Archive for the 'SIME People' Category

SIME Talks Season 2, Episode 2: Young entrepreneurs, listen to this.

0 Comments
Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on February 10, 2010

This post is about Blog, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration and SIME People

Young entrepreneurs, listen to this.

There is no secret recipe to reach the top, but listening to this might atleast give you inspiration, help you correct your mistakes faster, understand what makes things work, the value of partnerships and business alliances, risk taking approach, the importance of finding the right team to work with, learning quick from failures and ultimately putting in those long hours day and night. May be the usual run of the mill if you read the text, but listening to these experts and entrepreneurs talk might atleast rekindle that lost memory, the hidden thought and hopefully supply some fuel to excel in these cold long days. The first advise I got from my mentor couple of years back was “Having a great idea is a liability without the right execution”, and these are such very valuable insights that reshapes the way you think about your business. This is a great resource, thanks to 23business for interviewing the folks at SIME 2009, editing and putting all the thoughts cohesively.

SIME Stockholm 2009 - Tips and advices for young entrepreneurs from 23tv.de on Vimeo.

Tags: , , , .

SIME Talks: Season 2, Episode 1 - an introduction about SIME and plans for SIME 2010

0 Comments
Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on February 4, 2010

This post is about Blog, Entrepreneurship, Events, Inspiration, Knowledge, SIME News, SIME People and Upcoming

SIME Talks, inspired by a similar version from TED features interviews, expert opinions around things digital from friends of the SIME house. We started the weekly routine of featuring an expert and focusing on a take home message revolving around different topics since last July, and the concept has quite much caught on.

We love the whole routine of putting up the show since it gives us the chance to revisit old interviews caught amongst dusty tapes (not that they belong there, but because they didn’t connect with the right medium as yet) and realize the messages conveyed by various thought leaders who have been to SIME. Particularly interesting is if you look at predictions made, from how Tom Crampton and Michael Oreskes connect media content, freemium and quality back in 2007 to the cloud computing movement by SUN, it is fascinating to actually realize these guys figured out the solution before people could understand the problem.

Last year, we featured 15 talk shows and 1 digest edition putting together them all under the banner of ‘all things digital’. And true to our nature of spreading digital knowledge, being inspired by the latest revolutions and innovations and hence inspiring our readers, we feature an introductory talk to kick off this season’s episode. Ola Ahlvarsson, the soul of SIME, moderator and catalyst for the whole brand talks about SIME to the folks from 23 Business (who have a great set of interviews btw at their vimeo channel) about SIME, the various editions of SIME in different cities and plans for 2010.

For those who  are new to SIME, this is a great start for you to get a tweet-vator pitch (not quite, but almost). Welcome to SIME and the family!

You can catch all the SIME Talks, Season 1, all Episodes here
A digest edition if you want to save time (I bet!)

Ola Ahlvarsson about SIME 2009 in Stockholm from 23tv.de on Vimeo.

Tags: , .

SIME thanks Berghs School of Communication for producing the SIME Movie Posters and billboards

1 Comment
Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on December 17, 2009

This post is about Recent, SIME People and SIME09

If you had been to SIME this year and found movie like posters outside the Rigoletto cinema depicting the SIME speakers as movie stars, I bet you stood by for a minute at least, snapped a picture and went in thinking that was cool. Actually, passers by thought they were movie posters until they paused for a minute and read the text again. Well, we thought we should do a featured post about the folks who came up with the idea.

SIME Poster 2

Meet the students from Berghs school of communication

Berghs School of Communication, Sweden, is a school in Stockholm that offers strategic and creative educational programs within market communications at several levels and formats. Interactive Communication at Berghs is a one-year education that gives students a broad and intensive year in marketing strategies and how they relate to digital communication. Students learn how the contemporary techniques of interactivity work regardless of language, geography or culture and how to integrate interactive communication with other channels and best communicate with a range of target audiences. Working with digital technologies such as the internet, intranet, e-business, viral marketing, mobile telephony and digital TV divides education into a series of courses in: interactive branding, interactive campaigns, computer technologies, technical development, design management, web management, content management and information design. In short these folks are “interactive integrated communicators”.

The task with SIME was to highlight the speakers and celebrate them, make them the rock stars, the heros of digital knowledge. The solution? Use the movie billboards outside of the cinema. On these bilboards we put up prints where the speakers were highlighted in fictive newspaper billboards of some of Swedens biggest and most influential papers, like IDG, Internetworld and Aftonbladet. These papers were also partners of the SIME conference. A neat idea that the folks at Berghs School of Communication came up with and implemented it to perfection together with our in house logistic team.

