Things I Observe

It’s been about a year since Ed Pimentel formed the Atlanta Chapter of Mobile Monday (or MoMo to those familiar with the organization).  Mobile Monday’s mission is to help tech professionals based throughout Metro Atlanta learn more about the mobile industry through monthly presentations and networking events. The events are free, open to everyone and usually held on the second Monday of every month. It was founded in Helsinki, Finland in 2000.

Atlanta is a prime location for a Mobile Monday chapter for several reasons:

1. Atlanta is a well established telecom hub occupied by organizations such as AT&T, Nokia Siemens Networks, GSMA and GTRI (Georgia Tech Research Institute) to name just a few.
2. Great pool of entrepreneurial, engineering, sales and marketing, and experienced executive talent.
3. Lots of startup resources.

On the heels of two recent mobile unconferences MobiCamp (in May) and Mobile/iPhone Camp 2009 (in July), we kicked off the first Mobile Monday meeting in August at the GTRI Conference Center on 14th Street. Both of the Camp events attracted alot of interest and validated that there needs to be more frequent interaction within the local mobile community.

I’m currently acting as Co-coordinator and we’re scheduled to hold our next meeting on September 14th (same place as before). If you’d like to attend, just go to the MoMo Atlanta Meetup Site and register.

Last year I participated in a local startup event called Startup Riot. It was a first time effort by Sanjay Parekh, a successful entreprenuer who believes in giving back to the Atlanta tech community.

I didn’t know what to expect last year when Tyfish was among the 50+ companies from across the region to participate. When all was said and done, it turned out to be an awesome event.

At the same time there were several other events taking place in the ATL that tech startups could get involved in localy to get some exposure and do some networking with peers, investors and potential customers.

On Wednesday, February 18th we’re going to be at the second annual Startup Riot pitching Tyfish. I look forward to this year being even better than last year. I might even post a follow-up after the event.