Mobile Strategy Conference

Eighty percent of twitter usage is mobile; over half of the books sold on Amazon are for Kindle’s; and over a quarter of Europeans have watched a video on a mobile device in the last month. Why is this of notable importance? Because is shows that mobile has become the mainstream option for European consumers, let alone those around the globe.

From mobile excesses in content targeting and distribution to innovations in smart phone technology and multi-platform software resolutions, companies are looking towards mobile as the new portfolio standard – and with Google declaring that they now design for smartphones before working back into tablets and PC’s, it’s time for companies to grasp, as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt repeated time and time again, the mantra of “mobile first” and cement themselves in the fastest growing media in history.

But once it’s been grasped, where to next for the industry? What will the mobile ecosystem look like a few years down the line? What will involve itself within the multi-channel strategy; where will the social network position itself next; how will consumer loyalty and retention change? All these questions and more will be walked through in this insightful opening keynote address.

Key takeaways:

• An holistic overview of the opportunities afforded to mobile as mainstream media – from monetisation to technological innovation

• A path to the future: What’s next for the mobile ecosystem; where will its strengths lie in years down the line?

• Measurement: How to define the right path for your enterprise, inclusive of analytical solutions and ensuring creative freedom

Speakers: 

• Stefan Schulz, EVP, Vivendi
• Rob Grimshaw, MD, FT.com
• Robert Fahle, Head of Mobile, RTL
• David Gibbs, Director Mobile, BSkyB

Without images, headers, tags and prices, what would Amazon be but an empty shell? How would BBC News survive if it couldn’t relay real-time bulletins to its audience? Today’s websites rely on providing the right content to the right people at the right time. But today, getting it on the right platform is just as pivotal. Cross-platform delivery and organisational design will define the success of web 2.0 business – and the continued emergence of remote internet access through mobile platforms is undoubtedly the future.

The question is: How do you effectively understand the medium whilst targeting a specific audience for that particular channel? Ultimately, in a world obsessed with the end user, it’s difficult not to preach about user-centered design, but should more focus should be placed on user-balanced design – where the organisation’s communication goals are sufficiently balanced? Should companies looking to migrate into the world of mobile be producing an independent content strategy or, in contrast, be expanding a cohesive and holistic content strategy cross-platform?

Key takeaways:

• What adaptations to a company’s existing content strategy are necessary for the mobile transition?

• In the world of mobile, knowledge is king: Understand your research, users, and constraints and benefits of any given channel and you’ll elevate your content strategy exponentially

• The right fit: Content strategy is a broad umbrella – working out what strategy works best for your enterprise is half of the battle to a successful transition

Mobile web traffic is unpredictable and isolated from your operational hours – yet your audience expect your mobile websites and apps to be entirely functional all of the time. In-house legacy systems, while historically sufficient, require you to plan for demand, buy peak season resources and create disaster recovery plans. So what do you do? Well, for a number of mobile strategists, looking into the cloud has become a saving grace.

And while the cloud is increasingly being seen as a panacea for storing on-demand content and ensuring mobile strategies are as optimised as feasibly possible, its potential is yet to be fully appreciated – with many companies still undecided as to whether their content (and indeed strategy) really needs it. But the reality dictates otherwise, and this workshop will map out the reasons why.

Key takeaways:

• How can you secure your content in the cloud without compromising on system flexibility?

• With the continued rise of consumer technology and expectations inherent within, what can the cloud offer in strategy evolutions?

• How embedded devices are likely to result in an explosion of new ‘sensor-based’ cloud technologies and solutions

When Rovio announced last year that it would sell 100 million copies of Angry Birds, few took them seriously. Fast-forward six months and 50 million downloads later however, and those few have turned into the majority. Combine that with FarmVille developers, Zynga, and it becomes glaringly obvious: mobile gaming is taking the industry by storm.

In the face of such success, more traditional gaming platforms are, quite understandably, looking to the future for answers. Cheaper to develop and far easier to reach a wider audience, mobile gaming is changing not only the way consumers play and interact, but more importantly how they perceive the market and their buying power. What will become of the gaming hearted? How will mobile gaming evolve the overarching gaming community down the line? One thing is certain: the nucleus of gaming has moved to mobile.

