WEF Technology Pioneers 2011 announced: GetJar, foursquare, Knewton, Layar, Scribd, Spotify etc.

The World Economic Forum has announced the Technology Pioneers 2011. 31 companies have been named Technology Pioneers. I met Rodolfo Lara Torres who is in charge of the Technology Pioneer Program a few times and posted an interview in 2009.

This year a few New Media and Web companies are listed aswell, e.g. foursquare, Knewton, Layar, Scribd, and Spotify. However, Cleantech is dominating the Pioneer List. Here are the WEF Technology Pioneers 2010:

CLEAN TECH
Digital Lumens, USA
Digital Lumens integrates LEDs, networking and software into a single “smart” system that promises improved efficiency, control and operational oversight of lighting at industrial facilities. The system can reduce customers’ lighting-related energy use by up to 90%.
http://www.digitallumens.com/

Ecovative Design, USA
Ecovative’s vision is to grow sustainable products that directly replace plastics. Its products require far less energy to create, can be grown from many different regional feedstocks and can be composted without processing in backyards and gardens.
www.ecovativedesign.com

Ferrate Treatment Technologies, USA
Ferrate Treatment Technologies (FTT) makes a patented reactor small enough to fit into the back of a pick-up truck that can disinfect up to 20 million gallons of water a day and do the job more cheaply than harmful chemicals or competing technologies. The ferrator strips electrons from liquid iron to make ferrate; the most powerful, multi- purpose environmentally-friendly water and wastewater treatment chemical known.
www.ferratetreatment.com

Flexoresearch Group, Thailand
Flexoresearch has developed a series of novel blended enzymes that recovers pulp/fibre from laminated paper waste, such as milk cartons, and uses it to replace the virgin pulp now used to make new paper. The recovered pulp/fibre can also be used in building materials and to make vehicle brake pads for the automotive industry.
www.flexoresearch.com

Novacem, United Kingdom
The cement industry alone is responsible for 5% of man-made CO2 emissions and, up until now, has not had low-carbon solutions to deploy at scale. Enter Novacem, which has developed a new type of cement which absorbs more CO2 than it emits during production.
www.novacem.com

On-Ramp Wireless, USA
On-Ramp Wireless’s Ultra-Link Processing (ULP) System enables the low-power monitoring and control applications used in smart grids, industrial sensing and location tracking.
www.onrampwireless.com

OPOWER, USA
OPOWER has designed a behaviour-based, energy- efficiency program that helps utilities motivate their customers to save energy.
www.opower.com

Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies, Canada
Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies has developed a new generation of wastewater treatment systems that not only helps treatment plants run more efficiently but also solves major environmental issues and provides a new revenue stream for municipalities: commercial fertilizer.
www.ostara.com

Quintas Renewable Energy Solutions, Nigeria
Founded by a physician dismayed at the loss of life when power outages occur during childbirth and surgical operations, Quintas develops inverters specially designed to meet the challenges that poor and erratic power generation and distribution pose to people in Nigeria whose businesses and daily activities require continuous power supply.
www.quintasenergies.com

TaKaDu, Israel
Water scarcity is one of the biggest issues facing the world. There is not only not enough clean drinking water to go around, the world loses much of what it does have through leaks in ageing water networks. More than four and a half billion gallons of water are lost in transit every day in the United States, according to the US Geological Survey, and 25% to 35% of water is lost every year worldwide, according to the World Bank. This is where TaKaDu comes in. It is tackling the multibillion dollar problem by bringing a smart grid approach to the water sector.
www.takadu.com

Tendril, USA
Tendril helps both consumers and utilities manage energy consumption. Its smart grid technology helps utilities achieve better load balance. And, the company’s technology, a software-as-a-service model, provides a two-way communication link between energy utilities and their customers, giving consumers more specific information about their energy use.
www.tendrilinc.com

Topell Energy, Netherlands
Topell Energy has developed a highly efficient method of making solid biofuel from woody biomass, a process known as torrefaction. Torrefaction of biomass cuts transportation costs and renders the conversion of biomass into power and heat more efficient. Torrefied biomass is an environmentally-friendly and practical alternative to fossil coal.
www.topellenergy.com

Transonic Combustion, USA
Transonic Combustion makes a fuel injection system that offers automotive manufacturers a near-term, cost- effective solution to vastly improve fuel economy of new cars and trucks, and help meet stringent emissions regulations.
www.tscombustion.com

