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The Mobile 2.0 Conference’s Business and Builder Track agenda’s are now completed. The conference brings together experts and thought leaders from all aspects of the mobile ecosystem, including investors, mobile carriers, device manufacturers, and mobile application developers and web technologists - you can read my wrapup from last years’ event here.

The Business Track opens with a keynote of David Wood, Executive VP, Symbian on the topic of “Open Source: Catalyst for Mobile Innovation 2.0″ and follows with 3 panels on the following topics:

“Mobile Browsers: How Is Web Different On Mobile Devices?”

• Taksuki Tomita, SVP, Opera Software
• Larry Berkin, VP, Ecosystem & Business Development, Access Systems
• Raj Singh, VP, Business Development, Skyfire
• Jay Sullivan, VP Mobile, Mozilla

“Platforms, Monetization & Third Party Applications” - Moderator, Jason Devitt, Skydeck

• John Faith, GM & VP, Mobile, MySpace
• Henri Moissinac, Director, Facebook Mobile
• Sumit Agarwal, Mobile Product Management Lead, North America, Google
• Ilja Laurs, Founder, GetJar
• Michael Bayle, Senior Director, Global Mobile Advertising, Yahoo!

“Carrier Initiatives: For Developers & Third Party Applications”

• Michael Palermo, VP, Service Innovation & Integration, Telecom Italia
• Maurice Thompson, Director, Open Development, Verizon Wireless
• Venetia Espinoza, Director, Mobile Apps & Partner Programs, T-Mobile USA
• Laura Fay, Director of Strategy, Sprint

In the afternoon, there are demo’s of promising & innovative startups in two Mobile 2.0 Launch Pad sessions . Any start-up with a mobile service or application can apply to present, all you need to do is fill-in the startup registration form to apply for consideration. Registration deadline for submission is October 17, 2008 at midnight PST.

More sessions in the business track starting with a fireside chat on “Mobility: How Can We Capitalize On It” - Moderator, Tony Fish, AMF Ventures

• Ozzie Diaz, CTO, Wireless, HP
• Tom Libretto, Vice President, Forum Nokia
• Pankaj Kedia, Director, Ultra Mobility Group, Intel

And panels on “Consumer vs. Business: The Market Opportunities” - Moderator, Michel Wendell, Nexit Ventures

• Martin Frid-Nielsen, Founder, Chief Product Officer, Soonr
• Judy Gibbons, CEO, Mippin
• Tom Lee, Director, SMB Solutions, Research In Motion
• Omar Green, Director, Strategic Mobile Initiatives, Intuit

“Where Are VC Investing & Why?” - Moderator, Rich Wong, Accel Partners

• Rick Segal, Partner, JLA Ventures & Blackberry Partners Fund
• Peter Barry, Head of Venture Capital & Startups, Vodafone Group
• Tim Chang, Partner, NorWest Venture Partners
• Greg Franklin, Principal, IntellectPartners

“Mobile Advertising vs Online Advertising Models” - Moderator, Whitey Bluestein, Bluestein & Associates

• Brian Cowley,  President & CEO, AdInfuse
• Colm Grealy, Managing Director, SalesOnline
• Blair Swedeen, VP, Market Development, PlaceCast
• Jason Spero, Vice President, Marketing, AdMob
• Ragnar Kruse, CEO & Founder , Smaato

If you want to learn more about developing mobile applications and services, you can go to the afternoon Builder Track starting with a keynote by Caroline Lewko (WIP) followed by panels and tutorial sessions on

Mobile Web vs. Applications vs. Widgets with C. Enrique Ortiz (tentative) - Chair: Nick Allot (OMTP); Phong Vu (Nokia); Charles Wiles (Google); Fabrizio Capobianco (Funambol); Jeff Sonstein (RIT)

(Mobile Web) User Experience and Design Case Studies with Kelly Goto - Chair: Barbara Balard (Little Spring Design), Brian Fling (Fling Media), Christian Lindholm (Fjord), Thomas Fellger (Iconmobile)

and tutorials on Building, dynamic, compelling, ad-funded, off-deck mobile web content by Stefan Butlin (Taptu)

iPhone WebApps by Brian Fling (Fling Media)

Mobile Design Case Study by Kelly Goto (Gotomedia)

Yahoo! Blueprint by Markus Spiering (Yahoo!)

