Dan Bricklin, Apperian, ByteLight Join Mobile Madness Lineup on March 19

Xconomy Forum: Mobile Madness 2013—The Next Revolution

Too many good people, too few slots. Such is the curse of Mobile Madness.

Nevertheless we forge on. I’m pleased to announce a few more speakers for Mobile Madness 2013, our fifth annual mobile conference on March 19 at Microsoft NERD in Cambridge, MA. I hope to have the agenda finalized by next week.

Dan Bricklin is a name that resonates among Boston techies, particularly those with an appreciation of history. Bricklin is the co-creator, with Bob Frankston, of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet program (hello, 1979). Why is he speaking at a mobile event, you might ask? Well, Bricklin is now the president of Software Garden, an advisor to Alpha Software, and the developer of the Note Taker iPhone and iPad app. He’s an expert on pen-based computing, website creation, and tablet interfaces, among other things. And, most importantly, he epitomizes the notion that “mobile software and computing” really means “software and computing” in the post-PC era (or should we say, post-mobile era).

Dan Ryan is perhaps at the other end of the spectrum. He’s the co-founder and CEO of ByteLight, an up-and-coming startup that’s using LED and mobile infrastructure to help create a new indoor-positioning system. Ryan will join a panel to chat about the future of connected devices, mobile hardware, and what’s beyond our current conceptions of mobility. He recently penned an op-ed entitled “The Problem With Kickstarter.”

Chuck Goldman fits somewhere in between the above. He’s the founder and chief strategy officer of Apperian, the mobile-app platform and management company, and a former Apple exec (he led the iPhone enterprise beta program, among other efforts). Goldman has a keen eye for trends in the enterprise mobile and app-development industry, and he’ll moderate a panel I’m assembling on app strategy and business issues in the real world.

You can see the close-to-final list of speakers and registration info here. Stay tuned for more updates, and hope to see you all on March 19.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.