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES AND NEW MEDIA
Aster Data, USA
Companies are now amassing terabytes and even petabytes of data. As volumes explode, traditional databases have become bottlenecks, hampering corporations from getting deep insights into consumer behaviour, real-time fraud analysis and patterns and trends that could improve their business. Aster Data, founded by three PhD students at Stanford University, is helping companies overcome this challenge by providing an innovative new technology to store and rapidly analyse huge volumes of data.
www.asterdata.com

Atlassian, Australia
Atlassian builds software to help technical teams collaborate more effectively. The company, which has made seven acquisitions in the last eight years, raised an additional US$ 60 million in venture capital in July 2010. It has over 20,000 paying customers in 134 countries, including Facebook, Oracle, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, major investment banks and Formula One teams.
www.atlassian.com

foursquare, USA
Foursquare is a popular online service combining location, gaming and social networking that lets people “check in” and report their location to help find friends or tips about the place they are visiting.
www.foursquare.com

GetJar, Lithuania/USA
GetJar is the second largest apps store, after Apple’s. The company’s key point of difference is its open market approach, which allows it to deliver applications to telephone across all major platforms such as Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, iPhone and Symbian. It offers more than 70,000 mobile applications to consumers in more than 200 countries. The company has so far generated more than 1 billion application downloads.
www.getjar.com

Knewton, USA
Education is beginning its Internet moment. Within 10 years all educational textbooks are expected to be digital, delivered through powerful e-readers. Students everywhere will be able to take accredited Web-video classes led by some of the world’s best teachers. Knewton’s mission is to bring data mining to this transition, by offering analytic tools for teachers and adapting concepts to the way individual students learn.
www.knewton.com

Layar, Netherlands
Fancy knowing what the Berlin Wall looked like before it fell? Thanks to Layar you can, by simply pointing your mobile phone at the location. The company helps people better understand context through an emerging mass medium called augmented reality.
www.layar.com

NetQuin Mobile, People’s Republic of China
Today’s smart phones are tiny computers, complete with operating systems, storage and wireless access to company’s internal networks, making them an enticing target for hackers and Internet criminals. That is where NetQin Mobile comes in. Based on a cloud security platform, the company delivers mobile security services, including anti-virus, anti-spam, privacy protection, data backup and restoration, and online virus scan to 51.5 million users worldwide. The company controls 68% of the market in China for mobile security – it is the only provider of anti-spamming service to China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator ? but some 30% of its user base is outside of China.
www.netqin.com

OpenDNS, USA
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a 25-year-old crucial part of the Internet’s infrastructure, which encompasses the routing system used to transfer data, such as e-mails. OpenDNS’ mission is to push control of the DNS to the periphery, enabling consumers and network administrators to secure their networks from online threats, reduce costs and enforce Internet use policies without the use of software or costly appliances.
www.opendns.com

ReputationDefender, USA
ReputationDefender specializes in helping consumers and business shape how they are seen online. It sells different security products on a monthly subscription basis, allowing consumers and businesses to monitor information about themselves across the Web, bury undesirable information and promote vetted content to the top of research results.
www.reputationdefender.com

Scribd, USA
John Adler, Founder of 2008 Technology Pioneer Accuray and inventor of the CyberKnife, encountered a lot of barriers to publishing one of his papers in a medical journal. The peer review process and glacial pace were frustrating. Adler realized that what he really wanted was to quickly make his paper accessible to as many people as possible. Adler’s complaints led his son Trip and his classmate from Harvard to create Scribd, a Web 2.0 document-sharing site that aims to make it easy for anyone to publish original work on the Web and find a readership.
www.scribd.com

SecondMarket, USA
In the last decade, the time from company formation to initial public offering has extended from five to 10 years, leaving employees, founders and venture capitalists with limited means to get liquidity in the interim. SecondMarket gives the marketplace an alternative
to going public or selling companies. It is the world’s largest centralized marketplace and auction platform for trading illiquid financial assets that cannot be traded in the public markets.
www.secondmarket.com

Spotify, United Kingdom
Spotify, founded by European serial entrepreneur Daniel Ek, is a digital music service that works across multiple hardware platforms, offering music fans an alternative to the two other main options now available: Apple’s iTunes and piracy. It has rapidly grown from a small Swedish music service to an international company with 7 million users across six European countries, generating more revenue for rights holders than Apple iTunes in some territories.
www.spotify.com

Vortex Engineering, India
Vortex Engineering develops automatic teller machines for rural environments, adapting them to run on lower amounts of power and to dispense soiled banknotes.
www.vortexindia.co.in