Key takeaways:

• The transition of ‘traditional’ gaming developers into the world of mobile: What does it mean for mobile gaming?

• An overview of consumer perspectives and expectations affecting market play

• Cost and quality: Why mobile gaming is shaking up tradition and what the future holds for ‘smart players’

The days of believing that mobile services and products is all about fitting the internet onto phones is thankfully drifting into the background – and with it, so too is the misconception that an m-commerce strategy is merely an e-commerce site mirrored onto the handheld screen. From mobile payments, via mobile browsing and search, there’s no avoiding the fact that m-commerce is exploding onto the scene as one of the biggest trends for 2012 as its potential continues to be unveiled. But how can you ensure you’re pushing boundaries and customer experiences with your m-commerce strategy?

Key takeaways:

• Understanding consumer needs – and why behavioural data can give your m-commerce strategy the leverage it needs

• How can you seamlessly integrate your e-commerce and m-commerce strategies to improve your bottom line?

• Through the crystal ball: How to position your mobile commerce strategy and stay one step ahead of your competitors

As smart devices continue to shrink the ever-growing world of binary neatly into legions of outstretched hands, the security needed to secure those worlds continues to work in overdrive, relentlessly protecting millions of consumers from becoming the latest in a long line of ‘virtual victims’. And whilst open source platforms and mobile banking have played a significant part in upping the security stakes in recent mobile cycles, the immanent unveiling of NFC and the next generation of identification-based mobile apps will be the true test for key mobile security players looking to spearhead the industry and combat a new army of security threats waiting in the wings.

Key takeaways:

 • A holistic overview of smart device platforms and their susceptibility to security threats – and how the future will change their operating architectures

• Smartphone and tablet software innovations: From jailbreaking to sandboxing

• How can the industry become multi-talented in its security efforts? A look at the spectrum, from corporate to personal security

Whether a camera app or an entire mobile interface, users expect the best possible experience every time they pick up a mobile device. This means an efficient, reliable underlying system, original aesthetics embedded within a progressive experience model – and, if applicable, the ability to connect with the mobile social ether. So while you might think that your website, mobile site, channel or app delivers exactly that to your users, the truth is often far from the reality of today’s user expectations.

This cast study will examine the ever-improving mobile user experience as a key driver in moving the industry forward, taking into consideration the multiple layers of a mobile user experience. From mobile device hardware, through mobile operating systems and finishing with mobile websites and apps as the proverbial icing on the cake, this case study will take you on a journey through the world of mobile 2.0 user experience in a big to highlight where you can enhance your enterprise’s mobile to web user experience.

Key takeaways:

• What characteristics are appealing top certain market segments when it comes to mobile handsets and network technology?

• How to align your mobile movements to work sympathetically with advances in mobile operating systems moving into 2012 and beyond

• Outside the box: Working from the user perspective is key to breaking down barriers when it comes to user experience – get it right and watch as you set the trend

For years now, service providers around the world have been offering bundled services to maximise return from network investments, add value to customer relationships, reduce churn and generate incremental revenue. Bundling certainly adds value, but if SPs stop there, they’re not fully exploiting the potential benefits available: The next stage is to integrate their services, offering customers a converged, seamless experience across device platforms.

Doing so will cocoon the consumer and SP brands, add substantial value to their customer experience and further insulate the SP from subscriber loss. The question is: What challenges lay in wait for SPs and companies looking to distribute multiplatform video; what are the drivers for content and SPs to enter into this space; and what technology components are required to do so?

Key takeaways:

• Over 38 percent of SPs worldwide strongly agree that multiplatform is a priority – but what challenges do they consider a priority?

• A detailed breakdown of the main technology elements required for multiplatform video distribution and the standards initiatives that may impact the market

• From traditional telecom vendors to wireless media technology providers, defining correct multiplatform structures will aid implementation and streamline distribution

Whether its apps, streaming services, third party media players or mobile campaigns – music is the heartbeat of our newly connected world. We can interact with the world around us as we Shazam unfamiliarity; we can discover new music through remote recommendations; and by all means feel free to take your music library with you wherever you go.

