Detailed Event Listings
MITX Design Series: Designing iPhone Apps: It’s More than Just Beautiful Coding
February 19, 2010 | 8:00-10:00 a.m. | Hill Holliday, 53 State Street, Boston
Developing an iPhone app is more than just meticulous, accurate coding. It’s about understanding the needs of your customer and designing for them in order to create a long-term engagement with your users. Without consideration of the iPhone unique interactions and technological features, and the understanding behind how this mobile device is used, companies often spend wasted time creating an app that doesn’t get used—and therefore doesn’t generate impressions of your brand, bring in the expected amount of revenue or whatever your goal may be. During this MITX Design event, our panel of iPhone experts will cover: What strategic decisions you need to make before starting the design process; the difference between gaming apps, utility apps and apps that are part of a larger strategy; and a thorough review of one application’s user interface design from concept to working prototype. We’ll end the event with a “What’s Next” discussion focusing on mobile app design for the Android. With 17% of mobile users considering an Android phone, compared to 20% looking for an iPhone (according to Comscore), what do you need to know now to get ready for the next milestone in mobile app development?
Mobile World Congress 2010—Debrief and Debate the News from Barcelona with Mass TLC
February 26, 2010 | 8:00 – 9:30 a.m. | IBM, 404 Wyman Street, North Entrance, Waltham MA
Can’t travel to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the world’s largest mobile conference and exhibition? Or are you planning to attend but looking for a robust discussion about what happened, what didn’t, and what you might have missed? Our post-conference event gives you an opportunity to sort through it all – whether you attended or not. Here’s the format: a roundtable discussion featuring four or five speakers who attended the conference, each offering his or her unique perspective. The rest of the table is made up of others who attended and a majority who did not. A spirited round of questions and debate follows, as the discussion moves past the show and on to what’s hot and what’s not in the mobile world. In the past, attendees of these debriefings have valued not just the show review but also the opportunity to interact with colleagues about the industry generally.
Web Innovators Group 25
March 1, 2010 | 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. | Royal Sonesta Hotel, Cambridge MA
WebInno25 will begin with the doors officially opening at 6:30pm in the Cambridge Royal Sonesta Hotel. At 7pm in the Grand Ballroom we’ll hold our traditional format of self-/angel-funded startups demo’ing to the audience in Main Dish showcases, and select an “Audience Choice” winner of the crowd’s favorite. After a brief intermission, at 8pm we’ll begin the above strictly-optional special serial entrepreneur’s breakout session. During the entire evening’s event, Side Dish startup companies, including some in the mobile space, will provide informal demonstrations to the networking crowd from the Skyline Suites room.
The Main Dish presenters will include:
- Swift Mobile – Kathleen Gilroy (*)
- Noteflight – Joseph Berkovitz
- Trefis – Manish Jhunjhunwala
Side Dish presenters will include:
- Textaurant – Josh Bob (*)
- Geolenz – Brian Knoth and Stephen Bennion (*)
- Shortbord – Dave Nemeskal (Pre-launch sneak preview)
- Homefield – Reece Pancheco
- Conversation Associates - David Jenkins
- Sustainable Minds – Terry Swack
- Vuuch – Chris Williams
(*) In recognition of March as Mass Mobile Month, one of the Main Dish presenters and two of the Side Dish demonstrators are mobile and location-centric services. In fact, Kathleen Gilroy will demonstrate a special build of her Swift Mobile event app focused on all of the happenings during Mass Mobile Month.
In addition to the usual format, organizer David Beisel of Venrock has added a special break-out session entitled “Serial Web Entrepreneurs’ Founding Stories.” The teaser: Entrepreneurs Steven Kane, Tom Gerace, and David Cancel all successfully founded and sold web startups… and now they’re doing it again and again. Wade Roush of Xconomy will lead a discussion with these serial entrepreneurs sharing their multiple founding stories. The topics will cover everything from attracting early team members to honing in on the right idea. Intermixing practical advice and inspirational anecdotes, the discussion will look to uncover the key ingredients to getting a web startup off of the ground from people who have done it multiple times.
Summer Wars Free Anime Film Screening by MIT Comparative Media Studies Program
March 1, 2010 | 7:00 p.m. | MIT Room 26-100, Cambridge, MA
How can you see one of the latest visions of mobile media, virtual worlds, and youth culture in Japan? Come see the MIT Comparative Media Studies program’s presentation of a free Japanese anime film screening: Summer Wars on March 1, 2010 (Monday) @ 7:00pm, Room 26-100, MIT. (Map: http://whereis.mit.edu). The director, Mamoru Hosoda, will participate in a Q/A afterwards. This will be the New England Premiere of this year’s nominee for the Japan Academy Award for Best Animated Film. Targeted at teens and adults; appropriate for all ages. Also sponsored by the MIT/Harvard Cool Japan research project. Contact: Prof. Ian Condry (condry@mit.edu).