LIFE SCIENCES AND HEALTH
Adimab, USA
Adimab was founded by two of the world’s leading yeast biotechnologists, Dartmouth’s Tillman Gerngross and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Dane Wittrup, with the goal of significantly speeding up the drug discovery process while improving the overall quality of therapeutics. The two professors have built an antibody discovery and optimization platform that is broadly applicable to all disease and can be accessed by the entire pharmaceutical industry.
www.adimab.com

Ion Torrent, USA
Ion Torrent is pioneering a radically faster and cheaper approach to gene sequencing by marrying simple chemistry to powerful, proven semiconductor technology. The company is the third headed by Rothberg to be named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. Rothberg is credited with inventing massively parallel sequencing. His team at 454 and the Baylor Genome Center was the first to make public the sequence of
an individual human genome. He is also credited with initiating the Neanderthal Genome Project with Svante Paabo.
www.iontorrent.com

Medicine in Need (MEND), South Africa
Millions of people in the developing world die needlessly each year because of infectious diseases such as TB, HIV and malaria that could otherwise be prevented or treated. Medicine in Need (MEND) aims to ensure the world’s poorest people get access to effective, life-saving drugs and vaccines by reformulating existing products to make them more suitable to administer in developing countries and by assuring that new discoveries in these areas yield sustainable products that can be commercialized.
www.medicineinneed.org

Molecular Partners, Switzerland
Molecular Partners is working on novel medicines based on designed ankyrin repeat proteins (DARPins), a promising class of non-immunoglobulin proteins that can offer advantages over antibodies in drug discovery and drug development.
www.molecularpartners.com

Neuronetics, USA
Despite major advances in treating depression, nearly 30% of patients do not benefit from drug therapy and more than one-half report side effects that lead to non-compliance with medication such as sexual dysfunction, weight gain and sleep disorders. Neuronetics has developed the NeuroStar Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Therapy System, which uses magnetic field pulses to stimulate nerve cells in an area of the brain that is linked to depression. This stimulation increases brain activity and releases neurotransmitters which are known to elevate mood. The treatment is typically administered daily over four to six weeks to patients who have not responded to traditional treatments; it is free of systemic side effects.
www.neuronetics.com

The WIE Symposium (Women: Inspiration & Enterprise)

I met Arianna at the Monaco Media Forum, where she briefly introduced me to the idea of a Women Network. A few month later she announced the first Event of the WIE Network. I am looking forward to attend the inaugural symposium in New York in a few weeks.

The WIE Symposium (Women: Inspiration & Enterprise) is the annual conference of the WIE Network hosted by Sarah Brown, Arianna Huffington and Donna Karan. The WIE Network is a forum for professional women to network and connect.

Sarah Brown, Wife of former UK Prime Minister, is the Chairwoman of The WIE Symposium which will be held on September 21st, 2010, in New York City. Drawing on the legendary drive and energy of New York City, the Symposium is a motivating and results driven gathering of creative women, working together to achieve social change and inspire the next generation of women leaders and advocates.

The symposium takes place at the newly renovated “Skylight West” located steps from Midtown, the Javits Center, Chelsea Galleries, and the Highline. It also features the city’s largest open rooftop, offering a gorgeous view over the skyline of the city and sunset of the Hudson River.

Find out more about the WIE Symposium at www.wienetwork.org

Open Sessions at DLD Women Conference

The World Economic Forum is known for its “Open Forum” as part of the annual meeting in Davos. Today Steffi, Co-Chair of DLD and DLD Women, told me that at the inaugural DLD Women Conference they will integrate an Open Session, too.

So, here is your invitation. Feel free to share and forward!

Volcano Info Graphic

I am still enjoying my “Volcano Weekend” in United Kingdom, as I got stuck in London right after the Skoll World Forum which was held in Oxford. Here is a helpful Info Graphic about the Volcano and the Cloud.

Samir Arora, Founder & CEO of Glam Media

Samir Arora, Founder & CEO of Glam Media took part at a panel about the future of branding at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010. Right after the discussion I met talked him about his key issues.

Glam Media is a distributed media network comprised of both Glam-owned-and-operated properties and a publisher network of 450+ lifestyle websites and blogs. Glam Media aims to bring high-quality print content to the online medium, instead of the usual online trend of having print magazine-lite content. The Glam Media network also includes a slew of fashion websites, blogs and magazines.

