Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that design has been steadily moving up the corporate ranks and knocking on the boardroom door. Increasingly, it’s the not-so-secret sauce driving the creation of products and services that people love. The Chief Design Officer is on the rise. So ask yourself: is your organization truly design-centric, or are you just paying it lip service? Mark will demonstrate the growing importance of design on the boardroom agenda and reveal who’s in danger of becoming obsolete in the age of the CDO.

How do carriers foster mobile innovation — and how do they need to change in order to adapt to the new smartphone- and 4G-powered landscape? What are the biggest opportunities for mobile innovators right now? Brian Higgins is in charge of Verizon Wireless’s national innovation effort and has overseen the opening of two innovation centers, one in San Francisco and one in Waltham, Mass. Join us for a discussion of how Verizon — and the mobile industry at large — is meeting the challenges of a shifting mobile landscape.

The cost of user acquisition has been rising and smaller developers are scrambling for ways to stand out in the crowd without spending too much. What will the consequences be, and who is helping to solve this problem?

This session will discuss the future of the interface, exploring how mobile is morphing into ambient computing. We’ll cover wearable displays and transparent screens and how mobile interfaces are taking advantage of location/proximity to augment our realities. We’ll tie the present view of mobile tech with the near-future view, covering the devices and systems we’ll be using and talking about 2-5 years from now. Then we will expand the discussion to take a hard look at how the ecosystem needs to change in order to make these dreams into hardened monetizable reality.

By creating AMG Performance Media (APM), Mercedes-Benz is meeting consumer expectations through an updatable Android-based Location-aware infotainment and performance system, while still maintaining a safe automotive experience. The discussion will explore how APM is setting a new standard for infotainment experience via Google Maps & Local Search, Street View and Panoramio, racing features, best-in-class WebKit-based automotive browser, and OTA updates.

Session 2: Disruption of the Enterprise (Tidewater Room)
Chairman: Dan Levin, Chief Operating Officer, Box
Chairman: Humphrey Chen, Exec. Dir. New Product Technologies, Verizon Wireless
Chairman: Bob Friday, CTO, Wireless Networking Business Unit, Cisco
Chairman: Clarence So, Senior Vice President, Strategy, Salesforce
Moderator: John Hering, Co-Founder and CEO, Lookout

Session 3: User Acquisition in 2012 (Surfbird Room)
Chairman: Chris Akhavan, VP & GM, Partnerships and Strategic Operations, Tapjoy
Chairman: Gabriel Leydon, CEO & Co-Founder, Machine Zone
Chairman: Maria Alegre, Co-Founder & CEO, Chartboost
Moderator: Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer, GamesBeat

Session 2: Disruption of the Enterprise (Tidewater Room)
Chairman: Dan Levin, Chief Operating Officer, Box
Chairman: Humphrey Chen, Exec. Dir. New Product Technologies, Verizon Wireless
Chairman: Bob Friday, CTO, Wireless Networking Business Unit, Cisco
Moderator: John Hering, Co-Founder and CEO, Lookout

Session 3: User Acquisition in 2012 (Surfbird Room)
Chairman: Chris Akhavan, VP & GM, Partnerships and Strategic Operations, Tapjoy
Chairman: Gabriel Leydon, CEO & Co-Founder, Machine Zone
Chairman: Maria Alegre, Co-Founder & CEO, Chartboost
Moderator: Dean Takahashi, Lead Writer, GamesBeat

Nokia just announced the world’s highest quality camera in a smartphone, the 808 PureView, and it’s close to launching its new flagship Lumia 900 device in the U.S. We’ve invited Hans Peter, Nokia’s head of innovation, to give us a glimpse into the company’s plans for the future, discuss how the company has weathered the shift to Windows Phone, and explain who the hell needs a 42 megapixel camera phone.

With the rise of smartphones, geolocation is quickly becoming a commodity. Chris Hulls, CEO of Life360, one of the largest location-based apps on the market, will be discussing how startups and carriers alike will need to adapt to best capitalize on this trend.

The Entire group convenes to recap what has been discussed and learned over the past day and a half.