LOS ANGELES -- Approximately 350 mobile marketers showed up at the Mobile Marketing Association's Mobile Marketing Forum held in the Westin Bonaventure Hotel.

Topics ranged from mobile campaign success, building your brand through mobile, abbreviated dialing codes, mobile's role in radio, Yahoo's oneSearch and off-deck Mobile content. Overall, attendees were impressed with the show.

"Advertising in the mobile space is going to be really exciting in the next six to 12 months," said John Kuolt, director of business for IQ Zone, Scottsdale, AZ. "There were some great statistics around user acceptance with regards to mobile marketing and how to drive up CPMs."

The sessions touched on challenges that mobile faces as an immature industry, lacking the trust of marketers that more traditional media such as the Internet has built for itself.

"M:Metrics really supports the MMA and that's why we sponsor the event," said Brian Fleisher, vice president of business development at M:Metrics, Seattle. "There are a lot of issues being brought up and creative solutions being raised."

Mr. Fleisher sees tremendous opportunity in this relatively new market.

"The industry needs to coordinate to unlock this potential," he said.

Besides offering marketers sessions with the most up-to-date information on mobile marketing trends, the event also gave an opportunity for networking.

"It's always good to get together with peers in the industry to discuss issues and challenges," said Scott Foernsler, senior vice president of Air2Web, Atlanta.

At shows such as the Mobile Marketing Forum, marketers can discuss best practices and leveraging mobile for the customer and can even forge potential partnerships to drive value.

Most surprising is that everyone is talking about 2007 being the tipping point for mobile, but the numbers are relatively static, said Tammara Anderton, vice president of marketing for CellTrust, Scottsdale, AZ

"The most accurate commentary was that the user experience is key," Ms. Anderton said. "The honest truth is we need more partnership to think of each other as partners and collaborators."

Gautam Bhargava, founder and CEO of SnapTell, Palo Alto, CA, felt that the conference sessions lacked information on cross-carrier MMS Shortcodes, but still enjoyed the show.

"The forum is getting bigger and bigger," he said. "There's a lot of visionary stuff but nothing outlandish, the projections look good. I think the market is growing explosively."