iDate conference review

by David Evans on July 25, 2005 in Dating Events

This one is from Patrick Marshall of Thomas Technologies.

Conference organizers put the number of attendees at 150-200. I’d say it that 120-130 is a safer bet with 20-25 of those folks being vendors. Industry players included AOL, Date, Lavalife, Community Connect, NWNP, OnlineBootyCall, Spark, and few others. Vendors included Userplane, Plutolife, Voxtel, EMagMaker (with an ultra-snazzy booth), Privatel, Gnumber, and your friendly personality assessment provider – Thomas Technologies.

I was at our booth most of the time but here’s a snapshot of what I did see:

- Mark Brooks gave an overview of the dating market and touched on early adopters (North American) of mobile technology.

- Michael Clinch of Plutolife AS delivered a really frank discussion on how to develop and deliver a mobile dating business plan. Smart folks seemed to be taking notes.

- The Honorable Alan Cropsey (Michigan State Senate) spoke on background check legislation. It was lively but not as much as you’d expect.

- Worldgate showed off Ojo, their new $500 personal video phone (developed by Motorola). It’s slick gear. Looks like a cobra.

- The final panel (Current Issues Facing the Mobile Dating Industry) with Sprint, AOL, Palm Source, Webdate, Userplane and Kyocera was interesting but I couldn’t help thinking the European / Asian experience might have been more enlightening.

A particular highlight was Rakesh Sharma (Jyotishi.com) who endeared himself to all with his unique gift of reading palms. Five minutes under Rakesh’s magnifying glass explained everything I needed to know about myself (but was afraid to pay a therapist to tell me).

Hats off to Mark and the iDate Gang for organizing a first class cocktail reception (with nibblies) at the Hilton’s CityScape Bar. Thankfully the fog had cleared to reveal San Franciso’s splendor – a truly great panoramic view of the city.

All in all, a good show. As Mike Jones said in the final panel, we’ll look back in 5-10 years and it will all seem so obvious.

Thanks Patrick!

[tags: idate, thomas technologies]