So while you hear the music industry championing its plummeting record sales, the reality is that music is more interactive than it’s ever been before despite the defragmentation of an industry, thanks to mobile devices. Artists have the tools needed to reach their fans and form bonds previously impossible. The future of music is certainly mobile – but where do we go from here?

Key takeaways:

• A look at music marketing campaigns dedicated to mobile channels – and why an increasing number of campaigns are going the same route

• The inclusion of offline tools such as QR codes, NFC and Augmented reality – and their involvement in future marketing movements for music

• How are music apps evolving the way we think and interact with the world around us?

With an estimated 4.6 billion mobile devices around the world, over 200 million active Facebook users regularly logging on to the social networking site and a plethora more floating in the proverbial ether, mobile social media marketing is growing, quite literally, by the second. Every swipe of a finger on an iPhone is a marketing opportunity; every click of a Blackberry the chance to garner further consumer data to be recycled in a marketing strategy; every Android shake a possibility to capture a social engagement that your company could help develop.

The smartphone has disrupted what we understood to be a cellular telephone. What is needed is a new grasp on the mobile landscape. How can web-based marketers take advantage of the convergence of an always-connected society and social media to leverage next generation marketing strategies for the wireless world?

Key takeaways:

• Best practices for ensuring your marketing strategies are viewable on mobile devices

• Strategies on effective SMS or text message-based marketing campaigns

• What is your mobile marketing strategy missing when it comes to social media – and how do you fill the gaps?

We all know that in today’s instantly gratified society, consumers expect to have everything at their fingertips – fingertips that are usually attached to a mobile device. Combine that with a love for shopping and online transactions – €2 billion in 2010 alone – and a drip-feed of mobile banking, and it doesn’t take a genius to work out that we’re after a world centered around the ‘binary wallet’; a world where card-crunching wallets and pockets full of change become a thing of the past.

However, the current reality is far from this contactless utopia. From banks to merchants, mobile carriers to tech titans, conceiving a working infrastructure to induce streamlined and fully functional mPayment systems is unsurprisingly complex. Of course, we’ve all heard the recent NFC whispers – but what does the mPayments landscape really look like? How will players cross-industry align to open the doors for consumers? And perhaps most interestingly, how will consumer sentiment affect its uptake?

Key takeaways:

• How can we create an open platform that will enable future third-party service innovation – and what might those services look like?

• Rather lose a wallet than a phone: Securing next generation mPayment technologies to reassure customer demographics across the board

• The components of an integrated mPayment strategy: From the offer to the data

With over half a million apps available to download on iOS and Android platforms alone, there’s no denying that consumers are adopting apps as fast as developers can get them released. But with such a fierce market at play, helping your app stand out from the competition is proving increasingly more challenging. Combine that with recent innovations in visual and audio smartphone searches, and it’s all to play for when it comes to unveiling the best practices in mobile app discovery.

This workshop will endeavour to unveil the best practices in app creation, taking into consideration routes to discovery and visibility from app inception, what it means to implement a sound app discovery strategy – and how developers are becoming more integrated throughout the process.

Key takeaways:

• The varying non-exhaustive routes: From app creation to discovery

• Innovative case studies from around the globe to prove best practices in mobile app discovery

• What does the future hold for app marketing? How can marketers ensure best-in-class reputations while creating room to manoeuvre in the event of failures?

Instagram has a snap-happy community of over five million users; Foursquare is covering its corners with a cool 10 million Foursquarers; and lest we forget the smallest of binary blue birds with its Twitter span in excess of 100 million. We all love to feel part of something, and communities are the epitome of that sentiment, mobile or otherwise. But when it comes to the world of mobile, being part of a community has become a mere inception point.

With the ever-advancing and immediate opportunities prevalent within location-based services, communities are now living, breathing and moving bodies with the ability to accelerate the bonds between their physical and virtual realms. But once you’ve established a location-based community, how can you tame its exponential marketing and crowd-sourcing powers? And, perhaps more importantly, how do you define when location-based communities are the right fit for your strategy?

Key takeaways:

• Ten percent of mobile owners use LBS at least once a week – and that figure is rapidly rising. What does this mean for the power element of location-based communities?

