Symbian Blog: Articles by Lauren Sarno

On 12^th October, Symbian members held our first joint member workshop/package owner training in Bangalore, followed by a glorious dinner at the Taj Vivanta hotel. Huge thanks to all the members who worked so hard to make the day a success, especially those I didn’t get a chance to thank personally.

I’ve visited Bangalore before, and every time, more massive office buildings have gone up and more companies have moved in. In Silicon Valley, when a company opens a branch office, 10 people camp out in a corner of a building. When a company opens in Bangalore, 300 people move in. It wasn’t a random choice to hold the first member workshop there – the place is humming with activity.

The most impressive, even inspiring, result of the Bangalore events was the realization that Symbian members are making our bold assertions about the Symbian community come true. Because Symbian is a small non-profit organization, in order for the community to thrive, we always knew that members would have to volunteer to become regional leaders, to take responsibility for their own events and form a strong network. Bangalore proved that it’s happening, and sooner than we expected.

Three member companies sponsored the day. Nokia sponsored the package owner training, with more than 35 package owners and commiters attending. Srikanth Raju of Nokia and Lars Kurth (head of the Symbian Contributor Community) were the organizers. The sessions were led by Lars, Terho Niemi (Symbian technology manager for Web and productivity applications) and Effie Vraka (Symbian technology manager for multimedia applications). I was off at the member workshop, so I can’t say much about the package owner training except that everyone was energized when they got to the dinner, talking a mile a minute.

Aricent sponsored the member workshop. Ten members attended from five companies, and I was extremely pleased that of the ten, nine were people I hadn’t met before. Maruti Chigadolli was the Aricent organizer, and everything went very smoothly – my thanks to everyone who pitched in to help Maruti. We talked about how to make the most of the marketing benefits of membership, brainstormed about what new member services would be valuable, and introduced the volunteer program – more about that coming soon.

Here we all are at our smiling best, because we’re just about to leave for dinner.

Since all the member programs in place or in development were requested by members, I can’t emphasize enough how important these events are. We are truly a member-led organization, and the companies that are most involved are seeing the greatest increase in business from membership.

Teleca sponsored the drinks reception and buffet dinner. When Edwin Moses, our host for the evening, first offered, I thought we were going to have a few drinks and nibbles. I was overwhelmed to discover that Teleca had planned a three-course sit-down meal at a five-star hotel. Vividh Baru of Teleca flew in for a few days to organize the event and take the Symbian team to dinner on the day we arrived. He was such a gracious host, he made it look easy, which I’m sure it wasn’t. Many thanks to his entire team.

From left to right, here’s Edwin talking with Effie Vraka (she’s the gorgeous blonde), me and Lars. In the background, you can see Jussi Lemponen of Tieto talking to Terho. So far this year, I’ve met Jussi in Finland on Towel Day, Bangalore at the member workshop, and London at SEE. On Towel Day, Jussi gave me some valuable guidance that has resulted in a number of programs, and it was good to be able to show him in Bangalore how his ideas were being implemented.

It’s happening. At the moment, we’re working with members in China, Poland and Silicon Valley to plan events, and members in France, Israel and the Scandinavian countries have expressed an interest. If you want to help make it happen in your region, let me know.