SIME Poster 3

A gazillion thanks to the manager of the program Peder Rotkirch and his students Clara Grelsson, Fredrik Arrelid, Markus Andersson, Axel Tagg, Jonas Åhlén, the creative heads from Berghs School. You guys are fine integrated communicators!

SIME 09: Interviews with the audience

0 Comments
Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on December 2, 2009

This post is about Blog and SIME People

At SIME Stockholm during November, we had a diverse set of folks from all over the place who were keen on exploring digital opportunities together with us. From top level managers, city councils / government organizations to first time entrepreneurs, from the traditional business to the artistic ones, people came in all forms and shapes. We did quick 2 minute interviews with some of the folks. You can find the videos below.

1. Interview with Myngle, a portal that helps you learn languages online + promo code

Myngle.com is very cool I think. Spreads the power of languages right to you at the comforts of your home. The concept has been spoken about from since the days of the dinosaurs, but none I think have implemented them as well as Myngle. Founded by Marina, an Italian living in Netherlands, the concept has caught on in Europe and is slowly taking flight.

With some great networking and business opportunities created during the SIME week, Marina is quite vociferous in her thank you to SIME. She has given all the SIME folks a discount code for you to learn languages at a discounted price. So to tingle the vernacular love in you, we suggest you go to http://myngle.com and enter the code “sime09″ to learn languages at a discount.

2. Chat with the winner of the SIME, 3 - Android Developer Challenge

You look at the app and you realize, how come I lived without it? And the man behind the app is quite straight faced when I ask him the motivation behind the app. He says “he needed it”, and you go inside your head, a classic geek reason ain’t it? The app helps you find the cheapest products near your current location, displays them on the maps, and allows one touch calling. With the info slurped from Hitta.se a directories site, this intelligent catalogue is your companion for your last minute “real time” shopping needs.

Jonas Petersson, the winner and the man in the video below feels that the app scene is too crowded and it is tough to go through various approval process, and have different walled gardens to work in. And of course, the lack of good distribution power for developers like him with the noise in the scene quite much reduces the expectation to live off apps, but instead follow more of passion and develop the app one has always wanted to.

3.  Friends of Barcelona

We had a lot of friends from Barcelona as part of their SIME journey to experience action from the mother ship. For a little bit of history lesson, the City Council of Barcelona helped SIME organize the Barcelona version this year (in May) with great critical acclaim to find stars within the Spanish digital industry and co-inspire the scene with Scandinavia. With more than 8 hand picked companies joining the folks from Barcelona Council and Chamber of Commerce to attend SIME Stockholm, we were more than happy to have them with us, participate in the various workshops and awards.

Below is an interview with the folks behind the Barcelona City Council and Chamber of Commerce who help Barcelona companies set up locally and help find partners abroad, and help international companies help establish in Barcelona. And the second interview is with a company called Nettranslation that helps translate large corporate websites into different languages.

Tags: , , , .

Lights Camera Action! SIME is set to take off.

0 Comments
Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on November 11, 2009

This post is about Agenda, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Knowledge, SIME People and SIME09

At Rigoletto, and the stage is perfect. The ambience music is in, people are slowly trickling in with their “FIKA” and “Kannelbulle”, the speakers are all gung-ho, the workshops and match-making desks are screaming to your senses, the lovely ladies with interesting “SMS Me” T-Shirts are everywhere taking interaction with them (and quite good number of followers, yes all men, some even thinking it’s their number), it’s time of that year where it’s a whole new world with SIME. The journey is about to begin in minutes.

Some relevant links before we begin:

Agenda: http://sime.nu/09/stockholm/agenda

Speaker Profiles: http://sime.nu/09/stockholm/speakers

SIME Live!: http://sime.nu/live

And it’s rare 2 days where the Scandinavians are forced to rig off the shyness, and talk to the camera, it’s not an option, it’s an order. So be ready to be filmed, flashed till your eyes bleed with photos, and make sure you suck the juice out of SIME by meeting people.

SIME is set to take off. Tighten your seat belts, it’s going to be  journey of inspiration, knowledge, business and fun.

Tags: , .

SIME Talks 15: Thomas Crampton and Michael Oreskes - “The future of content is quality”

0 Comments
Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on October 28, 2009

This post is about Inspiration, Knowledge, SIME News and SIME People

The future of content is quality. Quality will win, since the fundamental scare resource is the attention span of the audience. People do not have the time to absorb random information on the internet, and what they need is the professional skill and craft of journalism to make the data accessible and for journalists to do the work for the audience so that they can absorb it.

Words from veteran journalist Michael Oreskes who believes there are a myriad of ways to execute journalism and, the internet is all about finding the right mix at the right location.

michael-oreskesMichael Oreskes - 28 years of solid journalism, and yes, he believes in new media.

