Mobile in Boston
13 May
Thank you to the almost 600 people who came out to Monday night’s 2nd Annual Mobile Startup Showcase at the MIT Museum. The energy was fantastic – we are thrilled that we could provide the community with a glimpse into the most exciting mobile advances in the Boston area.
Congratulations to the winners of the Audience Choice for Best Mobile Startup: BlueTrain Mobile and CaptureCode.
Did you miss the event or need help remembering which companies you met at the event? Below is a list of all the exhibitors and links to their websites.
Thank you to our sponsors for their generous support of this event:
14 Feb

PROGRAMMING (Full descriptions below)
The Intersection of Sharing Code and Creating User Interfaces with Android – Mike Burns, Web Developer at ThoughtBot (10AM)
Introduction to Qt – Tej Shah and Thomas Dickes, Qt Software Engineer & Trainer at Integrated Computer Solutions (10AM)
Mobile App Frameworks – Samuel Chow, Co-Founder of MobyFab / Fred Spencer, Professional Services Manager at Appcelerator / Jesse Liberty, Senior Program Manager in Microsoft Developer Guidance / Ram Iyengar, Telecom Systems Management Program, College of Engineering, Northeastern University / Steven Kursh, Executive Professor of Finance and Insurance at Northeastern University (11AM)
Hybrid App Development for Mobile – Stephen Bourdeau, Tech Lead for Mobile Engineering at TripAdvisor (1PM)
HTML5 for Mobile – Matt Gross, Founder of MobileMondays Boston / Imram Malek, Games at Mocospace / Al MacDonald, Co-Founder of Bocoup /Pascal Rettig, Owner of Cykod (1PM)
Designing for Thumbs and Fingers – Greg Raiz, Founder of Raiz Labs (2PM)
MARKETING (Full descriptions below)
Sales Hacking: Innovation Offline – Jesse Waites, Founder and CEO of Beacon Hill Apps (10AM)
In-app Ad Monetization – Dave Yonamine, Director of Marketing at MobilityWare (11AM)
Leveraging Advertising Opportunities in Mobile – Adam Compain, Google-Boston’s Mobile Specialist (2PM)
Leveraging Existing Social Networks to make a Rich Network for your Mobile App - Saad Fazil, Senior Product Manager at Verizon Wireless (3PM)
BUSINESS (Full descriptions below)
Overview of App Space Using Real-time Mobile App Data – Raj Aggarwal, CEO of Localytics (10AM)
Overview of the Current US Mobile Ecosystem: Tools and opportunities – Elio Maggini, Principal Software Engineer at Cengage Learning (11AM)
Student Mobile Entrepreneurs: Challenges and Opportunities – Matt Ricketson, Founder of Moglo / Neil Hannah, CEO of extraTKT / Kayvan Zainabadi, CEO & Co-founder of InstantNightlife / Jason Evanish, Founder of Greenhorn Connect (1PM)
The Impossible Apple App Store: Winning and Staying on Top - Jason Petralia, Product Manager at Raizlabs (1PM)
DESCRIPTIONS
Hybrid App Development for Mobile – The concept behind hybrid apps is to re-use mobile website based content with a WebView and extend the functionality to include native features and interactions. This allows you to have shorter development time with rapid web development iterations outside of the normal submission and approval process you see on some native platforms while still leveraging native features such as GPS, camera, file upload, etc. The presentation will also cover some technical details and approaches for communication between the WebView (which tends to be a little black box) and the native app.
Mobile App Frameworks – The purpose of the session is to explore useful technologies and software systems that developers should be looking at. The panelists have expertise in Three20, PhoneGap Titanium, and a number of other frameworks. Steve Kursh PhD, Professor at Northeastern, will moderate this content-rich session.
Introduction to Qt – Qt is a cross-platform application and UI framework used by hundreds of thousands of developers worldwide looking to create amazing user experiences on Windows, Mac, Linux/X11, embedded Linux, Windows CE , Windows Mobile, Symbian and Maemo devices. Qt is used by thousands of companies in a multitude of leading industries enabling them to develop software and devices used by hundreds of millions of people every day. Learn more with these Qt Software Engineers from Integrated Computer Solutions.