Nokia Web Runtime by Phong Vu (Nokia)

Gears Mobile by Charles Wiles (Google)

A program to be dizzy by the end of the day, followed by the usual networking cocktail of course. All this for $249 only! You can browse the Mobile 2.0 event website to know everything about this years’ event on November 3rd, 2008 in San Francisco. I recommend not to wait last minute to book your seat, the conference has been selling out quickly the previous 2 editions.

I’m going to be in San Francisco from November 1 till 14, anyone who’d like to catch up, feel free to contact me (email in sidebar).

Here’s the announcement of the 3rd Mobile Monday Barcelona season. For this event on October 13 at the Auditorium of Barcelona Activa, we’re exploring the impact of the financial crisis and the implications for startups in mobile technology with the topic: Mobile Startups & VC’s: Opportunities in Times of Crisis.

We invited some of the most active and knowledgeable VC’s in mobile in Spain with presentations from Nauta Capital, Debaeque and Caixa Capital Risc.

As part of our new initiatives for this season, we invited two local startups, theChanner and Beabloo, and a startup from the Netherlands, Liveskope who will be presenting their projects.

All details here at  Mobile Monday Barcelona website.

Attendance is free; all you need to do is register and/or confirm your presence for this event at www.mobilemondaybarcelona.com/subscribe/ to reserve one of the 150 seats available. Book now to avoid being left out!

(*) Image by Getty Images by AFP/Getty Images

For the opening of the 2008-2009 season, the next MobileMobile Madrid on September 29th, will address the topic of Mobile Internet Platforms with three major players: Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft to know their plans for the mobile business.

José Antonio Martínez Aguilar (Director of the Telecom and Media Division at Google), Alex Romero (Director for Strategic Partnerships for Portugal, Spain and France at Yahoo Europe) and Iván Lozano (Mobile Manager at Microsoft Spain) will share their view about the industry.

In addition, there’s also four Spanish start-ups that will present their elevator-pitch and will get feedback in return from the GYM.

As usual, attendance is free; all you need to do is register and/or confirm your presence for this event at www.mobilemondaymadrid.com/subscribe/ and reserve one of the 150 seats available. Book now to avoid being left out!

The Mobile 2.0 Conference - a one-day event focusing on new Mobile Applications and Services, the Mobile Web and Disruptive Mobile Innovation is happening this year on November 3rd, 2008 in San Francisco. The 3rd edition of this event is once again presented by the Mobile 2.0 Organizing Committee in partnership with AMF Ventures.

The Mobile 2.0 conference brings together experts and thought leaders from all aspects of the mobile ecosystem, including investors, mobile carriers, device manufacturers, and mobile application developers and web technologists - you can read my wrapup from last years’ event here.

Ajit Jaokar informed me this week at MobileMonday Amsterdam he is organising the Mobile Web Megatrends conference in the Pacific Film Archive Theater, University of California in Berkeley on September 8. If you’re in the neighborhood and/or attending CTIA San Francisco, this will definately be an interesting conference looking at the topics and speakers participating, including mobile illuminates such as Michael Mace, Mike Rowehl, Barbara Ballard and many others.

