Linda Daichendt was a marketer for Wireless Toyz from the beginning of 2007 until the end of 2008. That’s when some serious downsizing happened at the Southfield, MI-based mobile phone chain retailer. Daichendt lost her job, but she did not lose her instincts as a mobile marketer.
“So, I became extremely interested in this whole emergence of the cell phone and where it’s going, where it can take us, and everything you can do with them,” Daichendt says.
She landed on her feet after being downsized, falling back on her previously launched consulting firm, Strategic Growth Concepts, and pushing more into the area of mobile marketing.
“The more I got involved in the mobile industry, I saw that there was a lot going on in Michigan, but there was not really a lot of communication,” Daichendt says.
So she decided to do something about it and launch a Michigan chapter of Mobile Monday, an international organization with more than 100 local chapters worldwide. Its first official meeting is scheduled for next week, on July 19. Yes, that’s on a Monday.
Mobile Monday Michigan is designed both for developers of mobile applications and for marketers who want to learn how to use the emerging media. A great many entities are connected to the mobile world, or want to be connected, but don’t know yet where to begin, she says. “So, that is my vision for where this Mobile Monday group will go,” Daichendt says. “It will sort of weave all of these people together and help them connect.”
She’s begun to publicize the chapter on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and has attracted about 50 members already.
Members include companies such as Got2BWireless in Wixom, MI, and Arbormoon Software of Ann Arbor, MI; as well as individuals like Matthew Bower, a Bloomfield Hills, MI, lawyer who specializes in technology startups.
Daichendt pictures each meeting featuring a presentation from a development company, another from a marketer, and perhaps another from somebody who can offer advice on legal issues.
She does not have an estimate of how many mobile content developers there are in the state. That is one of the reasons she’s launching this chapter, to build a resource database of all the developers, marketing firms, legal specialists, and others.
“Right now, there is no such resource,” Daichendt says. “We believe if we can pull all these resources together it can promote business growth, job growth, and thereby help to drive economic growth throughout the state.”
