Filmed before Mobile World Congress:

Two years ago while I was working at dotMobi, I was one of the programmers working on the DeviceAtlas project, which launched at Mobile World Congress 2008. At the time, it was the largest launch I’d been involved in and it was quite a ride towards the end – when you’re launching to 60,000 people at the largest trade show in the world for your industry, the pressure is enormous.

So when Suura undertook to demo at this year’s Mobile World Congress, I knew we were in for a major project with a high workload. Or at least I thought I did, but if anything, I underestimated how much pressure there is for a small startup at this event. I’d like to say everything got done in normal business hours without stress, but I think everyone who’s ever even attended — let alone exhibited at — MWC would call me a liar! Not least of whom would be the me who found himself working away at some exceptionally unsocial hours during the lead-up to the event…

However, as in 2008, we learnt a lot in a short space of time, got an enormous amount done against rather high odds, and managed to get to Barcelona on time (and, as in 2008, we then slept for a week ).

For anyone who’s not seen MWC in action, it’s rather hard to describe. For a start, it’s big. Big as in sixty thousand people all walking, talking and working in eight halls (most of which are much larger than most aircraft hangers) spread over FIRA, a campus that’s larger than the entire Trinity College campus (FIRA is 250,000 m² while TCD is only 190,000m²):

It’s absolutely enormous, especially when you’re the first one of … Read the rest

We ordered a 1610 Peli case from procases.co.uk to ferry the demo Suura system to Barcelona in, and … well

I know, I know, there’s probably a very good reason for this warning sign, but I still cracked up when I saw it.

I mentioned the Big Ideas 2009 presentations earlier. The video footage shot during the pitch itself and the Q&A session held afterwards has finally made it up to vimeo, so here it is, and it shows just how bad my voice got during the day

First the pitch:

Then the Q&A:

And then the post interview:

So back at the start of October (the 13th to be exact), I gave a presentation about Suura to the Big Ideas ’09 conference (as those of you on LinkedIn might have spotted). It was definitely something new – I’ve been in a client-facing role before, but standing up in front of 150 VCs is a different kettle of fish, and the nine or ten one-on-one interviews with various people that followed were equally intense (albiet in a different mode).It’s definitely odd to see yourself in the promotional brochures for an event…

…but if that was intimidating, the presentation is even worse. Imagine this view, but fill every seat with someone who might be looking to invest in your startup…

The large screen at the bottom was meant to show you your slides (which were also displayed behind you) so you didn’t have to turn round and ignore the audience in order to remember what was on them. What you can’t see in that photo (and what a few presenters who stepped two steps forward past the podium couldn’t see either) was the traffic light system on the podium letting you know when your ten minutes of fame was over; and when your presentation refused point-blank to fall below twelve minutes despite rehearsing until 0200 the night before, that’s a worry.

Enterprise Ireland did actually put together a communications training day for the presenters, bringing in Yanky Fachler of High Octane Communications to act as a tutor for the day. I found that it was aimed a bit more at the fundamentals than I needed myself (I’d done a fair amount of lecturing and client-facing work and presentations before I joined Suura) but it seemed very useful for a lot of the other presenters and there are quite a … Read the rest