Mobile Monday at Columbus Circle . . .

Tonight I attended an event called MobileMonday held at Columbus Circle, and I must say, my expectations were not met. Don't get me wrong, the topic in paper, the description, was interesting... I mean, who does not want to learn more about the Internet, mobile content, and the many ways that products/services can reach customers.

Panelist included:
Berge Ayvazian, Chief Strategy Officer, Yankee Group
Carl Taylor, Director of Applications & Services, Hutchison Whampoa Europe
Charles McCathieNevile Chief Standards Officer, Opera Software
Sean Owen, Software Engineer, Google
Matt Womer, Mobile Web Initiative Lead Americas, W3C
Vance P. Hedderel, Director, PR and Communications, dotMobi

Despite the list of hotshots, the first half of the 'discussion' was a meager attempt to define the term 'ubiquitous.' As interesting as this sounds, and however potentially useful it may be, the conversation was starting to deviate from what really matters . . .how to make the web and its content more accessible to everyone, everywhere, etc.

Thankfully, Sean Owen spoke pragmatically about what a customer needs and expects from mobile technology and Internet content. It was his short but poignant conclusionary statements on every topic discussed that propelled me to stay a little bit longer.

Realizing that the panelist know a lot more about the industry than what showed through the round table discussion, I stuck around and spoke with panelist and attendees in order to gain more insight as to where the industry is headed. Though I spoke with several key panelist, my brief conversation with Sean was the most interesting. He mentioned a pixel technology that is used often in Asia (japan i think), whereby a consumer takes a picture of a coupon and then a software program converts the blurred, or less than perfect image, into a crisp image that is presentable to vendors. Vendors then accept the digital coupon, and there you go, savings abound!!

I found the concept interesting, considering that there are many startup companies delivering mobile coupons. I wonder how Wan Yuan feels about this topic, considering that he has recently founded and launched 8coupons.com, a mobile based coupon service serving NYC....

Either way, I met some interesting people, had some great snacks, saw the latest technology (since the discussion was sponsored by Samsung), and more importantly learned about how industry pros view the future of mobile technology. The key takeaway is that mobile technology in the future will be everywhere (or anywhere), do everything, and be ubiquitous.