Good Things in London – A Recap!

well well, here i am, sharing my Thoughts from the Trip that recently went down – WOM World Nokia and 10 selected Bloggers/Personalities from the Nokia Scene from all over the World, our Mission? Finding the good Things in London! My Trip started REALLY early this Thursday Morning, it was 3.10 am when my Alarm Clock woke me up! i Unplugged all my Chargers from the Phones that went with me and off i was. Arriving at 4.30 at the U-Train Station, and the Sign welcomed me with a “No Traffic – Use the Bus” Sign. Vienna had a big Water Pipe Damage a Day before and over the Night, Water started to poor in the U-Train Tunnels – what a Start!  lol. I was lucky that the Bus and the Rest of the U-Train was just in Time, so i arrived safely and with enough Time at Hand on the Vienna Airport! .. I met up with my travelling Compadre Roman Schweigler, who some of you may know from http://www.s60inside.at.tf, one of the best austrian Symbian Blogs around. We actually met the first Time and immediately talked tech, which was just great as i can’t really talk much about all the Stuff i’m doing with my Friends ..

The Flight to London Heathrow went very smooth, and as promised by the WOM World Team, we were picked up at the Airport by a Cab Driver! We also met Taimas, who is the Boss behind http://www.dailymobile.se. Taimas was a really cool Guy and i had a lot of Fun picking at the swedish Guy hehe, and in return he picked at me! nah, seriously we had a lot of fun We arrived in our Hotel where we met the some of the WOM World Team and the other Bloggers – here’s the good Things Crew:

Jay Montano – mynokiablog.com: I had the Pleasure of meeting Jay in Vegas back in 2007! Jay is a one-man-entertainment Show and at the same Time, blessed with great Knowledge about what’s going on in the Nokia World!

Glenn Letham – http://www.gisuser.com, http://www.symbianone.com and more: Glenn came over from the US to join us on our Trip to find the good Things! A very cool Guy, who concentrates a Lot on Navigation-related Topics and the easiest-to-understand Person lol .. i dont like the UK English! haha..

(left) Ibrahim Jogee – http://www.thenokiareview.com: Nice Guy from Manchester, UK who was lucky enough to chat a bit with Alexandra Burke, Winner of X-Factor 2008 in the UK. We met Alexandra on the 2nd Day, more on that later
(right) Taimas Arbabi – http://www.dailymobile.se: Mr. Sweden, Mr. iPhone .. Taimas was really awesome to hang out with, we really had a Lot of Fun together. Daily Mobile is also going big, so it was certain we should have him around.

(left) Jonathan Choo – http://jonchoo.blogspot.com: I didnt know Jon before the Trip, but he turned out to be a nice Guy! Watch out for his Blog, his Posts are a very good Read!
(right) Varun Krishnan – http://www.fonearena.com: Coming from India, Varun surely had the longest Trip of us all. I had a great Time chatting with him about the Mobile Phone Scene in India, and in return he really enjoyed playing with my HTC Hero hehe ..

Jerome – http://mapperz.blogspot.com: Jerome is also running a maps and navigation related Blog!

Roman Schweigler – http://www.s60inside.at.tf: Roman runs the only german-speaking Blog on our Trip. He was my travelling Buddy the whole Time and meeting him was great Fun too!

Christian Haslam – httP://worldofnokia.co.uk: My Team Mate on the Treasure Hunt we had on Day 1. That was some great Fun (Destination: 800 Miles away!?), though we didn’t win lol Chris is writing on Dan Carters World of Nokia Blog, which i recommend to everyone!

and the WOM World Team (or say, a Part of it):

Katie Bunting and Lid Millet

 

Tom Hall – responsible for everything that goes on the WOM World Nokia Front Page. We also had Dominic on Board, but i’m not having a decent Pic of him, sorry for that!

