Join Us on March 14 for Mobile Madness 2012: Total Mobility

Everyone knows mobile is everywhere, and everything is mobile. Smartphones, tablets, and mobile software are transforming how we all shop, connect, get around, and lead our daily lives. In the five years since Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone, the mobile industry—and the tech world, more broadly—has changed radically. So what are the emerging opportunities, pitfalls, and strategies in this sector? And how will the next five years play out?

On March 14, Xconomy will hold its fourth annual half-day mobile conference to tackle these questions—and much more. Mobile Madness 2012: Total Mobility will take place at Microsoft’s New England Research and Development (NERD) Center in Cambridge, MA. We are convening some of the most prominent mobile technology and business leaders from the Boston area and beyond—and we are expecting a packed house.

We are still working on the agenda and full speaker list, but I can share a few highlights with you now. We will have a keynote panel consisting of Boston’s “mobile mafia”—founders, CEOs, and investors from some of the region’s biggest mobile successes, including m-Qube, Enpocket, Quattro Wireless, and Where. This distinguished panel—which will include Jeff Glass, Mike Baker, Lars Albright, and Ryan Moore—will discuss Boston’s mobile history and how the region can continue to lead the world in mobile innovation.

Other themes we’ll tackle include next-generation consumer and social apps; mobile retail and commerce; the convergence of mobile marketing and big data analytics; emerging business strategies around mobile apps, mobile websites, and hybrid models; and, more broadly, how mobility will continue to change the way we all interact with content, products, and each other.

To those ends, we will also hear from Jason Jacobs, CEO of FitnessKeeper; Jeff Janer, CEO of Spring Partners; Ted Morgan, CEO of Skyhook; Seth Priebatsch, CEO of SCVNGR; Greg Raiz, CEO of Raizlabs; Michael Schreck, CEO of Zmags; and Michael Putnam, director of mobile products for TripAdvisor (only the biggest consumer Web company in New England). We’ll also hear from up-and-coming startups including ByteLight, HeyWire, Kinvey, and Crashlytics. Again, this is only a partial list of speakers—we’ll have more updates soon.

If you register by February 1, you can take advantage of the early bird rate. Looking forward to seeing you all at NERD on March 14.

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.