Summer Wars plot summary from Anime News Network: “When timid eleventh-grader and math genius Kenji Koiso is asked by older student and secret crush Natsuki to come with her to her family’s Nagano home for a summer job, he agrees without hesitation. Natsuki’s family, the Jinnouchi clan, dates back to the Muromachi era, and they’ve all come together to celebrate the 90th birthday of the spunky matriarch of the family, Sakae. That’s when Kenji discovers his “summer job” is to pretend to be Natsuki’s fiancé and dance with her at the birthday celebration. As Kenji attempts to keep up with Natsuki’s act around her family, he receives a strange math problem on his cell phone which, being a math genius, he can’t resist solving. As it turns out, the solution to the mysterious equation causes a bizarre parallel world to collide with Earth, and it’s up to Kenji and his new fake family to put reality back in order.”
Information
Raizlabs: The Business of iPhone App Development — Virtual Workshop
March 8, 2010 | 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
This online workshop by Raizlabs founder Greg Raiz, targeted at individuals or businesses who are considering building an iPhone, iPad or mobile application, will cover the business of building such applications. It will address the risks and the potential rewards of producing an application and having it for sale in the iTunes Application Store. The workshop will cover how to pick an application concept; what makes an application successful; building a business vs. an app; the highs and lows of success; getting noticed in a sea of 180,000 apps; apps that compliment your core business; pricing your application and App Store business models; designing and developing – what to expect; is your app social? (Email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.); costs of building applications; marketing app basics; application rejections; resources and tools; and going beyond the iPhone (Android, Blackberry, Web). A link with login information and dial-in instructions for the virtual workshop will be provided prior to the event. No technical expertise is required for this workshop; however, a familiarity with the iPhone and the app store is recommended.
Mobile Monday Boston: UK vs. US Mobile Demos
March 8, 2010 | 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. | InterContinental Boston Hotel, 510 Atlantic Ave, Boston
Mobile Monday Boston Organizer Kate Imbach writes: “On Monday, March 8, Mobile Monday Boston and our generous sponsor UK Trade and Investment are hosting a demo night for the hottest mobile companies from the UK and Boston. It will be a fun event where you’ll get to interact with some cool companies in mobile you might not otherwise get to meet. Think of how much fun we’ll have coming up with amusing cultural differences! Will I embarrassingly imitate an English accent on stage? You’ll just have to come to find out.”
UK demo companies include:
Apollo Media
Tattu Mobile
Zone Rider
Rummble
Cognovo
US demo companies include:
Textaurant
Fluent Mobile
Celtra
BarMax
Xconomy Forum: Mobile Madness — The New Future of Computing
March 9, 2010 | 1:30-6:00 p.m. | Microsoft New England R&D Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA
Mobile computing is the future of consumer computing. Or at least many entrepreneurs seem to think so: there’s a mad scramble underway to create the most popular and profitable services, content, and applications for the new array of smartphones and mobile devices. 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. And in our first-ever “mobile smackdown,” proponents of the leading mobile operating systems and app marketplaces—Android, iPhone/iPad, BlackBerry, and others—will go to the mat for their favorite technologies. And in our closing mobile showcase, we’ll introduce you to the latest crop of up-and-coming competitors.
Mass TLC Tech Tuesday
March 9, 2010 | 6:00-8:00 p.m. | Microsoft New England R&D Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA
If you’re looking for talent, clients or to just spread the word about what you are doing in the mobile space, join us for this Tech Tuesday. You’ll have an opportunity for a fast-pitch shout-out to the audience of fellow geeks, tech savvy professionals, DIY-ers, and other industry luminaries at this high energy informal gathering.
A special feature of this Tech Tuesday event will be Office Hours with four great advisors. This is a great opportunity for up-and-coming mobile entrepreneurs to collect advice and build connections. The advisors are: Sean Dalton, General Partner, Highland Capital Partners; Steve Krom, Vice President & General Manager – New England for AT&T Mobility; Rich Miner, Managing Partner, Google Ventures; Dan Rosen, Principal, Highland Capital Partners; and Roger Walton, General Partner, Castile Ventures.
MITX ‘Across the Pond’ Showcase–What Mobile Technologies Are Being Developed in the UK?
