As the industry prepares to gather tomorrow for MEX, the PMN Mobile User Experience conference, I have been reflecting on what this is all about.

Hosting an event on such an ephemeral subject as ‘user experience’ presents a challenge for everyone involved. In bringing MEX together, we soon realised that one of our primary objectives would be to define what we mean when we use the term ‘user experience’ and what it represents for the industry. It is appropriate, therefore, that we should seek to answer this question in the very first session of the conference and provide a context for the debates to follow.

MEX is the product of thousands of conversations and hours of research, distilled into two days of debate and relaxed networking. With so many of the world’s user experience experts gathered together for the first time, we have an extraordinary opportunity to discover the cutting edge of thinking in this field.

The diversity of the speaking agenda reflects the breadth and complexity of the topic, but a single consistent theme has emerged in bringing together this conference: understanding the dynamics of the user experience and placing the customer back at the heart of the value chain is now a key strategic challenge for everyone in this business. Whether you are several layers removed from the end consumer, or a front-line brand seeking direct customer relationships, understanding the user experience has never been more important.

With this in mind, we have designed MEX as an event where the most creative minds from the design industry can share the stage with senior commercial managers from the mobile telecoms business, where corporate ‘pitches’ are replaced by lively discussion and where our objective is to ensure everyone leaves with at least five genuinely new ideas.

It is implicit in any conference on the topic of user experience that the ‘event experience’ itself should be of the highest standard. If you are joining us in London, we hope the special efforts we have made will ensure you find MEX informative, valuable and – above all – refreshingly different.

A small number of last-minute places have been reserved for allocation on the day, please contact Mark Hamilos (markhamilos@pmn.co.uk or +44 7748 684232) for availability.

For those of you who can’t make it to MEX in person, we will providing live coverage of the event at www.mobileuserexperience.com – please check back throughout the two days for continuous updates.

Marek Pawlowski
Editorial Director
PMN – Mobile Industry Intelligence
marekpawlowski@pmn.co.uk