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The 5 Big Take-Aways from Mobility LIVE 2015: Where’s Mobility Heading?

Image Source: https://static.pexels.com/photos/7543/pexels-photo.jpeg
Last week, I attended the 3rd annual Mobility LIVE conference in Atlanta. This year’s event had a distinct Internet of Things (IoT) and Wearables flavor with the intersection of mobility.
I heard from over 15 speakers and panels ranging from CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to early-stage entrepreneurs and to execs at ad agencies and investment firms. Topics spanned location-based marketing technology, wearables, the future of mobility and connectivity, to Atlanta’s budding entrepreneurial ecosystem and investors’ takes on the future.
Poring over my Day 1 and Day 2 notes from the conference, I’ve distilled the conference into 5 take-aways for your enjoyment. Here we go:

Security is the greatest concern. Every panel noted security as a concern as more devices become connected and wireless. However, I’m wondering if there’s a sense that the companies will figure out security. Instead, it’s about overcoming security concerns for the public who are incredibly skeptical of Big Brother, too. But even then, there’s a level of comfortability with execs in believing the value to be gained will outweigh concerns.

Power consumption is the second concern. You can see this every day in frantic searches for outlets to charge smartphones. In the IoT age, sensors will be affixed to devices that currently lack power sources. With upwards of 50B connected devices by 2020, cost and efficiency of powering devices will be a daunting challenge.

Carriers will be the big winners, and they’ll deserve it. In 2006, U.S. mobile data usage was 11PB (1 petabytes = 1E6 GB). In 2014, usage shot up to 4.1K PB (4.1E9GB, ~73K% growth). In 2020, mobile data is estimated to surge to 31EB per month (~3.72E11GB annually!). Those ludicrous data numbers will flow, largely, wirelessly. The cellular companies today will have the unenviable task of developing the infrastructure to support this throughput, and they’ll have access to all of it. Wow.

Jury’s out on the effectiveness of wearables today. There are no clear standards, guidelines, and the like for wearables. Step counters can be easily faked. Smart clothing isn’t where we need them to be. Meanwhile, there are no educational programs to help doctors understand wearable data. With 33% of wearers abandoning their devices within six months, users aren’t seeing value out of wearables today. The industry must establish guidelines on data collection and analyses. Opportunities for wearables will depend, also, on interoperability of devices – exercise devices connected to nutritional devices connected to emotion devices, etc. There will be security and privacy concerns. Will there be enough value from wearables to overcome these fears?
Atlanta still has so much potential for startups and entrepreneurship. The city is rich with large corporations and strengths in FinTech, MarTech, Payment Processing, Supply Chain, etc. Entrepreneurship is at an all-time high, and shows no signs of slowing down. With the cost for entrepreneurship nose-diving over the years, Georgia Tech’s presence, density of large companies, and the like, Atlanta is primed to grow through startups. But to continue growth in this trajectory, entrepreneurs must have better access to the larger corporations in Atlanta.
If you were at Mobility LIVE last week, what were the big trends you noticed? From the above, where do you see opportunities to build the Next Great Startup?
If you haven’t already seen, take a look at the Day 1 Notes from Mobility LIVE and then Day 2 to see the more detailed take-aways. Very interesting insights.

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5 Themes of Mobility LIVE and Where We’re Heading

