Wow — WES 2010 came and went in a flash! We hope everyone enjoyed their time here and learned a lot…we certainly did.

We look forward to seeing everyone next year. Until then, here’s what you had to say about show:

A great big thank you to all of our friends who attended our WES 2010 Tweetup. It was a blast and it was great to put some faces to Twitter account names! We are grateful for your continued support! Special thanks also goes out the the WES events team and the BlackBerry Support Community Forums team (@BlackBerryHelp!)

For more Inside BlackBerry WES 2010 Images go to our Inside BlackBerry Flickr Page.

Yesterday WES 2010 General Sessioneers were treated a panel discussion featuring will.i.am – futurist, Ben Silverman – CEO and Founder of Electus, and Steven Berlin Johnson – author of The Invention of Air and Creator of outside.in.

The topic: The importance of connecting with the new generation of mobile users.

In the spirit of being plugged in to your audience and developing content with their feedback in mind, the Inside BlackBerry team wanted to know what you took away from the session – stay tuned for some highlights after the jump!

Key panel takeaways:

Don’t underestimate the transferable skills that people develop in their gaming lives.
Stephen likened the skills involved in coordinating groups in the game World of Warcraft® to the skill sets required for workplace collaboration.

Being constantly plugged in isn’t really a bad thing.
Everything may be instant, but it also now lives in perpetuity – and in a public space to be shared.

Technology allows us to be both individuals and part of the collective simultaneously.
Ben described how the BlackBerry® smartphone was a good example of this – it allows us to assert our individuality through aspects such as themes and apps, and at the same time it provides tools that foster collaboration.

Engage. Period.
will.i.am discussed how he checks Twitter when he DJs to gauge the crowd’s response and then adjusts accordingly. (This may explain some of the fun throwbacks to 80’s tunes at the WES 2010 party!) Similarily, Ben mentioned the importance of storytellers engaging with their audience to help drive the stories forward collectively.

To me, this scope of ideas proves that the conversation is just getting started, and there are a lot of great ideas out there that people are itching to share. We’d love to continue this conversation, so please let us know your thoughts on the key questions discussed in the panel:

- How do we manage the next generation’s expectation of wanting to be engaged?
- How should we break the rules for creating content?
- Has mobility and on-demand changed the way we experience national events?

And for a slightly adjusted final question:

- How can BlackBerry users change the technology in a similar way that Twitter users have helped to evolve Twitter?

Looking forward to reading your responses!

The Inside BlackBerry team can’t believe that WES is already half over! Here are the highlights from yesterday’s activities.

During the Tuesday General Session Keynote at WES 2010, the Wireless Leadership Awards winners were announced. For those not in attendance (or not following the @BlackBerry Twitter account), you can click this link to read about the winners or watch the videos embedded in this post. I also had a great opportunity to speak with Lisa from the WES events team about the history of the Wireless Leadership Awards and details about the process of selecting winners, so click the link below to learn more!

When was the first Wireless Leadership Awards?

This is the fourth year, so 2006 was the first year.

And you’ve worked on all of them?

Yes!

So how did the Wireless Leadership Awards start?

Other teams at RIM wanted to showcase the great and innovative work on the BlackBerry® platform by some of our key customers. So we came up with three different categories to best recognize which specific sector the work excelled: the Private Sector category, the Public Sector category, and the Business Impact category. Originally, there was just one winner for each category, but we’ve expanded each to two finalists and one winner, because it was hard to recognize just one company or solution.

Who were the winners the first year of the Wireless Leadership Awards?

Bank Inter, a Spanish bank, won the Private Sector category for building a mobile banking app long before other people were thinking of doing that. The West Yorkshire Police won the Public Sector category for their work with mobile criminal database lookup, and EMC won the Business Impact category for a wireless antenna solution they had developed.

Earlier this week we announced the 2010 Wireless Leadership Awards nominees on Inside BlackBerry. What was the process to becoming a potential nominee or winner?

A few months prior to WES, we publish a web entry form where companies can be nominated or nominate themselves for entry into the Wireless Leadership Awards. Nominees must upload a business case outlining the wireless challenge to be overcome with their BlackBerry solution, details on their solution (how it was developed and deployed, backend functionality, development partners involved… etc.) and how it has improved their business.

