London Calling: UK Mobile Innovators, Alexander Graham Bell and Kid Coders

London Calling: UK Mobile Innovators, Alexander Graham Bell and Kid Coders

August launched with the amazing Young Rewired State Festival of Code, a week-long event that encourages kids under 18 years old to code. During this year’s event, participants collaboratively built over 100 projects in 40 centres across the UK. The week climaxed as participants pitched to a crowd of over 500 people at Birmingham’s Custard Factory. A truly inspirational week. You can see more in this short video montage:

We dropped in to visit two of the UK’s newest Startup accelerators, taking the opportunity to meet some of UK’s brightest entrepreneurs. In London, Wayra launched the official Wayra Academy and opened its doors to developers and all comers. Also, Ignite 100 in Newcastle that will be announcing it’s next class of programs this month. Looking forward to see what comes out of these leading accelerators.

It’s an honor to doff our caps to the people making a difference in mobile as we support Mobile Entertainment’s Top 50 Mobile Innovators. For the first time ever during the upcoming ME Awards event, the community will be able to vote for their choice of “Outstanding Contribution to Mobile Entertainment.” Voting will be powered by Twilio SMS. To help bring rising innovators to this stellar awards show (you!), Twilio is giving away one ticket. Keep an eye on Twitter @twilio for the giveaway.

It’s not every day you get to hang out with Steve Wozniak, but that was just my luck at the Turing Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Here the crowd was witness to my first ever live code demo, a bit nerve racking to say the least! Finally, a highlight thanks to Blippar, was my photo cameo with Justin Bieber. I’m a bigger fan than I realised – I’m a belieber.

 
Gordon Guthrie from Vixo, who we featured in last month’s edition of London Calling, sent us this cool snap of him standing outside the birthplace of Alexander Graham Bell rocking his Twilio T-Shirt.

Last but not least, let me know if you run a tech meetup and would like Twilio to get involved, tell me if you are using Twilio in a cool app or service, and remember–we are hiring. If you want to join us in the Twilio Europe team check out our job vacancy here.

Here’s are some upcoming events where we’re looking forward to meeting you:

September:
14th – 16th, Digital Sizzle 6 Art Hack, London
18th, Facebook Hack, Barcelona
21st, Facebook Hack, London
26th, Digital Sizzle 6 Art Hack Gallery Show, London
28th, Facebook Hack, Warsaw
28th – 29th, LxJS, Lisbon

October:
2nd – 3rd, Apps World, London
6th – 7th, JSConf EU, Berlin
17th – 18th, Dublin Web Summit, Dublin

Till next time,
James

@jamesparton