Participating companies, trainees and mentors are now ready for Womentor 3.0 – the third time this mentorship programme has been run for women leaders in the IT and telecom sector. A total 21 companies are to participate in the programme and 25 trainees. IT&Telekomföretagen at Almega runs Womentor and aims to offer the sector:
- greater competitiveness by utilising the competence of women as future leaders
- an opportunity to safeguard the need for leaders in the sector
- security for women leaders to continue as executives and develop their professional network.
The programme is to start in late January 2009 and end in February 2010. Participating companies are to nominate one trainee and two mentors to the programme.
“It is very exciting to start a new Womentor programme. We need women’s know-how in the IT sector and I hope that we can create more women role models. At the same time we offer participating companies a practical tool in continuing efforts to get more women in leading positions,” says Anne-Marie Fransson, Director IT&Telekomföretagen. The following companies are to participate in Womentor 3.0:
BT Nordics Ltd
CapGemini Sverige AB
Cisco Systems Sweden AB
EDB Business Partner Sverige AB
Ericsson AB
ESRI S-GROUP
Fujitsu Services AB
Hewlett-Packard Sverige AB
IBM Svenska AB
IFS World Operations AB
InfoCare Service AB
Kentor AB
Microsoft AB
Net Insight AB
Netlight Consulting AB
Relacom AB
Sogeti Sverige AB
Steria AB
TDC Sverige AB
Teracom AB
ÅF Infrastruktur AB More information about the project can be found at www.womentor.se IT&Telekomföretagen at Almega has carried out an attitude survey among young people and their attitudes to education and a career in the field of IT. The result clearly shows that the general attitude to IT is positive but that awareness about IT is lacking. Knowledge of IT-related education is also poor – the range of computer/IT-related courses is broad and complex and young people have as a result little or no idea about what is available. IT&Telekomföretagen is together with IVA’s Scorecard.se to run a project aimed at encouraging more young people to choose IT-related education. The survey is a first step in the project and aims to help understand the views of young people regarding their future choice of career and attitudes to IT. The survey, which was conducted by KW Partners, has been carried out among 1,046 young people at universities, and upper-secondary and senior schools. The reason for the survey is that the number of applicants to ICT-related programmes (ICT, Information and Communication Technology) has fallen significantly in recent years at the same time as the sector is experiencing a shortage of skilled workers. “The shortage of skilled workers is not only impacting the ICT industry, but all companies and public authorities that need skilled IT staff in their operations. This in turn is highly important for the future growth of Sweden,” says Anne-Marie Fransson, Director IT&Telekomföretagen However, despite the clear interest in IT among young people, there is a large disparity in awareness about courses and careers. “I am pleased to note the significant interest in IT among young people,” says Anders Flodström, at the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education, and member of the steering group at Scorecard.se. Universities need to be clearer and offer greater coordination. “We must maintain the substantial interest that exists for IT. As an industry, we must become better at explaining to young people what IT-related work involves,” says Anne-Marie Fransson. “IT&Telekomföretagen is planning to focus on the opinions expressed by young people in the survey, such as the need for more marketing, to remove the nerd reputation, to show the breadth of IT, to explain that working with IT means a lot of cooperation and contacts with different people, and that it offers a global labour marketplace,” Anne-Marie Fransson concludes. The Tidningen Mobil and Mobil:Business event series Mobil Focus 2008 reached its peak with jubilation and applause when the prestigious Golden Mobiles were awarded during the Mobile Gala 2008 in Kista Science Tower. Kista Science City’s landmark Science Tower was also filled during the day with exciting speakers – including Mads Winbladh from Nokia, Morris Packer, Bonnier and James Pearce, dotMobi. At the same time, a corporate exhibition was taking place which attracted mobile entrepreneurs from the entire value chain of mobile development of products and services, and offered an insight into the market’s major potential and focus on innovation. 
James Pearce, CTO dotMobi and Tomas Bennich Kista Mobile Showcase
The evening’s grande finale was the esteemed Mobile Gala, a nail biting conclusion where innovative solutions, products and services were presented and awarded the popular Golden Mobiles. Mobile initiative of the year: Symbian Foundation
Innovation of the year: Adobe Channels
Mobile technology development of the year: Oricane
Company of the year: Scalado
Multimedia service of the year: Bambuser
Mobile business solution of the year: Avistatime: Telia kvittens visit
Mobile news service of the year: Aftonbladet Tagga
Mobile sports service of the year: SR Radiosporten
Practical mobile service of the year: Quedro: Noplace/SvD Magasinet Mobil
Entertainment service of the year: Polarbit: New games to Iphone and Symbian 
Happy winner Eric Hugo, Nokia, and the Master of Ceremonies Alexandra Pascalidou
Jury: Linus Brohult (Editor in Chief Tidningen Mobil), Östen Mäkitalo (Professor KTH), Jonas Ryberg (Editor Metro Teknik), Per Lundsjö (Editor in Chief E24), Tomas Bennich (Founder of the Swedish Mobile Association) and Staffan Helgesson (Founder of Creandum). Music phone of the year: Sony Ericsson W902
Camera phone of the year: Sony Ericsson C905
Smart phone of the year: Nokia E71
Media phone of the year: Apple iPhone 3G
Design phone of the year: Apple iPhone 3G
GPS of the year: Tomtom Go 930 Annica Englund The international media house RedHerring had a major event in Stockholm last week – ETRE 08. This is one of the industry’s most exclusive meeting places for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and international corporations. ETRE, which means “to be” in French, is the name of this fantastic event. ETRE is now in its 19th year and the idea is that the event is to be a forum where international leaders can discover innovative technologies, new companies can find financing and where new alliances can be created and new knowledge discovered. RedHerring is internationally renowned for its “top-tech” lists where each year the top 100 companies in various parts of the world are ranked. Sweden received a record number of company nominations on this year’s European list. Alex Vieu, CEO at RedHerring was the perfect host at the event and took good care of his guests.
Many excellent speakers were present at the event, including top speakers that very rarely appear at “normal” conferences. The lectures were mixed with first-rate opportunities for mingling and meetings. The speaker programme ended each day with a selection of entrepreneur businesses that pitched their product/solution. The evenings ended with dinners in special Stockholm locations: the Vasa Museum, the Nordiska Museet, and finally a black-tie dinner in City Hall.
Kista Science City was represented at the event by several companies, including VideoPlaza, JayCut, Bambuser, Popcatcher and Penny, which together with ten companies were chosen to receive scholarships, where Invest In Sweden together with Stockholm Business Region, Göteborg, Skåne and Norrbotten financed half of the attendance fee.
The legendary Tim Draper, VC from Silicon Valley, was there and held of keynote presentation on the first day. He gave a highly interesting presentation about the difference between positivism and negativism. The inspirational speech ended with one of his own songs!
For more information about Tim Draper, click on the link to the entrepreneur blog Disruptive
http://disruptive.nu/2008/10/15/tim-draper-talade-om-entreprenorskap-pa-etre08/
(Tim Draper)
On the second day Marcus Wallenberg held a very interesting speech about innovation, Swedish industrialism and the Wallenberg Family success story. Marcus’s presentation was brilliant and many entrepreneurs looked upon SEB with new eyes after the talk. (Marcus Wallenberg)
There are several prestigious events in the world and ETRE is one of the most celebrated of all. Stockholm Business Region Development (SBRD) works strategically to attract these types of events to Sweden as this strengthens our profile as the leading mobile, IT and telecom cluster in the world. Work has been ongoing for several years, and a whole group of players were involved to attract the event to Sweden, including SEB, which played a leading sponsorship role, in addition to ISA and Northzone.
In conclusion, one can say that the event discussed serious and topical themes. The event is a source of inspiration and an excellent opportunity to meet international corporate leaders and venture capitalists. ETRE is a very good meeting place with top quality visitors. Link to RedHerring’s own ETRE page: http://www.redherring.com/Home/25277 Tim Draper, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
Travis Katz , Fox International Media
Jean-Philipe Courtois, Microsoft
Rob Glaser , Real.com
Norio Wada, NTT Corporation
Ken Kannappan, Plantronics
Antti Vasara, Nokia Corporation
Adam Hagman, Robdalen
Marcus Wallenberg, SEB
Tomas Bennich
Adam Dunkels, researcher at SICS, has received the Cor Baayen award 2008. This prestigious prize is awarded by ERCIM, the European research consortium for informatics and mathematics. The prize is awarded annually to the most promising young researcher in Europe, with excellent results in informatics and applied mathematics. The award ceremony is held at the research consortium’s annual gala dinner in November [source: SICS]. Adam Dunkels, researcher at SICS, has received the Cor Baayen award 2008.
This prestigious prize is awarded by ERCIM, the European research consortium for informatics and mathematics. The prize is awarded annually to the most promising young researcher in Europe, with excellent results in informatics and applied mathematics. The award ceremony is held at the research consortium’s annual gala dinner in November. Adam Dunkels received the prize for his research on small, low-memory and low-energy IP networks, which is an important precondition for industrial use of wireless in-built systems. Many of Adam Dunkels’ research results have been released as open source code and are used by hundreds of companies, including Cisco, BMW, NASA, Hewlett-Packard, General Electric and ABB. His software is used in many different types of products, including satellites, aircraft, TV production systems and systems for vessel security.
In addition to software, Adam Dunkels has published more than 40 scientific articles, many in highly esteemed scientific contexts.
“Adam Dunkels' research is experimental computer systems research at its best,” writes the selection committee in a statement. “The selection committee was impressed by the combination of high-quality research results and outstanding industrial impact. At his young age [30], he is already a leading researcher in his field.”
Adam Dunkels’ project Contiki has attracted researchers and industrial players from the US and Europe, many of which today are involved in the project. He is also a member of the technical council for the IPSO alliance (IP for Smart Objects), and has written the alliance’s first technical policy document. The IPSO alliance was formed in September 2008 by Cisco, Sun, SICS, Ericsson, Atmel, Freescale, and other major IT players.
In 2008, Adam Dunkels has also received the Chester Carlson research prize, the finest scientific award in the field of IT in Sweden, and the Roger Needham prize for best European doctoral thesis in computer systems research.
The Cor Baayen Award was created in 1995 to honour the first President of ERCIM, Cor Baayen. The award is EUR 5,000. Starting this year the award committee has been augmented by an advisory group comprising nine eminent scientists and industrial representatives from Europe and the US. Since 1995, four Swedish researchers have received the award, all from SICS. This year’s prize is to be awarded in Porto, Portugal, on 20 November 2008.
http://www.ercim.org/activity/cor-baayen.html
About the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS)
The Swedish Institute of Computer Science, SICS, is a non-profit research organisation with about 90 highly qualified researchers in a wide spectrum of fields, such as future internet technologies, wireless in-built systems, large-scale network-based applications, optimisation technology and mobile services. Research is carried out in close collaboration with industry and the international research community. SICS contributes to the competitiveness of Swedish industry through advanced and focused research in strategic fields of computer sciences and through active marketing of new research findings and results to industry and society at large.
http://www.sics.se/
ERCIM, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, is an organisation that promotes European research and development in computer sciences and applied mathematics. Its twenty national membership institutes work towards greater collaboration within the European research community and to strengthen cooperation with European industry.
http://www.ercim.org/
Contact
Adam Dunkels, adam@sics.se , Phone +46 (8)-633 16 14
Staffan Truvé, CEO SICS, Phone +46 (0)8-63315 01
Jérôme Chailloux, head of ERCIM Office, jerome.chailloux@ercim.org | 
Venture Capital guru - Tim Draper
