Mobile Madness, March 9, Should Attract Both Inventors and Investors

Full details describing Xconomy’s next big event, Mobile Madness: The New Future of Computing, are now available online, reports Chief Correspondent, Wade Roush.



Headlining the afternoon are keynote speakers from leading global, national, and regional organizations: Jhonatan Rotberg, executive director of the MIT-based Next Billion Network, will talk about the role mobile technology can play in solving social and economic challenges in the developing world; and Kate Imbach, Co-Founder & Organizer at Mobile Monday Boston & Silicon Valley and vice president of marketing at Skyhook Wireless, will walk us through the latest facts and figures on venture investment in the mobile technology sphere in New England (full agenda here).


Of special interest to Angel and VC investors will be a Mobile Showcase featuring 10 mobile startups. Presenters will give one-minute lightning presentations, and then the whole audience will adjourn to the lobby area at Microsoft, where representatives of the showcase companies will be available for one-on-one conversation around tables supplied with a variety of demos and handouts. Those presenters include Apperian, Appswell, bitHeads (from Ottawa, Ontario), Illume Software, the Public Radio Exchange, Roam Data, Rummble (from the United Kingdom), Sand9, SparkCloud, and WherePhone.

You can register here.

March is Mass Mobile Month: Celebrating New England Innovation

Its official, March is Mass Mobile Month in Massachusetts with a mind boggling array of events planned.  That’s Mass as in Massachusetts, but it’s also mass as in huge, because it’s going to be a gigantic month of mobile-related activity around town and around the world. The list of events is too long to include here—which is exactly why our friends at Xconomy have created the Mass Mobile Month website, a clearinghouse for information related to the all of the mobile conferences, camps, seminars, showcases, and networking events going on in New England.

Wonder what makes it official? Check today’s post by Wade Roush on Xconomy Boston for the official word.

I have signed up for two events already.

First is the Xconomy Forum: Mobile Madness, scheduled for Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 1:30 - 6:00 pm at Microsoft NERD in Cambridge. From the invitation by Bob Buderi:

“As computing enters what many analysts agree is its fifth great historical cycle (after mainframes, minicomputers, PCs, and the desktop Internet), New England companies are poised to lead in many areas--including mobile application development, infrastructure, and advertising. But the platforms and markets are evolving fast. At Xconomy's Mobile Madness conference, keynoters and panelists from the region's leading mobile technology companies will help participants make sense of the chaos and separate the solid innovation opportunities from the hype.”

Confirmed Speakers & Participants Include:
Wendy Caswell, CEO, Zink
Walt Doyle, CEO, uLocate
Chuck Goldman, CEO, Apperian
Will Wang Graylin, CEO, Roam Data
Kate Imbach, Vice President, Marketing, Skyhook Wireless; Organizer, Mobile Monday Boston
Mark Lowenstein, Managing Director, Mobile Ecosystem
Dan Olschwang, CEO, Jumptap
Greg Raiz, CEO, Raizlabs
Jhonatan Rotberg, Executive Director, Next Billion Network
Jake Shapiro, Executive Director, Public Radio Exchange
Dan Sullivan, Founder, Appswell
Mark Thirman, Vice President, Business Development, Illume Software

I have also signed up for the Tech Tuesday mobile event which immediately follows the Xconomy forum and showcase reception. Tech Tuesday requires separate registration.

So it is official, Mad Mobile races the March Hare,  in Mass., in March. Be there.

Xconomy Cloud3 Presentations Available

I attended Xconomy’s Cloud3 Forum last month (December 10). Once again, they attracted a sellout crowd of 220 professionals. To reduce the strain of taking detailed notes, I asked moderator Wade Roush if he could post the presentations online. Seven companies allowed this; you can download and review them here.


Posted are presentations from seven speakers :Tom Leighton at Akamai, Joe Chung at Allurent, Michael Feinberg at EMC, Jim Cuff from Iron Mountain, Hasan Alkhatib at Microsoft, Anand Rajarem at Pixily, and last, (but very far from least) Greg Arnette from Sonian.

During the lectures, we used the Twitter “backchannel” to collect audience comments. Here are a few from a well respected local technologist you can use as a guide to the presentations:

“#xcloud EMC's Feinstein describing Atmos hybrid/federated cloud strategy.. damn good ideas.. from a Mass co.. How come nobody knows?

“#xcloud Conf terrific after coffee break.. Caffeine got the animal spirits stirring! EMC Cloudman Feinstein giving meaty talk'

"#xcloud Ex-Microsoftie, now Googler @dondodge blogging on his new Mac! .. no Win VM methinks

"#xcloud Breaking News! Microsoft's Vision detailed in today's presentation!

"#xcloud. 25 min into Azure prez and finally substance.. Azure GA on New Years Day, billing on Feb 1, 2010. But WHAT is still mystery.

"#xcloud MS Azure speaker giving Cloud 101 speech to Cloud grad students. Instead of pablum, how bout substance. What will it be? When?

"#xcloud Greg Arnette fm Sonian speaking.. Probably the sharpest cloud tech East of the Valley

"#xcloud Conference: Iron Mountain speaker.. Nothing new here... Next!"

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I am currently reviewing the Azure presentation. If you are interested in Microsoft’s Azure, a new paper by David Chappell, "Introducing Windows Azure",was posted on the Azure Website in December.