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I managed to get along to ad:tech in Sydney last week.  Enjoyed the key notes and many of the sessions (was reminded of a downward quality curve as day progresses graph though).  Conference-wise, what impressed me most were the four Twitter streams set up and promoted to attendees (and non-attendees) to converse, joke, comment and add insights through the entire conference. Hash tags (#) means searchable on Twitter ergo #ATSYD refers to the general conference stream, with #ATSYD1, #ATSYD2, #ATSYD3 used for the three breakout rooms running contemporaneous sessions.  At times I suspect there was more in-room Twitter participation than directed at the speaker.

Someone posted that tweating in conference is akin to passing notes in class and it certainly felt that way to me; slightly disrespectful to a speaker trying to carry the audience through a complex thought process as laptops and phones are furiously typed.  But the upside is huge.  4000 tweats got crunched down, a whole lot of attendees got to know each other via Twitter, we got to comment directly to the speakers and panels immediately following the sessions.  It was a highlight of the event and added tremendous value to the sessions.

One of the key themes this year was the movement of brands into the online conversation rather than merely being a flash sideshow.  There were numerous case studies of integrated use of social media to drive campaigns.  Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, mobile, web and WOM (word of month) combining to build communities.  The emphasis on social media to reach consumers over-shadowed search and display, despite the obvious dominance of the latter two sectors.  Being in the online display business was almost redefined as traditional media!

I really enjoyed the first keynote, Nick Brian (CEO, Mediabrands) who stated that Recession equals Restart.  Nick proselytised that it wasn’t enough for marketers to just hold off, waiting for things to improve, but rather to hit the restart button and redefine their marketing strategies - with digital innovation at the core.

Here are 10 lessons from social media as provided via Twitter from @servantofchaos

1. Don’t believe the hype
2. Use subtle branding i.e. you don’t want to appear lame
3. Social media is not free … You are putting your reputation on the line
4. Learn from other people’s mistakes
5. Be quick ..New ideas are only unique for a short time … It’s the zeitgeist baby!
6. They won’t come. You have to use social media
7. Constantly reinvent … Your social media beast develops a life of its own. Sounds like a teenager!
8. Keep path to trial simple
9. Understand how your audience uses social media
10. Be brave … Social media is not for the faint hearted

The Australian yesterday reported that Internet portal ninemsn will be selling banners and video ads on Vodafone Live, that carrier’s Australian 3G content service.

Vodafone will be charging A$40,000 (ratecard) a month for a banner ad on its Live portal that clicks through to a mobile website. They are predicting industry mobile ad revenues will reach A$20M in 2008.

Wisely, Vodafone has zero-rated all video ads so consumers do not incur any data charges for accessing these adverts. Customers clicking through to advertisers’ mobile websites will be rewarded with free wallpapers and music downloads.

If this kicked off in New Zealand, (a) who would make the mobile sites? and (b) would you click through?

As speculated in this post on July 1st, Telecom’s Chief Financial Officer, Marko Bogoievski has resigned from New Zealand’s largest listed company effective 31st January 2008.   This continues the list of heavyweight management resignations from this telco and will slow decision making on key company issues further.   A good chance for Vodafone to really attack by dropping mobile data pricing.

I smell the sweet scent of competition in the air. Vodafone has waded into the business fixed line market offering up to 60% off calls from landline-to-Vodafone mobiles (down to 15c). Seems to be a good deal if your office has Vodafone mobiles. You just get them to reassign your business numbers (number portability at work) and it’s free to switch. Here are their call plans.

Thanks to the kind folks at Telecom and Alcatel-Lucent, I now have a shiny new EV-DO Rev A Sierra Wireless 595 USB modem to trial. It’s connected on an 1 gig open plan that I’ll chew through like no tomorrow. Luckily I have a couple of other wireless broadband options when out of the office. It’s got a fold out USB plug and a battery for traveling light, plus the cradle to leave at home.

This is one of the first deployments in the world of EV-DO Revision A and Telecom have a rapid rollout plan in place with all current EV-DO areas to be covered by December this year. It’s quick. A whole lot quicker than a crappy Vodem, although my early upload speeds were a little slower than I was hoping for. I’m going to run some more speed tests to demonstrate Rev A vs my PCMCIA Sierra EV-DO 580 card and will post next week.

Of course, the main reason to have one of these very stylish USB modems is because you don’t have a PCMCIA slot in your laptop. Like the Macbook Pro I’m planning to switch to. The bad news is that Mac OS X drivers are not available just yet, but I’ll post when they’re here.

I’ve got a yagi at the bach to extend poor coverage (only 8km from Havelock on the Queen Charlotte Drive) so I need to contact Cellutronics for an adaptor to fit the Rev A card. If only Telecom would boost the Havelock signal, I wouldn’t need to be limited to ‘fixed wireless’ when I’m there.

Update:  If you want to see one pulled apart …

It was a typical before/after scenario.  I didn’t want an iPhone - well, not yet anyway.  Thought I’d happily wait for the 3G version and for the bugs to be ironed out by the Gen1 adopters.  Then I touched one.  Simmy’s - at the Ingram Micro Showcase.

Once I’d waved it around a bit, Steve was swamped for the next hour.  Showing off the iPhone could be a good bait & switch tactic for selling Tomizone.

Mauricio Freitas was there so we surfed on the iPhone, took some photos; just coverted it together.  Here’s a couple of shots from his blog.  The irony of the Window Mobile jacket was not lost on us when we took the pix.

As an aside, the Tomizone concept (& pricing) is very sharp.  If you’re looking for a wireless router, contact Steve Simms.

What we’re missing out on …

Dr Broad has let me in on a little secret. You might have guessed. YouTube is the 12th button. Served as H.264 through an Apple app.

Andy Seybold considers that Sprint Nextel’s  spinning off of its WiMAX venture is paramount to admitting that WiMAX no longer fits into its overall business plan.  This should be big news for New Zealand as the spectrum auction advances.  Is anyone following the US changing market conditions?