My client, Mojio, and Amazon Alexa are hosting the 2nd Annual Connected Car Hackathon in the lead up to AutoMobility LA 2016. The hackathon is happening on November 12th and 13th at the LA Convention Center.

At the hack, Mojio will be unveiling their new and improved set of SDKs, APIs and platform documentation. All of this effort is geared towards making it easy for developers and engineers to take advantage of the fast-growing connected car segment — a huge business opportunity!

They’ll also be given away $10,000 of combined value in cash prizes, Amazon Echo devices and Intel Edison IoT hardware kits. The Grand Prize Winners will be announced on stage on Monday the 14th at the opening reception of AutoMobility LA. Pretty cool!

I’ve got a limited number of free passes for the Hackathon, which include:

• One (1) free pass to the 2016 AutoMobility LA trade show, including access to exhibit halls, press conferences and networking events ($100 Value)
• Direct access to technical experts from Mojio, Amazon Alexa and other sponsors
• All meals, plus beverages and snacks catered by the LA Convention Center
• Official hackathon t-shirt and other sponsor swag (of course!)
• 36 hour access to the hackathon venue in the LA Convention Center

Use this link to get your free tickets: https://connectedcarhackathon.eventbrite.com?discount=LisaO (Discount Code: LisaO)

For more information about Mojio, visit their website.

I hope to see you in LA next weekend!

Join me as I moderate the WCA’s 16th annual What’s Hot (and What’s Not) in Mobility 2015 panel. Details below:

When: November 19th 2015, 6:00pm – 8:30pm (Check-in begins at 6:00pm, Event starts at 7:00pm).

Venue: Fenwick & West LLP, 801 California St, Mountain View CA

Cost: $20 through Nov 8th, $30 afterwards

The mobile market in 2015 continues to evolve. As predicted during last year’s WCA panel on the future of mobility, Chinese OEMs are now 7 of the top 10 global smartphone makers. Incumbent leaders Samsung and Apple are experiencing increased pressure, particularly in emerging economies. Nokia is reportedly gearing up to attempt a mobile comeback following the Microsoft debacle, and Motorola Mobility is surprising many of its critics with the release of the positively reviewed Moto X Pure. Meanwhile, Xiaomi and OnePlus are generating buzz in new markets, while start-up newcomers like Nextbit and Wileyfox are attracting attention by releasing affordable, competitively featured smartphones.

As the commoditization of smartphone hardware accelerates, a load of new mobile-connected IoT devices/SaaS startups are hitting the market. Virtual Reality headsets (Oculus VR, Galaxy Gear VR, Google Cardboard, etc.), wearable devices (watches, rings, etc.), and various IoT/ home automation products are attempting to ride the next wave of mobility, but questions remain about if and when consumers and enterprise will adopt these new technologies.

As the definition of “mobile” continues to expand beyond smartphones, the evolution of apps, smart content delivery, cloud services, App Performance Management (APM), monetization and user engagement services is becoming an increasingly important. Growth at both Facebook and Google is coming on the heels of a “Mobile First” services mantra. Smart, sensor-enabled, context-aware innovations continue to crank out more data sets, opening up the opportunity for companies to analyze and make use of that data to enrich our daily lives and even improve our health. Video consumption on mobile is expected to grow 20% in 2016, influencing content distribution and ad servicing. Mobile messaging and free-to-play gaming are still incredibly hot, but will it last?

Which areas of mobile are ripe for disruption in 2016 and beyond? Join us at the WCA’s 16th Annual What’s Hot (and What’s Not) in Mobility VC panel for a discussion with some of Silicon Valley’s best mobile-savvy Venture Capitalists about the future of mobility. They will also share insights into which mobile growth areas capture their smart investments – and which do not.

