Thanks again to everyone who joined us for Mobile Madness 2011: Getting Down to Business on Wednesday at Microsoft’s New England Research & Development Center in Cambridge, MA. As I mentioned yesterday in my post-event recap, the capacity crowd was in lean-forward, close-listening mode as leaders of the mobile scene in New England and beyond debated the future of 4G, the accelerating evolution of mobile interface technology, the opportunies for mobile payment infrastructure providers, the future of mobile applications inside enterprises, and much more.
We had an impressive lineup of speakers who helped us pack so many thoughts-per-minute into the event that I, personally, needed a day or two to think it all through. The list—and we’re extremely grateful to all of these folks for their time and for their support of the local technology community—included Santiago Becerra from Mellmo, Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge Capital Partners, Walt Doyle from Where, Meredith Flynn-Ripley from HeyWire/MediaFriends, Steven Glapa from Ruckus Wireless, Chuck Goldman from Apperian, Hasty Granberry from Fig Card, Anthony Kinney from Microsoft, Pete Lancia from Qualcomm, John Landry from Lead Dog Ventures, Michael Libenson from SavingStar, Mark Lowenstein from Mobile Ecosystem, Rich Miner from Google Ventures, Ted Morgan from Skyhook Wireless, Andrew Paradise from Aisle Buyer, Mike Phillips from Vlingo, Matt Revis from Nuance Communications, Roy Rodenstein from AOL, Mort Rosenthal from Enterprise Mobile, Steven Saltman from Zizzout, Paul Schaut from Modiv Media, Aaron Sheedy from Swype, Ken Singer from Ondeego, Mike Sievert from Clearwire, Drew Volpe from Locately, and Stephen Wolfram from Wolfram Research.
Many of these speakers are pictured in the photos below, which were taken by Keith Spiro from Kendall Press (thanks Keith!). I made sure to include a few photos from the “Location Smackdown” segment of the program, where Doyle, Morgan, Rodenstein, and Volpe debated the stickiness and sustainability of mobile businesses built around location awareness. At the end referee John Landry asked the crowd to anoint a winner—the company most likely to dominate in its category—and it was a close contest between Where, represented by Doyle, and Skyhook, represented by Morgan. In the end Morgan took home the precious Xconomy Mobile Madness Smackdown Trophy (which, as I explained yesterday, was actually an old golf trophy that Landry’s wife wanted to get out of the house).
Xconomy’s Mobile Madness 2011 event attracted a standing-room-only crowd to Microsoft’s NERD Center in Cambridge, MA.
Mobile Madness attendees share mobile apps.
Stephen Wolfram, CEO of Wolfram Research, explains the differences between Wolfram Alpha and IBM’s Watson question answering system..
Emceeing Mobile Madness was Xconomy’s chief correspondent an San Francisco editor Wade Roush.
Pondering the future of mobile interfaces. L to R: Rich Miner of Google Ventures, Mike Phillips of Vlingo, and Wade Roush (Moderator)
Jeff Bussgang, a general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners, moderated the panel “Mobile Commerce Matures.”
Citi’s Bill Power (middle) speaks with Mobile Madness guests.
Meredith Flynn-Ripley, CEO of MediaFriends, described the company’s booming new mobile messaging service, HeyWire.
The “Enterprise Apps Get Real” panel featured (L to R) Chuck Goldman, Apperian; Santiago Becerra, Mellmo; Mort Rosenthal, Enterprise Mobile; and Ken Singer, Ondeego.
Mobile Madness 2011 attracted a standing-room-only crowd of more than 250 attendees—many of whom were either taking careful notes, or catching up on their e-mail..
Location smackdown contestants (L to R) Drew Volpe, Locately; Walt Doyle, Where; Roy Rodenstein, AOL
Locately co-founder and chief technology officer speaks during the “Location Smackdown” portion of Mobile Madness.
Skyhook Wireless took home the Location Smackdown Trophy, being awarded here to CEO Ted Morgan by referee John Landry. Skyhook was voted by the audience as most likely to dominate its market
Author: Wade Roush
Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco.
Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.)
I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia.
I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats.
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