First up was Ian Wharton of software start-up Zolmo who as I already knew from a recent Northern Digitals/BLAB night is a superb speaker. In this environment, Ian was similarly entertaining and shared some of Zolmo’s finest moments with us, mainly their work producing apps for brand Jamie Oliver. As he departed the stage he left us with the inspirational last thought “In this industry, if you’re pissing a few people off, chances are, you’re doing something right”. Superb stuff.

If this was a tough act to follow then it needed the cool head of Stephen Mellish (Radical Company) to pick up the baton. Stephen’s talk was mainly future focussed, offering his thoughts on where mobile goes next or as he more appropriately suggested…the device with no name. With no stone unturned Stephen lent his thoughts to how ‘mobile devices’ could be practically used in every way from treating health conditions to voting live on political issues (who needs MPs he quipped).

After a great opening by two live speakers we were then treated to a broadcasted version on the big screen of Roger McNamee at Tedx SantaCruz. You can see his engaging ‘Steve Jobs’ style right here Roger McNamee – Disruption and Engagement including this great opening line “Have you ever been in a position of watching Silicon Valley take off and knowing what was going to happen.” At 15 minutes, it’s an effort but please do take this time to educate yourself and listen to an absolutely top class technology expert.

Back to live speaking and Alex Dunsdon of M&C Saatchi ably stepped upto the plate (as a last minute replacement I might add) with a different slant. The twitter stream faded immediately as Alex requested we all take a little time out as to contrast our mobile behaviour with that of nomadic tribes. Alex actually produced the second most unusual word of the day, the rather cartoony cute sounding ‘weisure‘ a modern observation on how work and leisure behaviours are now combined simultaneously via the power of mobile device. The visual example of a father checking his email with one ear and half a brain focussed on their child is an experience some of us are all too familiar with. The point being that for the first time ever we can physically be in one place yet virtually in another…all due to the power of mobile. It’s a fascinating cultural observation and Alex’s belief is that while many will embrace and ‘Opt In’ to this lifestyle, many will deliberately ‘Opt Out’ and resist the advances around us.

Following this, another twist in technology, as we joined Dan Lyons, Newsweek Technology Editor in a crystal clear Facetime broadcast from the States which took us nicely through to the interval.

Finally some time to condense thoughts, compare notes and bump into some old and new industry contacts, all fuelled by the free Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Happy days.

The second session got fired up by Tom Scott of Sky 1 HD’s Gadget Geeks. A nice bit of interactivity where the present and virtual audience were asked to take part in a crowdsourcing exercise. Using twitter as the channel we were asked to guess the answer to five questions such as how many wind turbines are in the UK?  The questions were all deliberately posed to prove when and how crowdsourcing can be effective and when it can fail. “Going from someone who is an expert to the rest of the world isn’t always the right path to take” Nice big screen interaction, short and sweet, a winner.

Things were then about to seriously geek-up a level with Jeff Coghlan of Matmi who made most of us feel terribly old with the archaic images of 70s/80s/90s consoles & technologies… we extracted some minor revenge when even a tech-whizz like Jeff had trouble fitting his powerpoint slide to the screen…failed…and then got on with it anyway.

“I wish this would fit on the bloody screen, serves me right for doing it on a mobile device”

Jeff predicts the demise of consoles…why should we pay so much for content we can only play in one place…why can’t I stand in Times Square and play with friends on a screen type thinking. But I’ll definitely remember his talk for the startling (well, worrying) revelation that there are now more mobile phones in the world than toothbrushes (ugh!).

The penultimate speaker was Nicholas Cumisky of Google who I’d seen earlier in the year at TFMA. Nicholas had sat through a degree of Google-bashing throughout the day…not heavy stuff, more subtle digs…and had the unfortunate bad luck to cite Best Buy as a great online case study (on a day the firm went bust, oops!). That aside, some fascinating insights, great stats and a little gift at the end in the shape of Google’s own global mobile data research, which can be found at http://www.ourmobileplanet.com/

Last, but by no means least, the appropriately titled Chief Wonka of ustwo, Mills, real name Matt Miller, the self-proclaimed King of Succailure (the most unusual word of the day). We were walked through his Studio of Dreams…and some of the apps they have beautifully crafted, like Mouth Off, Whale Trail, Papercut and Nursery Rhymes with Storytime. A real eye-opener for those looking to make a fast buck from apps & his own advice… “Don’t innovate if you’re trying to make money” a lesson they have clearly learnt the hard way.