The 2nd Annual Mobility LIVE conference put on by the Metro Atlanta Chamber took place September 23-24, 2014
Last week, I attended the 2nd annual Mobility LIVE conference in Atlanta hosted by the Metro Atlanta Chamber. The two-day event included some of the largest enterprise players in mobility, especially those in Atlanta. It was a great experience to hear what some of these companies are addressing current and upcoming concerns, how mobile has changed the field, and where they see the next opportunities. Not bad, considering I went there for some inspiration and general understanding of the potential customers across the table if I were to build a B2B technology play.
While stepping into a number of sessions and meeting many great big whigs, I took copious notes to try to remember all that was said and shared in my Day 1 Recap and Day 2 Recap posts. (I have to admit, I don’t recall taking notes so vigorously in school as I do in these types of events or meeting with entrepreneurs or clients.)
Given about a week to digest, I’m back to share what I believe were the five recurring, predominant themes shared by mobility stalwarts including Michael Zeto(former founder and CEO of acquired-Proximus Mobility, now at AT&T), Margaret Martin(founder and CEO of Merlin Mobility), Michael Flanigan (co-founder of Covello), and many more.
  • It’s the Age of the Consumer. Or rather, “consumer driving the experience” per David Wilkinson, VP of Global Channel Sales for NCR. Retail (physical) and online sales channels… social media outlets… mobile messaging… massive rise of on-demand services… consumers are connected more than EVER at incredible pace. With this comes incredible power for consumers to drive experiences in omni-channels and ability to quickly connect – buy or not buy. Corporations (big, medium, small, everyone) are all trying to reach the end-consumers meaning consumers at the end of the day, they’re all vying for OUR business. They’re vying to be relevant in an increasingly transparent world.
  • Everyone’s Hesitatingly Excited About Mobile Payments. We’ve tried this mobile payment thing for years – Google Wallet, Square, PayPal, etc.. NFC is a big thing across the oceans to the east and the west. Bitcoins are… well… Bitcoins. What’s the difference now? Well, really, the difference occurred a month ago before Apple announced Apple Pay. Per Anthony Gallippi, co-founder and Executive Chairman of BitPay, Apple has a way of creating markets and exciting massive markets around new products and services. Everyone in the room is excited to implement quick-set-up, mobile pay solutions in retail, and Apple is seen as a key to educating and influencing consumers to be more comfortable with the notion of paying with the phone. They see incredible potential to be able to change the retail landscape with these options including the chance to empower retail employees for upsell and consumer experience opportunities as well as increasing receipts through faster, easier check-outs.
  • Big data = Big Problems + Big Opportunities. Everyone laughed when Matt Jones, GM of Mobile at Home Depot, was a jokingly uneasy addressing security concerns (recent data hack of millions of consumer data). Everyone is after more data about consumers. In today’s world, “for relationship marketing, the key is marketing at SCALE” per David Christopher, CMO of AT&T. What drives our behavior, as consumers? Who are we connecting with, and who do we trust? Companies are looking for data to understand consumer behaviors to be able to reach consumers at the right time at the right place with the right content. It’s all about context – that’s the movement from current social media tools and marketing automation. And with all of this data about us and how to reach us comes the big concerns over security and privacy…
  • Social enterprises are big opportunities, but not attracting the innovation. I read an article the other day about how there aren’t enough companies tackling “big problems – little b, little p” – see the MIT article here. Well, the small problems are only small because most startups are looking to build the next Snapchat or WhatsApp to make some obscene 100 quadrillion dollar exit. There’s meager investment in non-profit areas and solve problems of the “unexotic underclass” as the article writer puts it. There aren’t enough startups looking to bring technical experience and innovation to help meaningful causes. Atlanta is home to some fantastic social enterprises including the American Cancer Society, Points of Light, and Boys and Girls Clubs of America. There was a hackathon component to Mobility LIVE to hack tools and solutions for the three aforementioned organizations. It’s amazing the problems they have or the problems they were trying to solve. They seemed rather “simple” from a technical perspective, and yet, here they were asking for help. My take is that there just isn’t enough money to steer towards innovation at these incredibly lean organizations. Not only that, but they’re spread so thin locally, nationally, and globally while continually trying to raise funds to help support existing initiatives. The non-profit world is hard, but there’s big opportunities here to bring some more talent to solve these “big problems – little b, little p”.
  • Everything is social. Everything is mobile. Everything is cloud. Everything is everything.You’re probably thinking: “What the heck is he talking about?” I’m talking about how everything is converging. Much like I said before, worlds are connected across the physical and digital realms. Big data analytics is giving companies better insights into consumers. Drones are about to take-off (literally and figuratively) and deliver packages from Amazon probably equipped with mini-cameras to watch our every movement. (Okay, that one might be farther away.) However, that phone you might be reading this on is the gateway for evolution. It’s allowing all of us to connect socially, purchase instantly, and communicate constantly. Soon, we’ll only be a few clicks away to buying digital goods across continents thanks to digital currency. We’ll be served up coupons as we walk into retailers. We’ll have way easier times putting together Ikea furniture thanks to augmented reality from innovators like Merlin Mobility. Everything is becoming more and more intertwined so that it won’t be too long that things won’t necessarily be “cloud” or “social” or otherwise. It’ll be answer choice D) all-of-the-above.

Perhaps kind of like in stocks, what you hear is a good stock, the opportunity to strike is already gone. In this case, what the presenters and speakers talked about, they’re working on those opportunities already. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to hear how much mobility has really affected our everyday lives and how flatthe world is really getting (I haven’t read the book to borrow the term).

