Nokia Roof Top Fusion Party, Cape Town, 19 November 2008

[ Flickr link ]

Above: Adam from LiquidChefs pours (damn tasty!) mojitos.

Nokia held an international press event in Cape Town last week for journalists from the Sub Saharan region (primarily South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria), where it announced two new Nseries devices, the Nokia N85 and the Nokia N79, as well as officially showcased the Nokia N96 (at present, the flagship Nseries phone). We were also introduced to Nokia's Ovi service and got to learn more about Nokia Design, the product-development division of Nokia that observes consumers and their habits in various markets and then uses the research data to steer the development of Nokia products and services.

I thought I would take the opportunity to experiment with live coverage, so I posted facts and information to my Twitter and Twitpic streams during the conference and subsequent party. It was an interesting experiment for me. It was the first time that I have used Twitpic although I unfortunately was working with a BlackBerry that only has a two-megapixel camera so the photos didn't come out as well as I would have liked. However I think it was a decent first attempt, and I learnt a lot, although it can be quite stressful trying to multitask like this for hours so by the time I got home (seven hours later!) I was quite exhausted.

[ Read (most of) my Nokia Twitter posts | View the Twitpic photos ]

Nokia also knows how to throw a good party, and I've been to several awesome ones over the years. This year the Nokia Roof Top Fusion party was held after the conference on top of the Aston Martin building at the V&A Waterfront. Although the newly announced products and services were on hand for us to play with, the event was really just a big excuse to have a great time, with journalists mingling with Nokia staff and industry representatives as we were entertained late into the night. The food and drink selection was varied and, happily, the vegetarian offerings were numerous - and good - and for a change I didn't feel as though I was a catering afterthought.

The service was also spectacular - I'm not sure if it was the catering company that handled that, or another company, but the waiters and assistants were superb. Drinks were taken care by LiquidChefs barmen, who mixed drinks and cocktails with their usual flair. The entertainment was also varied. You can see some examples in my Twitpic stream.

And that's really about all I have to say. Here is a photo of some shirtless percussionists, for your entertainment.

[ Flickr link ]

Above: 1st Project (I believe the toplessness is mandatory) entertains the guests with liberal use of percussion instruments. The "screen" behind is actually falling water onto which images were projected.