Mobile Advertisement rocks at CTIA

Today my meetings were in focus on Mobile Advertisement. I had some interesting talks with companies like AdMob, JumpTap, Medio, mkhoj, Quattro Wireless and Smaato. During the day we also had a visit by Kedric van de Carr from vator.tv for a interview. In the evening we went to a smaato reception where Harald Neidhardt announced their Award for Mobile Application Developers.

Social Media in real life

After the first day of the CTIA Wireless 2008 we first went to the AdMob CTIA Dinner Party in the Ozumo Restaurant. Sometimes the best networking is after the trade show. Like in the last year AdMob did a great job with their reception bringing together many folks from the mobile industry. All in all a great evening with people like Omar, Jason and Thomas (AdMob), Michael and Gustaf (Heysan), Annika (Netbiscuits), Matthäus (mobile facts) and Ilja (getjar). Afterwards I was lucky to grab an invitation from Jamie (MocoSpace) for the CTIA DefJam, MocoSpace and Quattro Wireless party, where I also met  Justin (MocoSpace).

CTIA Wireless opens the doors

Today we had the first day of the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2008, so after nutritious breakfast I was ready for the busy trade show. During the day I also visit a CTIA Session on Mobile Social Networks which was moderated by Rhonda Wickham (Wireless Week). It was informative event with presentations and discussions on the actual state of affairs on Mobile Social Media with participants like Nick Desai (Juice Wireless), Warren Faleiro (VeriSign), Mari Joller (Virgin Mobile USA), Nikolaos Papadopoulos (u-blox America), Paul Rehrig (Warner Music Group) and Nigel Rundstrom (Nokia).

Discussion on Mobile Social Media

Today I joined the ‘Mobile Web Strategies‘. The event started with two presentations by Carol Taylor (Motricity) and Pankaj Asundi (Ericsson) with some interesting thoughts on virtual goods/gifts and customer segmentation. Most exciting part was the the discussion panel on  Mobile Social Networks with some of our combatants like mygamma, MocoSpace and itsmy. The whole day was full of good lectures and discussions and I got some inspiration for my own work with mobile social media. In the evening we went for the CTIA MocoMixer in the Palace Hotel before ending the day at the sky bar at the Marriott Hotel.

Agenda

Welcome and Opening Remarks from the Chair
Ajit Jaokar (futuretext)

The Mobile Web Demographic
Carol Taylor (Motricity) and Pankaj Asundi (Ericsson)

SuperSession Discussion: Mobile Social Networks
Ajit Jaokar (futuretext), Dr. Lai Kok Fung (buzzcity), Justin Siegel (MocoSpace), Sabine Irrgang (gofresh), Mei Lin Ng (mig33) and Shawn Conahan (Intercasting Corp.)

Monetize Digital Communities – How to make money in mobile and social media
Jouko Ahvenainen (Xtract) and Chris Heuer (The Conversation Group)

SuperSession Discussion: Strategies to Drive Mobile Web Adoption
Barbara Ballard (Little Springs Design), Sean MacNeill (Openwave), Patrick Lopez (Vantrix), Nitin Bhandari (Skyfire), Michael Chang (Greystripe) and Jason Spero (AdMob)

Mobile Advertising Today and Tomorrow
Ajit Jaokar (futuretext), Donna Campbell (Ericsson), Michael Bayle (Yahoo!), Tony Nethercutt (AdMob), Branden Claisse (Nokia Interactive Advertising)

Context Shifts the Internet Paradigm
Kamar Shah (Nokia)

SuperSession Discussion: Internet Giants talk Mobile – Mobile Giants talk Internet
Ajit Jaokar (futuretext), Donna Campbell (Ericsson), Dan Mason (ESPN Mobile Web), Ganesh Sivaraman (Forum Nokia Americas), Marc Davis (Yahoo!) and Edwin Aoki (AOL)

The ‘full web’ isn’t: Mobility goes beyond the Desktop
Barbara Ballard (Little Springs Design)

Mobile Search Engines: A Discussion on Functionality, Limitations and Advantages
Bena Roberts (GoMoNews) and Michael ‘Luni’ Libes (Medio Systems)

Avoiding Legal Pitfalls on the Mobile Web
Gary Kibel (Davis and Gilbert LLP)

How Multimedia SIM can bring Operator Applications to Mass-Market Devices
Frédéric Martinent (Gemalto)

Emerging Trends of Mobile Web

Two days before the CTIA Wireless I joined together with around 50 other folks from the mobile industry a conference called Mobile Web Megatrends. The event was hosted at the University of California, Berkeley and was organized by Ajit Jaokar (Futuretext). I mostly enjoyed the vital presentations from Matthäus Krzykowski (mobile facts) on Trends Driving the Mobile Web & Related Business Opportunities for Startups and Dan Mason (ESPN Mobile Web) on Mobile Web Discovery and Placement. But also Jason Spero (admob) had some interesting insights on Mobile Analytics and their new product AdMob Analytics.