Some of the topics covered

* The Mobile Web evolution and its impact for developers (views from Nokia, Opera, Skyfire and others)
* The Obamamobile : Media and mobile convergence opportunities from the development of Barrack Obama’s mobile strategy
* Cloud computing and its impact on the mobile ecosystem - Moblast
* The iPhone session : The iStore and the future of mobile applications and it’s impact on developers(Micheal Mace, William Volk)
* Emerging markets: Digital inclusion, mobility with an emphasis on the Brazilian market
* Operators, new Media, Security and convergence(experiences from ESPN,OMTP, Gemalto and others
* Open source and mobile (Mike Rowehl)
* Mobile advertising models including analytics(admob)
* Mobile opportunities for start-ups(venturebeat)

The discussion will focus on the strategy, implementation, competitive advantages and the pitfalls of these trends.  This unique opportunity to get an unbiased viewpoint with the opportunity to discuss these developments. You can clarify your thinking from the experience of others and keep the conversation going through an ongoing attendees only discussion forum.

For more information and registration, please visit Mobile Web Megatrends conference.

Are you one of those startups that make a difference and you would like to showcase your technology to the ones like Verizon, T-Mobile, Comcast, Sprint, iFund, Nokia, Microsoft, Motorola, and more? Then you need to apply to present at Under The Radar: Mobility event on November 12 in Mountain View, CA. Submissions are still being accepted, so apply today!

Under the Radar: Mobility is a one-day conference uncovering 32 vetted, test-driven startups that have launched within the year in categories such as iPhone apps, location-based services, gaming, social networking, enabling technologies, and marketing/advertising.

Under the Radar: Mobility is one of my favorite startup events to track innovation in mobile, read my reviews of previous editions here.

I will be there again this year as a judge amongst other mobile industry players, including:

Jesse Money, Executive Director of Product Convergence and Innovation, Verizon Wireless
Stephan Noll, Managing Director, T-Mobile Venture Fund
Chi-Hua Chien, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (iFund)
Scott Ford, General Manager, Sprint Business Development & Sprint Nextel Ventures
Harshul Sanghi, Managing Director, Motorola Ventures
Dan Schiappa, GM - Mobile & Gaming Advertising Experiences Platform, Microsoft
Dave Williams, Senior Vice President of Wireless and Technology, Comcast
Tim Chang, Principal, Norwest Ventures
Jonathan Ebinger, General Partner, BlueRun Ventures
Ken Gullicksen, General Partner, Morgenthaler
Eric Ver Ploeg, Managing Director, VantagePoint Venture Partners

The event will be moderated by:

Rafe Needleman, Editor, CNET/Webware
Ellen McGirt, Senior Writer, Fast Company
Natali Del Conte, Host, CNET TV & Technology Correspondent, CBS Early Show
Jeremy Toeman, Marketing Consultant, Stage Two Consulting

I’ll be in San Francisco and the valley the first half of November, please do get in touch if you’d like to catch up with me.

At the end of a decade during which the internet revolutionized our lives and organizations, the network is now moving beyond the browser, invading objects, cities, toys, cars or medical devices. Where will the next big changes happen? What are the world’s most innovative people working on right now?

LIFT Asia is a three-day event taking place in Korea on September 4, 5 and 6 to answer these questions with a global community of doers and thinkers, featuring an innovative format made of scheduled talks, open sessions, and artists creating a special atmosphere to facilitate inspiration and networking.

LIFT Asia will take place at the international Convention Center ICC on the beautiful Jeju Island in Korea (located in the center of Northeast Asia and lies equidistant between South Korea, China and Japan).

The event will feature:

• Talks covering topics like urban technologies, online worlds, virtual money, new lifestyles and robots, featuring speakers like Joonmo Kwon (CEO of Nexon, the world’s largest online games company), networked cities visionaries Jeffrey Huang (EPFL), Yang Soo Yin (The Living) and Adam Greenfield (Nokia design), I-mode inventor Takeshi Nastuno, Takeshi Natsuno who works on the robots of the future, Gadget loving and Emmy award winning American guru Dan Dubno, and legendary LIFT speakers like Bruce Sterling, Bruno Bonnell, Frédéric Kaplan or Jan Chipchase.

• Community speeches where participants can freely present their works and ideas inside one of the open rooms.

• Interactive art installations curated by the Nabi Art Center, creating a unique experience based on inspiring and engaging activities to explore the new reality of social interactions in the digital world.

