Want to get a discount for the can't miss MEF Global conference and the famous Meffy Awards ceremony hosted by Ruby Wax? It's all going down on the 7th July in London. See the links for more information. If you are interested - DM me on Twitter. If you are not following me, then why not! Follow me and ping me, I'll follow back and DM you the code. Be quick, the code expires on the 27th June ;-) See you there.  

One of the topics I'm most passionate about is building awareness and educating on the potential of API's or "smart enablers" to change modern business by their ability to improve functionality, user experience, loyalty and your bottom line. It's a topic I've written about a lot on this blog. If you click on 'API' in the tag cloud on the right you will pull up a list of posts discussing API's, but to help you here are a few highlights.

• Three hurdles to overcome for Network API success (September 2009)
• Why Operators have a crucial role to play in the second wave of "smart" apps (March 2010)
• The Business of API's - Write Up (October 2010)

From both a personal and company perspective I have been a supporter of, and participant in, the MEF's 'Smart Enabler' initiative which is working to raise the profile of API's and educate on the opportunity for Telco's, content providers, agencies and brands. Last year I wrote about the launch of the MEF's guide to Smart Enablers, which is still available. I recommend you download it from here, if you have not yet read it. Work continues on the MEF initiative, and just last week MEF hosted a new webinar titled "Unlocking your network assets to improve the user experience" featuring Rob Malcolm from mBlox, Sham Careem from Momac and myself talking about our work on BlueVia. The webinar was delivered for QTel International, so was tailored to a Telco audience, however it is worth anyone interested in the subject listening to it for a good overview of the topic. You can download the slides and audio recording of the webinar here.

It’s that time of year again, when the mobile industry converges on Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress 2011 conference and expo. I'll be there with the rest of the BlueVia team, and below you can find a brief summary of our plans for the week. If you want to learn more about what BlueVia can offer or if you have an app you want to get in front of 80 million customers, come and find us and have a chat. Sunday 13^th February @josevalles49 will be at Mobile Sunday Monday 14^th February 11:30 I'll be speaking on a panel discussing “Making App's Smarter’ in (Hall 5 Auditorium 2) 11:30 @leevyashim will be presenting BlueVia at the Wholesale Applications Community Developer Event (ADC Auditorium 1 - Hall 7) From 11:30 for the whole day @davilagrau will be on hand to demo BlueVia at the Wholesale Applications Community Developer Event Be sure to drop by and pick up some BlueVia freebies. From 15:00 @josevalles49 @jamesparton and @leevyashim will be at the Mobile Premier Awards At 17:00 @rmelmun will be speaking on an Operator API panel at the Wholesale Applications Community Developer Event In the evening I'll be at the MEF Connects event Tuesday 15^th February 10:00 @leevyashim and @davilagrau will be demo’ing Telefonica’s integration into WAC on the WAC Stand (Hall 7 at 7C82) Wednesday 16^th February 10:00 @leevyashim and @davilagrau will be demo’ing Telefonica’s integration into WAC on the WAC Stand (Hall 7 at 7C82) 14:00 @davilagrau will be demo’ing Bluevia on the Java Stand (App Planet - Stand 7C18) 19:30 The whole team will be hanging out at the WIP Carnival of Nations Developer Party. Be sure to stop by for one of the free BlueVia cocktails on offer ;-) Thursday 17^th February Shaking off the hangover’s from the night before, 09:30 @josevalles49 @davilagrau @leevyashim will be at the all day WIP Jam 10:00 @leevyashim will be demo’ing Telefonica’s integration into WAC on the WAC Stand (Hall 7 at 7C82) 11:00 @davilagrau will be demo’ing Bluevia on the Java Stand (App Planet - Stand 7C18) I look forward to seeing you there, and don’t forget the cocktails!

Just a quick heads up on an upcoming event from MEF. MEF Americas 2010 is being held in Miami between November 30th - 1st December. Below is snippet from the event 'About' page as a teaser:

2010 has been a growth year for mobile content and mobile commerce across the Americas. MEF Americas 2010: Mobile Content & Commerce will focus on key business opportunities and concerns. The conference will enable content owners, developers, brands, retailers, commerce providers and other key industries stakeholders to better leverage the native functionality of the mobile device to drive customer acquisition, retention and conversion. Increasingly, mobile is offering new convergence and customer engagement opportunities – MEF Americas 2010: Mobile Content & Commerce will be the definitive forum to meet key players and refine business models for the coming year.

For more information, and to register go here

I have referenced the work that the MEF has done on Smart Enablers a number of times in recent blog posts (here and here) and now MEF members can download the Smart Enablers guide direct from the MEF site, here. I'll also be trying to get some hard copies to hand out at upcoming Telefonica developer events.