Also, Atlanta is in a great place for this continuing evolution. We’re very much becoming an incredibly connected city with innovation highlighted by large companies headquartered here or nearby, and spearheaded by a massive entrepreneurial movement. Number 5 in “app intensity” via CTIA. Number 3 city for young entrepreneurs via Forbes. 28 companies in the Fortune 1000 call metro Atlanta home + 4 elsewhere in the state of Georgia (see Metro Atlanta Chamber site). There are way more data points, but those are just some quick indications shared at Mobility LIVE that highlight not only where Atlanta (and Georgia) sit in Mobility, but also the opportunity for Atlanta to continue to influence the evolution.
How is your company addressing the above five themes? What are some other themes you’ve seen in mobility that I didn’t mention?
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Day 2 from Mobility LIVE! Conference in Midtown Atlanta

Michael Zeto of AT&T and former Founder and CEO of Proximus Mobility (sold) kicking things off for Mobility LIVE! Day 2’s keynote!
Day 2 from the Mobility LIVE! conference in Midtown was a full-day affair chock-full of some crazy interesting, provocative speakers. (I was told I should use more “interesting” language to elicit laughs and be more memorable. So for you reading this, you know who you are… you’re welcome.)
Yesterday’s post for Day 1 was much longer than I wanted to type, but it happened, and now I’m afraid of this post because… well, like I said, it’s a full-day rather than the half-day of yesterday. Let’s cut to the chase, that’s all you want to read anyways!
Okay, so here we go — Day 2 Highlights:
Keynote spearheaded by Michael Zeto of AT&T (former CEO of Proximus Mobility — acquired in 2013). Zeto touched on the many strengths of Atlanta as the central hub of the growth and evolution of Mobility.
  • Global data traffic to grow 13x in 2017 from today. That’s an outrageous number, but I’m not arguing
  • Georgia was ranked No. 5 in “app intensity” by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA). App intensity is the number of app economy jobs compared to the overall jobs in the state
  • Razorfish, the marketing/ digital advertising/ etc. agency, is spearheading the Atlanta Pulse initiative to bring together all the happenings around Atlanta into a common platform. Gone are the days (to come anyways) of searching Facebook for what friends are recommending, Yelp! for restaurants, etc.
  • 38% of 2-year-olds have operated a mobile device; 13-years-old… the average age of the first phone (see Common Sense Media)
David Christopher, CMO of AT&T Mobility, shared some of the Top 5 trends he and the company sees during the keynote.
  • Sees mobility in two lights — Leadership & Innovation and Scale (able to capture opportunity now)
  • Cites Forbes’ 2014 ranking of Atlanta as the number 3 best city for young entrepreneurs (see Forbes)
  • Five main trends: Relationship marketing, video, smarter smartphone, wearables, education
  • For Relationship Marketing, the key is marketing at SCALE! That is, how are organizations reaching consumers on a relevant, personable context?
  • Customers believe word-of-mouth over advertising to the tune of 92%!
  • Use advanced analytics to engage audiences
  • David cited Atlanta-based InsightPool as a key player in Relationship Marketing saying, “Delivering sincerity at scale”
  • Video-wise, content should be available anytime, anywhere. AT&T obviously plays a significant role in this with its large LTE network (and beyond)
  • For wearables, the trouble is getting people to actually want to wear it. David cites 75% of people know of wearables, but only 9% want to wear it
  • Need to blend high tech with high fashion. enter: Atlanta-based Memi – smart jewelry “made for and by women”
  • Smarter smartphones really involves making the smartphone the keystone to everyday life including, but not limited to: the connected home, car, TV, music, health, etc.
  • David talked about FIXD, a startup by several Georgia Tech grads who have introduced a way to plug a dongle to the car’s OBD port that sends data to your smartphone to share information including if you have a warning light — what’s that mean? What’s the impact if you ignore? What’s the potential repair estimate? etc.
  • On the education front, David sees a gap to fill in the next generation of STEM leaders
  • David showcases Great Parents Academy who works hard to develop education apps that are engaging for kids
Jeff Mitchell, Vice President of Sales of AirWatch got some airtime to share a couple tidbits, too.
  • Today, we’re in the “Age of the Customer” — this was a prevalent theme throughout the conference where the Customers (users in most cases) have the power to select on-demand what they want to engage in
  • Shift in focus to “How to win in the age of the Customer?”
  • There’s also a shift from “system of record” to “system of engagement”. For this, look no further than Uber which disrupted one of the oldest, entrenched industries
  • Also, look at how to bring social into the enterprise to engage employees (B2E — Business to Employees)
“Prove It: Mobile Media Drives Measurable Actions” session led by Millennial Media’s VP of Sales, Alia Lamborghini (side note: what an incredible last name…)
  • Panel included: Troy Brown of MSL Group (a PR agency) who is bringing app development (and really acumen) to the agency; Sanarr McLaughlin is the Manager of Interactive Marketing for InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG); Chris Bigda of The Coca-Cola Company over Connections Planning and Investments; Lisa Cantrell of Turner Broadcasting serving as the Director of Digital Strategy and Activations; and Erin Arnett, an Account Director of Yahoo!
  • For Chris, “connections planning” includes the paid/ owned media
  • Lisa must consider the sizeable and highly variable audience to which Turner broadcasts to with channels including CNN, TBS, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, etc.
  • Per Alia, 86% of time spent on mobile is in-app vs. internet (see Forbes)
  • There’s a growing interest and attention in anonymous content. Think: Snapchat (kind of), [Atlanta’s own] Yik Yak, etc.
