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Mobile storytelling has become increasingly popular and powerful globally, be it a family story or a news story. Every year, mobile stories are shared in different languages and in different formats across time and space, attracting readers, viewers, and listeners of all age groups from around the world. What are the changes, challenges, and chances in mobile storytelling? What are the best practices in mobile storytelling? How to leverage the latest technological advances to enhance mobile storytelling?

To address these questions and more, the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), the Mobile Innovation Network & Association (MINA), and Mobile Studies International (MSI) have jointly launched an annual event for mobile storytellers worldwide: International Mobile Storytelling Congress (IMSC).

Consisting of workshops, conferences, and festivals, the congress aims to promote mobile storytelling for better communication in different areas ranging from community and civic engagement to new forms of storytelling, creativity and developments towards story making (Schleser and Berry 2018) and/or storyliving (Google New Lab 2017).

IMSC is scheduled to be held on 17-19 January 2020 in Ningbo, China. It is inviting mobile storytellers from around the world to share their stories of the following themes:

1. Mobile film storytelling, 2. Mobile photo storytelling, 3. Mobile audio storytelling, 4. Mobile video storytelling, 5. Mobile immersive storytelling, 6. Mobile news storytelling, 7. Mobile advertising storytelling, 8. Mobile marketing storytelling, 9. Mobile education storytelling, 10. Mobile health storytelling, and 11. Mobile tourism storytelling.

        As an annual event, IMSC is scheduled to be held in rotating cities around the world. Stay tuned for the announcement of the next IMSC.  For further information, please click the following link: https://www.nottingham.edu.cn/en/internationalcommunications/imsc-congress/imsc-congress.aspx

Consisting of workshops, conferences, and festivals, the congress aims to promote mobile storytelling for better communication in different areas ranging from community and civic engagement to new forms of storytelling, creativity and developments towards story making (Schleser and Berry 2018) and/or storyliving (Google New Lab 2017).

IMSC2020 was held on 17-19 January 2020 in Ningbo, China. The congress had 11 panels covering topics from mobile audio storytelling to mobile experience sharing. A special forum on city storytelling was also held during the congress. The congress included a mobile storytelling screening of more than 20 mobile stories in different formats and dorms. Around 45 participants from around the world attended (15 participants online). The congress concluded with three mobile storytelling workshops.  

The IMSC2021 has been scheduled on 13-15 November 2021. A timeline has been made as follows. Stay tuned for updates.

•      1 December 2020:       Call for abstract submission

•      1 March 2021:             Abstract deadline

•      1 May 2021                 Acceptance notice

•      1 September 2021       Full paper submission

 

The proposed events of IMSC2021 are as follows:

•      Panel Presentations

•      Online Presentations

•      Academia-Industry Dialogue

•      Competitions & Award Ceremony

•      Showcases & Exhibitions

•      Workshops

•      Film Festival

•      Networking Activities

As the most popular and powerful medium in the world, mobile has been reshaping not only what we do but also who we are in this mobile world. It has been widely and deeply utilized in human activities, ranging from mobile government to mobile parenting. To join international efforts in enhancing mobile for better communication, the annual Mobile Studies Summer School (MSSS) is designed to provide a unique chance for international and domestic participants to be equipped with knowledge and skills related to mobile studies, an emerging field of study. With a duration of two weeks, the intensive summer school program is designed to expose participants to different areas of mobile studies.

 

Programme Director: Dr Xiaoge Xu, Director of Institute for Mobile Studies, University of Nottingham Ningbo China

 

Week 1

Monday            Intro to Mobile Studies/Hands-on Activities

Tuesday           Mobile Entertainment/Hands-on Activities

Wednesday     Mobile Learning/Hands-on Activities

Thursday          Mobile Journalism/Hands-on Activities

Friday               Mobile Advertising/Hands-on Activities

Week 2

Monday            Mobile Marketing/Hands-on Activities

Tuesday            Mobile Business/Hands-on Activities

Wednesday     Mobile Government/Hands-on Activities

Thursday          Mobile Experience/Hands-on Activities

Friday              Mobile Economy/Hands-on Activities

 

After completing this program, the participants will be able to increase their knowledge of various aspects of mobile media and to enhance their skills in various areas of mobile communication. They will also be issued a certificate of completion of the Mobile Studies Summer School, first of its kind in the world. And 20 credits can also be transferred to those from our partner universities around the world. On top of that, they will also be invited to become a lifetime member of Mobile Studies International (http://msi.wiki), which will benefit their current and future career development.  

 

We would like to collaborate with our counterparts in other universities to co-organize Mobile Studies Summer School in rotating cities around the world. If you are interested, please contact us at ims@nottingham.edu.cn. 

Mobile for SDG Journalism: It is designed to leverage mobile devices to enhance news reporting/writing/editing for 17 sustainable development goals. A special course is scheduled to be designed and delivered to journalists in developing and underdeveloped countries. And a website plus app will be also be developed to assist SDG journalists in their daily news reporting. Mobile for SDG Journalism will be commercialized into a training program for all journalists in China and beyond by running online and offline training workshops on a regular basis. For details, please write to us ims@nottingham.edu.cn

It covers executive education, research, and consultancy. It features long term, regular, and comparative studies of city storytelling, involving different stakeholders, including city policy-makers, city storytellers, media practitioners, and professors of city storytelling, branding, marketing, experience, and mobile studies. It is also part of the annual International Mobile Storytelling Congress. Starting from Ningbo, it also reaches out to other cities around the country. For collaboration, please write to us at ims@nottingham.edu.cn. 

We organize our annual International Mobile Storytelling Competition Series on a regular basis throughout the year with different themes. The following is the first of the series.

Containing COVID-19: Mobile Documentaries

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in early January 2020, global efforts in containing the virus have been widely documented by mobile users around the world. To document and enhance global joint efforts in containing the virus, we organise an online international mobile documentary competition.

For further information, please click here

We invite professors and practitioners of mobile media and communication around the world to share their findings and observations on a regular basis. The goal is to transfer academic findings into practical application in various sectors of the mobile industry, to provide academia with insights and new research directions and areas, to offer the public guidelines and useful tips on how to leverage mobile to enhance mobile communication for different purposes.  For further information, please write to ims@nottingham.edu.cn. 

On a regular basis, IMS organizes research talks on interdisciplinary studies of mobile media and communication. Suggested topics include mobile economy, mobile business, mobile government, mobile corporate communication, mobile advertising, mobile marketing, mobile journalism, mobile learning, mobile dating, mobile romance, mobile family communication, mobile experience, mobile health, mobile filmmaking, mobile photography, mobile tourism, and mobile storytelling.

We host research talks to share the latest research findings, ideas for joint research projects, and how to conduct BA, MA or PhD research projects related to mobile media and communication on a regular basis at UNNC. 

IMS organizes Mobile Studies Workshops on selected topics in mobile economy, mobile government, mobile advertising, mobile marketing, mobile commerce, mobile business, mobile storytelling, mobile learning, mobile journalism, mobile filmmaking, mobile entertainment, mobile gaming, mobile experience, to name a few.

 

The following is the list of workshops organized in the past:

4 June 2019, Mobile Filmmaking Workshop for UNNC Staff

5 June 2019, Mobile Filmmaking Workshop for UNNC Students

 

The following is the list of workshops scheduled to be organized in the coming months: 

19 January 2020, Filming Your Stories: Mobile Way

19 January 2020, 360 Filmmaking: Immersive Way

19 January 2020, Telling Your Stories: TikTok Way