Newsletter Issue 8, 2010

In this issue:

- Big Names Pack Europe’s Largest Internet Conference
- Did you know…
- SIME teaches non-profit organizations to use the Internet
- 3 Questions for Ben Kartzman, CEO Spongecell
- Subscribe to the newsletter

Big Names Pack Europe’s Largest Internet Conference

This year’s SIME, northern Europe’s biggest Internet conference, attracted more visitors than its venues could hold. CEO Christoffer Granfelt believes that one of the reasons for the enormous success of the event is that it’s now attracting visitors from a broader target group.

“In 2010, the majority of companies view Internet-related questions as being of CEO-level importance. As a result, we’re seeing more management-level visitors coming to SIME,” Granfelt explains. Despite the broadening interest in the conference, SIME will continue to focus on ideas and strategies at the forefront of Internet development, adds Granfelt.


Photo: Tom Solo Int/SIME

This year’s conference attracted Internet giants like Facebook, Spotify, Gowalla, and Google. They not only took part in the traditional stage events, but also participated in the workshops held over the course of the two-day event. Visitors to SIME had the chance to listen to speakers like Anil Hansjee, Google’s Head of Corporate Development EMEA, who shared his criteria for new acquisitions: “We’re interested in technology-intensive companies in the early stages of development that solve large problems with limited resources. Especially those that solve problems using computational-intensive methods that we can later apply in our other products,” explained Hansjee.

Among the SIME speakers who received the greatest amount of media coverage after this year’s event was researcher Stefana Broadbent. For the past 20 years, Broadbent has studied people’s attitudes towards new technology in the workplace. Just 10 to 15 years ago, we differentiated strongly between our private sphere and our working life. Today we are increasingly using our work tools for private purposes, too. “The amount of private communication that takes place during working hours is enormous and that changes our workplaces.”

Technological development now means that the majority of people, regardless of their occupational group, are able to maintain active contact with family and friends during working hours. Broadbent argues that this is true even in cases where businesses try to prevent it.

“To be able to have active contact with close family and friends during working hours is seen as something positive by the majority of people. In cases where employers try to prevent this, employees continually find ways around the obstacles companies set up, like taking their cell phones with them when they visit the bathroom,” Broadbent concludes.

Torbjörn Bengtsson from Stockholm Business Region Development also shared information about Stockholm and the vibrant IT region it belongs to, as well as about the services the City of Stockholm provides. SIME Media Momentum Awards 2010 concluded this year’s event. Among the prizewinners were Swedish companies Spotify and Tobii.

Read more: www.sime.nu

• Did you know…
• …1,200 visitors attended this year’s SIME event, which covered two full days.
• …SIME also organizes events in Helsinki, Barcelona, and San Francisco.
• …the prize awarded at SIME was established in 1996 and this year went to some of the Nordic region’s 25 fastest-growing companies within digital media.

SIME teaches non-profit organizations to use the Internet

This year’s SIME conference included a brand new event called SIME Non-Profit. The event brought non-profit organizations, social entrepreneurs and the business community together to learn how the Internet can be used for more effective communication. Claudia Gonzales, who is active within both the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the World Economic Forum, was one of the driving forces behind the event. “There are often large gaps in non-profit organizations’ knowledge about how to use digital channels and social media to gather funds. We can help them reach a large number of private individuals and businesses, for example, by showing them how to use Twitter and Google effectively,” says Therese Engström, Executive Director and Co-founder of SIME Non-Profit.

Read more about SIME Non-Profit: http://sime.nu/nonprofit

3 Questions

Ben Kartzman

CEO Spongecell

• 1.

  At this year’s SIME event you ran the Creativity Unleashed – Campaigns That Make Us Go WOW workshop. What is the aim behind the next generation of online advertising?

  “To engage the target group in a way that today’s banner ads can’t. And, in doing so, to become a much more effective advertising medium than ever before. One way we’ll achieve this is by offering more information directly in the ads, as well as targeted information via channels like e-mail, social media, and personal calendars.”

• 2.

  You travel around the world taking part in different Internet conferences. Why is being here at SIME important for you?

  “We hope that SIME will help us in our plans to get established on the Nordic market. After the US and UK, our goal is to achieve a stronger presence in the rest of Europe. Stockholm is a good place to start. Even before the event kicked off we began talks with the Swedish evening newspaper Aftonbladet, which we hope will lead to a closer partnership in the future.”

• 3.

  What will you take away with you from this year’s SIME?

  “It was really impressive to see how easy it is to make new contacts at SIME. A lot of the participants have already heard about one another and speak the same language. We’re leaving here with a whole bunch of new contacts.”

  Read more about Spongecell: www.spongecell.com