The first highlight of my 3GSM experience yesterday were the MobileMonday Global Peer Awards. Lots of people showed up and it was very much a Web 2.0 / Conference 2.0 feeling. Many people knew many people from their blogs and other activities on the net.
Rudy de Waele of m-trends and founder of Momo Barcelona did a great job to bring everyone together: A first class jury for the awards with people like Carlo Longino of MobHappy, Russell Buckley of AdMob, and Daniel Applequist of Momo London just to name a few. Next to the jury there was a first class audience, first class networking during the breaks and first class sponsors like Telefonica and Reitek without whom something of this dimension with several hundred people attending would not have been possible.
To the hard facts now: 24 (!) Mobile Monday chapters have sent their best startup to Barcelona to present. I was quite impressed with the AsiaPac Region with India having had at least three cities presenting as well as several chapters from China. My personal favorites for the best startup idea were PartyStrands of Barcelona with their interactive party music system, the people from the chapter in Ukraine with their online game (sorry, I forgot your company name…), the people from MoMo Paris with their browser scrolling idea, the mobile payment solution from the Bangalore chapter and the S60 MMS and SMS encryption and security solution from the Bangkok chapter. I was also quite fascinated by the Wifi positioning presentation, of which I have heard before but never quite understood the concept until yesterday. Very cool stuff!
In the end, the jury award went to Plazes, quite known already in the blog sphere for their mobile social location service. Another award went to the guys from the MoMo Paris chapter with their innovative scrolling solution about which I have to find out more and about which I will write separately. Finally, Rudy de Waele got the award for the best Carnival of the Mobilist post of last year. All very deserved!
To close this post in Techdirt fashion, I have to note that I did not see a single Blackberry user at the event. Nokia Eseries and Nseries devices on the other hand were everywhere. I leave it to you to figure this one out 😉
For pictures, head over to Flickr.