Patrick Payne

The president and CEO of event- and conference-app company QuickMobile tells how he went from working on early video games to becoming a true believer in the power of mobile event apps - and how innovations such as the iPhone can actually make face-to-face more important and engaging.

I have been in the software business for over 30 years. I started by writing music for video games way back when. I wrote
the music for "Test Drive," which was the best- selling game in the world in 1987, for a little company called Distinctive software, which eventually became Electronic Arts (EA).

I went into several different startups, and eventually I found myself at Ericsson, where I worked for five years, and I was in charge of their mobile internet division in brussels for two years. it was interesting because back then, in the 2000-2001 time frame, we were talking about a lot of the things that have just recently become available - mobile commerce and gaming - and about how people will communicate and network with each other in real time. And we really had no idea how those platforms would work.

We started QuickMobile in late 2006, and we were initially all about SMS and contextual mobile marketing. We made a shift in late 2007-2008 into the world of applications, and it was primarily around the iPhone. we saw a huge opportunity there. and the first thing we did was three applications for film festivals.

Then we did the PhoCusWright Conference in 2009. and when the light went on for me was when we were at the conference and they had a full printed program, and in the very first keynote speech someone pulled the fire alarm. Everyone had to leave the hotel. Like 800 people stood outside for an hour-and-a-half, and then they came back in and we resumed. Well, basically what the conference organizers did in the background while everybody was out of the building was they re-edited the entire schedule for the day. The printed program was completely useless, but the app had all the information updated.

People were running around saying, "Have you got the iPhone app? I need to know where the next meeting is and what is happening next." And for me that was really quite a revelation. I thought, "Oh, my God, this could really change the way people interact and the way people can use these devices at a meeting."

In fact, what we have found is that when people participate with some of the newer features of an app like gamification and photo galleries and video galleries and all the social-media aspects, that face-to-face is actually becoming more important in some respects, and that people actually want to be there.

What meeting planners are really trying to do is have a great experience. And that great experience includes everything from the venue to the speakers, the program, the education, meeting people and getting new business opportunities - and the app has to be a part of that overall great experience.