Good news! The entry deadline for this year’s Meffys has been extended by 10 days to Thursday 19 July so you have an additional 10 days to get your entry in. Now there’s no excuse to say you don’t have the time to complete your entry before the deadline. And don’t forget there are four innovation categories with reduced price entry fees for start-ups.

Not only that, but there is a special category, the Meffys Outstanding Contribution Award, and nominations are now open for it. This honours mobile pioneers and visionaries and celebrates a mobile hero whose seminal work has been fundamental to the growth of the mobile industry. You can nominate online now (it’s a simple form to complete). And since the festival this year was all about the heroes of the mobile fringe, there must be someone each of you would like to nominate who has been your hero in this industry. So get your thinking caps on but don’t delay. Get those entries and nominations in!

Best of luck.

In cased you missed it over at Mobile Monday Shoreditch or Swedish Beers blogs, I thought I’d better remind you about the Meffys. It’s just a week to go to your entry in for the 9th Annual Meffys. The organisation behind them is MEF, the global community for mobile content and commerce. MEF has been going for more than 10 years now as a trade association and has witnessed the worlds of mobile content and commerce grow and flourish in that time and these awards reflect that dynamic environment.

To remind you, MEF was one of our supporters for this year’s fringe festival and we ran some successful joint events which is why we’re very pleased to support this year’s awards.

Judged by an independent and uniquely international panel of journalists, academics, analysts and VCs (and that includes our founder, Helen Keegan who has been judging the awards for several years now), the Meffys are the global benchmark for measuring success and rewarding innovation in mobile content and commerce. Last year, more than 350 industry leaders from over 30 countries gathered in London to attend the Meffys, reflecting their stature as the premier global awards for the mobile content and commerce industry (aka, they’re awards worth entering).

So the nitty gritty -

Key dates:

From 29th May, companies are invited to submit entries in 13 categories until the deadline of July 9th (that’s next Monday people). The 2012 winners will be announced at a gala dinner on 12th September 2012 at the prestigious Park Lane Hotel in Mayfair. You can start the entry process here.

How much does it cost?

These awards are not free to enter but don’t let that put you off. The price per submission for non-members is £350 and for MEF members is £150. And start-ups, sit up and take notice of this one, for you, there’s a special price of just £75 to enter the four innovation awards categories if you’re a start-up*.

*A start-up is a company that is less than two years old and has received less than £1.5m in funding.

It doesn’t matter where your start-up is based. These are global awards after all. So get your thinking caps on and get those entries in sharpish for a chance to be a nominee and pitch to a group of influential CEOs and a chance to win one of the awards. More details here.

What are the categories?

The 2012 Meffys categories in full:

1. Social & Entertainment App – NEW
2. Life tools App – NEW
3. Brand on Mobile
4. Publisher on Mobile – NEW
5. Content Service
6. m-Commerce Service
7. Consumer Trust – NEW
8. Discovery & Engagement – NEW
9. Social Responsibility & Development – NEW

Innovation Categories

1. Innovation Award for Apps
2. Innovation Award for Technology
3. Innovation Award for Growth Markets
4. Innovation Award for Monetization

All nominees in each of the four innovation categories will be given the opportunity to pitch to the C-level executives at the MEF CEO Summit to be held at City Hall, on the evening preceding the Meffys. The CEOs will then vote to determine the most innovative mobile product or service and the winner of this “CEO Summit Award for Innovation” will be honoured at the Meffys Gala Awards Dinner. And if you get a chance to attend the dinner, you should! It’s great fun and great networking. Ruby Wax was also totally brilliant last year as the host.

Best of luck! And I look forward to reviewing the entries.