It’s more than a week now since i returned back home from London, after 4 days that were the awesomeness of Nokia World. What you’re about to read are some of my personal Impressions, not of the Devices yet as i plan to pack this into a separate post. What’s left of my days in London? a TON of great memories, a bunch of friends who i finally met in person and a huge cold. 😀
Anyways, whenever i heard about the date and location of Nokia World 2010, i was sold. London is roughly 2 hours away from me by airplane, so its an easy deal to fly over. A first WTF moment appeared when Nokia announced that the Ticket for the 2-day event will cost you the fortune of € 700,–. Okay, i get the point that NW would be even more packed when it’s free, but 700?? eesh. Anyways, i was lucky enough to get invited by Nokia Austria directly (thank you so much Stephanie!!), so that was sorted out. Flight booked, Hotel booked, here we go!
My Friend Roman, who runs the austrian S60 Inside Blog scored an Invite from WOM World Nokia, so i didnt even have to fly alone. We met up in Vienna, at an unmercyfully early 3.15 in the morning and drove to the Airport Vienna. Checked in, Bags dropped off, Adapters bought, and we were on our way. Over in London i was lucky, the driver who picked up Roman agreed to take me with them. So I ended up at Roman’s Hotel, with literally no idea which direction my hotel was. When i finally ended up in my Hotel, i directly bumped into my Friend Nirave, who i met already in January this Year, when Hell was in London. lol. The second guy who i met was Dan Carter aka WorldofNokia. Now let me tell you a few words about Dan: I met this Guy for the first time back in Las Vegas, when we were both invited to the CES Event. He was the Guy i spend the most time with over there, and exactly 3 years later, Dan even took the time to travel to London with me and spend some quality time there. Dan Carter has gotten a very very good Friend for me throughout the years, so it was especially nice to meet him again and spend some great days with him. After some chill out time at the hotel room, i met Dan downstairs to have a snack from where we headed directly to the Nokia Meetup.
The Nokia Meet
I can’t deny that this was the Thing i was looking forward to the most. Throughout the Years, the focus on why i am a Nokia Enthusiast switched from “having the most awesome device in the Universe” to “being a part of THE best community on this planet”. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I love to have conversations and chats with everyone that shares the same love for Nokia like i do. Having seen Micky’s gigantic List of Attendees, i was giddy like a little Kid for this Meetup. It’s funny where it went from the initial “N9 Meetup”, that was just 9 of us. I don’t know any Numbers, but i’m guessing we had more than 70 bloggers, developers and even Nokia People in the 1000Heads Office. Good Times.
I wanna start off with 4 People i really really missed at the Nokia Meetup: First of all, my 2 friends from India, Founder of this Site, Varun and of course Clinton Jeff. CJ was invited, but couldnt make it due to Visa Issues. This was solely Nokia’s fault, as they invited him way too late so he couldn’t get his Visa sorted. Another big Nokia flaw was the invitation of Rita El Khoury, who was apparently invited – but no one bothered to tell her. And last but not least was Steve Litchfield. I know Steve for such a long time now, but never had the privilege to meet him in person. With the help of James Whatley, we at least had the opportunity to talk to them shortly via Skype, with their Video projected on the big screen. The big smile on the faces of Rita and CJ told the story!
The Rooms filled up quickly and an hour later, the 1000Heads office felt like walking through a Walk of Fame of the Nokia Blogosphere. Not only my Friend Roman, but also the likes of Jay Montano, Simon and Mike from Mobilefanatics, Vaibhav who blogs at the Handheld Blog and spent some great Time in London, my long time Friend Sergejs aka @_nexus, Mr. Paul Grayburn, Gareth aka NokiaGeek aka PoliticsPenguin, Devin Balentina from the Nokia Guide, Rafe Blandford and Ewan from All About Symbian Fame, Richard aka Sheridan01 of Only Fools and Mobiles, my Friend Jon Choo who also blogs here at Fone Arena, Stefanos from the greek pestaola Blog, Dani from Daily Mobile, Steven Jon Smith aka “The Hoff”, Albert of the german Mobile Living Room, Mr. Ben Smith of the really mobile Project (finally!), … The List goes on and on and on. I was also very happy to see People from Nokia in the House. Not only i had the privilege to introduce Stephanie (Nokia Austria) to some of my favourite bloggers, i also met Saara and Jussi-Pekka who work at Digital Marketing at Nokia who are just awesome guys!
A very special mention goes to one person though, a man who i know for years and years, but never met him. He already attended last years Nokia World, where i wasn’t. He came down from Finland and put his heart and soul in this event, and most of all, in this meetup. The person i’m talking about, is of course Micky Aldridge aka @Mickyfin. It was Micky’s initial Idea to meet up prior to Nokia World, without this spark, the whole event would have never happened. It was my pleasure to finally meet Micky and he was exactly like i imagined: a very humble, passionate guy, honest about what he does and how he thinks. Very happy to say that i finally meet Mickyfin 🙂
Another two special mentions go to the following Developers: first, there was Brett Butterfield from Pixelpipe. In case you live under a rock, Pixelpipe is a fantastic all in one sharing tool. It started off as a simple image and video sharing Application, but became a lot more nowadays, even including updating your Status on social Networks. A man that knows a thing or two about Social Networks was the second guest, Mr. Gravity himself, Jan Ole Suhr. Jan arrived in London and found himself surrounded by loyal Gravity Fans throughout the Evening. He was very kind to everyone and took time to answer all of our questions. Two very nice Chaps!
Last but not least, i wanna say thank you to the ever awesome 1000heads crew! As usual, the guys really did a lot of work, not only planning the whole Nokia World, but also helping us out with Space, Food and Drinks at the Meetup. We had Skype, Power and a ton of Fun! James, Donna, Katie, Frank, Lydia, Paul, Simon, Chris – thank you so much for everything!!
So to wrap up my Thoughts about the Nokia Meetup, i only need one word: awesome! Fellow bloggers, Nokia People, 1000heads crew and developers that are in charge for some of my all time favourite apps – how much better can it get?
All the Pics above and a ton more, can be found as usual on my Flickr Set: Nokia World 2010 – Day 1: Meetup!