• From coupons to gamification: How geo-location and LBS is encouraging community interaction like never before

• How to measure the potential ‘power’ of your location-based community – and understand the myriad implications for your community in the void between online and offline worlds.

While the world of magazine publishers has got to grips with taking their page-turners digital in recent months, a nagging question has raised its head in the realms of digital – and indeed mobile – content development: HTML5 or native apps? Well, regardless of perspective, one thing is certain – mobile is going to be pivotal to the future of product and content strategy, and HTML5 should offer that seamless access standard, cross-platform, that both consumers and brands have been yearning for.

But could it all be a case of polishing the golden statue and watching as the lacquer comes off in your hands? With many still uncertain of HTML5’s readiness, its early adopters might feel they’re taking a leap of faith in converting, but the reality is that – with mobile becoming a larger component of media access and consumers digesting content across multiple devices and platforms – the future of content and product evolution has to involve HTML5.

Key takeaways:

• How to integrate HTML5 into future mobile strategies without incurring the costs and headaches

• What can HTML5 offer you? A run down of the top tips for publishers and brands looking to create cross-platform and device content – and how HTML5 is paving the way for seamless mobile video content

• The battle for fingers: Moderating the arguments of HTML5 and native apps

As the smartphone market increases, so does the popularity and demand for instant messaging apps, and immediate social platforms such as Twitter continue to gain more users daily with its integration on mobile devices. With so many rapid leaps forward in consumer technology, the way in which people communicate with one another is rapidly evolving. So where does that leave SMS messaging?

Indeed, it has been the bread and butter of many a mobile strategy since text messaging began. But with an intense myriad of shiny new messaging services and applications popping up across smartphone screens, many believe SMS is living on borrowed time. However, the reality is thus: it remains the backbone of text-based mobile communication and still holds its own among a market of new competition– let alone the nostalgic hearts of many a consumer. The question is: How can you leverage the competition and ensure your SMS movements continue to engage and target effectively as part of your campaign or strategy? What does this mean for mobile operators and their customers? And, perhaps most interestingly, where will SMS position itself in the mobile ecosystem over the next few years?

Key takeaways:

• What is the best way to communicate with your target audience – and where does SMS fit in?
• Turning adversity into advantage: How linking SMS in with offline campaigns and social media platforms can induce a personalised approach to traditional SMS marketing
• How can SMS help mobile operators cement their brand whilst exponentially improving customer experience levels, and indeed security, at the same time?

There was a time when a pixelated snake chasing its tail was cutting edge mobile entertainment; where carrying a dozen mp3’s was considered remarkable; and when sending an email from anywhere but your dial-up desktop was deemed ludicrous. Enter the smartphones of today, with their armoury of innovative technologies, operating systems and applications, and it soon becomes clear that they’ve surpassed anything thought possible 15 years ago.

Moreover, today’s smartphones have reached a point where they are now challenging traditional technologies such as digital cameras, GPS and even televisions. Question is: How does the industry ensure it continues to challenge whilst remaining true to its core assets? How do companies get the best from their technologies without falling short of consumer expectations? How do you truly know why a consumer chooses a smartphone app over more traditional, standalone devices? Understanding the answers to these questions will not only set you up to produce more savvy technologies, but will open the market to introduce the next generation of smartphone solutions.

Key takeaways:

• Understanding where smartphone hardware is a luxury and a hindrance from the end-user perspective

• Potential hardware trends for 2012 and beyond: Why travelling in the opposite direction isn’t necessarily a negative

• Challenging tradition with the right mobile strategy as a tool to unlocking future innovation

Remember the days of SMS marketing campaigns, stagnantly received on any number of dumbphones you owned throughout your mobile youth? So do we, but fortunately they’ve been replaced by the multimedia vibrancy of smartphone marketing – complete with an ability to engage and interact like never before.

Combine that with the unveiling of augmented reality and object recognition technologies as the latest tip of the iceberg, and the only thing stopping you creating a truly mobile viral campaign is a lack of imagination. From advocacy marketing to content rich, disruptive virals, if you want to elicit a response from your consumers – you’d better be able to disrupt their virtual DNA.