A hard core of delegates then took things to Leaf Cafe round the corner for a few well deserved beers and technology chat. An excellent event I hope to see in Manchester sooner rather than later.

With a record number of delegates attending this year’s event, World Routes offers an unrivalled platform for airlines and airports to do business face to face with the people in the industry who really matter.

Our digital strategy and planning for Routes identified the opportunity and benefits of producing a mobile app for the event to work alongside their traditional communication channels. A number of impressive functional benefits were served up to those who downloaded the app, including event news, information about Berlin, programme guide, delegate listings and full social media interactivity.

With additional features now planned for ongoing development and future events, this initial foray into the world of mobile apps was loved by both client and delegate alike.

1. Screen size, handsets and browsers
If you thought multiple screen resolutions and browser versions was a nightmare for standard website development then welcome to the world of mobile phones!  Bearing in mind the huge range of handsets in current circulation, mobile site development needs to aim towards the lower end of the spectrum. Many users will be looking at your site with a screen that can only display 128 pixels (width) by 160 pixels (height). That’s actually only about 10 words per line so you do the maths!

2. Bandwidth and graphic filesize
For a start, most user’s access to the internet comes either for free at work or for a small fixed monthly sum at home. Consequently they can (and often will) spend literally hours surfing away on the Net in relative comfort. Visitors who are browsing your mobile site are unlikely to be in the same position – they might be waiting in a queue, travelling on the train or the bus, running to the departure gate, or lost in an unfamiliar town late at night and trying to get somewhere. Mobile internet is also far slower than your average broadband so these users don’t want to hampered even further by hanging around for large graphics or complicated layouts. Mobile web pages need to be short, snappy, and give the specific information that a user needs. If they want to browse for hours they have the option of doing it much better on their home or work PC.

3. Useability
People don’t use the internet on their mobile phones the way they do their desktop computer. Normally they would have the luxury of a full size keyboard and a mouse for point-and-click duties. Now suddenly they have their mobile device’s scroll buttons, numerical keypads and various other proprietary controls to make even the simplest operation, like filling in a form, a lengthy procedure. All information on a mobile site needs to be instantly accessible from the main home page menu and designing the hierarchy and navigation of a mobile site means thinking simply at all times – nested folders, lots of clicks to get to information, and complex site structure or navigation will simply not work.

4. Web standards
One of the most important aspects of web design for mobile use is to make sure the site complies with current web standards. Desktop browsers can be relatively forgiving and easy to please. A few misplaced HTML tags here and there will, more often than not, be fixed automatically by the browser so that your page is rendered correctly. However, this functionality equate to more code, which means a bigger install and requires more processing power. Mobile browsers, on the other hand, are much less forgiving. They generally won’t have the luxury of a 2 GHz processor and 100MB of disk space available to them. Therefore, rigorous testing is an absolute must if your site is going to be accessible to mobile phone users so make sure your code is clean, precise and passes the W3C online checkers.

5. Oh yeah, it’s not a PC
Many people wonder why their current website cannot simply be changed slightly to fit on a mobile screen. Like many aspects of technology, unfortunately it’s not that simple. Mobile phone browsers do not display websites in the same way as a normal computer – they render a site to varying degrees of success and may choose to not display (or simply cannot display) certain types of information such as Flash. Occasionally, due to factors mentioned elsewhere, what appears on the mobile screen looks nothing like the original site; notably tables, complex graphics and overly complicated layouts often get ripped apart or distorted beyond recognition. Likewise, as mentioned previously, users who are surfing on a mobile device have different needs and requirements to desktop users, so to force-feed them the same content as that displayed on the traditional site is a recipe for disaster.

And finally, just remember, If you can create a mobile website that functions well, looks good, and is easy to navigate, you will have the potential to reach an audience of mobile and PDA users that runs into the millions. And who wouldn’t want that?

On the beach, on the train, in your favourite restaurant, you simply can’t escape us now. Featuring an interactive touch-sensitive portfolio section and a live feed from this very blog, there’s now absolutely no reason for you not to keep in touch with all things ‘Studio’ and ‘North’.

Check us out on your phone at: www.studionorth.mobi

Thinking of creating a mobile-friendly version of your own website? Before you do so, read our top tips for designing a mobile friendly website.