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]
