Posted by Lauren Sarno, Developer Marketing
NN4D EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) have been sponsoring local meet-ups throughout our region this year. Two of them (in Dusseldorf and London) were put on by AppCircus, who stage app showcases and competitions globally. I had the honour of representing NN4D at AppCircus London, by giving the sponsor pitch at the top of the evening (a five-minute explanation of what NN4D offers), and then serving on the jury.
If you have a chance to be on the jury for an app competition, jump on it! It’s a blast. If you’ve watched the television programmes Dragons’ Den in the UK or Shark Tank in the US, it’s just like that: For three hours, you’re a mover and shaker in the world of entrepreneurs. Fun, fun, fun.
The AppCircus format is fairly standard for the industry: App developers get five minutes to make their pitch, with the assistance of a presentation or videos. Then the jury may ask questions, such as “What is your revenue model?” or “How many customers do you already have?” or “Do you have any significant customers or partners?” The winner is entered into an overall competition, the grand prize winner of which is announced each year in a ceremony held at Mobile World Congress. The runner up gets to pitch again at another AppCircus.
The attendees at AppCircus London (which was held at technology incubator TechHub) were lively, attentive and knowledgeable, which made the event speed by. The competition was stiff, and all of the presenters should be proud of their pitches. Ultimately, however, we selected the following applications:
Honourable Mention: Runtastic, for their application Roadbike. This location-aware application, in combination with body sensors manufactured by a Runtastic partner, allows you to track all your biking stats (heart rate, speed, cadence, distance etc.) and lets others follow your progress and cheer you on. Even in the crowded field of personal training apps, this one stood out for richness of features and the quality of the user interface.
Runner Up: Siine, for their application Siine Writer – check out the video. I’ve seen alternative on-screen keyboards for Android before, but this one shone for its exuberant creativity. Although I don’t have the space here to describe everything it does, I’ll give you one example:
Siine Writer allows you to personalise your keyboard and create buttons that have multiple functions for strings of text. For instance, if you tap your “Regards” button, the word “Regards” appears; tap twice, you get “Best regards”; tap three times, you get “Warm regards”.
I can see a ten year old figuring out Siine Writer in about 10 minutes and mastering the personalisation in about 30. The rest of us may take a bit longer. This team of creative thinkers will go far.
Winner: Echoecho, for its application of the same name. I don’t know if this application will ultimately live as a stand-alone download or be snapped up by another company to be integrated into a larger platform, but we loved it for its immediate usability. It’s got a simple premise: Select one of your contacts and Echoecho sends the message “Where are you?” When your contact responds, she or he sees exactly where you are on a map and you see exactly where they are. It also offers you points of interest nearby (coffee shops, restaurants, pubs) that you can select as your meeting point. The Echoecho team is loaded with enthusiasm and drive and I’m confident they’ll make good business development decisions.
Congratulations to all! Thanks for the opportunity to see your work.
NN4D EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) have been sponsoring local meet-ups throughout our region this year. Two of them (in Dusseldorf and London) were put on by AppCircus, who stage app showcases and competitions globally. I had the honour of representing NN4D at AppCircus London, by giving the sponsor pitch at the top of the evening (a five-minute explanation of what NN4D offers), and then serving on the jury.
If you have a chance to be on the jury for an app competition, jump on it! It’s a blast. If you’ve watched the television programmes Dragons’ Den in the UK or Shark Tank in the US, it’s just like that: For three hours, you’re a mover and shaker in the world of entrepreneurs. Fun, fun, fun.
The AppCircus format is fairly standard for the industry: App developers get five minutes to make their pitch, with the assistance of a presentation or videos. Then the jury may ask questions, such as “What is your revenue model?” or “How many customers do you already have?” or “Do you have any significant customers or partners?” The winner is entered into an overall competition, the grand prize winner of which is announced each year in a ceremony held at Mobile World Congress. The runner up gets to pitch again at another AppCircus.
The attendees at AppCircus London (which was held at technology incubator TechHub) were lively, attentive and knowledgeable, which made the event speed by. The competition was stiff, and all of the presenters should be proud of their pitches. Ultimately, however, we selected the following applications:
Siine Writer allows you to personalise your keyboard and create buttons that have multiple functions for strings of text. For instance, if you tap your “Regards” button, the word “Regards” appears; tap twice, you get “Best regards”; tap three times, you get “Warm regards”.
I can see a ten year old figuring out Siine Writer in about 10 minutes and mastering the personalisation in about 30. The rest of us may take a bit longer. This team of creative thinkers will go far.
Congratulations to all! Thanks for the opportunity to see your work.
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