March 10, 2010 | 8:00 – 10:00 a.m. | UK Trade & Investment, One Broadway, 7th Floor, Cambridge MA
Just as New England is establishing itself as a worldwide hub for mobile technologies, so is the United Kingdom. The UK is home to an exciting group of technology companies that also focus on mobile advertising, applications, marketing and content. As we in New England continue to lead in many areas of mobile technology, the need to understand changes in platforms and markets is imperative. What better way to learn about these changes than through the eyes of leaders in the UK, whose advancements in mobile parallel some of our own? Join MITX and the UK Trade and Invest, as we invite mobile technologists from across the pond to discuss the unique advancements they are making in mobile technologies.
Mass Innovation Nights
March 10, 2010 | 6:00-8:30 p.m. | Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation, Moody Street, Waltham, MA
Mass Innovation Nights provides innovators with ways to connect with the social networking world, the mainstream media, the marketplace, and each other. Held the second Wednesday of each month at the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham near Route 128, the live MIN events are open to the public and allow companies to show off Massachusetts-based innovation. Guests are asked to help spread the word about cool new products they see at our events via blog, Twitter (#MIN), Facebook, LinkedIn, or word of mouth.
The presenters on March 10 will include two mobile startups, Raizlabs and Tweetworks. The full list:
Bite — Sustainable Storage Solutions
NormaTec — dynamic compression treats poor circulation
Proportions – Custom Canine Nutrition
Raizlabs — New Interactive Storybook for the iPhone
Searchandise Commerce — online media network for product manufacturers
thredUP — A kids clothing exchange community
Tomophase – 3D Pulmonary Scans without radiation
Tweetworks — iPhone application for Tweetworks
Zoiray – multiplexed immunoassay platform
Special Guests:
Dan Hermes Digital Art
careinnovators
MIT Enterprise Forum–Internet Video Everywhere: Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Online and Mobile Video
March 16, 2010 | 6:30 – 9:00 pm | MIT Building E51, Cambridge MA
The Internet video landscape continues to evolve at a staggering pace. In November, over 170 million U.S. Internet users viewed 31 billion videos (ComScore). New devices, networks, and business models are moving us toward “video everywhere.” Content aggregators, technology platforms, advertising networks, and complementary digital service providers are all playing key roles in a growing video ecosystem. What important changes in licensing, subscription and advertising are taking place? Beyond media and entertainment, what markets seem most fertile? Where can new value be created? This session will attempt to sort through the many moving pieces in the online video market. Please join us as we hear from an exciting group of Boston-based panelists who will offer their perspectives from the video front-line as well as their sense of entrepreneurial opportunities ahead.
New England BlackBerry Developer’s Group — First Meeting
March 16, 20101 | 7:00 p.m. | SoftArtisans, 3 Brook St, Watertown, MA 02472
We hope you’ll join us and other local BlackBerry developers at the first meeting of the new New England BlackBerry Developer’s Group. As an official RIM-sponsored BlackBerry Developer Group, these meetings will be a chance to learn about and share practical development tips and experience as well as to network with the community. Our confirmed guest speaker is Mike Kirkup, Director of Developer Relations at Research In Motion!
Planned agenda:
- Introduction to RIM developers community program by the event organizers and Mike Kirkup
- Blackberry tips and tricks demo. Topics under consideration: unit testing on the blackberry platform, continuous integration (bb-ant-tools), SoftArtisans SilverDust product demonstration
- Open discussion, socializing, networking
Snacks and refreshments will be provided. Come prepared to talk about all things BlackBerry.
IEEE Virtual Reality 2010
March 20-24, 2010 | Westin Waltham Boston, 70 Third Avenue, Waltham MA
The premier international conference and exhibition on virtual reality. Academic and industrial researchers will gather for paper presentations and discussions on the fields of virtual environments, augmented reality, 3D user interfaces, haptics, and mobile platforms.
Mobile Marketing Primer: Create Powerful Mobile Marketing Programs that Drive Revenue and Transform Customer Relationships
March 23, 2010 | 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. | The Enterprise Center at Salem State College, 121 Loring Ave, Salem, MA
The mobile phone has become one of the most social, intelligent and personal devices. With over 270 million mobile phone subscribers in the US and growing, mobile marketing is the next big trend in marketing. Learn how to use mobile marketing to acquire customers, increase sales, improve customer satisfaction and build loyalty. Tactics include SMS (text) campaigns, mobile applications (e.g., iPhone, BlackBerry apps), mobile web advertising and many more sophisticated technologies. Speaker: Heather Sears, President of Mobile Synergies.
MobileCamp Boston 3
April 3, 2010 | 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. | Tang Center (E51), MIT Campus, Cambridge MA
MobileCamp Boston is an un-conference dedicated to the mobile industry. Instead of having an agenda planned out ahead of time, you and other attendees decide what will be presented and discussed. Over the past 2 years, MobileCamp has grown from a local affair to one that has attracted participants from Europe and Asia. This year will be our biggest yet.
