Showstoppers at CTIA – Thumbplay; fonemine; SmithMacro and dial directions

Rating: the good the bad and the rude

by Bena Roberts

OK, last post for the night as I am exhausted. But I went to ShowStoppers after the moco event and was delighted to see my ex-boss Eddie Hold from Current Analysis. But anyway; moving on I also managed to meet:

Thumbplay – EVP James Finn – showed me a preview of a new portal with AOL

Fonemine: a mobile advertising and marketing company (more on them in Mobile 2.0)

SmithMicro: user interface company (I like them as they were at my presentation and said it was “very good”).

Dial Dir-ect-ions – (take a deep breath). I sat down to have some food and these guys were talking so I started asking questions. They have a voice dial automated service for asking directions and getting a response. I asked one or two questions and the bloke Amit Desai demanded my business card and got very defensive. Then he refused to speak to me and started playing with his phone and got up and left without saying good bye. I was slightly bemused and thought – if he can’t handle tough questions he shouldn’t be in this job. But then his colleague Joe Schmid tried to answer some questions – slight better; but to be honest couldn’t get away from me fast enough. Both of them weren’t the founders of the company and I have to say with staff like this I am not surprised that so many start-ups fail.

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3. James Whatley on New MTV SpinVox social network solution
4. Thumbplay with my AOL
5. Mobile Advertising marketing is expanding in all directions and BKI Media predict who is next on the purchase hitlist