Matt Singley, James Whatley, Jeb Brilliant and Brad Fidler @ MGoLA
- via the very talented Rachael Depp

The last time we took the Mobile Geeks of London on Tour was back in September last year when we descended on the Big Apple itself, New York. Before that, Los Angeles (where the above awesome photo was taken – thanking you @Rachael).

But what about 2010? Where in the world should we host Mobile Geeks of London ‘On Tour’ this time ’round?

Well, I’ll you right now – we’re headed to Canada!

Since the start of the year I’ve had a couple of trusted friends run their own ‘franchise’ events of the Mobile Geeks vein, a couple of which have actually already appeared within the Canadian borders; covering both Vancouver and Toronto. Good work Tom Hall.

However, this is Canada’s very first Mobile Geeks ‘On Tour’ event and what an event it’s set out to be.

Mobile Geeks of London ‘On Tour’ in Montreal – aka #MGoM – kicks of Friday 16th July at The Daylight Factory on 1030 Rue Saint Alexandre, Montreal.

If you’re coming, please add yourself to the facebook event page and – all flights and connections pending – I’ll see you there!

_______________

Date: 16th July 2010
Time: 18:30ish – 23:00ish
Location: The Daylight Factory
Street: 1030 Rue Saint Alexandre
Town/City: Montreal

I know most of the Mobile Geeks of London are, by definition, NOT based in Montreal but, some of you reading this might be, or you may someone who knows someone…
You get the idea.

.

PS. If you’re wondering what I’m doing in Canada in the first place, then look no further than the #N97MiniTour, I’ll be joining the WOMWorld/Nokia team for the second leg of the trip from Montreal to Toronto it’s literally going to be amazing…

Bring. It. On.

We’re off to New York City!

After a long, long Summer of travelling, my last stop over before I finally come back home to the UK for good, is right here in New York City (arrived yesterday – neeed sleeeeep). So, to celebrate – I figured I’d throw a Mobile Geeks of London ‘On Tour’ event right here in NYC!

Thanks to the combined efforts of Chanse Arrington over at Nokia HQ and Will Sisti over at the S60Users.com the very first MGoNYC event is happened this coming Tuesday, September 22nd starting at The Nokia Flagship Store on 57th and 5th.

I say ‘starting at’ as we do have a limited number of people that are able to come. However, to combat this, as soon as we hit that number we’ll up sticks and go find a nearby bar for us all to hang out in. I’m reliably informed there are a fair few in this part of town.

For the uninitiated among you, the MGoL does exactly what it says on the tin. Whether you work in the industry or not, if you like to get geeky when it comes to all things mobile then MGoL is the place for you.
We have a facebook group that you can join to stay up to date with each event and the current base has recently broken the 500 mark (and still growing).

Read more about the Mobile Geeks of London

Join the Facebook group

We had our seventh meetup a little while back in L.A. and it was actually quite awesome.
With about 50 or so people turning up for the giggles, we had a ball.

I digress.

On the evening of Tuesday September 22nd, at The Nokia Flagship Store, NYC, the Mobile Geeks of London or should I say the “Mobile Geeks of NYC” (#MGoNYC), will be meeting for an evening of Big Apple-based mobile chatter, sharing of across-the-pond knowledge and of course, general mobile geekery.

The Time: 6:30pm onwards
The Date: Tuesday September 22nd
The Place:

Nokia Flagship Store
57th and 5th
New York
NY 10022-2556

Coming? Sign up on the dedicated MGoNYC facebook event page

AND FINALLY!

I know most of the Mobile Geeks of London are, by definition, NOT based in New York City.
But some of you reading this might be, or you may someone who knows someone… You get the idea!

Either way – Hope to see you there!

Cheers,

J

PS – I’m back on the 27th. Expect a MGoL announcement soon after…

We’re off to Hollywood!

So there’s this little thing called The Mobile Geeks of London‘, hopefully you know about it by now. I set it up a couple of years ago and hey, I write about it enough!

For the uninitiated among you, the MGoL does exactly what it says on the tin. Whether you work in the industry or not, if you like to get geeky when it comes to all things mobile then MGoL is the place for you.
We have a facebook group that you can join to stay up to date with each event and the current base has recently broken the 500 mark (and still growing).

We had our sixth (London-based) meetup a little while back and it was actually quite awesome.
Managing to secure a proto Nokia N86 for the attendees to play with on the way! Lovely stuff.

I digress.

The point is, I’m off to LA next week and, to celebrate, the Mobile Geeks of London is hosting its second annual ‘MGoL: On Tour‘ event.