Mike has served as executive editor of the International Herald Tribune since 2005. Previously, he was deputy managing editor of The New York Times, supervising television and Internet content. During this period, he won three Emmy awards and a DuPont award for documentary television. Currently he is working with the AP as Managing Editor for U.S. News. He is the co author of The Genius of America, How the Constitution Saved Our Country and Why It Can Again.

Read more about Michael Oreskes

Thomas Crampton - Walking the new media lane

thomasThomas Crampton who worked as a correspondent under the supervision of Michael Oreskes in International Herald Tribune and New York Times is out there changing the media industry. He is currently involved as the Asia-Pacific director of 360 Digital Influence for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Tom heads a team stretching across 23 cities in 15 Asian territories that helps companies conceive, develop and execute strategies in Social Media.

About Tom
Read Tom’s very well acclaimed personal blog
Tom’s Twitter

Raw energy and fresh appetite for ideas, 24*7.

The deadly duo of Mike and Tom were simply scintillating on stage. The final session of SIME 2007 was all theirs to fight out about the changing media industry and, the number of ideas that were thrown in during the session to save the media industry was simply a “Eureka” moment to all of us.

Old vs New Media, the battle has escalated into a war or are we seeing peace signs?

While the proponents of old media were still not convinced about the future of content online, the visionaries saw it coming, and on stage were two such minds talking about how things would be shaped 5 years from now. Unlike any “future will happen in 5 years” prediction where typically the number of years is understated, the media industry has quite much evolved into their vision 2 years ahead in time of their prediction.

Media companies are on a rampage, (look at the chart of Schibsted) on a wild hunt to find interesting niches and verticals to monetize their unsold inventory and cross- sell their existing journalistic services on top of new vertical; and a revenue model that connects them all, the holy grail of new age journalism if one might call it that.

Thanks Mike and Tom for all the energy you guys exhumed then. I can safely say, its still very much breathing!

Sime 07 - Tom Crampton & Michael Oreskes from SIME on Vimeo.

Tags: , , .

Meet the Nominee of the Day (27) Oculusai, Sweden

0 Comments
Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on October 28, 2009

This post is about Awards, SIME Companies, SIME People and SIME09

Company Bio

Every day, a huge and rapidly increasing amount of images are uploaded on the internet. Assuring that these images are aligned with site policy is a great challenge for many sites. Slow manual pre-upload validation of images result in long waiting times for disappointed end-users. Manual post-upload validation results in inappropriate content on the sites. Sites must choose between long upload times due to manual validation or the existence of inappropriate content.

Country

Sweden

Website

http://www.oculusai.com/

SIME Profile

http://sime.nu/09/awards/rising-stars-of-the-north/oculusai/

Snapshot

picture-11

» Continue reading ‘Meet the Nominee of the Day (27) Oculusai, Sweden’

Tags: , , .

SIME Stockholm: More thought leaders, more inspiration!

0 Comments
Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on October 19, 2009

This post is about Inspiration, SIME People, SIME09 and Upcoming

With only little more than 3 weeks left to one of the most important events of the year, the digital journey with SIME just got more exciting.

[SIME Stockholm is to be held on November 11, 12 in Stockholm]

More thought leaders who we have been trying to hunt down for a very long time have finally given their nod, and clearly, they are going to be a major catalyst for this year’s SIME Stockholm edition. With workshops and networking bazaars that gives you all the knowledge and most importantly time (we think networking breaks are typically undervalued in most events) to meet other entrepreneurs, VC’s, intrapreneurs, creatives that are going to SIME this year, the buzz is going to be scintillating.

Workshop Info and Networking Bazaar information

We already mentioned the names of the first batch of top speakers consisting of Dr. Werner Vogels (CTO of Amazon), Steven Overman (founder Realtime project), Josh Cooper Remo ( MD, Kissinger Associates), Sara Öhrvall, SVP R&D, the Bonnier Group (Sweden). Now, we have some fresh names:

anilhansjee_65Anil Hansjee (Head of Corp. Dev, Google EMEA, UK)

svenhagstromer_65Sven Hagströmer (founder Hagströmer & Qviberg, Sweden)

rolverikryssdal_65Rolv Erik Ryssdal, CEO Schibsted (Norway)

pekkapohjakallio_65Pekka Pohjakallio (VP Concepting and Innovation, Nokia, Finland)

and there is more …

Check out the speaker roster here

Check out the agenda here

The beauty of SIME is the diversity of the speakers and people who participate. So having a rock star, a hacker and a venture capitalist on stage could be bizzare for some, but we think its pretty cool to see what brings all such people under one digital banner. And probably SIME can be proud that its one of those rare events that feature corporates in a completely chilled out setting, away from the tightly suited mindset one might associate them with. And no wonder we have a slew of such companies working with us, since it does not hurt to be considered cool. Adding the entrepreneurial / intrapreneurial quotient just made it a perfect digital event, one that you should not miss

Registration / pricing here

See you at SIME Stockholm, November 11, 12
Tags: , .