Founder Samir Arora wants to gear the site’s online advertising towards the female market in the same way that traditional print has. Glam Media is working with publishers, content owners and media companies to reach readers in effective ways. Glam officially launched in September 2005 at Fashion Week, New York and quickly grew from there. After signing a partnership with AOL in October, Glam created the Glam Network consisting of style websites and blogs later that year. Since then, Glam has partnered with the women’s magazine Cosmopolitan, signed a content syndication deal with the Hearst Corporation, and completed a multi-year advertising deal with Google. With more than 53 million unique monthly visitors, Glam Media, Inc. is clearly proving itself as a leader in the online industry for women’s lifestyle and fashion.

Edward Borgerding, CEO, Abu Dhabi Media Company

The Abu Dhabi Media Company hosted the inaugural Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010. I talked to Edward Borgerding, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi Media Company during the exclusive event.

The Abu Dhabi Media Company is a media company with its headquarters in Abu Dhabi with over 2.500 employees. It is one of the fastest growing, multi-platform media organizations in the Middle East. Abu Dhabi Media Company owns and operates a range of television channels (Abu Dhabi Al Oula, Abu Dhabi Al Emarat, Abu Dhabi Al Riyadiya, Abu Dhabi Al Riyadiya 2, Abu Dhabi +1 and National Geographic Abu Dhabi) and a network of radio stations (Abu Dhabi FM, Emarat FM, Star FM, Holy Quran FM, and Abu Dhabi Classic FM), as well as number of publications (Al Ittihad newspaper, The National newspaper, Zahrat Al Khaleej magazine and Majid magazine), and a number of other media related businesses, including Imagenation Abu Dhabi that develops, finances and produces full length feature films and digital content for Arabic and international markets; LIVE which owns a fleet of outdoor HD broadcast vans; and United Printing Press, a state of the art printing press. ADMC’s Digital Group operates several digital assets including Getmo Arabia, goalarabia.com, and super.ae. In 2009 it formed two significant partnerships: VEVO, the online music video platform with Universal Music Group and Sony Music, and a first in the region MMOG joint-venture with Gazillion Entertainment.

Christian Magel, CMO of simyo, reviews the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010

At the last day of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 Christian and I did the ultimate desert experience and went on a desert safari. It was a good time to reflect on the conference and the people we met. Christian Magel, Chief Marketing Officer of the MVNO simyo, was impressed by the high quality of C-Level executives attending the conference. Many CEOs and Chairman of major media companies attended the event, including Eric Schmidt, Ruper Murdoch, Tim Armstrong, Hartmut Ostrowski, Hans Vestberg, Edward Borgerding and many more.

In my Interview we talked about “building empires in the desert”.

Jonney Shih, Chairman ASUS, about the future of mobile computing

Cloud Computing was one major topic of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010. I talked with Jonney Shih, Chairman ASUS, about his perspective, trends and predictions for mobile computing. ASUS is best know for the EEE PC Netbook but also produced an own tablet computer. Mr Shih said that “there will be a slow shift from desktop computing to cloud computing” but ASUS believes that Cloud Computing is driving the markt at the moment.

ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated (ASUS) (traditional Chinese: ??????????; pinyin: Huáshuo Diànna? Gufen Y?uxiàn G?ngs?), is a multinational corporation centered in Taiwan, produces computer products: motherboards, laptops, servers, mobile phones and others. Commonly called by its brand name ASUS, the company is listed on both the London Stock Exchange (LSE: ASKD) and the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE: 2357). As of 26 November 2009, 29.2% of PCs sold in the previous 12 months worldwide came with an ASUS motherboard. The company’s 2009 revenues reached US$21.2 billion. The headquarters is located in Beitou District, Taipei.

A Digital Business Card for Events

Would you use a digital business card? The participants at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 did. During the two day conference the participants where getting used to connect their digital business cards, called “Poken”, instead of exchanging printed address cards. In the following interview Stéphane Doutriaux, founder of the innovative Social Business Card company, explains the technology and gives you some insights about the company.

Poken is a technology that utilizes a proprietary Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to allow the exchange of online social networking data between two keychain accessories. It is a perfect tool for Events and Conferences. Each person involved in the exchange must have his or her own poken. The primary information exchanged via the poken is a ‘social business card’, a digital replacement for a physical business card. By touching two devices together, a unique ID is exchanged that links to contact information on the Poken website. Contact information acquired by use of the poken can be uploaded to the poken website using a built-in USB connector.

In addition to the contact information found on a typical business card, links to users’ social networks can also be added. Examples include Twitter, Facebook, StudiVZ, LinkedIn and 40+ other social networks. Users of the Poken website can use a ‘social dashboard’ to manage, and interact with their contacts. Pokens are used for social networking, personal identification and as a device for loyalty programs. Bloggers and social media addicts have taken it up for networking event such as tweet-ups. Corporations such as BMW and IBM use pokens at their conferences, to enhance interaction with the conference attendees and to facilitate business networking.

