Basically I gathered the one liners I liked and can relate to. So here they come in no particular order:

- Dan Sifry
“there’s got to be a better way!”. Own comment: This has to be the best mantra an entrepreneur can have

- Hans Roslling
“Students have the world view relating to the birth year of their teacher.”
“The world is not globalising it is modernising.”
“The vikings were the al-Quaida of their times. Ask the Irish.”

- Lena K Samuelson
“ Live the life of your target group”.
“It is not about being someone else. It is about being a better version of yourself.”

SIME08 Eva Berg Winters – Markets and Media, where is everything going? Video

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It was not helped by some of the dressed up data that PwC used. Graph stopping with first half of 2008 to be able to show a growing trend. I would like to see Q3 numbers (and Q4 when they are available). The message was to make us believe that some markets in Europe are still going to be growing in 2009. I understand and agree with the safe harbour and cost efficiency drivers. Unfortunately mobile advertising never proved its case in either category. It should have been said as a disclaimer almost. Instead of a “don’t try this at home” something like “don’t try this in mobile!”

My only advice to someone who would like to build a business based on mobile advertising is – don’t do it! Unless you have nerves of steel and you are extremely well funded with very long term view on profitability.

I wish I could advice differently but I can’t. I am firmly convinced that ad-funded models is the only thing that makes sense for many mobile businesses. The simple reason is that consumers are already used to this model when they do stuff on their PC. So why should it be any different accessing sites with the mobile? So the correct advice I should really give is do it, but find something else to pay the bills in the meantime and maybe put it in the roadmap 12-18 months out.

I based this advice on first hand experience from the UK, Nordic and North American markets. Banner and text ads on mobile sites has come to a grinding halt. Unfortunately mobile advertising is behind online advertising on the maturity curve. Until September advertisers had only experimented with campaigns. Several with great returns. But with the financial crisis as the scapegoat test campaigns did not turn into continuous use of the mobile channel.

At Acemob we work closely with 5-6 advertising networks, both auction based and networks with a sales house selling each site in their inventory. They are all struggling now. I just got the disheartening message from one North American partner that 60 pitches had so far generated no new business.

So, don’t bet the house on mobile advertising right now. Remember that you read it here first.

In the mobile world creative commons thinking is a huge driver for growth. Content contracts and costs are a huge barrier to growth. But unfortunately there is no active discussion at the moment aroudn applying creative commons licensing in business deals in mobile. The beneits would be huge. Especially in the music arena where full length tracks today are in many cases sold at a loss using the traditional models where a record label takes a large cut, the mobile carrier takes his unreasonably big cut for handling the transactions and offering a bit of distribution. Then the broadcasting rights have to be paid. Take away the VAT and there is not much left for the company operating the service.

If the general reasoning among the promoters of new business models for the music industry is right, how can mobile enhance that model? First the model – give the individual tracks away and make money on all other things such as limited edition special boxes (like the example Joi brought up – Nine Inch Nails), concert tickets (the most common example given I have a feeling of), t-shirts and even selling the master tracks for a song and let the listener become producer and remix the track like Ace of Base is doing it at their site. I understand and respect the fear for change and the leap of faith it is to let go of the traditional model. Here mobile maybe can offer yet another way to bridge the digital and physical (in this case as in hard core cash) worlds and make it less emotionally painful for the music industry as a group.

What if a free download over your mobile with a creative commons license also generated an SMS from the artist when they sell something real to you such as that limited edition box, a concert ticket etc? It can of course be done in more or less suttle ways. Maybe even charging for hooking you up to people who appear near you who have dowloaded songs from ths same artist/category? Here we are also talking social networking 3.0 I think. We are not 100% suited for one network. We fit many niche networks. Our individuality as a person is better matched with several niche networks than one mega-one-size-fits all. And best of all if they start to become automatic. That is when the conversation becomes everything as well as  the driver for innovation. Use case: I am walking in to a cafe and get to know that there are 5 others who have downloaded the same track as I during the last week. I get an invitation to make myself known if I like to. Or not.

One of my key stand-points are that mobile often is the perfect “bridging device” from the digital to the real world simply because it is always on and always with us. Seen in this perspective I think mobile entertainment and services has seen nothing yet. It is mobile web 3.0 really. Do I know this for sure? No, but I am willing to bet the house on it and possible loose it all in the process. But that’s why I am an entrepreneur. Does this make sense at all?

