Tomorrow we’re running our second unconference event, the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit. It’s on right after the Web 2.0 Expo and we’re once again holding it at the beautiful Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Our last unconference was on the Real-Time Web and we got a lot of great feedback about the format and high quality of discussion. We’re hoping for more of the same this Friday! Also yours truly will be presenting a keynote presentation about the state of Mobile.
Yesterday we ran a contest giving away 5 tickets to the event, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors: CallFire, WorldMate, Alcatel-Lucent, Ipevo and MyCityWay. Here are the winners:
@garrettdodge
@tedm1
@marcuswandell
@mattstaggs
@alanxing
For those of you who missed out on a free ticket to the Mobile Summit, we encourage you to register now. The event is on tomorrow in Mountain View.
Here’s further information about the RWW Mobile Summit:
As with our first event, the Real-Time Web Summit last October, the Mobile Summit will be in the “unconference” format. Laura Fittion, founder of oneforty.com, had these thoughts about ReadWriteWeb’s last summit:
“There were a lot of investors there and it was a great dialogue between startups and investors. The unconference format was great because it got away from the bogus who-is in the real-time Web, and made it who-wants-to-be. You didn’t have to be big and influential to get your ideas across – if it was a good idea then it got heard. It wasn’t just Twitter, it was many things real time, defined pretty expansively.”
How Unconferences Work
What’s an unconference all about? Here’s the idea: Convene an incredible group of people, frame the discussion, ask important questions, then guide participants in building an agenda for the day to maximize the value of the event and minimize hot air.
Martin Källström, CEO of the real-time blog and feed tracking service Twingly brought his team over from Sweden for our last event. “Last year we happened across one of Kaliya Hamlin’s unconference events,” he told us. “We spent a couple of hours there and it was an amazing experience. The unconference format is an amazing way for things to happen; it gets everyone to lower their defenses. By opening peoples’ minds to ‘this is about whatever we want it to be about”, they look at how they can create value.“
Or, as Google’s Brett Slatkin said when using the elite FooCamp events as a way to explain the unconference format: “Foo-style [unconferencing is] always way better than talks.”
The Mobile Summit will be facilitated by Kaliya Hamlin, who in our opinion is the best in the business at this style of event.
Mobile was one of our top five trends last year and continues to undergo explosive growth, so our aim with this event is to help you navigate the opportunities. Get ready to explore, think and create the future of mobile! Because it will be you – the attendees – who ultimately set the agenda.
We will have two main tracks at this Summit, Development and Business. Here’s a sample of some of the topics we’ll explore in both of these tracks:
- Geo-location services – what can you do using location as a platform?
- Commerce & Marketing – as more and more consumers use smartphones, how can businesses utilize this channel?
- Content, Publishing & Recommendations – the technologies and best practices.
- Mobile Social Networking – how to tap into communities on mobile devices.
- Internet of Things – the emerging opportunities from sensor and RFID data.
- Augmented Reality – the technology and business applications of AR.
- Native App vs. Browser Based – Including iPhone, Android, RIM, Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian.
A big thank-you to our sponsors CallFire, WorldMate, Alcatel-Lucent, plus our two newest sponsors:
IPEVO: Tools for the connected world
IPEVO is the online source for smart and well-designed products that works with your computers, smart-phones and the Internet. We make new experiences for today’s connected lifestyle accessible and affordable by designing and selecting products that best reflect the most current Internet behaviors and emergent technologies.
My City Way is a One-Stop mobile apps platform for everything needed to live, work, play and visit in any city. Real-time, user-profile driven and experience-oriented, My City Way would be available in over 40 cities across the world on iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry and the web.
If you’re a company in the mobile Internet market, you may be interested in becoming a sponsor for this event. Please contact our COO Sean Ammirati for more information about sponsor packages.
We hope to see you tomorrow, May 7!