Beyond Bricks and Clicks: Smart Phones and Smart Shopping
June 21, 2011 at 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Beyond Bricks and Clicks: Smart Phones and Smart Shopping ***VIDEO AVAILABLE***
When
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshments
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q&A
Where
S. Mark Taper Foundation Conference Center
Jacobson-Sorensen Hall, Munger Building 4
554 Salvatierra Walk
Stanford University
Event Description:
Near Field Communications (NFC), Geo-location services, and augmented reality (AR) are disrupting the consumer shopping experience while increasing sales and margins for brick and mortar retailers.
Putting interested buyers in front of relevant shelves at local stores is a huge monetizable opportunity for mobile platforms. 400,000 new Android devices are enabled each day, 60-70M phones are shipping with NFC this year alone and 15% of Tier 1 retailers are integrating mobile e-commerce platforms. Come discover how start ups in mobile are making shopping a whole lot smarter.
The panel will discuss a whole host of challenges and opportunities in the mobile retail space including:
How does a 20% conversion-rate for brick and mortar retail stores, (compared to 3-5% max online) create an opportunity for new companies?
Will consumers welcome or fear new shopping features?
Does the type of product or the market impact the preferred buying experience?
In the world of augmented shopping via mobile devices, will we see a shift away from online commerce?
Is mainstream NFC penetration at critical mass yet? What other technologies will emerge to supplement the platform and empower elements of the ecosystem? What will be the impact on commerce?
Moderator and Panel:
Aaron Emigh, CTO and Co-Founder, Shopkick, Inc. (Presenter)
Nitzan Shaer, Managing Director and Founder of High Start Group (Moderator)
Bob Borchers, General Partner, Opus Capital
Ben Hedrington, Director of Web Strategy, Best Buy Co. Inc
Aaron Emigh is the CTO and cofounder of Shopkick, Inc. He has also served as EVP and GM of Technology at Six Apart, CTO of Rojo Networks, Managing Director of Radix Labs, and CEO of CommerceFlow.
Aaron’s work spans mobile, social media, security, consumer internet, anti-spam, networking, storage, e-commerce, data compression, multimedia, vision, machine learning, and operating systems. He is a named inventor on over 70 issued and pending US patents, and has presented original research at numerous conferences and research colloquia, including RSA, APWG, DIMACS, TIPPI, SFECTF, ISSA, MAAWG, ITTC, and the AAAS.
Aaron is a member of the US Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force and the US-DHS Infosec Technology Transition Council, a Research Fellow of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, and a technical advisor to the Financial Services Technology Consortium.
Bob Borchers, General Partner, Opus Capital
A mobile and consumer marketing veteran with more than 20 years operating experience, Bob Borchers comes to Opus Capital from Apple, Inc where he served as Sr. Director of Worldwide Product Marketing for the iPhone. At Opus Borchers is focused on investments in mobile applications and services as well as adjacent opportunities in both hardware and software.
As part of the original iPhone team, Bob was instrumental in the development, launch and global expansion of the revolutionary iPhone, iPhone OS, App Store. While at Apple he also led the Nike+iPod partnership, expanded the iPod accessory ecosystem, and forged relationships with every major auto company to provide iPod integration.
Prior to Apple, Bob was Vice President of Marketing at FusionOne, a pioneer in creating and marketing mobility solutions. Bob also spent six years at Nokia where he co-founded and served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Vertu business unit. Before his career in the mobile industry, Bob worked for Nike, Inc. in Beaverton, Oregon, where he led efforts in product and service personalization. He began his career doing research and development in prosthetics.
Bob holds a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a Masters Degree from a joint program between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard Medical School in Health Sciences and Technology. He has more than 30 patents granted or pending.
Ben Hedrington, Director of Web Strategy, Best Buy Co. Inc
Ben Hedrington leads the mobile web businesses as part of Emerging Platforms at Best Buy.
Throughout his eight years at the company he continues to explore, discover and drive forward what is possible on the web in places where others could not yet see. His work made possible Best Buy’s early involvement in Mobile putting them in a leading position today for their mobile customers. With similar energy and vision, Ben saw a need to reinvent how a company can show up there for its customers: with the real people, voices and personalities inside the company creating an open web based tool in the process.
This led to his co-creation of Best Buy’s Twelpforce, two thousand plus Best Buy associates ready to help you on social media channels. Best Buy’s Twelpforce has been highly acclaimed and cataloged in a number of recent books.
Ben writes on occasion at buildcontext.com on web topics and trends.
Nitzan Shaer, Managing Director and Founder of High Start Group
Nitzan Shaer is the Managing Director and Founder of High Start Group, a consulting firm focused on helping startups and Fortune 500 companies define and launch breakthrough products. Nitzan holds a track record of successfully leading new product innovations at Skype, Microsoft, and multiple venture backed startups. He is frequently invited to speak on mobile commerce and how to drive consumer adoption of innovative products.
Prior to High Start Group, Nitzan founded and managed the Mobile Product Group at Skype, where he led the development and marketing efforts to enable Skype on mobile phones. Prior to Skype, Nitzan worked at Microsoft, where he managed the development of three emerging products in the Mobile and Embedded Division. Nitzan also led venture investments in his role as EIR at Flybridge Capital Partners, and served as Chief Operating Officer and Board Member at MOBIVOX, a consumer mobile startup.
Nitzan served as a Captain in the Israel Air Force and graduated first in his class from the Air Force Academy. He graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Engineering from Technion and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Nitzan is currently a board member and investor in a number of startup companies
Matt Weathers, VP Product, ShopSavvy
Matt Weathers is VP Product for ShopSavvy. He is currently focused on strategies for user engagement and mobile commerce. Prior to joining ShopSavvy in January 2011, Matt led the product team at PayPal Mobile, where he built out its product suite for three business lines including P2P payments, eBay mobile checkout, and mobile ecommerce services. Matt also oversaw strategy planning for entering offline payments market with NFC. Before running PayPal Mobile, he worked in PayPal’s merchant services business on the first set of merchant integrations including Apple and Dell. Most recently, he led the product, design and research teams for the turnaround of eBay France. His team reversed a 30% declining market by introducing a new business line for local inventory. The local listings business was conceived and launched in 14 weeks, and added 1 million listings within 6 months—an eBay record. In his early career, Matt ran the telecommunications practice at G2 Research (acquired by Gartner) and engaged in mobile and Internet strategy projects at the McKenna Group. He cut his teeth on Product Management at WEGO Systems in the late ‘90’s which created social communities for publishers and corporations. Matt has an MBA from UC Berkeley and a double bachelor’s degree in Economics and International Relations with distinction from UCLA
