
- Stronger community
We propose a breakfast roundtable and our current plan is to organize one every three months, depending on the feedback we receive.
For best results, SoundBoard, a company specializing in creating and conducting roundtables, suggests a highly structured format including such items as:
- a 90-day "catch up" -- best and worst of last 90 days (any significant events);
- capturing current issues and challenges;
- period of collaboration on 2 to 3 issues and
- sharing of best practices on different topics.
SoundBoard also recommends occasionally bringing in expert speakers on topics that are outside the knowledge base of the roundtable group.
We want to hold our first set of roundtables during the week of September 22nd. Before we get underway, what are your ideas for roundtable topics, speakers and formats. Please send your comments to your Executive Director: michael@winbc.org
Funding for Getting to Market Faster!
The Precarn Industrial T-GAP
Precarn has just released a call for applications to its reinvigorated T-GAP Program. Like its predecessor, the program focuses on the gap between technology innovation and commercialization. The program is designed for very small and start-up companies. This is an open competition with no specific deadline date. Applications are accepted on a first-come first-served basis.
Precarn is seeking immediate applications to this program. $500,000 has been allocated for projects costing up to a maximum $60,000 in Precarn contribution. Precarn funding will be up to 75% of the total eligible project costs. The average Precarn contribution is expected to be about $40,000. Once a project is approved, 75% of the Precarn funds will be made available upon contract signing and the remaining 25% will be paid upon project completion and delivery of a final report.
Full details can be found on Precarn’s web site at: Precarn Industrial T-GAP.
Also, for more information contact:
Rick Schwartzburg, Senior Manager - Academic Partnerships
510-1525 Carling Avenue
Ottawa, ON K1Z 8R9
T: (613) 727-9507 ext 231
F: (613) 727-5672
E: schwartzburg@precarn.ca
Upcoming Events
September 10-12, 2008 – CTIA Wireless & Entertainment, Las Vegas
CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2008, the largest wireless data event in the industry, truly embodies the ever-changing, dynamic and innovative world of wireless data in Enterprise and in Entertainment. For information visit: CTIA Wireless IT 2008.
October 2-3, 2008 – Banff Venture Forum, Banff, AB
BVF 2008 will showcase early and growth stage companies in three streams: Information Technology, Energy Technology and Life Sciences Technology. Approximately 40 companies will be presenting before investors from across North America with the intention of securing investment required to grow their businesses. For information visit: Banff Venture Forum 2008.
October 14-16, 2008 – Texas Wireless Summit, Austin, Texas
The Texas Wireless Summit is the premier conference for industry leaders to discuss and plan for the business models and disruptive technologies that will define the future of the wireless industry. Now in its sixth year, the Summit is hosted by the Austin Wireless Alliance (AWA). For information visit: Texas Wireless Summit 2008.
November 17-18, 2008 – Technology World, Coventry, UK
Following the success of Technology World 2007, this is an opportunity not to miss. Tailored meetings with prospective UK ICT business partners will be arranged on your behalf. For information visit: Technology World 2008.
January 19-20, 2009 - Pacific Northwest Wireless Summit, Vancouver, BC
Ideas. Innovation. Investment. This event brings together technology and application innovators, service providers and other companies and stakeholders in the wireless industry from BC, the Yukon, Alberta, Alaska, Washington, Northern California and Idaho. Stayed tuned for information on PNWS 2009 at: PNWS 2009.
February 16-19, 2009 - Mobile World Congress 2009 / Canadian Pavilion Recruitment
MWC 2009 (formerly 3GSM) is the largest wireless telecommunication show in the world and it will be held at FIRA of Barcelona from February 16-19, 2009. For the third time, the Government of Canada will be organizing a Canadian Pavilion at this world-class event. For information: Canada National Pavilion @ MWC 2009.
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