The Abu Dhabi Film Festival

Peter Scarlet is an inspiring, well connected person and the man behind the scene of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. At the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 he explained to me why the Festival in the United Arab Emirates is becoming more and more important for the film industry. The Award will take place at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi and will give away prices worth over one Million US Dollars.

The Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) was established in 2007 and is presented annually in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH). MEIFF’s mission is to affirm the key place Abu Dhabi holds as an emerging cultural center and to foster the growth of its local film community. The Festival celebrates cinema in all its forms by creating a vibrant forum for storytellers from the Middle East and around the world.

Understanding the “Mobile First” Strategy of Google

During the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google Inc. hold a keynote and talked about the key strategy of Google “Mobile First”.

Here are some of his key statements during his speech:
United Arab Emirates & the middle east is the region with the fastest growing internet penetration with our 100% per year. One third of the population is under the age of 14 years, so five years from now they will play a major role for the digital industry.

When Google recently launched new social products the most relevant and interesting elements and features were on the mobile version. Our smartest engineers, who are building our applications, are starting with the mobile part of the application rather than the desktop part. Google calls this trend “Mobile First”. That’s a huge shift for our generation, executives and corporations.

Mobile Web adoption is growing eight times faster then the adoption of the desktop internet ten years ago. So it is not even bigger, the change is even quicker. There are more smartphones right now than there are personal computers. Half of the internet connection are on mobile devices. And in many countries Mobile is the primary way to access Google, e.g. Indonesia, South Africa and Nigeria.

Would you start a printed Newspaper today? “The National” did two years ago in UAE.

Hassan Fattah is Chief Editor of “The National” in Abu Dhabi. I met Hassan Fattah at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 and I asked him how to build up a Newspaper from scratch during these turbulent times. The newspaper was started in 2008. Hassan Fattah said: “Print still counts in this part of the world and that’s why we have started a printed Newspaper first and now expand in digital media formats.” Print is also the biggest driver for the Newspaper - “Print is King” as Mr. Fattah said in this video interview:

About “The National” www.thenational.ae:
The National is a government-owned English-language daily newspaper published in Abu Dhabi. The editor-in-chief since June 8, 2009 has been Hassan Fattah. Mubadala Development Company, an investment company owned by the Abu Dhabi government and royal family, owns the paper. The National has built its staff of 250 from newspapers around the world, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Daily Telegraph of Britain. Martin Newland was editor of the Daily Telegraph from 2003-2005 and he took with him many former Telegraph employees, most notably Colin Randall (former Telegraph executive news editor), Sue Ryan (former managing editor) and senior photographer Stephen Lock (who covered domestic and foreign news and the international fashion circuit during 20 years on the Daily Telegraph). The National is one of a few English-language newspapers produced in the United Arab Emirates, and is the only one produced in Abu Dhabi.

DLD Women Conference 2010

The DLD announced a new conference this week, called „DLDwomen - The Female Decade”. The inaugural event will take place in June 2010 at the centre of innovative technology in Munich, Germany. DLDwomen is organized by the DLD team as a new format and extension of the successful annual DLD Conference and builds upon its creative network and competence.

In the following Video Interview Steffi Czerny, one of the hosts of the famous DLD conference, talks about the passion behind this new event. She also explains what role Digitalisation, eHealth and Leadership plays in the era of “womenomics”. The interview was filmed at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010.

The chairman of the event is Dr. Maria Furtwängler-Burda. DLDwomen is focusing on the “Female Decade” and the so-called “womenomics” and is about new opportunities, new markets, the new lifestyle and future developments of women’s role that are being influenced by today’s digital age and social transformation.

More about DLDwomen at http://www.dld-conference.com

twofour54 is building a media empire in Abu Dhabi

twofour54 is an Abu Dhabi government initiative and an integral part of its 2030 plan, which seeks to diversify the Emirate’s economy and establish the Emirate as the cultural capital of the Middle East. twofour54’s vision is to establish a sustainable Arabic media and entertainment content creation industry in Abu Dhabi; a regional centre of excellence which is internationally renowned. The aim is to stimulate creative and professional partnerships in the television, radio, film, publishing, online, mobile, music, gaming and animation industries.

At the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 I talked with Tony Orsten, CEO, about how to build a media industry from scratch.