  • The Coca-Cola Company doesn’t store so much consumer data (except for owned data through programs like Coke Rewards). Instead, the Company partners with other companies for more data (like agencies, McDonald’s, etc.)
  • Mobile marketing is more “finite” by being a lot easier to measure than TV (conversions, impressions, etc.). There’s a better sense of Return on Engagement
  • One area of opportunity is the growing fragmentation of screen sizes including this “phatblet” phenomenon whereby many companies are designing mobile web-responsive sites. However, their digital ads are not properly formatted
“Think Outside the Bricks and Mortar: Understanding How Mobile is Moving Retailers” session led by Mike Neumeier, Principal of the Arketi Group (B2B marketing/ PR agency)
  • Panel included: David Wilkinson, VP of Global Channel Sales for NCR; Jeffrey Smith, the COO of PeterBrooke Chocolatier; David Kaiser of Great American Cookies as a Vice President; and Brooks Robinson, Co-Founder and CEO of Atlanta’s Springbot
  • First, what a SWEET group of panelists! (See what I did there? Well, they said it before me…)
  • For Wilkinson, he’s focused on the omni-channel experience. Mobile is really an evolution of the physical store front
  • Per Wilkinson, the “consumer driving the experience” — not different from the general theme of the conference
  • Jeffrey noted how his company’s many stores were moving towards mobile Point-of-Sale to better engage the Customer right as he/ she walks into the store. In fact, he was touting NCR as his POS of choice with Silver to leverage iPads
  • There’s a shift in the mentality and even the demographic of the employee behind the retailer when utilizing a mobile POS including getting out from behind the counter which used to be a natural barrier that isolated the cashier from the customer
  • 95% of PeterBrooke customers are women on the regular. Irregular probably being around Valentine’s Day or when men get in trouble with their significant others…
  • The demographic for PeterBrooke is also a little older where some consumers still don’t have smartphones. So for the Company, the phone number is key as an identifier (reminds me of WhatsApp)
  • For Kaiser and Great American Cookies, they have 5 different brands (including the cookie cake company we all know and love (okay, me especially), Marble Slab Creamery, etc.)
  • Kaiser and Company are looking at mobile as a means to have a strong online order platform
  • Like PeterBrooke, Great American Cookies is looking at NCR for Silver as their POS of choice. I’m wondering now if this was all a set-up that the two retailers are touting a fellow panel member’s new product… Hmm…
  • The cost and set-up of using a mobile POS is minimal with incredible benefits including the ability to engage the EMPLOYEES through learning management. Also, these POS systems enable better customer experiences by connecting loyalty programs
  • Great American Cookies noticed 60% of visitors a couple years ago to the mobile site also signed up for their loyalty program (that’s a great attach rate…)
  • For Springbot (very cool company that I’ve heard a lot about in the Atlanta startup scene), they can see data for hundreds of stores. They’ve noticed big shifts of mobile traffic from 19 to 28% over the last year
  • Like the earlier panel “Prove It”, Brooks sees a lot of merchants forgetting to mind the message and formats of their email marketing campaigns. If emails aren’t formatted properly for the mobile device, merchants aren’t going to reach customers (who can read that??!)
  • Speed of the site from an infrastructure perspective is a growing critical element… one that even Google’s ranking system takes into account
  • Springbot sends nightly email with recommendations to the customer (the retailer) on improvements — go beyond just dashboards and reports by actually suggesting
  • David Kaiser is a HUGE advocate for a simple box that can aggregate and consolidate data across multiple POS systems. For Great American Cookies’ franchises, they can sit on different POS’s… getting meaningful data can be a challenge
  • A lot of excitement and interest in Apple Pay as well as Apple Passbook as means to not only pay via mobile to engage new, younger audiences, but also the ability to replace merchant-specific apps. Most consumers really don’t want to download and install new apps
  • Merchant-specific apps really have to add a lot of value in order to get engagement
Great. I just wrote another lengthy post… I didn’t even attend the last two session rounds, either. This was more or less an extrapolation of my notes I took. Very interesting insights, and I’ll need a few days (probably a week for next week’s blog post since I just wrote two this week for this) to digest and share my own personal thoughts.
Overall, really great event, and I’m excited it’s mobilizing Atlanta’s influential companies to gather and share. I attended the event for some additional inspiration in addition to satiate my technological interest. I’m looking forward to the event’s growth next year with perhaps some additional, event-friendly venues (you should use local startup Gather to help, Metro Atlanta Chamber!) as well as integrating some more startup companies — mostly early-stage as the there were a number of advanced startups present. Adding in some foreign companies (beyond Georgian borders) will be good, too.
Also, event somewhat aside, it’s evident Atlanta is indeed sitting on the cutting edge and as a central hub for the mobile (r-)evolution. It’s exciting to hear all the stats beyond shown up on the projectors for all the great things Atlanta is being known for as well as the growth of the industry and the opportunities that abound for this great city. Heck, just look around at all the recruiting companies in attendance. Also, shout out to my under grad alma mater The Georgia Institute of Technology for getting all sorts of recognition and a source for a lot of the innovation happening in mobile. You could really see and hear and really witness how Georgia Tech is a major catalyst for the ecosystem. It’s all great news for not just Atlanta and the state of Georgia, but also for the country and the world.
To next year’s Mobility LIVE! conference! See you there.
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Day 1 from Mobility LIVE! Conference in Midtown Atlanta

