Larry Lockhart, the conference's organizer, told XBIZ that plans for the event started in December, inspired by the Mobile Adult Congress Conference. Of course, he said, the Web Americas conference will delve deeper into taking advantage of the mobile platform.
"A mobile website is difference from a regular site because of the limitations of the screen size," Lockhart said. "The U.K. and Asia are leaps and bounds ahead of the U.S. — 40 percent of Japanese adults surf the mobile web daily. I think the U.S. can catch up, and even surpass, that within the next year."
Lockhart said he expects between 300 and 400 people to attend the conference, and 50 mobile industry professionals have been signed on to speak at several seminars following four educational tracks.
Workshop: Mobile Web 101 is an introduction to the mobile web. The Technical Track is for web designers and developers to learn how to adapt a current site for mobile, as well as using mobile-friendly security, coding and navigation tools. The Retail and Commerce Track focuses on establishing a mobile business and how to market to mobile users. The Information and Educational Track covers marketing mobile information tools, such as search tools, social communities and carrier guidelines.
Registration is available online at MobileWebExpo.com.