On the evening of Thursday May 7th May at The Cat & Fiddle, Los Angeles, the Mobile Geeks of London or should I say the “Mobile Geeks of LA” (#MGoLA), will be meeting for an evening of sun-drenched mobile chatter, sharing of across-the-pond knowledge and of course, general mobile geekery.

The Time: 6:30pm onwards
The Date: Thursday May 7th
The Place:

The Cat & Fidddle
6530 Sunset BLVD
L.A. CA 90028

(English-themed Public house style!)

Coming? Sign up on the dedicated MGoLA facebook event page
Massive thanks must go out to the rather fantastic combined skills of both Jeb Brilliant & Matt Singley who have been awesome in helping to organise this event.

You Rock!

AND FINALLY!

I know most of the Mobile Geeks of London are, by definition, NOT based in Los Angeles.
But some of you reading this might be, or you may someone who knows someone… You get the idea!

Either way – Hope to see you there!

Cheers,

J

PS – MGoL VII, in London, coming soon.

Yes folks, it’s that time of year… Mobile Geeks of London is upon us!

- WOO! -

It’s been just over four months since our last meetup and well, it’s about we had another shindig! If you’re a facebook person get yourself over to the event page and sign up now…

If you’re not a facebook person then the details are as follows:

Date: 26th November 2008 – That’s TOMORROW folks!
Time: 18:30ish – 23:00ish
Location: All Bar One
Street: New Oxford Street (nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road)
Town/City: London Baby!

Like Beer? Like Mobile? Come on down!

As I’ve always maintained:

The Mobile Geeks of London is exactly what it says on the tin.

It’s not about business development, nor is it, to an extent, just another networking event.

It’s about genuine Mobile Geeks coming together and sharing an evening over beers, talking about the thing they love to geek over most…

MOBILE!

Industry and non-industry folk, mixing it up.
Nice.

So leave a comment if you can make it, hell leave a comment if you can’t!
Just let me know either way…

Also – as well as the usual top sekrit gadgetry that may or may not be on show at the meetup – word has reached my ears that a certain Ben Smith from Mobile Industry Review will be in attendance…

- Pic by Joshr via Ben Smith -

That’s Ben there on the right, (as seen with yours truly at the last event – MGoL IV), he’ll be there along with the rest of the Mobile Industry Review team I’m sure, drumming up support and selling tickets for “MIR Christmas Presents.”

A quick word about that:

If you don’t know about MIR Christmas Presents already, I suggest you jump over and read up. It’s a fantastic way to support two amazing charities – The United Nations Foundation and Childline – and you also have a (rather large) chance of winning some awesome prizes too (seriously).

You don’t have to come to MGoL V to take part you can literally get your ticket from the website right now… But I did take the liberty of dropping Ben a note earlier on today to see if he was doing anything special for the MGoL members and he said:

Hey Dude, thanks for inviting me along – any attendees who buy MIR Christmas Present tickets at tomorrow’s MGoL event will automatically be entered into a special mini-draw to win a few bottles of something (Whisky and Champagne so far)…

Woo! More alcohol!
Nice one Ben.

So there you have it – Mobile Geeks of London V.

Tomorrow night.

Be there or be square.

Whatley out…

And November is going to be very busy indeed…

I’m hoping to get as much in and done as humanly possible this month but, as it stands?
It’s not going too bad so far

This week I finished work on another project with MTV’s HIV and AIDS awareness charity, the Staying-Alive Foundation.
This time building around and about their online activity for their latest campaign, (the full details of which you can read over on Big Talk), …and by way of a thank you for all the hard graft, the guys at Staying-Alive secured me a VIP ticket to the MTV European Music Awards!

- Yep. That’s right. V. I. P. -

The Killers, Kanye West, Take That… (no, really).
All. Brilliant.

No pics unfortunately, but I did take a bunch of video mind – like loads – so will have to get some up sharpish I guess.

In the meantime however, back to that busy November I was talking about;

What with today being Sunday, thus follows – tomorrow shall be Monday and tomorrow night is in fact, Mobile Monday (MoMo) London.

Not just any old MoMo event mind, oh no.

Tomorrow just so happens to be MoMo London’s 3rd Birthday Celebrations.

They’ve been going for THREE YEARS! Fair play to them.

Should be a giggle.

We, (as in ‘We, the team from Mobile Industry Review‘), have been asked along to film the show there throughout the night… and I just have to give you this quote that went out on the invitation:

…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)…

Best. Compliment. Ever.
Love it.