A WES selection committee comprised of RIM employees and past winners then judge all the entries. This is the first year we’ve had industry analysts join the selection committee. It’s a long process of sifting through entries (we receive so many!) and reaching consensus, so we’re really grateful for the hard work of everyone on the committee.

Other than the high honor of being mentioned on the Inside BlackBerry blog, what are the perks of being a Wireless Leadership Awards finalist or winner?

Both finalists and Wireless Leadership Awards winners receive free travel and accommodations to WES 2010, as well as BlackBerry® smartphones and BlackBerry Solution Services packages featuring BlackBerry Training and the BlackBerry Certification Program. The awards winners’ prize package is valued at $30,000 USD, and the finalist packages are valued at $10,000 USD. Any of your readers that are interested in learning more can head to http://www.attendwes.com/wla for more information.

The value, however, isn’t simply in the prize package. The biggest thing is really the recognition at WES. From the Wednesday General Session Keynote to the exclusive awards reception featuring RIM executives and key partners, becoming a Wireless Leaderships Awards winner or finalist is a great spotlight to shine on your company.

For our friends unable to attend WES 2010, and for our fellow attendees looking to relive those special moments, we’re posting all the images taken by the Inside BlackBerry team to the WES 2010 photo set on the official BlackBerry Flickr account. What we have so far (Monday night’s Welcome Reception and the Tuesday General Session Keynote) is in the slideshow above, but make sure to keep checking back for new images!

We’re super excited to be able to share the above video – shared during the WES 2010 Tuesday General Session Keynote. Post a comment and tell us what you think about BlackBerry 6.

Come join us for a live chat during the WES 2010 Tuesday General Session Keynote!

We have a few brief session updates for you live from WES 2010. While I’m sure there will be many more session updates throughout the week, these two in particular are can’t miss, so we wanted to spotlight them now.

Title: Successfully Implementing Voice over Wi-Fi Solutions (WV03) (JUST ADDED!)
Where: Grand 7B
When: Wednesday, 2:00 pm
Speakers:
Ramiz Ballou Cisco Systems, Inc.
Peter Thornycroft Director, Voice, Aruba Networks Inc.
Robert Allen Manager, Voice Solutions, RIM

Implementing a Voice over Wi-Fi® solution involves the interworking of several network components including wireless/wired LANs, PBX’s, and end devices. In this session you’ll understand the importance of proper deployment planning including strategies to successfully deploy a Voice over Wi-Fi solution. Finally, you’ll learn how you can take advantage of the new Voice over Wi-Fi capabilities of BlackBerry® Mobile Voice System (BlackBerry® MVS) and how these will integrate with your company’s network.

Title: Best Practices for Deploying the BlackBerry Enterprise Server with Microsoft Exchange (WA25)
Where: Crystal M Ballroom
When: Thursday, 11:30 AM
Speakers:
Jeff Mealiffe Sr. Development Lead, Microsoft
Parminder Flora Manager, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Performance Engineering, RIM
Robert Hector Team Lead, Technical Product Management, RIM

Microsoft® Exchange and the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server can work hand in hand. Do you know how to get the best from both technologies? In this session, you’ll hear best practices for configuring and deploying the BlackBerry® solution in a Microsoft Exchange environment. Learn how to optimize the two systems for maximum scalability and reduced Total Cost of Ownership.

Makes sure to book both sessions using the My Scheduler tool or the BlackBerry WES Mobile Guide application!

Every year, the Wireless Leadership Awards are presented to customers who have deployed innovative BlackBerry® solutions and are using wireless technology to make big improvements – whether it’s to help their customers, drive social networking for their employees or to impact the bottom line. Winners of this year’s Wireless Leadership Awards will be announced next week at WES 2010 during the Wednesday general session.

Today we are happy to announce the finalists for the Wireless Leadership Awards.  I was told by the WES team that we had a lot of great entries again this year, so a big thank you to all who submitted applications for the awards — and good luck to all the finalists on Wednesday!

Here is the list along with a brief summary of information and results provided by each finalist.