Panelists:
— Steve Goldberg, Partner, Venrock
— Eric Zimits, Managing Director, Granite Ventures
— John Occhipinti, Partner, Relay Ventures
— Jeff Tannenbaum, Principal, BlueRun Ventures

Register on Eventbrite to attend this event: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/whats-hot-and-whats-not-in-mobility-2015-tickets-19055820472

We are a media partner with the first-ever MEF Global Forum 2013, taking place in Silicon Valley on 14th and 15th November. Hosted by MEF the global community for mobile content & commerce, this event brings 12 years of heritage and international perspectives to the heart of Silicon Valley. (more…)

Yesterday, Google sent a note to all Glass Explorers giving them the opportunity to add three people to the Google Glass invite list.  If you’ve been wanting to spend $1,500 on your own pair of Google Glass but don’t have an invite from Google, today is your lucky day… I’m giving away one of my three Google Glass invites to one of you.  Here’s how it’ll work: (more…)

Join me and others in the mobile industry including Walt Mossberg, All Things D; Bill Malloy, CMO, Sprint, Rich Riley, CEO; Shazam, Mitchell Baker, Chaiwoman, Mozilla; Abhi Ingle, VP of Innovation, AT&T; Dave Engberg, CTO, Evernote and 90+ others at The Open Mobile Summit and Appcelerate on November 12-14 November, 2013, San Francisco, CA.

This year, Socialize Mobilize is a media partner for Open Mobile Summit and Appcelerate. These intimate events connect the most influential and the most innovative people and companies in converging mobile, Internet, media, electronics and commerce. I attended this show last year and found the quality of participants and agenda one of the best of the year.  At Appcelerate, CEOs from the most successful app publishers on the planet will share the secrets to their success building, marketing and monetizing apps.

Click here to download the conference brochure including full agenda and 2013 keynote speaker update.

If you’d like to attend, please register here, and use the Socialize Mobilize discount code ‘2439SM’ to save an extra $100 from current prices. Today is the last day for ‘early bird’ tickets, which offer an an additional $100 discount. So, if you book today, you’ll get $200 off the price of tickets.

I’ve just started a new consulting project to help Concur / TripIt get the word out about The Perfect Trip Devcon in San Francisco Oct. 2, 2013. This is the first developer conference dedicated to the largely untapped, $249B business travel space, and it’s going to be amazing…

• Learn how to get your app into Concur’s App Center and reach 20M business travelers and 18,000 enterprises
• Pitch your new travel solution to win cash awards from the Perfect Trip Fund – $100,000 in cash prizes… The Perfect Trip Awards are designed to encourage entrepreneurs from early stage to established companies to present their ideas, compete for cash prizes, get audience exposure and capture industry attention.
• Hear from thought leaders like Tim O’Reilly, Founder of O’Reilly Media and TripIt investor
• Discover open APIs and services, technical resources and best practices from Concur’s Engineering Team

If you’d like to learn more about using Concur’s APIs in your applications and to get involved in The Perfect Trip Devcon, please get in touch with me!

I am one of the lucky first people to have the opportunity to buy the beta version of Google Glass, after registering as a “Glass Explorer” at Google I/O 2012. Last weekend, I went to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California and picked up my Google Glass… (more…)

A year ago plus, when my tech-savvy friends and colleagues (that didn’t work at Google or Motorola) discovered that I used Android, they gave me strange looks.  Those looks were equal parts bafflement and disgust, and were almost always accompanied by asking, “Why Android?” – as if to say, “As someone who knows mobile, shouldn’t you be using an iPhone?!” (more…)

Open Mobile Summit and Appcelerate are coming up on November 7-9 in San Francisco (see below for discounts).  This is historically a great show jam packed full of talks from executive level leaders across the mobile internet economy. This year’s agenda is packed with outstanding executive level speakers!

What makes Open Mobile Summit different than other mobile shows is its focus on bringing together executive leadership from across the ecosystem:

On Day 1, (more…)

Last week at Google I/O, Google announced improvements to the Google+ experience including improved tablet apps for Android and iOS and a new “events” feature. The new “Events” feature puts Google+ in direct competition with other popular event management solutions like Facebook Events and Evite.  It allows users to create and manage public or private events, and it allows attendees of those events to post pictures to the event, which other attendees can see.  It’s awesome…except for when it makes your private event public, as I discovered when I gave Google+ Events a whirl… (more…)