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One of the highlights of my September was the recently concluded Mobile Ecosystem Forum’s MEF Connects USA conference. I helped bring together a lot of the content and the speakers. Thanks to the wide latitude given by MEF CEO Dario Betti, I managed to get speakers from across the messaging spectrum.
My goal was to invite leaders and panelists who I’d want to hear and debate.
This conference was my first time “behind the scenes” of an industry event. I’ve sponsored some before and held many internal company events, but running an industry trade group event is a different beast. It is a startup where endless jobs-to-be-done obliterate job titles. Huge kudos to the MEF team for pulling off an event of such magnitude. Both the conference and the reception the next day were subscribed three times over!
If there were three themes that emerged, for me they were trust, interoperability, and optimism.
Ajit Pai’s Keynote and Optimism
The tone for the conference was set by former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. To say Pai was transformative to the wireless and A2P industry would be an understatement. All of us in the industry continue to operate in a world that the Pai FCC put in place. Two years after he became a private citizen, Pai reflected with candor and charm on his time at the FCC, showing the audience the charismatic and consummate policy nerd he is. Watch his talk and our Q&A here.
Lauren Nemeth’s Headline and Trust
Responsible for Twilio’s bread and butter—its messaging platform—Lauren Nemeth is one of the most powerful women in the A2P business. Her headline talk set the theme of trust in the ecosystem and the shared responsibility we have to ensure the right message gets to the right destination with the proper authorization. Watch Lauren’s talk here.
A2P Leadership Panel
The theme of trust flowed through and was reinforced by the A2P leadership panel. Wizard Commerce’s Janice McNair and Telesign’s Bella Simon joined Lauren to discuss what it means for an A2P player to be on top of their game. They also shared what it takes for these rockstar women to be leaders in their respective worlds. Watch the panel discussion here.
CTO Panel
CTOs in messaging are having two kinds of conversations (no pun intended): The first is the apology tour, which is typically when product specs don’t meet operational reality. The other is the optimism chat, where they’re having to always talk about the opportunity despite the friction in the channel. It was great to see the CTOs of TeamSense, Pray.com, and Wizard Commerce talk about the challenges of building scalable technical solutions in a conversational world. I could not help but feel camaraderie with these sharp minds as they described the challenge of building around the chimera of deliverability and throughput. Watch the panel discussion here.
Interoperability and WhatsApp
Another theme that emerged was the challenge of interoperability. Be it with MMS and SMS or with the RCS. Cisco’s Ramy Riad said it best—RCS, whenever it gets implemented, “will be the only carrier-sanctioned route.” This will be better than any OTT app that first has to be downloaded. But Carlos Aragon from Mavenir took the cake. On stage, he promptly unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a Nike “Just Do It” t-shirt underneath: a message to all of us (and the carriers) to get going!
This Is Personal
As I said in my MEF post, I was excited about reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. It reaffirms my belief that the industry is big, but our world is small.
Finally
My fellow optimists (which was how I addressed the audience on stage) are pragmatic about progress and passionate about what it is we do. This was evident from both onstage and offstage conversations. In fact, as I had predicted, the best chats happened between sessions, during the breaks, around hallways, and over coffee, tacos, and three-layered mini-cakes. I can’t wait to see what the industry accomplishes in the next twelve months.