Designing for Thumbs and Fingers – This talk will cover a number of topics around mobile user interface design and the challenges for designing for a small screen. The talk will cover techniques, design patterns, differences from traditional web or desktop design and the various challenges for different phone and tablet platforms. The talk will also cover specifics on iPhone and iPad techniques. Topics include Mobile yesterday vs. Today, Unique challenges of Mobile, Widgets and Techniques, Mobile Wireframing, Mobile Usability, Designing for the Mobile Web.
HTML5 for Mobile – Join some of Boston’s HTML5 experts for a discussion of current and future trends in HTML5 on mobile. We’ll discuss which mobile browsers support HTML5, what graphic and native functionality is supported, and whether long-term trends indicate that it will become a universal platform for mobile development.
The Intersection of Sharing Code and Creating User Interfaces with Android – The Android user interface sees the most development, customization, and hatred. We are often left to create components ourselves, take guesses at consistent experiences, and debug XML. Mike Burns leads a discussion on sharing code, UI consistency vs branding, and debugging and extending the view infrastructure.
Sales Hacking: Innovation Offline – In this session I will teach developers how to become better marketers using clever techniques I have developed in the years I have been selling apps on the App Store. Trust me: You won’t find these original tips anywhere else.
In-App Ad Monetization
Mobile Marketing Today: Search, Display and Apps - Adam Compain, Google-Boston’s Mobile Specialist, will talk about the explosive growth in mobile usage, consumer trends and share how marketers are leveraging the mobile industry’s leading advertising products to reach and engage their audience.
Leveraging Existing Social Networks to make a Rich Network for your Mobile App - This is a very relevant topic for anyone writing a mobile app that involves network effect. There are many challenges involved, and this session could make an entrepreneur’s life easier. What possibilities are there? What kind of access/API’s do these networks (Facebook, Twitter for example) provide? What is and is not possible? We will discuss recommended strategies and optimizing performance.
Student Mobile Entrepreneurs: Challenges and Opportunities – Hear from current students and recent graduates about their experiences building mobile apps and starting subsequent companies while in school in the Boston area. What did they learn during the process? Where are their apps and companies now? What advice can they share now that they’ve been through it? Panelists represent Boston College, Northeastern, and MIT. The panel will be moderated by Jason Evanish, Founder of Greenhorn Connect, Boston’s entrepreneur hub for resources, events and organizations.
Overview of the Current US Mobile Ecosystem: Tools and opportunities – This presentation will cover current carriers in the US, basic handset numbers, and raw dollar amounts – historical and projected for 3rd party mobile services. Based on this data, Elio will give an overview of the pro/cons of tools available for development and suggestions of rough areas for development exploration.
Overview of App Space Using Real-time Mobile App Data – Join Raj Aggarwal, CEO of Localytics, for a discussion and presentation on the mobile app space using data that Localytics has gathered from the few thousand apps that they are integrated with. How can you use this data to improve the apps that you are building?
The Impossible Apple App Store: Winning and Staying on Top - This session will comprise mostly on realistic approaches to driving downloads to your application in an ever increasing competitive environment. Topics include: App Store (iOS) Recap and Current State, 3 Strategies that drive downloads and why they may or may not work for your application, The myth of the spike and the long tai, Marketing your application – do’s and don’ts, The future of apps and the app store. The speaker, Jason Petralia, has been creating and shipping apps since the early days of the app store.
Questions? Contact Elana at elana@momoboston.com.
22 Feb
Boston Mobile Barcamp is coming. Join us on March 21st for Boston’s annual event for mobile developers and enthusiasts.
When
Saturday, March 21, 2009
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
(Registration starts at 8:30 AM)
Where
MIT
Building E51 (Tang Center)
70 Memorial Drive
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
Cost
Free
17 Dec
This month, Mobile Monday hosted a CTO dinner to bring together technical leaders from Boston’s mobile companies. The dinner was sponsored by Flybridge Capital and moderated by Xconomy’s Wade Roush.
Over dinner our discussion covered the future of mobile platforms, market fragmentation, the mobile web, what consumers want, and much more. To hear what the CTOs have to say about the mobile industry in Boston and the future of mobile, check out our video:
MOMO Boston CTO Dinner from Chris Brackett on Vimeo.