Key takeaways:

• Understanding the colossal array of entrance routes to including mobile virals within your strategy – and how to avoid the pitfalls of poor consumer targeting

• The importance of tracking across demographic contacts and how to leverage ‘advocacy’ marketing through viral campaigns

• A checklist for viral inception: From device to demographic

TV meets PC meets smartphone meets tablet. An average day in an average consumer home. And while your latest TV programme is on a break, what’s left to do but sofa surf the mobile web during the adverts? With only one pair of eyes, consumers still demand multiple screens – and with the explosive growth of IP networks and device choices, it’s something the relative industries can’t ignore.

With it, vendors are responding with new values, technologies and partnerships that allow connections to be made effortlessly across devices and screens. But this is just the start. As marketers and advertisers begin to see the opportunities, what is the multi-screen world we live in likely to entice when it comes to interaction across the board?

Key takeaways:

• Why are multi-screen services so attractive to consumers?

• How are the system architectures across devices likely to evolve within this expanded ecosystem – and where does the cloud fit in?

• The importance of ‘device shifting’ and how to support complex modes of content distribution

Making the invisible visible has always been a powerful tool when it comes to jaw-dropping engagement. Through centuries of magic and illusion – via more recent scientific discoveries – unveiling a previously unseen world never ceases to amaze audiences and ignite the imagination. But with the unveiling of augmented reality (AR) has come an entirely new dimension; one in which not only the invisible become visible, but the virtual becomes reality.

Of course, many will argue that our realities have already become augmented with the emergence of smartphone-enabled GPS and location-based services, but the truth is our reality is yet to be truly augmented as we assess how to infiltrate the space and blurs the lines of perception. And while it continues to crawl through its infancy, plenty of campaigns are already picking up on its infinite potential and morphing realities for their audiences through highly creative campaigns and strategies.

Key takeaways:

• How is augmented reality likely to evolve in the near future across the mobile spectrum – and how will consumer movements change accordingly?

• Learning through example: Breaking down what augmented reality can do for your mobile campaign from those already doing it

• The myriad routes toward enabling linkages between people and their surroundings – and how AR will involve itself in every part of the mobile process, from payments to search, gaming to advertising once licensing fees are established and understood

The goal of most mobile development is to produce an engaging, efficient, and usable solution to a previously cumbersome and labour-intensive process. However, more often than not, by attempting to solve a problem, we usually create new challenges for ourselves. In addition, the typical reason for most conversions to a mobile platform or transitions to mobile software solutions failing is inadequate attention to usability. The characteristics being tested are in constant flux, and usability tests – if done at all – are not dynamic enough to handle the rapidly evolving issues in a mobile solution.

This live Q&A will delve into the issues of creating, designing, implementing and examining mobile usability solutions for both today’s consumer as well as the next generation. From usability tests throughout the development cycle to innovations in interface design, the Q&A is designed to be as open and interactive as possible to allow you the freedom to discuss your challenges and solutions pertaining to mobile device usability issues – and actually achieve answers with meaning.

Key takeaways:

• The argument that usability is holding the industry back – not the technology

• The fundamental importance of the end-user and incorporating that perspective into your company’s principles of good design

• Routes to designing and implementing successful usability tests for a mobile environment

In the pre-smartphone days, art, literature and all things creative were free to roam the social ether as they pleased, void of definition past those of the medium. However, in today’s highly technological and mobile world, creativity has taken to the world of binary, where classic literature can be turned page-by-page on a screen; where 8mm video’s can be recorded on a device the size of your palm; and where an entire library of apps can be logged, searched and bought at the click of a button or swipe of a finger. The problem? Electronic content of any creative sort should create an experience that is better than that of a traditional format. It needs to be additive, not reductive. But most of all, it needs its audience to forget, if only for a moment, what preceded it.

As such, this keynote will step away from the norm of mobile strategy and focus on a more leftfield perspective to take away from the conference – the evolution of content for a growing electronic army and the need to explicitly preserve the art and culture of traditional creativity as we transition to a digital future.

