MEF Members elect new North and Latin America Boards

MEF, has announced the results of its 2014 North America and LatAm board elections for the 2015/2016 term.  In total ten new regional Board Directors were elected by MEF members during second annual MEF Global Forum in Silicon Valley.  Each Board member will contribute to the direction of MEF, helping the organization to champion initiatives around mobile money, consumer trust, innovation and monetization across the international ecosystem. Rick Fant, VP Planning and Ecosystems at Mozilla is elected as the new Chairman for MEF’s North American board and is joined by newly elected Co-Vice …

MEF North America and LatAm Board Elections in Pictures

The MEF LatAm and North America elections took place during the recent MEF Global Forum in Silicon Valley as part of the pre-conference agenda. 16 new regional board directors were added to the two boards, representing the breadth and diversity of our global mobile community. The results were announced at Mozilla's SF offices, where the official MEFGF13 welcome drinks were held. Here are the full boards for each Chapter with newly elected directors shown in bold: North America Board Ron Czerny - Founder & CEO, Playphone (Chair) Sanjaya Krishna - Principal & US Digital Risk …

Spotlight On Mobile in North America – Ron Czerny

As excitement builds for the first ever MEF Global Forum co-located with the 10th annual Meffys Awards on 14th and 15th November in San Francisco, we invited the Board Chairs of regional Chapters to share their mobile insights on their respective territories. Ron Czerny is CEO of Playphone and Chair of MEF in North America - here he discusses the genesis of mobile games in one of the world’s largest mobile entertainment markets. As a veteran entrepreneur in the games industry I have witnessed over the past 25 years the evolution of games in every platform from arcade, console, PC and Web …

Mobile Content’s Two Big Questions Are Platforms And Payments

Fiona Gellatly, MEF North America General Manager, explores the fundamental issues facing companies trying to crack the mobile conundrum, and gives a sneak preview of a new forum for MEF North America members to share knowledge and exchange solutions to real-world challenges, coming in Fall 2013. No one who’s paid attention to entertainment industry trends is surprised by the rocketing consumption of digital entertainment on mobile devices. Just under six years from the introduction of the first mass-market mobile-connected media device (Apple’s iPhone), consumption of digital content on …

North America Update; TRUSTe & JUICE Mobile appointed to MEF Board

MEF North America has appointed two new members to its board of directors. The new appointments were approved by the existing members of the board which includes Alliance Data, Dentons, KPMG, Mozilla, Openmarket, Playphone, Red Bull Media House, Samsung and Turner Broadcasting. Board Directors play a leading role in shaping MEF's regional mobile agenda within our global member network, using their expertise and leadership to guide the activities and initiatives MEF undertakes. So welcome then, to the two newest additions to the North America Board: Neil Sweeney, President & CEO  - JUICE …

Updated COPPA Rules: 5 Tips to Consider When Assessing Your Compliance

As the FTC's new COPPA rules come into force, the way mobile apps, websites and social networks are able to go about collecting data on their child users has changed dramatically. Privacy experts from MEF members Dentons, Todd Daubert and Andrew Blair provide their top tips to understanding the new regulations and how to ensure your business remains compliant. On July 1, updated rules of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) to implement the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) became effective, making compliance with a heightened set of requirements for online service providers …

Privacy, the NSA and the Pyjama Brigade

Last week, MEF hosted its Second Annual Privacy Summit in Washington DC, where leading global privacy experts and policy makers gathered to discuss this business critical issue.  MEF’s Senior Advisor for Policy & Initiatives, Simon Bates, was there. Through a masterstroke of planning, we arranged our second annual Privacy Summit on the same day news broke of US intelligence services secretly mining consumers’ data. Privacy was in the news yet again... Washington DC provided the backdrop for the annual MEF Privacy Summit. This was no coincidence - the US and its policy-makers are …

MEF CTIA Panel explores the future of m-Commerce

MEF hosted an excellent panel at CTIA last week featuring a line-up of expert panelists including Todd Daubert of Dentons, Samsung's Steve Cho, John Giamatteo of AVG, Todd Mazurek of Blackberry, Tim Ritchie of Openmarket and Patrick Parodi of WifiName Corp. Fiona Gellatly, MEF North America General Manager was there to moderate... The topic of MEF's CTIA panel was "M-Commerce: What the Future Holds for Retailers, Brands and Content Owners" and the conversation immediately focused in on key areas: security, privacy and consumer adoption of commerce on a mobile phone.   With recent …

The Honorable Mark Pryor joins MEF members and FTC at 2nd Mobile Privacy Summit in DC

MEF has announced the agenda for its second annual Mobile Privacy Summit, co-hosted with law firm Dentons next month  in Washington DC.  An impressive lineup of speakers has been announced  including Senate Commerce Communications, Technology, and Internet Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor. Others include policy-makers from the Federal Trade Commission and National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and also mobile privacy experts from Mozilla, AVG Technologies, Evidon and InMobi. The annual event is part of MEF’s Privacy in Mobile Apps Initiative and will explore different …

MEF North America m-Commerce Playbook

The MEF Global Consumer Survey found that the US now has 91% penetration of mobile content & commerce, with growth in all mobile content and commerce behaviors – product research, banking and purchasing. Members in North America are currently working on the MEF mCommerce Playbook, an exclusive MEF member resource that you will soon be able to download from the main website. Contributing members include SNR Denton, RIM, InComm, Alliance Data, Impact Mobile, PayOne, OpenMarket, Nielsen, Buck, Samsung and MoPay.The playbook will feature information on: Current m-commerce and mobile …