So yeah, MoMo tomorrow… Then worky work work until Thursday, whereupon I’m off to Europe for a few days to meet up with Journalists and Bloggers alike, spreading the SpinVox gospel as it were…

(and I think… I THINK… that may well be my overseas travel for the year… Done!)

All being well, I should be home the following Sunday and the Monday after that, (November 17th), I’m straight into The Future of Mobile Conference, where I’m taking part in the ’6×6 UK Bloggers Perspectives’ section speaking alongside five other [and I quote]

…of the UK’s most interesting technology and mobile bloggers present a short insight into a mobile topic. This session will provide truly independent points of view on some of the major topics of continuing discussion in the mobile industry.

Yeah. So no pressure then.

Not when I’m in with such fantastic ‘names’ as Helen Keegan, Jemima Kiss, Vero Pepperrell, Andrew Grill and my Editor-in-Chief over at Mobile Industry Review, Ewan Macleod.

There aren’t really any words to describe how flattered I am to be bundled in with such esteemed folk, all of which I have masses amount of personal and professional respect on many levels… and that’s before we even start on the way I’ve been pitched!

Yeah, no pressure whatsoever.� Heh.

Where was I?

That’s right. Monday 17th November. Future of Mobile. Check.

That same week, on the following Friday actually, November 21st, I celebrate my birthday.
Yep. My birthday falls on a Friday. Rock on.

I’ve no idea what I’m planning on doing yet but I’m sure I’ll talk about it eventually…

Moving swiftly onward to the evening of Wednesday Nov 26th I’m hosting Mobile Geeks of London V. Woo!

MGoL has always been one of my most favourite things to do and this, the fifth event in London of its kind, is no exception. I’ve talked about my love for MGoL at length before and no doubt will again soon.
In the meantime, if you’re interested in attending, get yourself along to the MGoL V facebook event page, put your name down and MAYBE I’ll see you there! Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Bring it.

Hangover depending, November 27th sees the first everevent themed around ‘The Network of Networks’, notionally entitled ‘Amplified 08‘. I HONESTLY do not know enough about this event to do it justice.

All I know is that there’s some bloody interesting people pulling it together and that I will move hell and high water to be there.

I might nip over to their About Page once I’ve finished this post actually, do some reading… Hmm.

And finally, bringing November to a close I’ve actually gone and booked myself a well-deserved weekend relaxing holiday break to somewhere secret, secluded and so completely offline I’m midly concerned I’ll get withdrawal symptoms…

Heh.

Joking aside, this rest has been a long time coming… and I can’t wait.

Buckle up kids, November’s gonna get hectic!

It’s fast approaching…

- IT’S TONIGHT DAMMIT-

…and can you believe there is currently, at the time of writing, 119 people down as confirmed as coming?!
(don’t even ask me about the ‘maybes’)

Amazing.
Really.
I am completely and utterly overwhelmed.

Who’d have thought it huh?

It’s been just over a year since our very first meet-up way back when, upstairs in the Bricklayers Arms…

- Dodgy Lookin’ Bunch -

20 of us or so, all gathered round a table, drinking beer and coo-ing over the first generation iPhone.
What a sight we must have been.

From there Mobile Geeks of London, (or ‘MGoL‘ as it has become to be known) has gone from strength to strength. The MGoL facebook group is now 354 members strong and, as you can see – as time has gone on there has been a really lovely increase in the turnout for each event -

17 <>� 61 <> 73 <>119

Just – awesome – really, really awesome

This year of course, also marked the first time we took MGoL: On Tour.

Starting (and ending – hehe) in Las Vegas and timed to coincide with the start of the CTIA Wireless Conference – MGoL, along with some help from the team at Brilliant Expos, set a new precendent in the history of the Mobile Geeks and laid down the template for any future events that take place under the ‘On Tour‘ banner. Of which, I can guarantee, there will be more coming soon… Watch this space.

So.. Here we are… Let’s do it shall we?

Ladies & Gentlemen… Presenting:

Mobile Geeks of London IV

The Time: 6:45pm – 11:30pm
The Date: July 31st – Today!
The Place: All Bar One, New Oxford Street
Nearest Tube – Tottenham Court Road
Google Map: If You Must

“I don’t wanna buy it, I don’t wanna sell it; I just wanna play with it and use it…”

See you there folks!

Greetings one and all!
I’ve just got back from the States and I am shattered.

UK –> Dallas –> Las Vegas –> San Francisco –> UK

…and breathe…

Had to fly to Las Vegas for a work thing see… via Dallas.