7 Nov
Mobile Monday 11.17 from Chris Brackett on Vimeo.
Join us on November 17th, at the Omni Parker rooftop ballroom, and see 10 early stage mobile companies demonstrate their new mobile products. Each new company will provide a rapid-fire 5 minute presentation, followed by a social cocktail hour with product demonstrations.
Our keynote speaker, Tom Erickson, has experience starting and running companies in the best and worst of times including MRO Software during the recession of 1991 and WebMethods in 2000. He’ll review the current economic situation and outline steps to help drive young mobile companies through rough seas. Tom is the Chief Product Officer for TeleAtlas, a member of Common Angels, a board member of SeeWhy, Quickcomm, and Acquia, and a advisor to iTKO.
Presenting are 10 mobile companies:
Date: November 17th, 2008, 7-9pm
Cost: Free
Location: Omni Parker Hotel – Rooftop Ballroom with an amazing view (details below)
60 School Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02108
Map
MBTA: Park Street Station (Green / Red), State Station (Orange / Blue), about 10 minute walk from North or South station
Parking for $12: http://www.pialleygarage.com
Thanks to our sponsor Goodwin Procter for making this event possible.
17 Oct
Join us for a reception at Mobile Internet World 2008, Wed Oct 22nd at 6:30pm, Boston Convention Center, Room 0-51, organized with MoMo NY and MITX. Cash bar.
Featuring:
>> Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner
>> Thi Linh Wernau, Senior Mobile Strategist at Nokia Interactive Advertising
This reception is free for MoMo members. Registration: Click Here
We have arranged a $200.00 discount on your behalf for Mobile Internet World – Boston, October 21-23, 2008. Expo passes are free and can be picked up at the door. Join 175+ executives from the mobile internet ecosystem including Google, Intel, Qualcomm and others. Grab your share of this $66 billion opportunity. Your code for Mobile Internet World: MIWMS9.
Registration:
http://www.mobilenetx.com/?page_id=19
More info:
9 Sep
Join us for a reception at Mobile Internet World 2008, Wed Oct 22nd at 7:00pm, organized with MoMo NY and MITX. Speaker TBA. This reception is free for MoMo members: registration TBA. We are looking for sponsors! If you are interested, contact us at tgschmidt at gmail dot com.
We have arranged a $200.00 discount on your behalf for Mobile Internet World – Boston, October 21-23, 2008.
Join 175+ executives from the mobile internet ecosystem including Google, Intel, Qualcomm and others. Grab your share of this $66 billion opportunity.
Your code for Mobile Internet World: MIWMS9
Registration:
http://www.mobilenetx.com/?page_id=19
More info:
4 Jun
Free Registration (required): Click Here
Over the next five years, shipments of advanced mobile browsers will grow from 76 Million to 700 Million per year (ABI). Will mobile-specific websites proliferate, or will browsers and transcoding catch up? Will web aps and widgets replace native aps? How will users navigate – by voice, touch or typing? Ed Mitukiewicz, Research Director at Orange Labs Boston USA, will moderate a panel of industry leaders and experts on mobile browser technologies from Orange, vlingo, Mozilla, Nokia, Opera and Google to address these and other questions. A reception with food and drinks will follow, sponsored by vlingo.
Panelists:
Moderator:
Free Registration (required): Click Here
When: June 30th at 7pm
Where:
Orange Labs Boston USA
175 Second St.
Cambridge, MA 02142
Map
Reception After the Panel:
Dante, Royal Sonesta Hotel
Drinks and Appetizers Sponsored by vlingo
Parking:
At the time of the event, open metered street parking is available on 2nd Street and along Rogers Street.
Walking Directions:
From Red Line Kendall Square (10 min):
Walk through the plaza facing the Bank of America branch and cross Broadway. Continue up 3rd Street passing 1 Broadway on your right (you will pass Zigo Café). At Binney Street, make a right. At the next intersection, make a left on 2nd Street. Orange Labs Boston is just past the intersection with Rogers on the left side.
From Green Line Lechmere (10 min):
Exiting the T-Station, continue walking along McGrath Highway. Stay to the left side and make a left on 2nd Street. Cross Cambridge Street and proceed 6 blocks. Orange Labs Boston will be on your right just past the intersection with Bent St.
Sponsors:
