Anyhow, there are a number of great mobile panels this year, so be sure to check out the full schedule for details on all of them. One highlight is the Wireless Future15 set on Saturday, March 13, from 11:00am-1:30pm. It’s a series of short talks on a number of different topics, and features a couple of old MH pals: David Gill of Nielsen Mobile, and Dan Appelquist from Vodafone.

If you’re going to be around SXSW and want to get together, drop me a line in the comments, via email or Twitter — I’m always happy to meet readers, and if there’s enough interest, I’ll set a meetup for coffee, beer, barbecue, breakfast tacos or something else Austin-y.

And finally, Enrique Ortiz has asked me to moderate the Mobile Monday Austin event on Monday, March 15. We are still working on getting together panelists and topics, but it should be a great bunch of visitors in town and locals. For more details and to register, visit the Mobile Monday Austin site.

I’m really looking forward to my visit and hope to meet many of you. If you’re also going, what events are you looking forward to? And if you’re speaking, drop a note in the comments so we can be sure to hit your panel!

We had three really interesting speakers and if you didn’t come, you missed some very valuable learnings. I will ask them for their presentations and if so, will make them available for download.

Steve Ives, CEO and Founder of Taptu was first on, telling us all about mobile search and the key differences between mobile and desktop. And there are key differences, which is why it’s possible for a little startup to compete with the mighty Goog, get funding and a lot of traction so far.

Today, mobile search is still pretty small – about 50 times smaller than desktop. Entertainment is the most searched-after category and one that tends to be a focus for Taptu, who use a mixture of algorithms and human-powered search results to ensure that the experience is optimised for mobile. Only about 5% of searches have a location-based element to them, but Steve thinks that people tend to prefer a map interface for this kind of thing.

Steve also has the theory (based on long experience as a Mobilist) that the tipping point for mobile search will come when the user experience is 30 seconds or less. Currently, we’re down to about 37 seconds, so stand back and watch things take off.

Next, we had Scott Beaumont, Founder of Mippin by Refresh Mobile. Mippin used to be called Mobizines and was a downloadable Java application, allowing consumers to experience their favourite magazines on their phone. In Scott’s words, Mobizines was “beautiful” – and it really was a great product. But no matter what they tried, it didn’t get traction.

In May thislast year, the team made a very brave and undoubtedly painful decision to re-engineer the product completely, abandon client applications and embrace the mobile web. This also entailed downsizing the company at the same time.

Scott shared the lessons they had learned and the many advantages offered by the new modus operandi, including shorter production cycles written by far fewer staff, which has to be pretty compelling in its own right.

I originally reviewed Mobizines here at MobHappy, back in March 2006. Interestingly, I predicted that they’d end up using a mobile web model, despite being a great product at the time, from a mobile geek perspective. You can also see MobHappy on Mippin, by following the links on the left.

But the biggest reminder for me was that Sun, via their execution of Java, is probably more responsible for retarded innovation in mobile than any other company. Scott’s whole demeanor was of a man finally free of the prison that had so tightly incarcerated his company for so long.

Obviously, there are some instances where a client app is the only way to go. But if it is, I’d strongly recommend looking at an alternative business model. It does remain to be seen what the current spate of Apps Stores, inspired by the iPhone have on this sector, although it’s still going to be difficult to stand out in what is already a crowded marketplace.

The final presentation from from my AdMob colleague, Andy Smith. Andy talked about the (relatively) new, free Analytics product that’s winning wide praise, as it allows both publishers and advertisers to understand a whole bunch more about how consumers behave when visiting their sites (publishers) and how they respond to their campaigns (advertisers). He also had a great video showing off AdMob’s iPhone ad formats that I’ve written about before.

AdMob is still relatively small in the German market – which is pretty small anyway in comparison to say, the UK. But there are signs of increasing use of the Mobile Web here and AdMob is there to help publishers make money and for advertisers to produce great campaigns.

Thank you to all who came. If you didn’t, you missed out – and if you registered and didn’t turn up, I highly recommend starting a Java based client for mobiles, as this would be a sweet revenge

The only problem with that number of people is that I just can’t meet many of them in the time set aside for networking. If you attended last night and wanted to touch base or ask a question, I’m very sorry. Perhaps we can do it by email or Linked In, instead.

Chetan kindly sent me his new book a month ago and I haven’t blogged about it yet as I wanted to finish it first. “Mobile Advertising – Supercharge Your Brand In The Exploding Wireless Market” a very comprehensive view of the state of the market today (including the hard-to-research Far East), packed with insights from leading authorities and deep data from most major markets. It’s a must-read book if you’re in this space and I’ll be writing more in due course, when I’ve absorbed it all.

Antii gave his normal accomplished performance, updating us on Blyk’s current 140,000 UK members and 100 Brand advertisers, who apparently enjoy an average of 29% response. Blyk seem to be re-positioning themselves away from a “mobile marketing” play into the “UK’s fastest growing youth medium”, which makes a lot of sense, as it gets away from most advertisers’ desire for Reach as the first requirement in their campaigns and fits neatly into a youth portfolio buy.

Blyk are a company that are zagging while the rest of the world is zigging and this is usually how great change is accomplished. Let’s hope their success continues.

Finally, Doc Searls provided the climax of the show with his lecture on VRM or Vendor Relationship Management. This concept is no less than a re-invention of markets and media, if it can be made to work.

The concept is that consumers make their needs known to all possible vendors of a product or service – as well as the terms of service that they’re prepared to operate under. Note, not the vendor’s terms or EULA (End User License Agreement), but the consumer’s.

Ultimately, I believe that the balance of power in any channel of distribution evolves in favour of the consumer and that’s something we’re still finding out. I’ve written about this before, in a political context, but it’s the same principle as the one Doc is working on. Except he’s actually making it happen.

You can follow the VRM as it develops and find a lot more at the project wiki page here. It’s worth reading about as it’s certainly a key part of the future way we’ll be doing business and making purchases as consumers.

Finally, a big thank you to the MoMo crew for organising and making this happen. There’s plenty of ideas for me to steal and take back to MoMo’s in Germany!