The evening outline is as follows:

“The Chartered Institute of Marketing is calling on marketers to examine where digital marketing may be heading in the next few years and asks leading practitioners how they think companies can thrive in the digital marketplace, whilst making sure they get the right levels of return on investment (ROI) from their activities.”

I myself will be delivering a 15 minute presentation on the changing landscape of consumer behaviour and how businesses can use mobile technology to reach and retain new customers (working title). Hopefully it will be a really informative session, not only targeted at local businesses, but provide some relevant insights for marketing to a modern, tech-savvy audience on the whole.

The list of other speakers is great (to be revealed soon), so all in all should be a great education for newbies, and an expansion on current knowledge for a few veterans. I want to make it as relevant as possible to the local area (Dorset!), so if any businesses or agencies have mobile case studies they think would be worthwhile taking a look at, feel free to get in touch!

In the mean time, get over to the event page here and sign up to attend! Looking forward to seeing a few familiar faces.

The Virtual Roundtable aims to explain the significance of the Mobile Touch Web and the impact of touchscreen devices on how people access, enjoy and purchase content and services. Taptu and MsearchGroove were joined by a wide range of mobile industry entrepreneurs, authorities and pundits including:  Tomi Ahonen (best-selling author); Mark Curtis (Flirtomatic); Carl Martin (Redweb); Andreas Constantinou (VisionMobile);Jonathan MacDonald (This Fluid World);  Martin Wilson (Indigo 102); Dan Appelquist (Vodafone UK);  Christian Lindholm (Fjord); and Peggy Anne Salz (MSearchGroove).

The contributors agree the rise of touchscreen phone shipments from handset manufacturers including Apple, HTC, Nokia and Samsung, and the growth in touch-friendly websites and content will profoundly impact how we live, work and shop. From content creation and publishing, to user experience and design, to commerce to advertising, the Mobile Touch Web changes all the rules.

Christian Lindholm, a partner and director with Fjord, a leading European digital design agency, who contributed his vision to the Taptu Virtual Roundtable, believes the Mobile Touch Web has not only arrived full-force. It marks the beginning of a seismic shift that will spur the creation of new Webs and new device segments. “Within 2-3 years we will have 3 Webs. The 13″ Mouse web, designed for computers, desktop and laptops; the 4″ pocket Touch Web for mobile touchscreen devices and the like; and the 10″ casual Touch Web for devices such as the iPad. Thus, we will have three segments: Phone, Pad and Computer. The Phone and Pad are Web sub-segments, and will require their own discovery, structure and monetization solutions.”

Peggy Anne Salz, founder and chief analyst of MSearchGroove believes the Mobile Touch Web lays the groundwork for a “new kind of interactive mobile Internet, a brave new place where new content, new experiences and even new mobile search services will set the bar.” Salz adds: “The Mobile Touch Web, though growing vigorously as Taptu shows, is not the only game in town. Thus, the pressure is on companies everywhere in the ecosystem to re-think their strategies and create a balance of touch-friendly content for touchscreen devices and the emerging Mobile Touch Web, while not losing sight of the opportunities offered by the other Internets. We face tough choices, but hoping for the Internet to become a unified place where everything is accessible and connected (again) is not an option.”

I have rapidly established a reputation for ‘iPhone bashing’, which is nothing to do with not owning a suite of Apple Products or disliking Steve Job’s hair. Oh no. For those of you that are not aware, my main ‘beef’ is with brands who do not consider other platforms simply because its a) too hard, b) too expensive/not as cheap as iPhone or c) just want to tick a box that says ‘We have an iPhone app’.

There is a wealth and breadth of great (and some not so great) operating systems out there that can offer brilliant, rich and engaging experiences for their users, that despite having a substantially larger market share than Apple, continue to be overlooked. For a long time I have wanted to put together a presentation to demonstrate this very point, but Ewan MacLeod of Mobile Industry Review has pulled it out of the bag.

When it comes down to offering consumer utilities or CRM extensions, it is important to closely consider which platform to employ, but whether you should even consider the mobile web before apps! The iPhone is just 4% of the UK mobile handset share, so can you really justify spending a vast amount of your marketing budget on an app that might reach only 4% of your target audience (assuming your brand is a national brand with a fair reflection of the British population). The most likely scenario is that you cannot.

As mobile moves from ‘bit-part’ to mainstream, the importance of understanding this audience, their handsets and how they interact with brands via their mobile will be of the utmost importance. Mobile ‘strategists’ and planners will, like social media this year, start cropping up at agencies all over the world, and become an integral part of the planning and creative process. And this here, this is your first free piece of advice, condensed into a succinct yet effective presentation from Ewan. Enjoy.

p.s. still need more convincing? Martin Wilson and Tomi Ahonen can offer further support

Major props to Rudy De Waele for the awesome preso.

Its been a long period of silence I know (*slaps wrist*) but the past few months have not just been incredibly hectic, but I have also been looking into the future of Mobsessed and the way I want my readers and the industry to digest its content. I have some substantial ideas in the pipeline which I hope will make this a staple of your blog reading diet! So for now, please wait with baited breath, as I promise it will be worth it. In the mean time, if you haven’t already seen it, take the time to digest the information in this superb presentation from Rudy De Waele and some of the most brilliant minds in mobile.

And if you haven’t already, follow @wheeloftea on twitter, and go check out the website

In the mean time, please enjoy the new blog!