Mobile Monday Portland Meeting: April 19

Mobile Monday Portland is pleased to begin our programmed meetings with an all-star panel. The Monday, April 19 meeting (at Backspace, 115 NW 5th at Davis in Portland), features a panel discussion on mobile financial services. Doors open at 6:00 PM, and the panel will begin at 6:30 PM.

Mobile Financial Services

Just as the mobile phone evolved into a camera, it is now evolving into a wallet. Mobile financial services are letting people to use their mobile account to pay for virtual goods and online content, use their phones to manage and complete transactions at cash registers, among a host of other emerging services. Portland is home to many innovative and industry-leading companies in this rapidly expanding space. This panel will discuss the trends in mobile financial services, how people will use their phones mCommerce and the role the Portland mobile community is playing in this ecosystem.

Moderator

Monica Alleven, Editor-in-Chief of Wireless Week

Monica Alleven has been with Wireless Week for more than 10 years, covering beats as diverse as SMR and paging in the 1990s to, more recently, business and mobile content. She entered the wireless industry trade press after seven years with daily newspapers in the West. Previously, she served as copy editor for the Record Searchlight, a daily newspaper in Redding, Calif. Earlier she worked at two Oregon newspapers where she won awards from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association for her published articles.

Panelists

Dr. Siva Narendra, Chief Technology Officer of Tyfone Inc.
Siva is co-founder and CTO of Tyfone responsible for its product architecture, roadmap, and IP. Before his current responsibility, he was with Intel Laboratories specializing in energy and yield aware designs. He has authored over 60 technical papers in peer reviewed conferences and journals, and frequently lectures on technology forums. He also has over 100 issued/pending patents and holds 5 divisional recognition awards from Intel and an award in 2003 for having 19 issued patents in that year.

Matthew Hall, Vice President of Business Development at Vesta Corporation
Matt Hall has a wealth of experience in wireless and data communications services, in both the US and Europe. Before joining Vesta in 2005, Matt consulted to a variety of mid-stage growth technology companies developing business models, market strategies, and capital structures. Prior to that, he worked in Germany as Director of Mobile Strategic Alliances for Lycos Europe, a Bertelsmann joint venture, where he developed relationships with mobile operators, as well as content and service providers, throughout Europe. Matt has also served as Vice President Business Development for Multitude, a voice-over IP and unified messaging company in San Francisco, California, and Vice President Finance for NetChannel Inc., where he was instrumental in its sale to AOL in 1998.

After several months of administrative work, blogging, tweeting and planning, Mobile Monday Portland is about to formally launch! So put a note in your calendars to come to our inaugural event!

WHAT: MoMoPDX Meeting #1
WHERE: Backspace – 115 NW 5th in Portland [map]
WHEN: January 11, 2010 from 6pm to 8pm

Details will follow, so keep your eyes on this blog. However our first meeting is intended to be a fun meet and greet where you can mix and mingle with people working in Portland’s diverse and growing mobile industry. Future events will have a more structured program with panel discussions and presentations.

As the board prepared to launch MoMoPDX, we were struck by how many people from within the local mobile industry were unaware of how large this community is. All of us certainly know that the perception of our local industry outside of Portland is that it is small. We think you’ll be surprised by how big the Portland mobile industry really is. So far the MoMoPDX board has identified more than 40 companies in the mobile and wireless industries located in the Porltand/Vancouver metro area.

The local mobile ecosystem includes hardware manufacturers, chip makers, software companies, service providers in addition to independent developers, mobility-focused marketing companies, reporters, bloggers and industry analysts. Come meet your peers as the world’s largest mobile organization launches in Portland!

For more information about Mobile Monday, please read our “About” page.