Abstract
The social network explosion is changing consumers' attitudes and expectations around how they stay connected to important people in their lives. Location is a core part of keeping in touch with friends and family, and provides the perfect complement to services such as QQ, Facebook and Friendster.

In this presentation, Brian Levin of Useful Networks will explain why the time has finally arrived for mass market adoption of friend finding services. Citing real world case studies, this session will focus on exploring the best, proven strategies for launching a friend finder in this rapidly changing era of social networks.

Prior to Useful Networks, Brian was co-founder and CEO of Mobliss, a wireless media and marketing company based in Seattle, Washington, USA. He worked with consumer brands, media, entertainment companies, and wireless carriers to create valuable wireless properties to engage consumers. Mobliss is best known for fueling the text messaging revolution by building the SMS voting services for American Idol, and providing mobile services for Coca-Cola, Yahoo, ESPN, Nike, Fox and more!

Speaker Biography
Brian founded Mobliss in March of 2000, and grew the company into the leader of the Mobile Data space with only a small amount of Angel funding. In January 2004, Mobliss was acquired by Index Corp. of Japan, a $2 Billion market cap provider of mobile content and services.

Brian is a consumer-marketing expert with experience in non-traditional marketing. He played an integral role in building two of the most popular distilled spirits brands in the United States: Jagermeister and Grey Goose Vodka.

 Mr. Levin is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Wireless Internet Council of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).<Back>