The full program is available here:
http://www.liftconference.com/lift-asia-08/program

Kudos to the organizers for putting such a neat line-up and program together.

After successful Mobile Jam Sessions at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and CTIA in Las Vegas, Caroline Lewko of the Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP) is organising the 3rd Mobile Jam Session for CTIA’s Wireless and IT Show on Friday, September 12, 2008 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

Mobile Jam Session is a day to connect developers to industry leaders with an open agenda that inspires new ideas and innovates solutions within the mobile ecosystem. Check the pictures from the previous sessions in Barcelona and Las Vegas.

The day includes:

• An unpanel discussion
• Improv sessions led by developers and industry leaders alike, where everyone gets a chance to be heard and have their questions answered
• Developers pitching their applications
• And a Wrap party!

Topics we will likely cover includes:

• Specific topics such as mobile payments and messaging
• Developer resources such as certification, porting and developer programs
• Tips on penetrating the big guys and getting to market.

Attendees must be registered for CTIA, with a minimum of an Exhibitors Pass.  You can register on the CTIA site and get one, you can get an exhibitor to offer you one, or you can contact WIP for a special exhibitor rate for developers and emerging companies.  For $1600 you receive a 5X10 square foot booth that is complete for you to move in. Find out details of this offering here:  http://www.wipconnector.com/pavillion.php

More details and updated info can be found at the event website, be sure to ‘Request an Invitiation‘ to be able to attend, it’s free!

Jam on!

Today Telefónica revealed its pricing plans for the iPhone 3G, tomorrow available in Spain in over 1.500 Telefónica stores and in 15 other countries. Telefónica is distributing the Apple iPhone in 12 Latin American countries and the Czech Republic. This builds on earlier exclusive, multi-year agreements signed between the two companies in the UK and Ireland, bringing the total number of territories in which Telefónica will sell the iconic device to 16, a combined addressable market of more than 500 million people – making Telefónica one of the leading global distributors of this revolutionary device.

Since the iPhone was launched by O2 in the UK, sales have exceeded all expectations and have greatly fuelled net customer additions, particularly high-end contract customers. Furthermore, the average monthly revenue of an iPhone customer is reported 30% higher than that of a regular contract customer, while the iPhone has generated the highest level of customer satisfaction of any terminal on the market.

Check these latest figures on iPhone consumption in US below by m:metrics (recently acquired by comScore)

Data from comScore M:Metrics confirms that the iPhone (and its associated mandatory data plan) is compelling consumers to consume mobile content by a considerable factor. The table below shows Benchmark Indices between 203 (two times more likely to send photos or videos than the market average) and 1208 (twelve times more likely to listen to music on their device than the market average) for the iPhone versus the market average. Even against smartphones, the rates of mobile content consumption are considerably higher. (please check m:metrics for full details on this survey)

Telefónica is aiming at its more than 23 million mobile customers in Spain, as well as customers of other Spanish mobile operators who switch to Movistar. Basically anyone can get an iPhone (even for FREE in some cases), as long as you are an existing customer or want to become a customer of Telefónica, there are price plans for existing and new customers, individuals and companies. You can consult all current priceplans and offers at iPhone 3G Telefónica Movistar website (http://www.iphone.movistar.es/).

Combined with a voiceplan, the most significant data traffic packages are Tarifa Plana iPhone at 15 euro for 200Mb/month and Tarifa Plana iPhone Plus at 25 euro for 1Gb/month. When a customer exceeds this limit, Telefónica will slow down the user’s connecting speed, which I think is a smarter solution then starting to charge higher without the user’s knowledge. I’m not sure yet about the other options for heavy data consumers like me exceeding this limit, I suppose I’ll have to find it out when my consumption gets there…

But that’s it, I’m sold! I would have bought an iPhone 3G today but I will need to wait untill I’m back in the country next week. With my average monthly bills of around 400 euros (and many times higher) I’m the perfect new client for Telefónica I need to make sure though I get a good data roaming plan with all the travelling ahead the coming months.