FINALISTS FOR INNOVATION IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR CATEGORY

Finalists for the Innovation in the Private Sector have deployed new, innovative wireless solutions to drive business productivity.

Lenel Systems International, Inc, a division of UTC Fire & Security – Lenel developed an in-house security monitoring application. With Lenel Mobile Monitoring and their BlackBerry® smartphones, security personnel can view and receive real time incident notifications and specific details about an entry point when alarms go off. BlackBerry smartphone users can indicate that they’re responding so other guards don’t and can even lock or unlock doors using their BlackBerry smartphones.

Pikolin - Pikolin manufactures and sells Serta sleep products throughout Europe. Pikolin and its solution partner, NTS, mobilized their entire delivery system with the Mobility Logistics application and the BlackBerry smartphone. This solution has helped Pikolin to improve their customer service levels.  They now have fewer service issues than before, and when there is an issue they hear about it within minutes instead of days (with 95% of the issues resolved the same day).

RIDGID®, a division of Emerson™ - At RIDGID, only 10% of the sales force used to enter sales data into the company’s CRM system because it was hard work using laptops when they traveled. Now with their in-house developed application for mobile CRM, RIDGID 360, over 90% of the sales reps are entering information into the system.

FINALISTS FOR INNOVATION IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR CATEGORY

Finalists for the Innovation in the Public Sector use wireless solutions in innovative ways in healthcare, public safety and government

Baltimore Police Department - 2,000 officers at the Baltimore Police Department will be using a solution on BlackBerry smartphones they call Side Partner. Side Partner includes InterAct PocketCop, which is used to run warrants, check license plates and review mugshots of individuals from secure police databases. Side Partner also includes Xora’s GPS Field Management System, to track officer’s locations in the field.

HealthSouth - HealthSouth’s 1,000-member marketing team now uses an in-house developed mobile CRM application for the BlackBerry smartphone, built using TenDigits MobileAccess software. By reducing administrative effort with the mobile solution, HealthSouth expects to increase productivity for its marketing teams by providing direct communication between marketing managers and rehabilitation liaisons.

State of Florida Department of Children and Families - The State of Florida is revolutionizing the way its caseworkers capture and update critical information about children in foster care with an application developed in-house by the Florida Department of Children and Families.  The Remote Data Capture (RDC) solution gives the ability to use the camera and GPS capabilities of a BlackBerry smartphone to date-stamp photos and record field notes directly into the state’s child welfare system. The solution increases the safety and well- being of children under the state’s protection while improving the integrity of data entered by caseworkers.  Preliminary findings show caseworkers spend about 1.5 fewer hours doing paperwork and commuting to the office, which allows for more time to help children.

FINALISTS FOR BUSINESS IMPACT CATEGORY

Finalists for the Business Impact have deployed a wireless solution that has made a significant impact on their business.

Dell – Dell is using BlackBerry® Mobile Voice System (BlackBerry MVS) to help it simplify calling, increase productivity and reduce telecommunication costs.  First year savings via reduced airtime charges, decreasing external long distance and intelligent least cost routing of calls will slash their multimillion dollar spend on mobile communications by a third.   In the first months of deployment, Dell has already seen a 60% drop in discretionary services like directory assistance.

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust (PHNT) – PHNT is using Digital Pens from DevelopIQ and BlackBerry smartphones to complete an 80-page maternity booklet for pre and post natal care to eliminate data duplication of patient information in clinical systems. The solution allows Midwives at PHNT to cut administration time –– from 98 minutes to 48 minutes per episode of care, and also enables midwives to enhance the patient experience during pregnancy and after care.

Xerox Corporation - Xerox Corporation developed Wireless Integration for Next Generation Systems (WINGS) on BlackBerry smartphones for dispatching and service call management for their 5,500 Customer Service Engineers (CSE). WINGS uses Antenna Systems AMP mobile platform to give CSE’s access to dispatches, inventory and call details. They are now closing 70% of their calls, up from the 14% resolution rate they saw before.

For those of you going to WES 2010 be sure to check out the General Session on Wednesday April 28th to find out who the lucky winners are.  If you aren’t going to WES stay tuned to Inside BlackBerry for the latest news!