Key takeaways:

• Assessing the cultural sensitivity and inherent creativity of consumers moving into a holistically digital age: what it means to create a better experience

• Perceiving such an approach as complimentary to revenue streams, not necessarily as a revenue stream entity, will entice brand loyalty

• Creating new experiences for consumers and how to avoid the pitfalls of greedy design in the context of a digital market moving forward

Speakers: 

• Alfonso Mariconda, VP Innovation Product Developments, Telecom Italia
• Kennet Radne, SVP Innovation & Portfolio Strategy, Mobility Services, Teliasonera
• Patrice Slupowski, VP Digital Innovation, France Telecom Orange

Coping with high market penetration in an extremely developed mobile market is one of the toughest ongoing challenges facing players in today’s mobile industry. Indeed, with constant improvement across the board – from innovative technologies such as augmented reality to progressions from 3G to 4G bandwidths – keeping pace with new and expanded revenue streams is key to future consolidation and growth. Furthermore, with the industry having moved from its historical closed ecosystem into an exponentially more open one, identifying and understanding the new revenue tributaries trickling into the main source that is mobile 2.0 is pivotal to securing and monetising mobile 2.0 services. The question is: How do you decide which tributary to float your best interests down?

This panel discussion will delve into the various revenue streams, both present and emerging, that are likely to shape monetisation options for mobile 2.0 players, taking into consideration the proverbial puzzle pieces needed in order for advertising, combined with location, identity, web frameworks, analytics and even augmented reality to create the next billion Euro opportunity for mobile.

Key takeaways:

• What initiatives and specific technologies from platform leaders are likely to help publishers make money from the mobile apps and services over the next 18 months?

• How are economics likely to improve for location-based and augmented reality services?

• As new payment services and bandwidths enter the market, how will your company position itself to leverage the best possible assets and entice new revenue streams?

If comScore’s report back in 2009 was anything to go by, mobile marketing and social concepts were to become the panacea for the severely declining face of consumer brand-loyalty. And they weren’t wrong. In the two years since, mobile has exploded onto the scene with its smart technologies, and with it brought about an interesting mix of Generation X, Y and Millennial perspectives regarding brand loyalty.

But with social and digital media continuing to push the aspirational boundaries of engagement, how can mobile maintain its involvement as a key ingredient in the recipe for stronger brand loyalty? As we take our next steps into the mobile arena, how will the various demographic mobile bands align themselves with brands through mobile platforms? And, perhaps most importantly, how can brands position themselves to better engage their consumers and entice a new breed of brand advocates?

Key takeaways:

• Understanding that nothing is B2B or B2C – but P2P – Person-to-Person

• How the mobile platform is changing and evolving consumer expectations with it: What does this mean from an engagement perspective – and how can your brand leverage it accordingly?

• Are loyal consumers brand advocates, or merely return customers? An overview of how mobile is changing the way we assume consumer identities

As organisations swell with the sheer volume of technology available – mobile or otherwise – and employees advance their efforts to become exponentially more mobile, the beacon for increasingly efficient workplaces and streamlined mobile activities continues to shine brighter than ever before. VoIP and email have enhanced the ability of organisations to provide employees with information when and where they need it through the aggressive adoption of smartphones, but what is needed to induce the next wave of UC solutions? How will customer services join hands with user experience to produce a streamlined UC strategy? And, perhaps most interestingly, where does the Cloud fit in with the bigger picture?

Key takeaways:

 • Which new and complementary technologies are likely to enable better collaboration within the workforce; is it all down to mobile?

• How to execute an effective UC strategy: Why implementing UC into an existing infrastructure could be more than detrimental

• Assessing your core touch points: What it means for your employees, your bottom line – but most importantly, your operations

The silver bullet formula for mobile search: Pinpoint accuracy with minimal input and no distractions. And while we might be some way off that pinnacle, there’s no denying that the mobile search arena is evolving at breakneck speed. From location-based searches to context-aware services, consumers utilise their smartphone’s search capabilities more than any other device – a point that isn’t lost on the mobile ecosystem.