What I’m looking forward is to start using the many available iPhone applications, now available through the iPhone App Store; in mobile it’s all about the channeling and the distribution of course!

I can only hope that in the end I will pay less for more data consumption on a better device then Telefónica’s competitors I will keep you posted how that goes!

A couple of days before the event, some 150 companies registered to attend MOBILE 2.0 EUROPE event, including startups, investors, mobile carriers, device manufacturers, mobile application and service providers, bloggers, press and web technologists. If you want to attend the event to connect to industry leadership and broaden your C-level relationships, you can still buy tickets here.

NOTE there’s also a Mobile 2.0 Europe TechCrunch Party at the Shôko Lounge Club in front of the beach, all details about this after event meetup here.

Here’s the list of the companies attending the MOBILE 2.0 EUROPE conference in alphabetical order:

24 Access Solutions
7 Syntax
Acquamedia Technologies
AdMob
Ajuntament de Barcelona
aka-aki networks GmbH
Alcatel-Lucent
AlpinaSearch
Altaide Valley
Alumnus Software
AMF ventures
antrak capital
Atlas Venture
Atos Origin
Avui
AZ Interactive
Balderton Capital
Bango
Barcelona Digital
Barcelona Media
Beabloo
BeepMarketing
Between Brackets
bluenove
Blyk
Bullnet Gestion
CanalPDA
cellity AG
Centro Español de Servicios Telematicos
Channer Medianet
cirici new media
Clicmobile
CommonSensus
Comunicano
Coreobjects Ltd
DD&H
Debaeque Venture Capital
Dial2Do
dotopen
Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures
eBuddy
Economic Promotion - Barcelona City Council
Eden Ventures
El Paìs
Ericsson
Esade
European Commission - Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS)
Facoria de Canales
Five minutes
Fjord
France Telecom
Futurlink
GeoMe Communications
Getjar
GoodmintonPartners
Google
GSM Association
Halmstad University
Hewlett-Packard
Hiwave GmbH
Ideal Interfaces
Interactive McCann
IT University of Copenhagen
Itinerarium
itsmy.com (Gofresh)
Jaeson Associates
Jupidi GmbH
Kalerion Computing
Kimia
kooaba AG
La Vanguardia
Longreach Mobile
Lorem Ipsum
M:Metrics
Materna GmbH
mikamai
Mobiclip SL
Mobifriends
Mobile Distillery
Mobile Economy GmbH
MobileContact Software
MobileMonday PL
MobileMonday Ltd.
MobiLuck
Motorola
Motricity
mSearchGroove
my247.mobi
MyFrame Inc.
MyVocal
Nauta Tech Invest II SCR
NextWell
Nimbuzz
Nokia
Nova Ventus Consulting
Onetomarket
Orange
Oxynade
Ozmota
Palringo
PBS MediaShift
Peperoni Software GmbH
Plugg
Qelp
Qualcomm
Quodis
Refresh Mobile
Route Forward Ltd
Rummble
Safiratec
Samtel Consultores
Service Innovation and Interaction Design
SFR
Simba Technologies
SMS Text News
Some Bazaar
Spinverse Ltd
SPRXmobile
Stanford HCI Group
Stradbroke Advisors
Sun Microsystems
Sydes nv / Arkafund nv
Ta with you
Taptu
TAT AB
TechCrunch
Telecom Italia
Telefonica I+D
Telefonica Moviles
Telgraph Hill Group
Tertius Advisory Services
T-Mobile International AG
Tooio Mobile
Treasuremytext
Trutap
Trutap Ltd
Uniteddogs and Cats OY
Universal McCann
University of Salzburg
University of VIC
Unkasoft
Valoris
ViaMobility
ViiF Mobile Video GmbH
Vodafone
Webwag
Worldwide Rights Management Ltd
Yahoo!
Yiibu
YouLynx
Zipipop
ZYB