WiTec Networking Breakfast and WiTec Connections 2009

Along with Roger Morrison and Henry Katurna, I've got the pleasure to speak at the WiTec Networking Breakfast at the Ranchmen's Club in Calgary from 7:30 am to 9:30 am on March 6. Only $25 (if you're a member, $35 if not, and well worth it for the local networking). My topic: "Five Rules of Business Development from a Serial Entrepreneur." Click here for full event details. Click here to go directly to registration.

Speaking of speaking, I'm also gearing up to present at the annual WiTec Connections 2009 conference at the luxurious Banff Springs Hotel on April 16th and 17th. This is a must attend event for the Western Canada wireless industry, and is shaping up to be two great days of jam packed agenda. Fresh with leading edge information from MWC Barcelona, my topic is near and dear to my heart: "Commercialization Challenges of Developing Applications in a Fragmented Mobile Ecosystem." Click here for the WiTec Connections website and registration.

If you're not from these parts or don't know, "WiTec Alberta is an industry association focused on supporting the Wireless & Telecom industry in the Province of Alberta." Here's the main WiTec site: www.witec.ca.

GSMA MWC Barcelona a Mob4Hire Success!

Wow ... what a great week at GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona 2009. I think I'm finally coming out of jet lag!

I wanted to give you some highlights of the week for us:

- O2 Litmus announced their Appstore and our Mob4Hire partnership: "O2 Litmus users will have the opportunity to earn hard cash for every application they test, via a ground breaking partnership with multi award winning Mob4Hire." http://www.ixplora.com/?p=3593. It came in with rave reviews; e.g. "O2 Litmus is Better than Apple AppStore" We couldn't be more excited to be involved! We hung out with the O2 Litmus team, and also spent time with them at the Telefonica offices in Barcelona.

- We presented three times to about 1,500 people from a cross-section of the mobile industry: Paul spoke at the Mobile Monday Peer Awards (in which we won second place!). This resulted in blog buzz ... e.g.: http://www.gomonews.com/momo-peer-awards/. I spoke at the GSMA Top Innovator award competition and the TechCrunch Mobile 2.0 wrap-up seminar (http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/02/19/live-from-barcelona-techcrunchtalk-mobile-20-where-next/).

- Had great meetings with potential partners and developer network customers! There is great emphasis on app stores and developer networks in the industry as applications become the new focus so we're pretty happy with the industries response to us!

- Had great Tapas, mucho Cafe con leche's, toured La Ramblas and the Sagrada Familia, which was awe inspiring! Made me think about putting passion into whatever you create in life.

- I sang/played guitar at a "MobileJamaoke" at the WIP (http://www.wipjam.com) MobileJam pre-party in which people came up on stage to sing songs and play guitar ... that's me playing "free-falling" with the team from Symbian Foundation. At one point, the whole Mob4Hire team was up ... too much fun! There were also a wicked flamenco 3 piece band that I got to play with / listen to. Si!

- On the downside, our VP Business Development, Allen Poutanen, sprained his ankle, lost his cellphone and got his wallet stolen on the subway! Sorry, Allen!

As a last point, I want to tell you a handset comparison story. Paul has an iPhone and I have a Blackberry Bold. We used the mobiles equally over the week, not many voice calls, and lotsa data. The roaming charges for Paul's iPhone were 630% MORE than my Blackberry Bold ... due to Blackberry's data compression. ANOTHER reason I love my Blackberry handset! (Although admitedly, I did play a lot of "Zombie Attack" on Paul's iPhone).

Mob4Hire chosen to present at Dow Jones Wireless Innovation 2009

We've been chosen to present at the Dow Jones Wireless Innovation 2009 conference on March 17th and 18th in Redwood City, CA. Check out their website: http://wirelessinnovations.dowjones.com/

To help both VCs and entrepreneurs get a view of the innovations and opportunities that will emerge in 2009 and beyond, Dow Jones VentureWire has put together an impressive group of speakers, including individuals from such carriers as Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile, CEOs from 70 of the most promising mobile start-ups and, of course, some of the leading investors in the sector.

Based on our involvement at the Mobile 2.0 conference and Under the Radar in late fall, 2008, it will be interesting to see if the group has a more global understanding of the environment. It's easy for people to see the world through their regional lens (including some I've spoken to in Silicon Valley) and assess opportunities based on their own experience, but this mobile industry is glaringly global ... innovation and opportunity is happening everywhere!

John Carpenter Appointed CTO of Mob4Hire

Calgary, Alberta (PRWEB) February 6, 2009 -- Mob4Hire Inc., the leader in crowd sourced mobile application testing and virtual market research, today announced the appointment of John Carpenter as it's Chief Technology Officer.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/02/prweb1962194.htm

We're super excited to be expanding our technical expertise. With this announcement, Richard Cooke is taking over VP, Technology responsibilities and will continue to develop leading edge technology from our U.K. office, including all the work we've been doing to get ready for the O2 Litmus Developer Network launch ... which is happening in March! Kudo's to Richard for all the great work he's done over the last year or so getting Mob4Hire up and running ... and I'm excited to see what the combined technical leadership of John and Richard will mean for our customers going forward.

The best is yet to come!

Stephen