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Behind the Scenes is a blog series where we let you know a little bit more about the quirky WIPsters; adventure follows us no matter where we go and in the last year alone we have had earthquakes while on calls, been at the scene of a mall shooting, survived airline strikes, among other things, these posts give you a taste of that....

With Mobile World Congress quite possibly being the only time the entire team is together IRL, we took some time to do some team bonding. We headed over to Cook&Taste in the Gothic area of Barcelona to partake in a traditional Paella cooking class. When in Rome, right? Some of us cooked, some of us drank, and all of us ate. On the menu was:

• Calçots Con Salsa Romesco (Roasted Sweet Winter Onions w/ Romesco Sauce)
• Sopa De Pimiento Rojo Al Aroma De Azafran Tostado Con Bacalao (Red Bell Pepper Soup Flavoured w/ Toasted Saffron and Cod)
• Paella De Marisco (Seafood Paella)
• Mini Tarta De Boniato (Sweet Potato Mini Cake)

While we all come...

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

My name is Ali Spivak and I’ve been at Mozilla since May of 2012 and this is my first MWC. I’m excited to be helping showcase Mozilla, the open web, and Firefox OS to mobile developers at the show!

What do you do at Mozilla?

I am the Product Manager for the Mozilla Developer Network.

What does Mozilla have in store this year at MWC?

Monday, 25 February, 16:00–17:30:  Apps Panel: Evolving Ecosystems -  Jay Sullivan, VP of Products, Mozilla

Monday, 25 February, 16:00–17:30 @ Sala Apolo, Barcelona: Mobile Premier Awards Keynote - Rick Fant, VP Apps and Marketplace

Tuesday, 26 February, 09:00–10:30: Mozilla Keynote by Gary Kovacs, CEO, Mozilla

Tuesday, 26 February, 17.45-18.30: MWL Keynote Panel: Open Web to Mobile Devices by Mitchell Baker

Thursday, 28 February,  13:30 -14:45: Workshop @ WIPJam: Why Open Web Apps & Firefox OS are good for mobile developers - Brendan Eich & Robert Nyman

Where can we find you?

The Mozilla booth...

Tell us a little bit about yourself!

My name is Wai Seto. I work in the Nokia Developer Relations team as technical marketing manager and have been in this role since 2008. Before that, I was a Nokia Technical Expert and Software Architect in the games division.

My name is Janaina Pilomia - more marketing than technical if you compare me to Seto, although I did some programming in my early days. This is my fourth WIPJam @ MWC, and I’m super excited about it!

What do you do at Nokia?

Seto: In my current role, I communicate our latest developer tools and programs to our developers who are interested in working with Nokia. My current technology focus is Mobile Web, HERE JavaScript API, and Series 40 web apps development.

Janaina: I support our local teams in their events and the many other developer outreach activities they do.

What does Nokia have in store this year at MWC?

On Monday (February 25), we’ll have an all-day App Developer Conference with a different format...

We hosted a WIPJam at the mHealth Summit, December 5, 2012 in Washington DC, a first time event for us. The Summit saw a gathering of over 4000 attendees mainly coming from the health sector were hungry for information on how to integrate mobile into their work, practices, research and organizations. WIPJam was held on the last day, and brought the mobile development perspective to the crowd. 

First up was a session on Mobile 101. It was a real primer on the nuts and bolts of mobile development from how to choose a platform, tips on design and testing as well a some trends. Richard Medis from Any Presence was our speaker and totally wowed the crowd with his easy to understand and practical tips.  He will definitely be invited back again!  

Next up we drifted into The Cloud, along with an overview of APIs and Big Data. Ryan McQuaid from AT&T’s mHealth Platform primed us on cloud and data, while Daniel Spors from Preventice gave a super case study on their experience with...

The number one thing I love about WIP is it has given me the opportunity to see new places and meet new people. And indeed the mobile industry with the ubiquity of many of the applications out there, has given developers the opportunity to see their apps downloaded from almost anywhere – but are they taking advantage of all of the opportunities out there?