Rather amusingly, it being the first ever flight from LHR (London Heathrow) to DFW (Dallas, Fort Worth) the Boeing we travelled in was given a welcome ‘hose down’ by the airport’s fire trucks…
I didn’t get a picture of that – but I found another example

Anywhoo – Vegas.
Woah…

Nice place to visit and wotnot but I’d never wanna live there. Jeez.

I stayed at The Palms Hotel/Resort/Casino… The one where we held Mobile Geeks of Las Vegas… aka Mobile Geeks of London ON TOUR. What a fantastic night THAT was. Huge props to Mr Jeb Brilliant of Brilliant Expos for making that happen… and for also swinging it so we could just walk straight into the club/bar in the next tower. Nice work.

So yeah – What else did I get up to?

• Took part in the ‘Mobile Web Jam Session’ – That was cool. Good people in the room. Same old same old problems mind…
• Hung out with some cool folk – Namely: Darla, Amir, Jeb, Carlo, Rafe and Ewan. Carlo is actually insane enough to live in Vegas. But you wouldn’t think of it to know him.
• Joined a Blogger round table regarding the future of mobile; thought about a Facbook Phone – I’ve already written up my thoughts on that.
• Broke my shoes. Twice. Fixed the first pair, replaced the second.
• Saw ‘some’ parts of Vegas. Not loads. Well… I saw the outsides of some of the more elaborate hotels.
• And that’s kind of it really…

This was me, on the last day of the show, having just sat down and relaxed for the first time in about five days…

Not soon after this pic was taken I flew to San Francisco…
There’s more to come soon, I just need to get some shuteye…

Night night.

Zzz…

So – You may or may not know that a while back I set up a little facebook group called ‘The Mobile Geeks of London‘. Basically a place where I could meet people like me I guess…
Hehehe…

And well – it’s grown.. and grown.. and grown! …last count, 294 members!

We had our 3rd official meetup a little while back and it was great.
(I’ll do a larger post on MGoL in general sometime soon – yeah – should do that)

Anywhoo – I mentioned the other day that I as headed to Las Vegas with SpinVox for CTIA and within 24hrs I had an email from my friend Jeb Brilliant (no really – that is his name – and yes, he is Brilliant) telling me that he loved the MGoL idea and had been waiting for a chance to get one stateside…

And so….

HERE WE ARE!!
The stuff below has been taken from the facebook group. If you’re not on facebook then drop me an email at yahoo do co dot uk and Iet me know you’re coming… Looking forward to it already!

___________________________________________________________________________________

It’s CTIA next week and on the evening of Monday 31st March at The Playboy Club in Las Vegas the Mobile Geeks of London are having their first ever OFFICIAL ‘overseas’ meetup!

The Time: 8pm onwards
The Date: Monday March 31st
The Place:

The Playboy Bar
Palms Casino Resort
4321 West Flamingo Road
Las Vegas, NV 89103
52nd floor of the Fantasy Tower
http://www.palms.com/playboy_club_1.php

(note – it ain’t a strip club – I checked)

Also – it being the first ever overseas event – I have to break my self-imposed ‘no sponsor’ rule…

The upside of this being that

a) We get a fantastic venue thanks to Yougetitback.com

and

b) Your first drink is free thanks to SpinVox

So:

Mobile Geeks of Las Vegas brought to you in conjunction with SpinVox.
Sponsored by Yougetitback.com and organised by Brilliant Expos…

AND FINALLY!

I know most of the Mobile Geeks of London on this mailing list are, by definition, NOT based in Las Vegas.

But next week… some of you may be.

Either way – Hope to see you there!

(and if you know anyone else who might be in Vegas – let them know too)

http://www.spinvox.com
http://yougetitiack.com
http://www.brilliantexpos.com

Wotcha!

Mobile Geeks of London III is less than a week away and I am ridiculously excited…
It really is looking like it’s going to be the best one yet…

If you’re reading this and unsure of what the hell I am talking about:

DUDE! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!

First – Get yourself off to the facebook group and sign� and then add the event to your diaries folks!

Just so you know – the event is happening THIS Thursday evening, Feb 27th, upstairs at the All Bar One on New Oxford Street (closest tube – Tottenham Court Road).

Stuff you may expect to see:

- Nokias from WOM World
- Mobile gaming from Playyoo
- VoIP from Truphone
- Super SIM Cards from MAXRoam
- Internet made Mobile from Mippin

^ Those are all – to date – confirmed attendees.
I’m pretty certain there’ll be a lot more on show – all you’ve got to do is ask the the right person/s…

Remember -
You’re not coming to buy, you’re not coming to sell it. You’re just coming to use and play.
…and strictly NO BIZ/DEV!