The company provides a collaborative and supportive ecosystem that will allow the establishment of a world-class media industry for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The focus is on developing Arabic media and entertainment content by Arabs and for the Arab audience. twofour54 delivers its advanced cohesive infrastructure through three key pillars: twofour54 tadreeb (the training academy), twofour54 ibtikar (innovation and support) and twofour54 intaj (state-of-the-art production facilities) supported by business enabler twofour54 tawasol (one-stop-shop).

twofour54 has already attracted several of the region and world’s largest and most influential content creation companies. By the start of 2010, twofour54 had more than 60 partners, all of whom have recognised the vast opportunity that the Arab world represents for growth and has committed significant investment and resources to business initiatives that will be led out of twofour54.

And by the way the name twofour54 is taken from Abu Dhabi’s geographical coordinates, which are latitude 24 north, longitude 54 east. This name was chosen to symbolise Abu Dhabi’s strategic position within the Middle East, which makes it the ideal location for the centre of excellence for content creation in the Arab region.

About Tony Orsten
Chief Executive Officer, twofour54

In this role, Tony provides strategic leadership for the business in order to deliver on its mission of creating an ecosystem that will allow the content creation industry to flourish in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Tony has more than 30 years experience in the UK and international creative content industry. He is an academy award winning television director, channel executive and innovative programming expert. At London Weekend Television, he won his first academy award with Network 7, a breakthrough TV format which put “serious” television back on the agenda for the youth audience. Tony joined the Abu Dhabi Media Authority in December 2007, taking a major role in the Abu Dhabi Government’s initiative to create a media and content creation industry in the Arab region.

Prior to joining twofour54, Tony created, developed and launched successful television products and entertainment channels for Paramount Pictures Inc across Europe in Spain, Italy, Poland and in the free TV market of Germany, which serves 34 million homes.

In September 2006, Tony joined the founders of Skype to launch Joost, the world’s first broadcast-quality television platform on the Internet. He led the UK content team from the Joost UK London offices. Previously, Tony was the CEO of MTV Networks International’s portfolio of entertainment channels including Paramount Comedy UK and Paramount Comedy Espana.

Tom Stewart: Is Abu Dhabi Going for Growth?

The inaugural Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 presented a discussion about “Going for Growth”. Tom Stewart, Chief Marketing & Knowledge Officer of Booz & Company, moderated the panel and was joined by H.E. Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of Twofour54, Ari Emanuel, Co-CEO of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, Maurice Lévy, Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, James Murdoch, Chairman & CEO of Europe & Asia News Corporation and Hartmund Ostrowski, Chairman & CEO of Bertelsmann AG.

After the panel discussion I talked with Tom Stewart about the key topics and results.

The panel was about the combination of leapfrogging technologies and emerging markets. This powerful combination creates new markets which are much larger than they ever were and an rapid expansion of media markets. At the same time we have dramatic changes in media technologies moving from print media to digital media. This development does not only offer unthinkable opportunities, but also creates much more risks.

The panelist mostly represented “established money” while H.E. Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of Twofour54 best represented the emerging markets and new growth.

During the panel discussion James Murdoch, Chairman & CEO of Europe & Asia News Corporation, said that News Corp. is preparing for a “Revolution of Reading” due to eReaders, tablets and digital media. In our future vision video “Mobile Future 2020″ we estimate 2016 as the year of digital newspapers, but maybe News Corp. is driving these new markets even faster then we thought.

Hans Vestberg about the future of connected devices

At the inaugural Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 I met Hans Vestberg, President and CEO or Ericsson. He gave a speech about the future of mobile media and communication and gave an outlook of key trends.

The biggest opportunity field for Ericsson is the business of “connected devices” or how we would call it “the internet of things”. “We think that the networks are now developing. Our vision for 2020 is that there will be over 50 billion networked devices”, says Hans Vestberg during my interview with him.

The Healthcare, Energy, Logistics and Media Industry will be using connected devices soon. Chipsets are getting more and more affordable to be implemented in any device. Mobile phones won’t be the only devices with a sim card anymore.

Vestberg says that we are moving from “People to People” communication to a new era of “machine to people” and “machine to machine” communication.

See the full interview here:

About Hans Vestberg:
Hans Vestberg has been President and CEO since January 1, 2010.

Mr. Vestberg had been Chief Financial Officer from October 25, 2007, until the end of 2009. He was named Executive Vice President in 2005 while serving as head of Business Unit Global Services, an office he held since 2003.