Mobility LIVE! put on by the Metro Atlanta Chamber is in its second year September 23-24. The conference calls Atlanta home with some of the most influential enterprises (especially, less on startups) around the mobile [r]evolution

So this was a cool little surprise that I learned about a month ago that there was going to be this conference called Mobility LIVE! in Atlanta hosted by the good people of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. The conference runs for two days bringing together some of the most influential companies together to share their thoughts on mobile technology, and how they’re companies are “mobilizing” to both capture the opportunity and address it.

Mobile’s obviously not new, and it was touted as the greatest inflection points since the invention (or coming about) of the internet.
Day 1 was really just a half-day, and I sat in on a couple sessions as well as the “after-party” at Opera. (What an interesting place Opera is when the lights are actually on and the place isn’t full of… characters.)
So here are some random collection of thoughts and observations from Day 1:

Business Transformed Session starring Brett Cooper (CEO of BlueFletch Mobile (a mobile development company)) who moderated the panel, Jaspal Sagoo (CTO of the CDC), Margaret Martin(CEO of Merlin Mobility, Inc.), Matt Jones (GM of Mobile at Home Depot), and Anthony Gallippi(Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of BitPay)
  • From Jaspal, the opportunity in mobile lies in “speed to science”. That is, the ability to empower epidemiologists in the field to quickly analyze data. The CDC, as many people are aware of the Ebola outbreak in Africa are hearing about, must deal with lots of issues around analysis and the speed to which they can understand pandemics. The U.S. is obviously incredibly structured with robust communication lines. In Africa, these are luxuries nowhere to be found.
  • From Margaret, Merlin Mobility sees her company’s endeavor into Augmented Reality as a key piece in the future to empower largely two functions: sales and training. From a sales perspective, contractors or merchants can super-impose images of potential products and how they fit thereby enabling faster, more effective sales opportunities. Very interesting to see how they’re also working with companies in the entertainment industry (like amusement parks) to engage customers in situations like long queues.
  • I got a chance to catch up with Margaret later in the day, and she didn’t mention “marketing” explicitly, but she does see marketing as a function of sales, just much earlier in the funnel.
  • Per Matt, Home Depot sees mobile as an additive experience/ tool for consumers in the stores. For many retailers, mobile means “showrooming” and lost sales. For Matt, he sees mobile as a way to empower customers who walk into Home Depot’s 2,000 stores as means to search for products, validate products, and ultimately, make a buying decision.
  • Anthony (“Tony”) of BitPay sees mobile as a very young, nascent world in payments. Many payment processing startups and companies are built on credit cards which was largely structured 50, 60, 70 years ago. The world is changing to embrace more digital currencies where open structures will dictate real regulation versus the highly lobbied regulations of today’s financial institutions.
  • There’s a feeling of excitement and apprehension to Apple Pay – Apple’s solution/ foray into mobile payments announced during Apple’s recent Worldwide Developer Conference. The general feeling is that Apple has a way of creating markets and creating inflection points where previous companies may have struggled to get significant handholds. However, there’s still lingering effects of Apple duds including Apple Maps that reminds these Execs that not everything Apple touches will turn to gold.
  • Tony sees Apple Pay as a great enabler for larges swathes of the market to start embracing their mobile phones as means for payment. He likes to look at emerging markets in this respect as in many emerging markets, most people don’t have bank accounts. Bank accounts are for the wealthy. However, everyone has a cell phone, and for many citizens in emerging markets, payments can include the exchange of minutes.
