For our latest guest blog, we hand over to Chris Bignell of XL Communications to hear about an exciting opportunity for Tech City companies to showcase the innovative mobile technologies that they are developing at next year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona…

For mobile start ups, Mobile World Congress offers a fantastic opportunity to get new products and services seen by the major mobile network operators and handset manufacturers. The event provides the largest meeting of the mobile industry in the world with more than 50,000 industry experts descending on Barcelona every February.

UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) provides companies with a number of opportunities at the event but for starts ups and pre-funded companies the opportunity to generate much needed publicity and awareness for both company and product or service is often most critical. But how does a company cut through the noise of 1400 exhibitors to gain the attention of the media?

For the past two years UK Trade & Investment has organised a pre-Mobile World Congress media event in advance of the show. Attended by around 20 smaller UK companies and up to 35 relevant media, this event has generated publicity for UK companies on Sky News, BBC website, BBC Click and The Observer as well as a host of trade, consumer and technical publications.

For 2012 this event will run as part of the search for UK’s most innovative mobile company, a competition run in collaboration with the Smart UK Project and UKTI. And Tech City companies active in the mobile industry have the chance to become part of the story.

Currently Smart UK Project is accepting nominations from UK mobile companies with innovation that has the potential to disrupt the mobile industry globally. But companies need to be quick. The nomination process is only open until 14^th December. It is free and easy to enter and you can apply here. After this date, judges will decide on a short list of companies that will attend the pre-Mobile World Congress media event. Each will have the chance to share their story with the media.

After this event a small number of finalists will be selected. These companies will pitch at Mobile World Congress to a panel including an investor, a journalist, a successful mobile entrepreneur and a senior executive from one of the mobile operators. This panel will decide which company is the UK’s most innovative mobile company 2012.

Every single company that enters the competition will benefit from entering, so there is nothing to lose! Your company could be heading for Barcelona to be crowned the best of British mobile innovation – enter now!