TEDx ‘A Mobile Future’
Anthony, November 16th, 2011
The now world famous TED conferencing arrived in Liverpool in the shape of TEDx Liverpool, an independently organised event with a focus on the mobile technology industry. Interest was high for the event that encourages inspirational speakers to share ideas with their audience, and it played out to a full house at FACT, Wood Street.
The crowd were treated to talks from various sectors of the mobile industry. Mobile gaming and design was particularly well represented in the form of ustwo, Zolmo and Matmi.
ustwo were particularly interesting with self-professed ‘Chief Wonka’, Mills, who took the audience through several of ustwo’s ipad and iphone apps with the focus being primarily on sales failure, and how a company can learn a great deal by being inspired and forward thinking. Not necessarily setting out to make big bucks but earning good reputation, canvassing your market and getting a feel for what users really want and desire on their mobile devices.
Ian Wharton of Zolmo talked at length about the problems and successes of their Jamie Oliver apps; from working closely with Oliver and listening to user feedback and getting people engaged enough to see the value in paying for it right through to harnessing and refining the product. He commented on the industry being largely misunderstood, but one that will be defined in the next 5 years and how users must begin to understand the value of digital products compared to their physical representations.
Stephen Mellish gave us a ‘Mystic Meg’ insight into the seemingly hellish terminator esq future we face, as mobile phones take over. Everything from diagnosing our illnesses via microchip implants to our homes dictating to us how we should live.
Tom Scott provided some light relief in between chats with a clever and amusing use of twitter with the audience and Nicholas Cuminsky from Google talked at length about branding and performance solutions.
Roger McNamee (through video) spoke about the stunning statistics regarding mobile smartphone adoption – that smartphones have taken 96% of desktop internet access to less than 50% in three years. And according to him this leads us to the conclusion that App beats web and that Index search is dying. However he pointed out that with the emergence of HTML5 it all changes again –watch this space!
Dan Lyons, Newsweek Technology Editor that was the pick of the bunch, with his colourful opinion on Steve Jobs and his forthright views on the current mobile market thats dominated by Apple. The event was an enjoyable and informative collective of views and ideas, not to mention the free Krispy Kreme donuts.
TEDx returns to the Northwest very soon at TEDx Manchester, be sure to get your tickets!
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