Just as the Internet and the World Wide Web have significantly disrupted the business landscape in the last decade, advancements in mobile technology are now overtaking web-based services and further pushing our economy into the digital realm. We are learning that even companies that until recently seemed like superstars, such as Facebook and Google, are at risk of becoming lame ducks in a rapidly evolving, mobile-first world. Tobias Rich, VP of our West Coast Operations, and I attended this incredible gathering of people who are evolving mobile business to discuss what’s happening now, what’s coming up next, and how the business landscape will continue to shift.

Some topics and insights that were particularly interesting to me included:

• Mobile Product Development
  • Multi-screen interactive experiences are an inevitable trend – in 10 years, all screens (even TV) will be as interactive as our phone and tablet experiences presently are (Deep Nishar, SVP of Product @ LinkedIn)
  • Even traditionally B2B businesses will need to shift towards end-consumer centric product design to compete in mobile channels (Dave Goldberg, CEO @ SurveyMoney and husband of Sheryl Sandberg)

• E-Commerce Usability
  • Monetization of mobile experiences is essential beyond display advertising, but it needs to be frictionless.
  • “Back End” payment processing is still by and large in need of innovation, despite interesting attempts to create a frictionless UI/UX (Patrick Collison, CEO @ Stripe – he was a millionaire at 19, started Stripe as his 3rd company at 23)

• Content Discovery + Disruption
  • Rich media is being replaced by rich content, which means an elegant fusion of User-generated content and Professional copy. It’s not just about interacting anymore, it’s about engaging and connecting to content. (Mark Young, VP of Mobile Strategy & Business Development, Mobile & Emerging Platforms @ NBCUniversal)
  • The new advertising media model is a seamless, organic integration of frictionless ads, branded content and context-sensitive experience embedded in mobile applications (Dave Martin, SVP of Media @ Ignited)
  • Gaming and Social Networking are the two largest engagement methods on mobile devices; 19 of the 20 top grossing iOS apps are one of these two (Bart Decrem, SVP and GM @ Disney Mobile)
  • 3 key performance indicators for the success of mobile advertising are: Vanity (Brand awareness/impressions), Buzz (Peer-to-Peer metrics), Revenue (Monetization strategy). 

• Mobile Monetization
  • 2 pioneering ideas for monetizing mobile experiences: (Bill Gross, CEO/Founder @ IdeaLab and UberMedia)
    • Dynamic Advertising  - ad retargeting based not just on what sites a user visit, but what they do on those sites and who they are as people, as inferred by advanced analytics often social in nature
    • Conquesting – advertising to people visiting or thinking about one’s competition, leveraging dynamic advertising and “sociolocal – social/location”. Imagine if you were eating at a restaurant, and a competitor across the street was able to advertise a free dessert to you for after your meal, in the form of a digital ad or text message sent to you if they were aware you were nearby… 

Other topics discussed included:

• Gaming and the Multi-Screen Experience
• The New (Mobile) Enterprise
• Next Generation Mobile Devices and Services – there are no more mobile monopolies, everyone must continue to innovate and execute!!! (Kevin Packingham, Chief Product Officer @ Samsung Telecom)
• Location as the New Frontier in Mobile Tech – this data, if properly acquired and analyzed, can yield extremely strong insights into end user behavior, interests and most importantly intentions
• Investing in Mobile — VCs will not be looking to invest in companies looking to be the “X” company for the “Y” space (i.e. the new Instagram for birdwatchers), they’d rather take shots on disruptive ideas, and Mobile-first is not the same thing as Mobile-only
• The Native Application Economy – this is where the money is going to come from in mobile, one way or another, cause this is where users spend the majority of their mobile time and where high engagement correlates strongest with revenue generated

All in all, the conference was a remarkable experience and networking opportunity – had the great pleasure of meeting past and present clients (including an old hiring manager of mine from LA!), as well as get some talk time with the leaders of companies that may become future customers! As well it was great to know what these business insiders (no pun intended) consider to be the future of this amazing, highly disruptive mobile technology emergence – should certainly provide some great content to provide to our networks. If anyone wants to learn more about what was discussed at this conferences and some of the insights we were able to garner – feel free to call me at x3702 anytime!