After a first Drink, we had a bit of Time to get to know each other. Tom did a short Briefing, informing us that we’re going on a little Ovi Maps Treasure Hunt. We were separated into Groups of 2 People each (one from the UK and one from other Countries so we didn’t get completely lost!) and the Task was the Following: Each Group got different Coordinates, to which we have to walk/drive/tube where a Member of the WOM World Team was waiting for us, giving us our next Coordinates! On each Coordinate we had to a) twitpic the GPS Map Location via the built-in Screenshot Function and b) twitpic a Picture of our current Location. The whole Route needed to be recorded via Sports Tracker. Luckily for us Foreigners, each Location turned out to be a Sight from London. Through the Course of our Route i got to see Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, the London Eye and last but not least the Tower of London. Battery was the bad Word of the Trip, as the Batteries of our N97’s were slowly dying away throughout the Days lol, this coupled with some GPS Lock Problems made the whole Trip pretty exciting, but yet great Fun. The Price of this Treasure Hunt for the winning Team were 3 N97 Mini Trial Devices, with which every Team Member can do whatever he wants (keep them, give them away to Community Members, etc). The winning Team were Taimas and Ibrahim by the Way The whole Treasure Hunt was pretty exhausting, so we decided to stop at a little Snack Shop, where i got myself a “Steak and Cheese Panini”, which was extremely delicious. This was something we don’t have here in Austria, but i do really like such little Take Away Snacks. We ended up at one Point, with Ovi Maps stating that we’re “just 800 Miles” away from our Destination by the way.. i thought “hey nice, i’m gonna get back home today”

 

Our final Destination has been the Tower of London. Tom told us that we’re going to hijack a Boat, kick out all the Tourists and pirate on the River Thames with it. Just kidding, actually WOM World has RENTED a whole Boat for us, with a little Bar just for us 10! .. I was definitely excited about that one hehe, great Stuff, shows once again how good the WOM People really are. While on the Boat, we were shipping along some great Sights, including the London Eye and Big Ben. The definitive Highlight from the Tourists Side was the lighted Tower Bridge at Night – this was an absolute wonderfull Sight for me. Next to the Tower Bridge was a HUGE Nokia Signpost Arrow. And i mean HUGE! .. It was fully lightened and had a big LED Display (or lots of small LEDs, not sure) on it, and was constantly showing Messages from all over the Day. Its Fun the see your Name on this Arrow, i can tell you that hehe!! We rounded this Day with a delicious Meal on the Boat, including a Pork Steak, Salmon, a weird Lasagne Mixture Type of Thing, and some Kind of Noodle Salad, which i can’t exactly remember what it was made with. All served with a tasty Salad and some Bread plus Drinks “all you can drink”-type. We were heading back to the Hotel then for another Drink, with some of us heading to their Rooms pretty quick, myself included. I had some bad Luck, as my Room was located on the 6th Floor, which had a very very weak WLAN Signal. Since i couldn’t really connect to the Internet with my Laptop, i decided to call it a Day and head to Bed at around Midnight..

DAY 2

Day 2 began with a delicious Breakfast in the Hotel and a quick Briefing of what we’re expecting to see today. We got some Hardhats and a Security West, as this was required at one of our Tasks this Day – wth? .. We went by Tube to London Bridge this Time, again heading to the Nokia Signpost Arrow. We got nearer to it this Day and it was even more impressive to see it. Wow .. The Sign was saying “Vote for Alexandra” this Day, but we all had no Idea at all, who Alexandra actually was. Our Crew entered Town Hall, where we got into a big Conference/Press Room, with Lots of Journalists in there, all equipped with Cameras the Size of my Head lol .. Few Minutes later, Ibrahim came running along and explained enthusiastic, that Alexandra Burke was here in Person! For those of you who dont know her: Alexandra was the Winner of 2008’s Edition of X-Factor, a Signing Talent Show in the UK. I have to say that i didn’t know her before, but she was a nice, beautiful young Woman, even took Time to have a quick Word with us, before we were manhandled by the Dumb Ass Security Guys she had with her. Seriously, did we look so bad or dangerous, that you couldn’t allow her have a few Words or Pictures with her!? WTF? .. Jay and Ibrahim were lucky enough to score a quick Picture with her. Miss Burke apparently loved Jay’s Gorillapod and she also digged Ibrahim’s Nokia N97 hehe..