SIME Speaker Series: Johan Siwers, Managing Director of Match.com, “The Silent Years is when real business is built”

0 Comments
Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on October 15, 2009

This post is about Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Knowledge, SIME People, SIME09 and Speakers

johan_siwers1Below is a guest post written by Johan Siwers, Managing Director of Match.com CEO Nordics. Johan Siwers is a seasoned online media executive with a passion for entrepreneurial game changing companies. Johan has over the past 15 years been involved in breaking ground for a wide range of media and online media ventures within companies like Kinnevik, Spray, Shibsted and InterActive Corp (IAC). Johan is also part of the SIME Awards jury.

I recently sat talking to some friends and fellow online veterans.

We started talking about a number of companies that we remembered as the cool and hot media darlings of the online world only a few years ago, but that we lost track of. What had happened? Did the founders loose interest, did they scale down their business when they were about to run out of cash or did they simply go bust? What happened with Polar Rose – Technology pioneer at WEF 2008; and Table Finder – Seed camp winner 2007 or Rebtel – celebrated internationally and raised $20 million in 2006. What about Jaycut - årets nykomling IW 2007

We started to unwind 10-15 stories of these and similar hyped companies and found some interesting cases:

1) About a third of the companies had actually gone bust, sold or merged in a way that had left very little value left
2) Another third were still in business, but was just barely struggling to survive and had lost most of their visions
3) The last third had realized headlines in the media does not pay the bills. They had gone silent, worked on their business model and come out on the other side with a strong offering and business.

In the first category the “entrepreneur” could often be stereotyped into a financial entrepreneur, i.e. a person that put the monetary aspect of running a business first – I want to become rich.
The second category had entrepreneurs that lost the sparkle in their eyes. They often seem to have a problem accepting that they were not saluted success stories any longer – and as success junkies they lost their drive and momentum.

The third category of entrepreneurs and companies kept working hard on their value proposition during Silent Years, learnt from their mistakes and step by step they created a strong and solid foundation for their business. The initial media attention gave them a kick start, but that was more coincidental than part of a plan or reason for being. Many times these entrepreneurs had tweaked and adjusted their initial idea quite drastically, and landed with an improved execution better adapted to reality. The improved execution did not always include the-sky-is-the-limit approach any longer, but all showed a sound profitable company.

The Silent Years showed that these entrepreneurs were never in it for the love of making money, not for the love of seeing them self in the news paper but for the passion of creating something out of a core idea or insight. Tetra Pak lost money the first 15 years. It took IKEA 15 years to start its first store out side of Scandinavia, it took H&M 17 years to do the same.

What would those stories tell us?

  • If you want to get rich, don’t plan on getting rich
  • If you have a passion, work with it, twist and turn, to get it to become a business
  • Most business ideas are not invented, they are grown out of passion and hard work over longer - often Silent - periods of time
Tags: , , .

SIME Talks 12: Annie Wegelius, SVT, Director of Program’s, talks about innovation within the public services television company

0 Comments
Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on October 7, 2009

This post is about Blog and SIME People

Annie Wegelius is impressive. She is not the kind of corporate personnel who would bend over when you talk digital jargon with her about why the new media would swallow up traditional media. Instead, she stands up, embraces the change in consumption pattern and executes innovation within the “huge dinosaur”. She was quite vociferous in her views about how the traditional media should fight the fire with the digital media on stage at SIME last year and cited SVT as a classic case study. When going through some digital tapes, I managed to find this short talk and decided to feature her as the protagonist for this week’s SIME Talks. The talk can be found below (about 1.40 mins)

View SVT’s web here

View Annie Wegelius’ profile here (PDF Download)

SVT (Sveriges Television), for our international audience is the is the Swedish public service television company with the widest range of programming of all TV companies in Sweden. Following a completely non commercial route (no advertisements), Swedes wherever they might be are happy to pay a licensing fee to tune into the most trusted Swedish media.

Before joining SVT in May 2007, Annie has been an entrepreneurial part of the TV and media industry for the past 25 years. She was part of the founding team of the first Scandinavian commercial broadcaster TV 3 acting as the channels first programming director. She then founded and headed her own production company Wegelius TV that grew to become one of the leading independent production companies in the region in the 90s.

SIME 07 - Annie Wegelius from SIME on Vimeo.

The SVTplay.se which features shows and content straight from SVT’s stable is more than impressive for a public services company and no doubt is Annie Wegelius walking her talk. It won’t do any harm for Rupert Murdoch and co to take a leaf straight off SVT and Annie’s books.

Tags: , , , , .
« Older Entries