The 10th edition of the yearly Mobile VAS & Apps Conference – probably the largest event on these topics in Eastern Europe – was held in St. Petersburg in late November in partnership with East-West Digital News.
The conference was attended by over 500 participants from 19 countries, most of them CEOs, senior managers, and employees of mobile industry-related companies. Independent industry watchers, technology entrepreneurs, and reporters from more than 30 mobile industry media outlets also participated.
The first day of the conference was packed with sessions on mobile distribution, games, and apps. At a dedicated session, mobile operators shared their latest strategies and new opportunities on offer to developers. They also discussed Mobile Number Portability (MNP) and current market policy.
On the second day, Microsoft, Samsung, Qualcomm and BBG made presentations. After this, the conference split into two streams: some participants proceeded to discuss digital content, while others focused on mobile investments. At the end of the day, all participants reassembled for panel debates on mobile payments and NFC technology.
Overall, the conference featured 24 presentations and six roundtables covering the most pressing items on the mobile industry agenda, involving several Russian and foreign industry trailblazers and prominent experts.
This year’s conference also included a Mobile Trends Forum, which focused on cutting-edge technology and the latest generation of mobile products, while the Mobile Projects Show allowed entrepreneurs to meet with well-known publishers and potential investors. Participants were introduced to the prototypes of new mobile products and services and asked to vote for their favorite project. The winning app, Assistant in Russian, is an open API mobile personal assistant app that uses artificial intelligence and, specifically, speech recognition technology.
The Russian Mobile Awards 2013 were also presented. The winners of the 2013 Russian Mobile Awards were: Jungle Heat (Mail.Ru Games) in the “Best Mobile Game” category, Lingvo iOS Phrasebooks (ABBYY) in the “Best Non-Game App” category, Common Mobile Platform for the City of Moscow (Altarix) in the “Best Mobile Service” category, “All Together,” the fundraiser marathon on Channel One in the “Best SMS Service” category, Tinkoff Mobile Bank (Tinkoff Credit Systems) in the “Best Payment Service” category, and iPressPad in the “Best Startup” category.
“We did many things differently this year, and not just the formats and focus of the individual sessions. The whole event concept was different,” said Ekaterina Ivanova, who heads i-Free Events and the Organizing Committee of the VAS & Apps Conference. “We wanted the conference to reach out beyond the traditional mobile community – cellular companies, vendors and service providers – to players in new and emerging mobile sectors.”
To see a photo report on the 10th Mobile VAS & Apps Conference and Mobile Trends Forum, visit the official conference website or the event’s Facebook page.
i-free, a major Russian mobile content publisher and solution developer, has sponsored the conference and provided this résumé