From 2002 to 2003 he served as President of Ericsson in Mexico. Between 2000 and 2002, Mr. Vestberg was CFO for Ericsson in North America and Ericsson’s controller for the Americas. Between 1998 and 2000, he was CFO of Ericsson in Brazil. Since joining Ericsson in 1991, Mr. Vestberg has also held various managerial positions in China, Sweden, Chile and Brazil.

Hans Vestberg was born in Hudiksvall, Sweden. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the University of Uppsala, Sweden, in 1991.

Abu Dhabi Media Summit

H.E. Mohamed Khalaf Al Mazrouei, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Media Company and Mr. Edward Borgerding, CEO of Abu Dhabi Media Company, together with Co-Chairs invite media executives to take part in the inaugural ABU DHABI MEDIA SUMMIT March 9-11, 2010 at Yas Hotel, Yas Marina Formula 1 Circuit, Abu Dhabi.
The summit for March 9-11 is sponsored by the Abu Dhabi Media Company and is by invitation only.

The Summit is being held under the Patronage of H.H. General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces. The Summit will provide an unprecedented gathering of the people and companies driving the transition to a networked new world, with special emphasis on fast-growing markets in the Middle East, South East Asia, China and Africa. With a focus on opportunities and investment, the Summit is structured to encourage both private discourse and public conversation at the highest levels.

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, Publicis boss Maurice Levy, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt are some of the luminaries who will be heading off to Abu Dhabi next month for a three-day international media summit.

Other notable speakers are Dirk Meyer, president and CEO of AMD; Jon Miller, CEO Digital Media, News Corporation; Nicholas Negroponte; James Murdoch, Chairman & CEO, Europe & Asia, News Corporation; Hartmut Ostrowksi, Chair & CEO, Bertelsmann; Skye CEO Josh Silverman; Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg; and Samir Arora, Chair & CEO, Glam Media.

I am proud delegate and attendee of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2010 and will report @montymetzger and on my blog about the exclusive event.

Abu Dhabi Media Summit Co-Chairs

• H.E. Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman, twofour54
• Tim Armstrong, President & CEO, AOL
• Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, Chairman & CEO, Innovation Works
• Dr. Suk-Chae Lee, CEO, KT Corporation
• Maurice Lévy, Chairman & CEO, Publicis Groupe
• Didier Lombard, Chairman & CEO, France Télécom-Orange
• Kishore Lulla, Chairman & CEO, Eros International
• H.E. Mohammed Omran, Chairman, Etisalat
• Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros.
• Dirk Meyer, President & CEO, AMD
• Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & CEO, Bharti Enterprises
• Rupert Murdoch, Chairman & CEO, News Corporation
• Hartmut Ostrowski, Chairman & CEO, Bertelsmann AG
• Dr. Prannoy Roy, Executive Chairperson, NDTV
• Hans Vestberg, President & CEO, Ericsson
• Mehmet Ali Yalçindag, Vice Chairman & President, Dogan Media Group

Review Mobile World Congress 2010

The GSMA today reported that more than 49,000 visitors (I was one of them :-)) from 200 countries attended the 2010 GSMA Mobile World Congresss, the premier event for the mobile communications industry. The four-day conference and exhibition attracted executives from the world’s largest and most influential mobile operators, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies and media and entertainment organisations, as well as government delegations. 54 per cent of Mobile World Congress attendees hold C-level positions, including more than 2,800 CEOs.

Here are my highlights in pictures:

“It’s a hugely exciting time to be in the mobile communications industry and the extremely strong attendance at the 2010 Mobile World Congress underscores that,” said John Hoffman, CEO, GSMA Limited. “The innovation that is the hallmark of our industry was on display front and centre this week, from the insightful presentations in our conference programme to the demonstrations of new devices, technologies and services in the exhibition halls. Once again, Mobile World Congress stands out as the must-attend event for the global communications industry.”

During the event, leaders from companies including Alcatel-Lucent, BBC, Bharti Airtel, China Unicom, Ericsson, Huawei, KDDI, RIM, Samsung, Spotify, Telstra and Vodafone, among others, discussed and debated the trends and issues which are shaping the mobile industry today and into the future. In a Mobile World Congress first, Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt delivered a Mobile World Live keynote to a standing-room only crowd in Barcelona; the session has also been viewed by more than 35,000 people to date via the Mobile World Live portal. To access the replay of the Mobile World Live keynote, as well as interviews with the industry’s leading executives, please visit www.mobileworldlive.com.

More than 20,000 people visited the inaugural App Planet, a focused event designed to bring together the many critical elements of the broad mobile application ecosystem together in one location. Google, Motorola, RIM, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone and WIPJam each held application developer conferences (ADC) within App Planet. Overall, more than 6,000 developers attended Mobile World Congress this year.