Thanks Joi for the spark that ignited this riff!

-You will fuck up!
-Risk = Reward
-Therefore risk is key
-People is everything
-Network is key – that’s how the world work
-Passion is key.

Join Morten on the ride at lundxy.com

Another cool cross-over was Nöjesguiden’s (the What’s On of Sweden. Free printed paper and website) work with Belysio. It is a mobile application you download to your phone and then on the Nöjesguiden web page your friends can track your whereabouts and see them on a map in realtime. Another cool way to make mobile bridge the digital and real world.

I think location based services and features in existing services that are using location information is rapidly moving from hype to must-have status. The mobile phone is in many ways such a poor user interface that we need to pick up on the unique and very defendable competitive advantages it has. The fact that the mobile is always with us and the better and cheaper access to location data now is one such feature we need to build upon. Thanks Belysio for a great service!

I am also looking forward to the workshop I am invited to at Vodafone that will discuss these matters. And more so how Vodafone can be an enabler by opening up APIs to the unique information and functions they have at a network level. This would create an explosion in new services. On top of that mobile operators would have made huge profits on mobile content already, without big costly internal “media and entertainment wannabe” departments. Opening up to their unique functions and making the mobile billing option affordable we will have a very different mobile entertainment and apps world very soon. It has nothing to do with mobile. It is pure business sense – few mechants can afford 50% in transaction costs for the sale of their service or product. You have seen my standpoint on this abuse of the billing monopoly before. See this post for example.

Again, Gapminder is a seriously cool way to make a hell of a lot of sense of a hell of a lot of data. And it often provides the facts to change peoples mindsets as well. Pure. Raw. Powerful. Read more about Hans Rosling’s presentation here

Then there were all the cool people that I just had a ball hanging out with over the two days. You know who you are and thanks for interesting meetings!

Overall impression: Very professional production. Beats most things I have been to in Europe and the US. But a nice wrapping is not enough. To give you a hint, check out the great clips produced by Radon here. What about the content?

The high: Hans Rosling, professor of International Health at Karolinska Institutet (KI) but also the father of Gapminder, a program that helps us get a fact based view of the world. Professor Rosling is a presenter par excellence. Catch a glimpse here at his performance at the TED conference. The take away: The world is not globalising, it is modernising. We are all converging in terms of life expectancy, income, health etc. So, yes there is convergence -
1. but not for the last billion who still live on 1 USD per day or less. But they can be given help if we pull together.
2. but it is not sustainable currently. The average US citizen emits 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide. The same number for the Chinese is 3 tonnes per capita. And in this reality the US is allocating 300 bn USD to grandpa in pensions and health care whereas only 3 bn USD to grandskids, i.e. R&D in clean tech and energy saving technologies. This has to change!
3. but there is not one power – we are entering a multi- power world

Another high was Tom Crampton and Dan Dubno talking about how politics will change with the Internet and new media strategies and tools that the Obama campaign unleashed.  I will discuss this in a separate post since it has a huge bearing on mobile web.

The low: The advanced presentation technology and system was messing up a few times and there were a good few short and shallow presentations about things we already know and hear daily wince we work in the industry. But then again, whatever the event, the real value is the meeting place it is and the opportunity to meet people. It is more up to yourself than the event organisers really is my feeling.

Well, it would not be fair not to mention Mia Rose and her fairytale story that we will see more of in the music industry I think. From home video on YouTube to signing with Universal Music. Her humble approach and choice of wording calling her followers supporters rather than fans. Ace of Base, the hit selling Swedish pop music machine from the 90’s, is attempting a comeback 2.0 style. New website where fans can remix tracks. The most popular ones will be recorded by Ace of Base and put on coming albums. That’s participation, or in the words of Ulf Ekberg, “the fans are the fourth band member”.

Well, no mobile so far. I will come to that in the coming posts. I will try to structure a story around this and serve up in some logic clusters.

Now I need to soak in a bath and have a cold beer to chill down my brain that is near overheating after all meetings and the inspirational kick SIME08 gave me.

For direct reporting and info please go to the SIME08 blog and have a look. For excellent coverage in Swedish (and also broader than my niche focus on mobile) go to Disruptive.