The planning for Incubation Week started about 1 month before the inception of the event. Announcements were made through the usual channels, such as BizSpark mailing list, MCB ISV mailing lists as well as social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
The response was overwhelming; we could only accommodate a maximum of 20 participants in a room meant for 16. We set the bar high and communicated specifically that participants are expected to build a complete application within the week. Moreover, their applications would be judged at the end of the week. Still the registrations keep coming in, competition for participation intensify as the date draws near. The selection criteria became what applications the participants intend to build, who are their intended audience,..etc. This was done to ensure that there is a good mix of different application categories amongst the participants.
After many calls over the weekend leading to the actual event and some intense lobbying, the list of participants for the 1st Windows Mobile Incubation Week (SG) is finally confirmed.
Participants were from a rather diverse group, having both developers familiar with the .Net platform and others who had applications on the iPhone and Symbian platforms. One company actually flew in their developers from Thailand to participate in this event.
The week started bright and early on 25th May, Monday. All participants signed NDA before they were ushered into the Microsoft Innovation Centre since they would be amongst the few to experience with the WM 6.5 emulator before it was released.
Nick Randolph from BuildToRoam Consulting was the lead instructor for the week. The first 3 days were spent on going through the fundamentals of Windows Mobile development, starting from the Compact Framework through the subtleties of native development. Participants got their hands dirty in going through the hands-on-labs provided running on Virtual PC images installed on the desktops in the Microsoft Innovation Centre. They were also given plenty of time to work on their own applications. Nick is always on hand to provide guidance on how specific features could be used or what better way should certain features be implemented.
While most of the participants are familiar with development on the mobile platform, as indicated above, not all of them are familiar with the Windows Mobile platform. But all were able to work put what they had learnt into good use immediately and very soon we were all able to see prototypes of the applications running on the emulators. In fact, one team had managed to convert their Widget on the Symbian platform just after half a day of effort! Most of that time was spent figuring out which portion of the Widget code was Symbian specific and hence need to be modified on the WM platform.
It was not all work, though; we managed to invite some guest speakers to interact with the participants to provide them with perspective of the industry other than pure technical development.
They are
- Members of the Comm Sector team, to share with the participants the WM 6.5 direction and focus.
- Members of the Mobile Communication Business, to share with them our plans on My Phone, Windows Mobile Marketplace.
- Phone Manufacturer Asus, who shared with the participants their plans of the upcoming line up of new devices and which area they are focusing on and the trends of the mobile platform.
- VCs who shared, candidly, what they look for when investing in startups.
And how can an Incubation week filled with developers be complete without a night of fun filled event with drinks and entertainment? Recognizing the need to be frugal in these tough economic times, we brought those who are keen to Mobile Monday at the end of the first day, where drinks and food were served free- of-charge to all who attended the event. Most participants much appreciated the opportunity to network and mingle with fellow mobile platform enthusiasts.
The last day of the event is on Monday, June 1st; the participants had spent the weekend making last minute brush ups to their applications and they were then ready to present in front of the judges. We have assembled an esteemed panel of judges, they are
- Loh Mun Yew, a government official from Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore who looks after the mobile platform industry.
- John Fernandes, DPE Director Singapore Sub.
- Tony Hu, MCB Marketing Director, OEM
Each team was given 15 minutes to present and demonstrate their applications to the judges. Some come prepared with brochures and handouts to illustrate their point, others had applications were not quite completed. CellCity, one of the participants, even brought their CEO and their Technical Architect along for moral support. Every team interacted actively with the judges, who provided many constructive recommendations. It was a hectic rush for everyone, but tremendously enjoyable.
At the end, when the scores are tallied, 3 teams were just 1 point part and the judges have to reconvened to decide on the eventually winner. Many emails and phone calls were exchanged and eventually, 2359Media was picked as the final winner of Incubation Week (SG). The winner was immediately announced on the wmdevasia twitter site (//twitter.com/wmdevasia).
Feedback from the participants has been very positive – many were very surprised by the level of support for developers offered by Microsoft. They had thought that Microsoft had decided to divest from the mobile platform space and were unsure what was Microsoft’s strategy or roadmap. For developers who were more familiar with competitive platforms, they found the Microsoft WM development remarkably simple, all felt that there are unique advantages that Windows Mobile provide that Symbian or iPhone could not. Everyone was excited to be given this opportunity to learn, interact and build applications during Incubation week, and a future gathering has already been planned.
It was very successful week, indeed.
The Winners!
2359 Media.
WenHan “We were surprised that we were able to win this contest despite being uninitiated in the Windows Mobile platform before attending Incubation Week. Thank you very much for organising this event, we look forward to participating in future events; please keep us in your mailing list.”
Press!
We did not announce this event broadly but was pleasantly surprised by the number of press that picked this up. Below is a small collection of the press that reported on our event.
• Digital Life supplement of Singapore Straits Times:
• Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing
• SG Entrepreneurs
Internal sites:
- Geeks engaged
- Twitter site of Brian Thoskins
- Announcing the Incubation week
- Incubation week comes to a dramatic close
