The mobile academy belfast

The Mobile Academy Belfast is an innovative part time learning course for professionals in Northern Ireland who want to understand the mobile ecosystem, hatch a new mobile business or product idea, bring mobile know-how into their organisation, or perhaps move their career on.

The Mobile Academy is a new style of programme created by University College London (UCL) and Mobile Monday London to focus on design, technology & business within the mobile ecosystem. Mobile Monday Belfast and Ulster University (School of Computing and Mathematics) are licensing this programme for the second year running, and offering it to professionals in Northern Ireland

 

About the Course

The 2017 course will run over five Wednesdays on 10th, 17th, 24th May, 7th and 14th June 2017. Each day will run between 08:30 and 17:00 and be comprised of six one-hour lectures plus group sessions and breaks. The final day (14th June) will add ‘drop in surgeries’ with the tutors and a closing party that will run into the night at Brewbot Belfast.

Our lecturers are predominantly practitioners and professionals with a huge experience in the mobile eco-system, and a few are also lecturers at Ulster University.

Upon completion of the course, Ulster University will offer CPD certification, along with the opportunity to build towards a qualification, through Ulster University's Flexible Framework. for full details regarding Ulster University accreditation, please contact Dr George Moore.

Download The Mobile Academy Belfast BROCHURE

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Course Principles

The Mobile Academy is a practical programme teaching how to start and continue developing new ideas and businesses. It provides a grounding in business, design and technology of mobile. There are four principles that guide what we do, how we present ourselves to the outside world, how sessions are designed and how we deliver the participant experience:

Craftsmanship

We engage expert industry practitioners as tutors. They give practical advice, toolkits and case studies based on their years of experience, failures and successes.

User Centered

Participants are encouraged to identify and talk to their users at the earliest opportunity - keeping them involved as they develop their product and proposition. The course includes an introduction to user research techniques and when to use them.

Diversity

We bring together people from a range of backgrounds and with diverse skills to increase the opportunities to learn from each other.

Co Curation

Organisers, tutors, participants and industry collaborators all get involved in the production of each course. Participants contribute to sessions with learnings from their own experiences, they share helpful material and volunteer their products to be worked on as case studies.

Course Syllabus

Sessions are organised in to 4 areas and are coded as follows: G: General, B: Business, D: Design & T: Technology.

CodeDateTimeSession
Day 1 - UU YkSt
G1 Wed 10 May 08:30-09:30Welcome to the Programme
B1 Wed 10 May 09:45-10:45Business Overview/Mobile Landscape
T1 Wed 10 May 11:00-12:00 Technology Overview
G2 Wed 10 May 12:00-12:45 Group Work (decide on project)
Wed 10 May 12:45-13:30 Lunch Break
D1 Wed 10 May 13:30-14:30 Design Overview/Process for Mobile
B2 Wed 10 May 14:45-15:45 Business Model Canvas
B3 Wed 10 May 16:00-17:00 Defining your Value Proposition
Day 2 - UU YkSt
D2 Wed 17 May08:30-09:30 Design Principles for Mobile
D3 Wed 17 May 09:45-10:45 Creating Core Customer Journey (UX)
D4 Wed 17 May11:00-12:00 User Stories
Wed 17 May12:00-12:45 Lunch Break
T2 Wed 17 May12:45-13:45 iOS Essentials
T3 Wed 17 May14:00-15:00 Android Essentials
G3 Wed 17 May15:00-15:45 Group Work (today's lectures)
T4 Wed 17 May16:00-17:00 Cross Platform
Day 3 - UU YkSt
D5 Wed 24 May 08:30-09:30 Prototyping
D6 Wed 24 May 09:45-10:45 Building Great Apps
B4 Wed 24 May 11:00-12:00 Monetization of Mobile
Wed 24 May 12:00-12:45 Lunch Break
D7 Wed 24 May 12:45-13:45DIY User Research
D8 Wed 24 May 14:00-15:00 Design Review
G4 Wed 24 May 15:00-15:45 Group Work (today's lectures)
T5 Wed 24 May 16:00-17:00 HTML5 & Mobile Web
Day 4 - UU YkSt
T6 Wed 07 June 08:30-09:30 API & Back Ends
T7 Wed 07 June09:45-10:45 DevOps
T8 Wed 07 June 11:00-12:00 IoT, Wearables & Connected Devices
Wed 07 June12:00-12:45 Lunch Break
B5 Wed 07 June12:45-13:45 Marketing Your Mobile Assests
B6 Wed 07 June14:00-15:00 Branding for Mobile
G5 Wed 07 June15:00-15:45 Group Work (today's lectures)
B7 Wed 07 June16:00-17:00 DIY PR
Day 5 - UU YkSt
D9 Wed 14 June08:30-09:00 Design Iteration & Testing
B8 Wed 14 June09:45-10:45 Legal
T9 Wed 14 June11:00-12:00 Emerging Mobile Technologies
Wed 14 June12:00-12:45 Lunch Break
B9 Wed 14 June12:45-13:45 Buidling a Business Case
B10 Wed 14 June14:00-15:00 Getting Funded
G6 Wed 14 June 15:00-15:45 Group Work (today's lectures)
B11 Wed 14 June 16:00-17:00 Grow the Business
Day 5 - Brewbot
G7 Wed 14 June 18:00-18:45 Drop in Surgeries
G8 Wed 14 June 18:45-19-45 Project Debrief
G9 Wed 14 June 19:45-23:30 Party

