OREANDA-NEWS. December 14, 2012. The 9th Mobile VAS & Apps Conference, an international forum devoted to the most pressing agenda of the mobile industry, was held in St. Petersburg and was attended by over 400 participants from 19 countries. The 9th Mobile VAS & Apps Conference was co-organized by i-Free.

Every year one of the biggest and most influential mobile industry conventions in Eastern Europe, the Mobile VAS & Apps Conference, brings together some of the top mobile industry professionals and analysts from Russia and the rest of the CIS, representing major companies and promising startups, as well as business and mobile industry writers for the key media.

i-Free has sustained the Mobile VAS & Apps Conference for nine years since the beginning. This year, however, not only was i-Free the platinum sponsor; it also helped to organize the forum. At the end of the first working day of the conference i-Free also welcomed the participants to the i-Free Party, a traditional get-together where the forum participants could relax and mingle in an informal setting.

The 9th Mobile VAS & Apps Conference took place on 22 and 23 November at the Corinthia Nevsky Palace Hotel in the historic center of St. Petersburg. Internet support for the conference was provided by Beeline.

“It was a very different forum this year,” said i-Free CEO Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov, looking back on the 9th Mobile VAS & Apps Conference. “Not only its organization but also its content was different. It was even more meaningful than it usually is as the event homed in precisely on the hottest market trends. The informal part was great, as usual. There was a lot of sharing of ideas and new business ties were forged.”    

The forum was attended by the leading equipment manufacturers and vendors, influential technology creators and market infrastructure engineers, well-known game and non-game app developers, top publishers, successful startups, eminent analysts and specialist media resources: AppAnnie, AndroidZoom, TouchArcade, and VisionMobile.

At the 9th Mobile VAS & Apps Conference the lineup of presenters was very impressive and featured some of the leading lights of the mobile telecommunication industry: M. Vakulenko (VisionMobile), B. Jager (SponsorPay), K. Gorynya (Synqera), A. Zverev (Yandex), K. Kampanos and A. Oner (Velti), N. Kondakova (Marmalade), M. Kuzmin (Aigrind), I. Kurilin (Octopod), Y. Lebedeva (Nevosoft), A. Malosiev (iPhones.ru), S. Manucharian (JoyBits), D. Martynov (Google), S. Panfilov (Creative Mobile), K. Petrov (i-Free Innovations), M. Pogrebnyak (Kuznetch), T. Rob (PayOnline), S. Rudenko (Nokia), T. Ruffino (Wireless Industry Partnerships), A. Sazonov (Herocraft), V. Semenchuk (My-apps), V. Sestrevatovsky (NXP Semiconductors), A. Fedorov (Softkey), K. Filipov (SPB TV), I. Hodapp (TouchArcade), K. Cherviakov (Ragcat Games), B. Schulze (Qualcomm Europe), and Yunde Yu (App Annie).

The conference focused on the following topics and issues: Russian and global VAS trends; mobile games and non-game applications; mobile app infrastructure: sites, development, marketing and monetization; new mobile devices, technology and trends; new ideas and startups of promise.

The first day of the forum featured a roundtable discussion on Mobile Applications, which was attended by experts from Google, Yandex, iPhones.ru, and Creative Mobile. There was also a briefing on “Eastern European Products in the Global Mobile Market,” which was attended by mobile industry experts who were specially invited for the briefing: K. James (PocketGamer), L. Korchia (AndroidZoom), I. Laurs (GetJar), E. Murtazin (Mobile Review), and N. Starkell (GoalEurope and TechCrunch).

A competition for startups and game studios was held as part of the conference. The winners of which were given a chance to pitch their products to a broad audience of experts and potential investors at a dedicated session during the forum.

The first day of the forum ended in an award ceremony for the winners of the Russian Mobile VAS Awards. Prizes were awarded to:
 Magic Book Atelier Limited (category: “Mobile Content: Music, Video and Art”) for the Magic Book Atelier service.
 ABBYY (category: “Mobile Non-game Applications”) for ABBYY FineScanner for iPhone.
 FRUCT (category: “Mobile Services”) for the CardiaCare project.
 Meralabs (category: “Mobile Infrastructure, Platforms, Ad Networks, Technology, Development”) for the Ads-While-Waiting AW2 service.
 Dynamic Pixels (category: “Mobile Games”) for Goal Defense.
 Loyaltyplant (category: “Mobile Marketing Campaign”) for a mobile app with a customer loyalty card.
 JetRadar (category: “User Convenience”) for the Aviasales mobile app.
 SPB TV (category: “Innovative Product”) for SPB TV Advertising Platform – “Ad Replacement Technology”.
 MTS (category: “Innovative Business Model”) for the Step-charging functionality.