  • Mitigating against the risk of Amazon or other ecommerce sites, Home Depot cites its competitive advantages as actually BEING those 2,000 stores. It gives Home Depot incredible reach and localism where they may branch into more delivery options beyond just the “ship-to-store-for-free”. Instead, they may start exploring “ship-to-consignee” from its stores. That is, each one of its stores may be mini-distribution centers. Now, imagine how great that would be for its network of professionals and contractors – who account for 33% of Home Depot’s business – that may need delivery of goods same-day.
  • Talk of drones? Meh. It’s cool, but there are some heavy regulations on that. And besides, delivering a book is cool, but delivering a “bumper” would be bit taller (higher?) task.
  • Margaret sees a growing desire for hands-free applications including leveraging augmented (and virtual) reality technologies. Things like wearables including Google’s Glass are just the tip of the iceberg now.
  • Tony sees the next great wave of opportunities in globalization/ global commerce. The challenge for this today is transactions (payments) across borders. With digital currencies like Bitcoins, those challenges can be greatly addressed.

Hack-Back Invitational Finalist presentations… for the last 30 days, teams create hacks (technology solutions) to address problems for three major social enterprises home-based in Atlanta – American Cancer Society, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, and Points of Light.

  • For the American Cancer Society, it looked like the major problem points/ opportunities they tasked teams to do was utilizing technology to connect the community of the Cancer Survivors Network (CSN). That could include opportunities connect those undergoing treatment, those who have undergone treatment, survivors, etc.
  • The Boys and Girls Clubs of America looked to showcase the positive effects of clubs as part of its programs for prospects, members, and those affiliated with the members (including family members, friends, etc.). Hacks were largely built around club discovery and showcasing those who have stories from their experiences and how they’ve leveraged those experiences into their present.
  • The Points of Light organization seemed to want to address areas including getting involved via volunteer opportunities and creating greater awareness of the organization’s efforts.
  • Great to see so many hackers on the finalist teams with what seemed like other non-entrepreneurial backgrounds. Some teams were formed from their work colleagues who just wanted to work together to help solve these problems for great organizations.
  • One of the Magentic teams showed off its cool augmented reality hack as a way to raise awareness of the Points of Light historical landmarks. That is, if you were in D.C., for example, you could hover your phone (with the app) over a point of reference such as a landmark, and get a super-imposed image of a famous figure to share his/ her historical achievement. Their vision was to also sell “coins” so you could really learn more about different landmarks and the like without having to actually travel. The proceeds from selling these coins would go to Points of Light.

Other interesting things included the Tino Mantella (CEO of the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG)) speaking after the Hack-Back presentations about the outstanding demand for engineers and programmers here in the state of Georgia.

  • Many CIOs are citing 6 months to fill some programming needs.
  • With the Governor of Georgia, TAG is working to implement ‘Code & Programming’ courses for credit in all high schools àgo beyond the 100 out of 400 high school programs who actually have advanced placement (AP) courses for programming today

Overall, the conference has been positive, and it’s great to see a lot of large, established companies come together to share their visions on the mobile front. The conference hasn’t been without its hiccups (mostly technical, ironically enough), but it’s in its 2nd year, and looks promising for future set-ups. Though, I’m a little disappointed there aren’t more sessions specifically about startups and innovation as well as even a tour of Tech Square so close by. Either way, I’m excited for some great speakers and panels tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll continue to make some great networking connections, and get some interesting inspiration for what’s coming Tomorrow.
What are your thoughts on any of the findings above? What questions do you have or would you ask any of these companies?
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