MEX

We’ve had an overwhelming response since we announced our mobile user experience Manifesto for the 2008 MEX conference. This 10 point blueprint, designed to put the consumer at the heart of the mobile business, will be addressed by some of the industry’s most inspiring speakers when we gather for the 4th annual MEX conference on 27th and 28th May.

We’ll be introducing you to all our speakers individually over the coming weeks and we’re delighted to welcome Dr Norman Lewis as the first to feature in a special series of MEX ‘Meet the speaker’ articles.

Dr Lewis currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer of Wireless Grids Corporation and Chairman of the International Telecommunications Union’s TELECOM Forum Programme Committee. He was previously Director of Technology Research for Orange and the Home division for France Telecom.

At MEX, he will be our speaker for Point #9 of the Manifesto, entitled ‘Users as individuals: uniquely complex and contradictory’.

Dr Lewis will explore this topic by examining a particular group of users – digital children – the subject of his recent research projects.

He explained: “My focus will be on digital children and why their behaviour will be the major source of future disruption. The generation who have grown up with digital technologies at their fingertips no longer make a distinction between the off- and on-line worlds, nor do they think or care about connectivity. Digital technologies are merely tools through which they appropriate popular culture, particularly to express themselves and gain acknowledgment, connect with their peers and access entertainment.”

Through his work and studies, Dr Lewis has learnt first hand how the mobile business needs to become much more sophisticated in its approach to user profiling. He told us: “Instead of focusing upon segmentation, the industry needs to understand at a far deeper level what drives technology interactions by today’s digital children – tomorrow’s customers.

“At MEX, I will examine how research and collaborative platforms that can model these behaviours and identify hidden needs and interests can help to build frameworks for future innovation.

“Anticipating the pain of the future customer is vital for product and service innovation. Companies that understand that the future lies in partnering with the customer – giving them the tools, applications and platforms that will enable them to decide how and with whom and what they wish to connect – will be able to design both compelling experiences and develop new business models that place the end-user, not devices, technologies nor the network at the centre of the digital universe.”

To read the full Manifesto, please visit the MEX web-site. Online conference registration for this two day strategy forum is now open and priced at GBP 1499 (+ VAT @ 17.5% where applicable).