Thibaut and I were in Moscow last week (that's us on the right) visiting our friends from Yandex, one of Europe’s largest Internet companies. They recently launched the Yandex.Store for mobile apps. Everyone knows that Russia is one of the BRIC countries that we should all be targeting for growth opportunities, and for mobile apps this is definitely the case, as there are not enough apps to meet demand (Vision Mobile’s latest report indicates the next 10 million apps will be based on BRIC demand). The challenge is always about how to reach markets like this, so it’s great to see folks like Yandex make it easy. Interestingly...

Everywhere we go, we get asked: "When is WIPJam coming to (insert developer's home town)?" Well, for those in the mid-atlantic, your time has come! We are hosting a WIPJam in Washington DC in association with the mHealthSummit on December 5, 2012. Tickets are on sale now and going fast! For those of you that aren't famililar, WIPJams are the place for mobile developers to be to learn about the latest in mobile development, apis, and other tips from the leading experts in the industry!

We also wanted to give you an opportunity to come and experience WIPJam for FREE! We're giving away 2 tickets (valued at $275 each) via Twitter and it's really simple to enter: 

1. Follow @WIPJam and @mHealthSummit on Twitter

2. Tweet: 

I want to go to @WIPJam 'Day for Mobile Developers' @mHealthSummit in Washington because... [fill in your answer] #WIPJam

You'll then be entered to win via a draw.  Entries close at 8PM EST November 26, 2012 and winners will be announced soon after. Now,...

The whole team is really excited as we start heading over to the valley this week for Google's announcment of new machines and jellybeans (I know, that was poor). We're also going to be hosting a WIP Demo Lounge (Google i/o passes not required) just across from Google i/o on Wednesday and Thursday  at Jillians and we hope you'll pop by to check out some cool demos, grab some grub, and win some prizes! Just let us know you'll be coming by signing up here. 

Here is some info about our sponsors and the demos they will be showing:

AT&T Application Resource Optimizer (ARO)
Do you know your app’s performance?  Is it ready to go up against the fastest apps, the apps your customers love to use again and again?

Get your app tested with ARO at the WIP Demo Lounge and see where it ranks.  Use the report to make some simple configuration changes, and watch it climb up the leaderboard for some great prizes, and bragging rights.

What is ARO?  It’s a free diagnostic tool for analyzing...

We've finally caught our breath after the Muther! of all Hackathons a couple of weeks ago in Mountain View. The event was a huge success, thanks to the 300+ attendees who showed up and all of our excellent sponsors! Almost 50 apps were presented on Saturday, and I was blown away by what the developers were able to accomplish in just 24 hours. The creativity shown, as well as the polish on the apps, was amazing.

I wasn't sure what to expect -- or what I'd gotten myself into -- with an all-night event with so many people. But I was impressed by the spirit of all the participants, the supportive, fun and focused atmosphere, and also the work of all the sponsors and the WIP team to pull it off! We had a wide range of attendees, from people just getting started in mobile development to very experienced and polished devs, and I think that we were able to create a place where they all could take something away from the event.

I really enjoyed sitting through the pitches and being...

Welcome to Cape Town for our first African WIPJam!

If you think there is a slight sense of deja-vu, well, I cannot blame you, Cape Town (in winter) has got a strong resemblance to San Francisco (all year long :D), hilly streets, misty, a bit chilly and a hungry enterpreneurial population!

This WIPJam, sponsored by Nokia, was part of Apps World Africa which was hugely successful with a great crowd and a great mix of people (thanks to an awesome networking party). The whole program of the event can be found here, but here are a few of my selected highlights.

Lesson from Windows on Nokia 2 years too early

This is a bit of nostalgia I will admit, but having Dusan from Device Magic walk us through his lessons learnt from his previous experience running .NET on Symbian was great. Dusan explored the options for enterprises when it comes to mobile software and why it makes sense to go native (because employees are consumers too, and cannot live with a sub-standard experience...