But the fundamental issues of consumer perceptions still need to be grasped in order to induce the next generation of search capabilities. Understanding input and output methods spanning the gamut of text, voice and image to build out better search routes will inevitably bolster content discovery – but how do we ensure search continues to push the boundaries of tailored consumer search in a world exponentially fuelled by mobile immediacy?

Key takeaways:

• With mobile search forecast to reach 40 percent by 2015, how will SEO and optimised search solutions need to react accordingly?

• With the continued emergence of voice and local search – how could traditional SEO be affected?

• What are the important trends underlying the growth of mobile search, and how do the key mobile search technologies fit in accordingly?

Thousands of people across Europe log in to their various business apps everyday, checking up on industry movements and interacting with the world of news and markets in a bid to stay ahead of the game – but what if what they were logging in to was, quite literally, a real-time, contextual game of business? A game where leadership, knowledge, conflict resolution and analytical skills are assessed, nurtured and improved exponentially through massively multiplayer online gaming (MMOG) and a worldwide community of like-minded users?

Of course, the gaming industry is light-years ahead when it comes to its use of MMOG, with famous titles such as World Of Warcraft having already generated in excess of 12 million subscribers worldwide and supplied them with the skills needed to lead, function and work seamlessly as a team – but what they’ve proved is that MMOG is a priceless breeding ground for leaders, dynamic thought and progressing objectives.

However, the quandary currently being faced by business communities and app developers is how best to utilise MMOG to create a truly innovative, rewarding and progressive mobile tool to encapsulate a business community in a social world – one where, for the first time ever, corporate executives can improve their skills, assets and knowledge base whilst being remunerated with real-time incentives and networking opportunities throughout a worldwide community.

Key takeaways:

• Learning from the gaming industry: How MMOG has changed the perception of an online community and the privileges afforded to its users – and how the same can be achieved for business ‘players’

• The challenges of an online, real-time business community within the context of MMOG – how will developers need to change the system architecture and interactions to entice the right results?

• It’s all in the game: What are business ‘players’ likely to want to achieve from playing an MMOG, both in response to outcomes and geo-location incentives?

As organisations look to capitalise on the mobility revolution, behind the scenes countless heads are being scratched in a bid to decide on the best foot forward. Indeed, operators are employing 4G network services whilst simultaneously eliminating unlimited pricing plans; a growing number of consumers want to use their personal devices in a working environment and thus fundamentally alter the security picture for IT managers; and the sheer range of devices is stifling business managers’ ability to mobilise more applications for their workforce.

Undoubtedly, a call for the proverbial silver bullet is needed – one that develops a sound enterprise mobility policy that simultaneously protects organisations while cost effectively optimising business processes – and this workshop hopes to provide a blueprint for precisely that.

Key takeaways:

 • How to balance consumerisation with security and management, and enable business transformation through mobility

• The impact of tablets, embedded wireless and M2M applications

• What direction the future footprints of enterprise mobility are likely to take

Location-based apps are taking off in a big way. With Foursquare alone currently averaging around 3 million check-ins a day, it’s evident that people genuinely enjoy having technology that allows them to interact with the world they live in. Moreover, the world they react in is rapidly becoming more digital than analogue.

This growing adoption of smartphone use, combined with location-based services, is opening up a world of possibilities for the retail and hospitality industries. Questions on the minds of most retailers will no doubt be: how do I provide value and relevance to my mobile customers in order to increase foot traffic, and increase customer spending? Location-based marketing can be revolutionary in achieving these goals. Are you ready for the retail marketing revolution?

Key takeaways:

• Six steps to integrate location based marketing into your campaigns and strategies

• Learn how agencies work together with mobile operators to reach brands and deliver successful case studies

• Check out European facts and figures on the market and how location-based marketing is likely to evolve in the future

We’re all well aware of the numerous and never-ending debates surrounding mobile versus web applications. Does your strategy need an app, or should you be optimising a website for mobile? Well, unfortunately there’s never usually a simple answer – and it’s become a lot more than just thinking about the biased vision of reality in Apple versus Google, app versus web.

Indeed, the reality is that with four technical configurations to deal with – from native to hybrid, dedicated to generic apps – you need to understand both your demographic and strategy in order to make an informed decision. But ultimately what it comes down to is this: it’s all about context. And that context is evolving at a rapid pace. Focus on acquiring and understanding your users’ behaviours and expectations.

