CellStrat is extremely pleased to report that this event was Sold Out a week before the event date. This conference saw an unending barrage of interest from audience from all over India in addition to the host city Delhi. Even after putting up the Sold Out sign on the Registration site, CellStrat team kept getting dozens and dozens of calls daily to enquire about registrations. On the event day, more than 250 people attended the conclave.
The conference received rave reviews from all – speakers, audience as well as the apps exhibitors that attended the event. Mobile Apps Conclave’s hall was full even before the first Keynote session by Sanjay Swamy, the Mobile Strategist for Indian Government’s ambitious UIDAI project named Aadhaar.
CellStrat team was flooded with calls well into lunch time by interested delegates who wanted to enquire if seats were still available for the event. This monstrous success is a testament to the hard work of CellStrat team and countless sleepless nights (and days) put in by them in planning this event. CellStrat tried to accommodate as many delegates as possible but unfortunately had to turn many away due to massive over-bookings.
One of the reasons for this event’s success was certainly the topic at hand. Mobile Apps, App Stores and Mobile Web are the equivalent of Mobile re-invention and its immense possibilities. This was proved by exhibitors there who had on display quite a few innovative apps. These exhibitors saw interest in their offering from one and all at the event. Some were start-ups while some others were established players in the Mobile Apps and Content arena.
Two start-ups – MobiVite and Manupatra were selected to showcase their apps in front of the delegates on the stage. Both of them have apps / mobile web platforms to serve content / information over the mobile channel. Manupatra Info Solutions provide legal databases to its subscribers and followers through web, books and mobile apps. Manupatra offers both free and paid options for providing access to their hosted content. The other start-up MobiVite provides events info both on web and mobile via a one-click publishing platform. Both of these stage demos were well received by the audience.
In another keynote, Mahesh Narayanan from Google’s Mobile Advertising division presented on how companies are using mobile web and related in-app and off-app advertising. Then there were three panels each focusing on topics like App Marketing and Monetization, and Mobile Web/ App Innovations.
Venture Capitalist Harish Gandhi of Canaan Partners said that only 5% developers in India are actually serious about apps as a business and are able to monetize their Apps. The remaining App Developers in India are experimenting for the most part. This has to do with the fact that App and Mobile Web is relatively new in India with Smartphone penetration still less than 10% and tablet penetration almost next to nothing. But for those in the industry – this is glass half full with a massive upside potential as the Indian middle class upgrades to touchscreen smartphones and tablets in coming years. All panelists were of the view that recent 3G launches will certainly accelerate this pattern.
When Vijay Shekhar, moderator of the Mobile Web innovations panel quizzed each speaker in his panel about which apps have the best future potential…some were of the opinion that Gaming is one of the hottest areas for App growth, another speaker said that transaction apps which effect a large population like India have high potential, while some others said that LBS (Location-based Services) Apps offer the best opportunities. So one can conclude that Gaming, Mass Socio-Economic Apps (like UIDAI’s Aadhaar or Mobile Banking for the unbanked) and LBS are the top favorites in India as per the Innovation thinkers.
The Mobile Apps Conclave saw attendance by a large number of Brands, Media, C-Suite audience and Developers from dozens of large and small firms. It proved to be an extremely rich event with a broad audience base and rich content on Apps, Mobile Web, Tablets and Connected Devices. CellStrat will publish the photos and videos from the event soon. So, for those who could not make it to the Mobile Apps Conclave – stay tuned.
Almost two dozen high profile speakers spoke at this event. This list included:
– Sumit Goswami, GM – Marketing India and APAC, Nuance Communications
– Sanjay Swamy, Head – Mobile Strategy, UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) – Govt of India
– Chand Malu, Business Head, Nokia Tej
– Gaurav Sarin, GM Product & Innovation Officer, Aircel
– Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO, One97 Communications
– N K Goyal, President, CMAI
– Badri Sanjeevi, COO, Mauj Mobile
– Rajiv Kumar, CEO and Founder, RockeTalk
– Mahesh Narayanan, Country Manager – Business Development, Google India
– Salil Bhargava, CEO – Jump Games, Reliance BIG Entertainment
– Viswanath Poosala, Head of Bell Labs – India, Alcatel-Lucent
– Ramesh Krishnan, COO, 2ergo India
– Jasmeet Singh, Head Service Marketing and Devices OPM, Nokia India
– Dharmendra Yashovardhan, Co-Founder & COO, iXiGO.com
– Varun Khurana, Co-Founder & CEO, Wirkle Technologies
– Ankur Lal, Founder & CEO, Infozech Software
– Jamshed V Rajan, Country Head – India, Nimbuzz
– R Jai Krishna, Dow Jones Newswires
– Harish Gandhi, Executive Director, Canaan Partners
– Ritesh Banglani, Vice President, Helion Ventures
– Vishal Singhal, CMO, CellStrat
In the associated Mobile Solutions Expo which CellStrat organized at this event, several innovative firms had their mobile solutions on display. The list of firms exhibiting included Nuance, Nokia Tej, WIN Information Tech, Tech Ahead, GVC Systems, Manupatra, MobiVite, DevIndia etc. These exhibitors received great fanfare from the event attendees and were pleased to see this keen interest in their offerings.