Also on this Event we got handed a Nokia Press Release, where we got to know what the Good Things really are: Good Things is a new Service on OVI Maps, where Users can “favourize” a Place and upload them to Users all over the World. Once you’re in the respective Country, check out the good Things there. Restaurants, Bars, no matter what, put it on Ovi Maps and share the good Things with the World! It also marked the Launch of the Nokia N97 Mini, which apparently has OVI Good Things sporting already. We didn’t really get to know much more about it, as this whole Meeting in Town Hall was more to support Alexandra Burke’s Cooperation with Nokia, which by the Way can be found here: http://www.nokiagoodthings.co.uk! With some simple Votes you can win an exclusive Concert from Alexandra Burke in your Hometown  

Next Stop has been the huge Facility where the Nokia Signpost Arrow was located. The whole Sight was secure as Fort Know, we all had to sign up to get Entrance, plus we had to wear sturdy Boots, a Hardhat and Security Wests hehe. The whole Area had 4 Security Cameras and Security Personell going on. We all kinda looked like Bob the Builder, which was Fun to watch. Jay was super prepared, as he wore his Stuff from the Beginning lol After Security Instructions, we had a Chat with some Guys, responsible for the Nokia Signpost Arrow, plus a little Insight in the “Headquarters” .. My Friend Jay has some very nice Videos of it, check them out: Video 1 and Video 2. Impressive Facts? The Arrow is the Size of 2 London Busses, the LEDs are worth 500.000 Pounds!!

After this nice little Trip we headed back to our Hotel once again, meeting up with Arshia Varlet, Pino and Danesh (all working for Nokia), with the latter 2 connected via Phone, doing the best to answer our Questions regarding Ovi Maps and the good Things. The Tricky thing here was the Fact that we basically didn’t know nothing, what exactly the good Things are. So it turned out to be a basic Q+A Round, with the Nokia Product Managers trying to do their Best. Again Jay did some excellent Work here and recorded the whole Q+As with his Cam. I was trying to do the same, but my Cam gave me Battery Warnings already, so i decided to skip that! If you wanna know what went down at the Q+A Session, check out this here: My Nokia Blog – Q+A Session Ovi Maps
Time passed by fast this Friday and it was already Noon, when the Guys of WOM World informed us, that we’re going to be interviewed by them, with the Videos going directly to Nokia. All our Feedback will be watched by Nokia, hopefully for some good Improvements. After basic Introductions we were asked what we would like to see/change on upcoming Devices. My Answer has consisted of 2 Answers: First a complete Overhaul of the Symbian OS and second, Social Integration everywhere, something that Nokia/Symbian has COMPLETELY left out – seeing our Social networked Society grow it’s something that just has to be there and can’t be left out anymore!!
With that said, we closed this Trip with a final Meal we all had together, with some very relaxed Chats and Talks about everything Nokia, the Trip, WOM World and whatnot. Pretty soon after the Dinner, me, Taimas and Roman had to leave to the Airport already, so we can catch our Flights in Time! I did some Souvenir Shopping on the Airport and that was pretty much it – my 2 Days in London

Conclusion: I’ve already expressed this Opinion – while it was fantastic from the Tourists Side of Michael, it was great to see all the famous Sights of London. But on the other Hand i have expected much more from the Nokia Side. We didn’t get to see a Demo of the good Things, also there was no N97 Mini for us to trial, so WOM World gave us “just” Nokia N97s. I’ve also expressed my Feelings to the WOM Guys after the Trip, as i was sure it wasn’t really their Faults and i was right – it was not possible for them to make some N97 Mini’s ready.. Overall it was an awesome Experience! Meeting new Guys, seeing some of Londons most famous Sights, all coupled with good Food, Drinks a most important, Lots of Fun!

Full Picture & Video Galleries:

Pictures – Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hellmichael/sets/

Pictures – Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 … =615426684 (Day 1) and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 … =615426684 (Day 2)

Videos (yeah nothing really spectacular):
http://www.youtube.com/user/xMichaelSFx