My Message to Davos

I have created the Global Cocreation Model as a basic of Rethinking and Rebuilding our economy. This is my video for the Davos YouTube Debates for the World Economic Forum 2010. If this is selected as a finalist, I will need your help by voting to make this the winning entry.

Global Cocreation Model - Davos 2010

My name is Monty Metzger. I run a social media agency in germany and have started a collaborative global think-tank about the future of mobile media and communication, called Mocom 2020.

We have talked about the unthinkable challenges our world is facing in the next century and even in the next decade. The financial system has collapsed, the media industry is under massive pressure and the healthcare-system has become non-efficient. In 2020 we will reach the peak of the oil-production globally, climate change is one of the results of our exploitation of the planet. In 2050 we will have 200 million climate refugees due to a lack of resources of food or water.
Will we or our children be involved in a war for food, clear water or energy?

The world economy is based on many outdated structures and is not capable of solving the new challenges with old solutions. We are in a unique position, because we know some of the problems our planet and society is facing. Rather than dumping millions of dollars in old structure, we need to invest in new innovative solutions. We can solve these issues while integrating all stakeholders in a transparent, open and ethical economic structure.

Charles Schwab said that “we are living in a multi-stakeholder society and we need to rethink our values”. But how can we turn these ideas into action?

Today we have two unique factors which come together.
1) Half of the people on earth are under 25 years old.
2) We have the most powerful global communication tool ever - The Internet.

The technology and demographics combined can empower the Digital Natives to Cocreate solutions faster, more efficient and from the bottom up rather than from the top down.

I call this the Global Cocreation Model.
The Net Generation or Digital Natives have strong sense of values, they have Integrity, a Motivation or many Reasons to change the world. They are natural teamplayers and know how to self organize themselves. The Technology empowers and enables them to do things differently. And finally the openness, new culture of sharing and innovation gives them a very profound way of control.

This basic structure is framed by three key elements:
Collaboration - A powerful tool of self organization for all stakeholders enabled by the global platform of communication - the web.
Transparency - A new way of turning insights into common knowledge give us control and power to regulate what has been done.
and
a Vision - A powerful Vision or a Dream that is simple enough to spread it fast, but detailled enough to motivate and truely turn social media into social activism.

I would like to challenge my model of Global Cocreation with the members of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Like Al Gore once said:
If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far, go together. But we need to go far … quickly.

Speech at M-Days 2010

M-Days is the biggest Mobile Media Conference in germany and one of the most relevant in Europe. I will be hold a keynote and present a few insights from the open think tank focusing on the future of Mobile Media Mocom2020.com as well as from my book “Mobile Future @mocom2020“.

The topic of my session at M-Days is called: “Mobile Trends 2020, Mobile Commerce and App-Video-TV. What comes next in Europe?”

From the M-Day programme:
Mobile Trends 2020, Mobile Commerce and App-Video-TV. What comes next in Europe?

The Google/Admob acquisition sends out a clear signal to the market: mobile is different and mobile is hot. The advance of touchscreen devices, app stores and new advertising approaches/formats are all coming together in a new kind of interactive mobile internet, a brave new place where new content, new experiences and even new mobile search services will set the bar. Mobile Trends 2020, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Video and TV.

• Overview of the mobile trends 2020 and key-apps
• Overview of mobile commerce of today - applications and options that drive ARPU, customer acquisition and retention
• Paying for content - why now and why not?
• Implementation and integration - an overview on the implementation of a full service mobile commerce solution - the lessons learnt and shared
• Overview of the mobile TV and video landscape of today
• Content: Why is Disney channel the most popular channel on mobile TV in Europe? And why are CNN so small compared to BBC? Viewing behaviour on mobile TV differs from normal TV.
• The power of the iPhone in driving creation and consumption of video and mobile TV services via mobile

Speakers include:

Mocom 2020 - The next ten years! Key trends for Mobile Media and Communication
Ahead of Time, Monty C. M. Metzger, Managing Director/Trendscout

MOBILE COMMERCE ? CHANGING THE RULES
Service2Media- mobile innovation company Netherland, Peter Broekroelofs, CTO

M-App: iPhone Puts Mobile TV In The Picture
Rubberduck Media Lab AS, Ola Svartberg, CEO
Karin Du Rietz, pertains top 50 Women in mobile content

Heroes of the mobile screen and mobile search analytic
Moderation: MSearchGroove, Peggy Anne Salz, Founder and Chief Anaylst