Agenda:

Welcome and Opening Remarks From the Chair
Ajit Jaokar (Futuretext)

The Mobile Web evolution and its impact for developers

• Nokias’s Vision for the Mobile Web Opportunities for Developers
  Ganesh Sivaraman (Forum Nokia)
• Opera’s Vision for the Mobile Web
  Tatsuki Tomita (Opera Software)
• Mobile Data: Convergence or Divergence
  Michael Mace (Rubicon Consulting)
• Cloud Computing: The Software Stack for Mobile Web
  Kevin Leong (Mo’Blast)
• Emerging Market Opportunities – Digital Inclusion with an Emphasis on the Brazilian Market
  Priscila Grison (Journalist)
• Impact of Open Source on Mobile Devices
  Mike Rowehl (Mobile Monday Silicon Valley)
• The Obamamobile: Media and Mobile Convergence – Trends and Opportunities
  Michael Becker (iLoop Mobile)
• The iPhone Session – The iStore and the Future of Mobile Applications
  William Volk (PlayScreen)
• Apps for Mobile Devices – What happens next?
  Michael Mace (Rubicon Consulting)

Operators, New Media and Convergence

• Mobile Web Discovery and Placement – Issues, Insights and Best Practices
  Dan Mason (ESPN Mobile Web)
• Content Adaptation: going Beyond Transcoding
  Eyal Rosen (InfoGin)
• Operator Trends – Identity and Security
  Tim Haysom (OMTP)
• How Multimedia SIM can bring Operators Applications to Mass-Market Devices
  Frederic Martinent (Gemalto)
• Trends driving the Mobile Web & Related Business Opportunities for Startups
  Matthäus Krzykowski (mobile facts)

Technology Trends – under the Radar

• Mobile Analytics
  Jason Spero (admob)
• Mobile Web Trends
  Raj Singh (Skyfire)
• Get Smart: Coupons and the Mobile Web
  Brent Dusing (cellfire)
• Oracle Atom DB
  Nikunj Mehta (Oracle)
• New Mobile Ecosystem
  Barbara Ballard (Little Springs Design)

In the morning I heard a quite interesting keynote of Dustin Moskovitz (Facebook) about internationalization of a social network and ‘going mobile’. During the second day at the CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2007 I also joined a a very interesting meeting of the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) Initiative “Communites” and met people like James Beddows (MSN Mobile), Dave Waldman (twistbox), Ryan Jones (twistbox), Steve Jaeger (vidiator), Steven Masur (Entertainment Technology Law), Rimma Perelmuter (MEF), Karen Allen (MEF) and Suhail Bhat (MEF). In the evenings we went to a Accel.com Cocktail Reception where we met amongst others again Bill Scott and Ilja Laurs from getjar.com :o)

The first day at the CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2007 was very good for us, because it was full with talks and impressions about the mobile market in USA. And we also met for the first time ever the guys behind our combatant mocospace.com; Justin Siegel (CEO) and Jamie Hall (CTO). This day was really great, because later on we met even more of our combatants; Malcolm Wong (Business Development at buzzcity.com), Armando Pena (CEO at fotochatter.com), Sabine Irrgang (COO at gofresh.de) and Mikko Saarelainen (Director Content & Communities at gofresh.de). Even if we are amidst the battlefield, it was great the have a chat with all of them about our industry and next developments :o)

In the evenings we went to the admob.com Cocktail Reception in the Ozumo Restaurant. I was very amazed how fast the admob.com family grow in the last months and I was glad to meet some of the family members, like Omar, Niren, Zubair, Andy, Cheryl, Wendy, Jennifer, Tony, Kevin, Thomas, Jackson and many others…

My first time in San Francisco and our first time exhibit on the CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment 2007. After we eased off our circadian rhythm because of the jet lag from our flight yesterday, Marcus and I went to the Moscone Center to set up the Peperoni booth. This time we had a pragmatic concept for the presentation of peperonity.com; rent a fair area, buy some stuff at IKEA and tinker a comfy booth. At the end we had a very snuggish booth, so we even had some visitors who stopped by not for our products but because they heard about the comfortable booth :o)

If you have a facebook account, then you can find more pictures from the US trip in my facebook photo album.