Key takeaways:

• Regardless of route, you shouldn’t replicate your entire web site. Instead, focus on what brings most value in a mobile context

• An overview of the ‘true’ app configuration choices and how to judge their efficacy within the context of your mobile strategy

• What do your users want? How to avoid the pitfalls of a ‘selfish’ strategy and be honest to your consumer strengths

If you’re remotely interested in mobile (and if you’re reading this, we’re concerned if you’re not!) you’ll be acutely aware of the QR war waging on behind the mobile marketing scenes. Heads are being scratched – and many an industry critic has got on the point-and-laugh bandwagon in recent months – over ridiculously executed QR code campaigns and marketing efforts. What we’ve come to realise is thus: marketers love them, consumers don’t have a clue. So is that it for the QR code hardcore?

Well, while we’re don’t consider ourselves psychic, we know this for sure: if QR codes are to become anything more than a fad, things have to change exponentially. Marketers need to take a step back and understand how consumers connect with the offline world and why an appreciation for disruptive marketing is key to enticing new levels of engagement. They need to grasp better measurement qualities, and they need to keep it simple. In essence, and with every pun intended, they need to ‘think outside the box’.

Key takeaways:

• Top tips to avoid the myriad pitfalls already uncovered by failed QR campaigns – and how to improve the market in doing so

• QR codes and mobile web pages: Three advantages to simply encoding URLs, and using the subsequent mobile web page to deliver content – flexibility, measurability and simplicity

• Case studies of successful QR code campaigns: How to work within the confines of your demographic while still delivering ground-breaking creative campaigns

Mobile phones are prolific in today's society – but that doesn’t mean that all mobile phones are smartphones, as we well know. At the crux of difference, the smartphone’s ancestry can’t scan QR codes, display videos or feature interactive content, which is used in a growing number of mobile campaigns. By focusing on marketing campaigns that require smartphone technology, a large proportion of the market is automatically excluded. Of course, we’re talking about the feature-phone demographic. The question is: how can you effectively reach the majority of your target audience without compromising effectiveness and creativity in the process?

Enter SMS marketing; available on virtually every mobile phone and there to help you to reach the widest possible demographic range. It is an element of mobile marketing that you just can't afford to leave out of your strategy. Don't get blinded by the flashy gimmicks of new smartphone technology – get practical, get realistic, and get results.

Key takeaways:

• Learn how to write effective copy for text messages and utilise effective call-to-action strategies

• Definitive best practices for SMS targeting and engagement: How to avoid bounce rates and higher opt-out percentages

• Where technology meets psychology: The importance of aligning the human touch within a virtual screen

The iPitch is an exciting session, new for 2012. Six participants have six minutes each to deliver a compelling presentation on a new technology, way of working or innovative idea to the entire delegation, using the most imaginative means possible – video, audio, technology, audience participation, props – after which they’ll be grilled by our panel of experts and take questions from the floor. The audience is then asked to vote for their favourite.

The rise of online technology gave birth to two worlds – and with it, changed the face of business dynamics and human interactions forever. Our offline worlds expanded to include our newly formed online connections and a backdrop rich in content and experience. And then came the smartphone and our love affair with mobile technology. We’ve become attached to it in ways never deemed plausible; it’s become a portal into another dimension of connections, information and everything in between that had previously been restricted by a lack of offline mobility and comprehension.

Today, mobile technology provides us with an opportunity to seamlessly bridge the two worlds it’s created. We’re past taking snapshots of our daily lives and uploading them via an app; we want that app to tell us about those daily snapshots. We want our online and offline worlds to collide and spill over with new and disruptive content. But more than anything – we want mobile to unveil new routes of exploration through personalised experiences and open our eyes to worlds previously invisible.

Key takeaways:

• Why mobile is the right glue to connect our online and offline worlds – and how it should function as an instrument to do so

• Looking beyond QR codes and LBS: Where are the next innovative connections likely to occur, and how will they change user behaviour?

• A different perspective: How will industries close the gap and help their customers connect their two experiences – and where does this leave the grounded internet?