By Brenna Hanly

No one has enough time. This makes it impossible to attend every single marketing conference, even if the topic is something as sexy as mobile marketing and the holiday shopping season. 

For those who were unable to attend, I have summarized my nine-hour experience at Mobile Marketer?s Mobile Marketing Summit: Holiday Focus 2010 in New York Sept. 2 in approximately five minutes below.

Quotes worth remembering:
? ?There are two key consumer desires during holiday shopping: saving time and saving money.  Mobile can help solve both.? ?Jamie Wells, Microsoft

? ?The mobile phone is the gateway to an individual.? ? Tom Davis, Kenneth Cole

? ?Not about smartphones, about smart interactions.? ? Eric Litman, Medialets

? ?Mobile does not need another shakable, snow globe app.? ? Eric Litman, Medialets

? ?Mobile is the fuel, but you need to build a solid engine.? ? Paul Gelb, Razorfish

? ?Test, then be ready to move at the speed of culture.? ? John Vail, PepsiCo

? ?Be social.  Provide tools for brand ambassadors to become evangelists.? ? John Vail, PepsiCo

*Caveat: These quotes may not be exact verbiage

Trends worth remembering:
? If you are not engaging in mobile, you are missing out.

We have moved beyond the tipping point and mobile has become a mainstream media channel. Text messaging is more prevalent than emailing and smartphone penetration is at 27 percent and rising. 

? Mobile is not a disparate channel.

Mobile needs to be incorporated and seamlessly woven into the holistic campaign. It should be considered a catalyst for the entire strategy and used to activate offline media channels.

? Do not forget everything you have already learned about your brand when initiating mobile strategy.

Do not let the newness of mobile technology throw you off. There are tried-and-true marketing lessons that can be applied to the space.

For instance, one panelist commented that on a retailer?s application, 3,000 tractors appeared as a search result. In the same way that you would not display 3,000 different tractors at point of sale, you need to make it easy for the consumer to navigate the mobile space as well.

? Test small, learn big and ramp up.

As with most emerging platforms, without actual experience, you will not be able to discover real insight as to how that media can work for your brand.

It is important to continuously test new technology so that when it gains mass appeal, your brand will be ready to incorporate it in the most effective ways on a larger scale.

? Consumer at center. Extensive research should be conducted as to how your consumers are interacting with their phones and how they prefer for your brand to engage them on the mobile platform.

This way, you will develop a real mobile solution and long-term relationship with your consumers.

OVERALL, THE CONFERENCE was very well organized and attracted a number of good speakers.

I was surprised, however, by the three to five topics that were not covered that we have been spending a good deal of time thinking about at Mullen. 

These would be subjects including the Apple iAd mobile ad network, mobile loyalty programs and major players in the space, and mobile gaming.

The Mobile Marketing Summit: Holiday Focus 2010 was held Thursday, Sept. 2, in New York. Mobile Marketer parent Napean was the organizer. The next event from Napean is the Mcommerce Summit: First Look 2011 in mid-January. More details to come.

Brenna Hanly is mobile catalyst at Boston agency Mullen?s mediahub. Reach her at .