Pricing

Cost for the Mobile Academy is £1,000 + VAT per participant, but if you want to register 3 or more staff of the same company, contact Course Director Norbert Sagnard before booking, to obtain your special Group Discount code.

If your employer is kind enough to pay for your registration, has less than 50 employees, is based in NI and is an Invest NI client, they can benefit from the Skill Advancement Grant (SAG), at a rate of 50% of external invoiced costs (£500). Participating employers need to get agreement from their INI Client Executive first, then apply to INI, then register their interest with The Mobile Academy Belfast.

Download the Skill Advancement Grant (SAG) Brief

Tutors

Course tutors have been selected because of their unique experience across the 3 aspects of the course - Technology, Business and Design.

Sponsor

Sponsor WPR

Belfast-based Wellington Professional Recruitment (WPR) is our sponsor this year, because their consultants come from an ICT background, and they witness every day the rising demand for Mobile professionals.

WPR have extremely high standards in the recruitment of professional staff throughout Belfast, Ireland, the UK and even the Middle East. The company today boasts an impressive track record and an expanded portfolio of services to fulfil the requirements of clients across IT and Mobile, as their consultants sustain links between high calibre candidates and relevant client vacancies within those two sectors.

Terms and Conditions

The Mobile Academy, Terms and Conditions

Please note the following terms and conditions for participants on The Course which is copyrighted by The Mobile Academy Limited (TMA) and operated in Belfast (NI) under license by Sagnard Associates Ltd (SAL, Co. Nr. NI 052311) on behalf of Ulster University and Mobile Monday Belfast.

  1. Participants may cancel their enrolment and receive a refund, less booking fees and administrative costs, up to 7 working days before The Course starts. Refunds are not available subsequently.
  2. Participants' registration details will be shared with The Hosts.
  3. Material provided as part of The Course is made available for participants' own use. It is not to be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted, distributed or in any other way used, in whole or in part, for any other purpose without the express written permission of TMA.
  4. TMA/SAL reserve the right to remove The Participant from The Course or exclude The Participant from the venue of The Course if the behaviour or demeanour of The Participant is considered unacceptable.
  5. No refund will be given in respect of a participant being unable to attend any part of The Course for any reason.
  6. TMA/SAL reserve the right to cancel a course, make changes to the programme, replace a tutor or change The Course venue. If The Course is cancelled by TMA/SAL, Course Fees will be refunded less booking fees.
  7. TMA/SAL accept no liability for loss or damage to The Participant's property and shall not provide any insurance cover whatsoever to The Participant.
  8. The Participant is solely responsible for determining whether The Course is sufficient and suitable for the needs of The Participant. TMA/SAL do not provide any guarantee in respect of the standard of The Participant's abilities on completion of The Course.
  9. Views expressed by tutors and TMA/SAL staff are their own. TMA/SAL do not accept any liability for advice given or views expressed by tutors or in any notes or documentation provided to Participants.
  10. Subject to limitations in law, the liability of TMA/SAL to The Participant with respect to the provision of The Course, the cancellation, postponement, or amendment of The Course, any negligence, any breach of contract, or arising in any other way out of the subject-matter of these Terms and Conditions, will not extend to:any indirect losses or damages, or to any loss of profits, loss of contracts or opportunity, whether direct or indirect, even if TMA/SAL had been advised of the possibility of those losses or if they were within TMA/SAL's contemplation; or any costs or expenses incurred by any person or organisation in connection with travel, accommodation, reservations or other arrangements.
  11. The warranties and undertakings given by TMA/SAL in these terms and conditions are, to the extent permitted by law, given in lieu of all implied conditions, warranties, representations or other terms, including any relating to satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular or any purpose, or the ability to achieve any particular result.