While Mondays might be notoriously unpleasant for much of the corporate world, they seem perfectly suited for those working in the wireless industry. A standing room-only crowd of more than 300 attended the third annual Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic DEMO event on Monday at the Hub at Cira Centre in Center City Philadelphia.
Mobile Monday is a global community of wireless industry professionals with close to 40 chapters worldwide. Sponsored by forward-looking mobile companies, it fosters cooperation and networking among interest groups, industry people and their companies. Mondays event, which featured 10 companies from the region who made presentations to an eager-to-learn and share audience, was easily the Mid-Atlantic chapters most successful event and indicative of the mobile movement in Southeastern PA and beyond.
IT research and advisory firm Gartner recently revealed that consumers will spend $6.2 billion on mobile applications in the next year.
You cant avoid hearing or reading whats going on in the mobile applications market, says Ron Braunfeld, one of the chapters board members. He is vice-president of business development for Boston-based uLocate and lives in suburban Philadelphia. Were trying to create as wide an array of presenters and content for our members to interact with as possible. I think the biggest thing that happened (Monday) night was companies got a chance to get immediate feedback by a very large audience.
Southeastern PA was well-represented. Mobile payment newcomer Venmo was voted as the top presenter of the night and also raised close to $1,000 for Haitian relief via text donations. Mobile language learning provider PlaySay and ReadySetWork, a tool for employee scheduling, were the other finalists. Also presenting were 2WAYTXT, AirClic, CLEAR, Liquid Interactive, Mobile Attainment, Snac, and Yuxi Pacific Group. Philadelphia City Councilman Bill Green, widely considered a champion of business in the city, also presented.
Mondays DEMO night is among five events Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic sponsors throughout the year. The groups next event is in March, when it will stage an event for mobile healthcare companies.
Theres a hotbed of interest and talent in this region, says Braunfeld. (Monday nights) presentation was spot on in addressing that.
Source: Ron Braunfeld, Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic
Writer: Joe Petrucci