New Leadership in MEF North and Latin America

MEF  has announced the results of its 2012 North and Latin America board elections. The elections took place at the international trade association’s regional AGMs held in Miami as part of the third annual MEF Americas 2012, where over 160 senior mobile executives from across North and Latin America’s mobile ecosystems gathered and the inaugural Battle of the Start-ups competition in association Red Herring also took place. Ron Czerny, CEO of Playphone, who previously chaired MEF’s LatAm Chapter, was elected North America Chair by the new Board and Filipe Roup Rosa, Business Development …

Samsung VIP Executive Dinner Series

MEF’s Executive Dinner Series, launched back in September, returned to Beverly Hills in LA for the second instalment last month. The series, sponsored by Samsung, brought together top level industry execs to discuss how new interactive platforms are continuing to transform the media, sports and entertainment industries. Executives from top studios, such as Warner Brothers, and top VCs, such as Shea Partners, joined Samsung to discuss emerging technologies and innovative solutions. The next executive dinner is set to take place once again in city near you, so stay tuned for more …

MEF Global Webinar Series

With speakers from the UK VAS Regulator PhonepayPlus, MEF members Silverstreet and KPMG, the recent MEF Asia Webinar sought to explore whether pre-emptive positive action by the industry is the best form of defence against reputational harm, and what form such action might take. The recording and slide deck is available to download now from the MEF website. MEF North Americas also hosted a fascinating webinar exploring the phenomenon of Patent Trolls and Patent issues within the Mobile ecosystem. Moderated by MEF North America Chair Gary Schwartz, the North America webinar was led by guest …

MEF VIP Executive Dinner – September 18, 2012 – Los Angeles

In September, MEF North America hosted an Executive VIP Dinner in LA supported by MEF Members Impact Mobile, KPMG, OpenMarket, Polar Mobile and Samsung as part of the MultiScreen Summit.The dinner featured guest speakers from Hollywood including Bernie Laramie, co-producer of several major TV series, Neil Patel - SVP, Content Strategy and Development at The Martin Agency and Doug Stanley, Multiple Emmy-Award Winning Producer of some of US TV’s most popular series, who explored how mobile and cross-platform technologies are changing the way they create and distribute media and technology.  …

Register Now for the MEF North America Webinar – Patent Wars

Tuesday, October 23rd 20121-2pm ET / 10-11am PT / 6-7 pm GMTRegister NowMany companies in North America and beyond are facing assertions by patent trolls making claims on their technology. The mobile industry is a clear target for extracting licensing fees. Increased media surrounding the value and use of patents as well as focus on high stake lawsuits and patent abuses means your business needs to ask whether patent protection is required.The issue is affecting the mobile content and commerce industry today. MEF North America asks, how should businesses respond to threats by so-called patent …

Register for MEF Americas 2012 with Early Bird discount

Registration is open for the 3rd annual MEF Americas 2012 which returns to Miami on 3rd – 5th December. Register now to take advantage of the special Early Bird discount rate available until October 31st ($499 for members, $699 for non members).MEF Americas: Mobile Content & Commerce is the essential cross-border event for thought leaders and deal makers from across North & Latin America’s mobile content and commerce ecosystems. The exclusive two-day event focuses on the changing mobile landscape and new opportunities and challenges in both regions and beyond. OpenMarket is this year’s …

Consumers are utilizing multiple screens every day – but how do you reach them?

It's clear that the “battle of the screens" is accelerating and continues to disrupt traditional media and content models. The MultiScreen Summit™ will bring content providers alongside senior brand, agency and entertainment executives to examine the new screen economy being driven by a fundamental shift in the way consumers search, access and share content. The two day event on 19th & 20th September kicks off the evening before with a VIP Dinner on 18th September hosted by MEF North America. Supported by Impact Mobile, KPMG, OpenMarket, Polar Mobile and Samsung, the dinner is the …

MEF TV: Tom Daly, Coca Cola at MEF Americas 2011

Next up in our series of video interviews from MEF Americas 2011, Rob of UNTETHER .tv speaks to Tom Daly, Director of Mobile and Search, Global Connections for Coca Cola. In this short but sweet chat, Tom describes how mobile has essentially been a part of Coca Cola's philosophy since the 20's and how he sees it only becoming increasingly central in the near future. A fascinating perspective on how this super brand  is leveraging mobile to not only engage with customers but also within their own B2B value chain. Let's watch.. …

MEF TV: Marco Argenti, Nokia at MEF Americas 2011

More fascinating insights from MEF Americas and MEF TV; in this video Marco Argenti, SVP of Developer and Marketplace for Nokia speaks to Rob Woodbridge of UNTETHER.tv. In it he expands on the topic of his keynote speech from MEF Americas 2011 "Creating Hyper Local App Economies" and discusses the opportunities for monetizing apps presented by leveraging the nuances of highly localised content.Hit the jump for more from Marco and MEF TV at  MEF Americas 2011: Mobile Content and Commerce.Here Marco speaks to Ben Smith from Tribal Labs in more detail on how the Nokia Store supports local …

MEF Americas 2011 in Pictures

We've talked a lot about MEF's annual mobile content and commerce gathering MEF Americas 2011 over recent months, and with good reason. Not only was it a hugely successful event with keynotes from the likes of Nokia, Sprint and Coca-Cola, and delegates representing both North America and LatAm from across the value chain - it was also set amid the fabulous Fontainebleau resort, Miami beach, which was definitely a canny choice of venue judging by these fantastic snaps. Enjoy this year's MEF Americas photo gallery - and let us know if you were there in the comments! …