So yeah – looking forward to seeing you all there and if you can’t make it – SHAME ON YOU!
Maybe I’ll see you at the next one…

J.
PS – I’m TRYING to get me an uber-exclusive SpinVox Mobster that I can give away as some kind of raffle prize.
If anyone else is reading this who has anything they’d like to contribute to this little ad-hoc prize draw then do get in touch and we’ll go from there.

Top Banana.

To paraphrase an old friend during a power outage:

“I’m holding a phone! I work with phones. That counts as work”

Anywhoo – if that’s the case then that’s me over there

———————————>

Being busy.
:p

Ok ok ok – so I’ve been neglecting my blog a little bit of late. I’ve had some good reasons mind. Most of which will hopefully become clear by the time you finish reading.

Er… that is if you finish reading at the end of this post. Not if you finish reading NOW for instance.
That’d be rubbish.

So let’s crack on shall we?!

Right – the ‘to-blog’ list from my last-but-one post read a little something like this:

• My business trip to San Francisco, (well – everything that happened after the first 24hrs anyway)
• Social Networks through SpinVox
• And all of the news and coverage that followed that… Because it’s NOW LIVE folks! Go! Get it!
• A couple of other blogging projects that I want to talk about
• Mobile Geeks of London III (I’m waiting on ONE PERSON to come back to me before we move ahead)

So let’s address each one shall we:

First up:
My business trip to San Francisco
I’m going to duck out at this point at say that it deserves a post all to itself. So I’m going to cheat a bit and defer that to another post. Not the best of starts.

Next:
Social Networks through SpinVox
Again – saving this for a separate post – it’s a bit of a SpinVox love in to be honest – and I can’t wait to share it!
(the news and coverage falls into this too)

What else:
Mobile Geeks of London III -
The plan was to get this out and done by the end of November – but what with it being two days until December you and I both know that that just is not going to happen. However, the ONE PERSON who I was waiting for DID get back to me – and we’re making plans to get it up and running early 2008. So watch this space.

Finally:
The couple of other blogging projects that I’ve been working on – this is the thing that’s been taking up my time – hence the VOX neglect – but hey – I’m back now huh?

First up – Remember how I told you that you could Blog through SpinVox?

Well – NOOOOOOW – Yours truly is now officially ‘Editor-in-Chief’ over at the new SpinVox Blog.
Wheeeeee! Which is just cool.
(remind me to change my email sig – hehe)

It’s only been going for a little while now and, although I’m still finding my feet a little bit, I’ve got some great support from the team around me and hopefully it’ll go from strength to strength. Got some great ideas for the next three months or so…. so do me a favour and add the SpinVox Blog Feed to your RSS reader today!
(and if you don’t like the content – at least you know who to complain to!)

Ok – so now – onto my other blogging project – and this kind of ties into my last post too – in that you’ve probably been waiting for ‘part 2′ of the review.� Well – sorry to break it to you – but part 2 isn’t coming…

What happened was my mate Ewan Macleod, Editor over at SMS Text News, saw my “Future of Mobile – Part 1” post (which I did, live, from my N95 – thank you VOX – haven’t done that for a while), and dropped me a sneaky text asking if he could have a full write-up.

“Sure thing” I said. So he wrote a leading piece and then I followed it up with the full write up.

All of which seemed to go down pretty well. Ewan’s a top guy and I’ve done some things with him in the past so it was nice to actually sit down and properly contribute to his, quite frankly, fantastic site.

Anywhoo – this lead onto another conversation which in turn resulted with the following question -

“How about doing it regularly? Not reporting per se, but more of a weekly opinion piece… ”

So with SpinVox’ blessing (thanks guys!) “Whatley Wednesday” was born.

Subjects covered so far: Flashmobbing and the Nokia N81 8GB.
Again – quite a new project – but regular Whatleydude content, week in week out?! You can’t complain!

So where does that leave my personal blog?
My SpinVox-y chatter has found a home and now it seems my Mobile chatter has found a home too.

Well as I’ve already said – I’ve still got stuff I want to write up – but if you remember – I originally started this site so I could blog the Glastonbury Festival LIVE from my mobile.
And even though that had geeky overtones – it was still more of a personal thing.

So… I’m gonna try and take this blog back to its roots!

After all – the address is on my Moo Card so I best make sure the content is up to date!

Until next time….