Carnival of the Mobilists

There’s always a lot happening in mobile, but I try to keep the focus of Mobilista on Australian happenings as there are plenty of places to go for global mobile news.  If you’re keen to tap into some of these global blogs and discussions, you might want to check out the Carnival of the Mobilists,  a weekly wrap up of blog posts talking about mobile.   The Carnival has a global focus so the news isn’t always relevant in Australia, but it’s a great backgrounder.  Each week the Carnival is hosted by a different mobile blogger, so everyone benefits from the traffic & exposure.  The host researches and selects the best articles from the week, and provides a quick summary and links.   This week’s Carnival of the Mobilists is hosted by Caroline Lewko from wipJAM.

MMA Mobile Marketing Forum, Berlin

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is holding their Mobile Marketing Forum in Berlin this week. Aussie mobilist Oliver Palmer from Tigerspike is there and has been live tweeting from the event.   You can follow Oliver on Twitter to keep up with what’s happening, or use Twitter Search for the hashtag #mmf09 to see everybody’s tweets from the event.  Several of the presentations are already live on the MMF website and general feeling from the event is that it is a very exciting time for mobile marketing and advertising (OMG did someone say  THIS is the year of mobile??)

mNet to merge with Mercury Mobility

In more local news, Australian business mNet Corporation announced yesterday that they will be merging with mobile content & personalisation company Mercury Mobility. According to the press release, the combined business will produce ”a new generation of mobile expertise and capabilities, targeting global mobile carriers, media companies and content and brand owners”.  This article in Computerworld provides a good overview of the merger details, and you can follow mNet CEO Horden Wiltshire on Twitter.

Oliver, Jenny and I have been putting the finishing touches on the course materials and I am really  looking forward to the opportunity to work with a group of enthusiastic wannabe mobile marketers!  The course will cover the latest trends in mobile technology and marketing, and teach participants how to take advantage of them.

Course Content includes:

• how to engage consumers through the mobile channel
• the logistics of implementing a mobile marketing campaign
• how to integrate mobile into your overall marketing strategies

I’ll be running the show down in Melbourne on June 18th and will have a few guest lecturers there on the day to impart their wisdom and expertise.  Jenny Williams (IdeaGarden) will fire up Sydney attendees on June 11th with a little bit of support from yours truly (I’ll be making cups of tea)

I would love to see you there.  I know if you’re reading Mobilista then you’re already interested in mobile marketing – perhaps this is the perfect opportunity to take that interest and turn it into some really exciting mobile marketing activities before 2009 is out.

At the start of the year I predicted we’d see some great local examples of mobile marketing and advertising in Australia in 2009.  Will you be behind one of those great examples??