Lessons from the Wavefront Wireless Summit

Wavefront Wireless Summit | BCBusiness

A wrap up of one of the biggest mobility summits to hit Vancouver in 2013.

What can the mobile world do for businesses? This was the essential question the Wavefront Wireless Summit, held from Feb. 4-6, did its best to answer. Wavefront, a non-profit centre focused on bolstering wireless companies across Canada, hosted the three-day conference and booked a spectacular lineup of speakers who proselytized the benefits of businesses going mobile.
 
Those overarching mobility benefits were the focus of the conference’s final day, and here are some great takeaways from the morning’s speakers.
 
From keynote speaker Tim Bray, developer advocate at Google:
 
Bray covered the differences between the agile and innovative world of developing for mobile and compared it to developing enterprise software—a process he often finds clunky and not nearly as nimble.
 
“The world of mobile is not at all like the world of enterprise software. Nor should it be.”
 
“Mobile software prices are sane because it’s consumer focused. And I stand by my claim that web and open-source systems are doing it better and enterprise is doing it wrong.”
 
Simplification of your processes are often the key to building success at a company.
 
“Apple is a great example of this. They simplified everything and sold their products at a higher price.”
 
Bray also emphasized that businesses must pay attention and invest in mobile.
 
“What is the economic value of a rich user experience? Apple has built its entire success on a great user experience and nothing else.”
 
“The question should not be can I afford to have a mobile app, but instead, can I afford to not have a rich user experience.”
 
From keynote speaker Mateen Greenway, HP Fellow, Enterprise Services at Hewlett-Packard:
 
Greenway points out that businesses are often too busy with their day-to-day activities to focus on innovation.
 
“When you are up to your ass in  alligators, it’s hard to remember that your job is to drain the swamp.”
 
“Innovation is not about clever ideas. It’s about turning them into action, and building a view of the world going forward.”
 
 
Obviously the focus of any company should be on continuous innovation. But once revenues start pouring in, he says it’s often difficult to keep your eye on the prize.
 
“Once an innovative company starts to get a bit successful, it has the seeds of it’s own doom built into it.”
 
He also revealed three trends he sees changing the future:
 
1. Evolving business models
2. Technology advancements
3. Social, mobile and real time
 
And while the mobile world is grand, just being invested in mobility isn’t enough—it’s about what you do when you’re there as a business.
 
“A brand new shiny device does not solve a problem. It has to be part of an ecosystem. It’s about what you can do with it.”

Check out what others had to say about the summit.