Mobile Day: Vietnam’s Biggest Event For Looking at the Future of Mobile

Here are a few stats for you to ponder: 24 percent of Vietnam’s search traffic happens on mobile and Vietnam has over 140 million mobile phones in operation (in a country of 90 million). The amount of smartphones shipped in 2012? Four million. And in 2013? An anticipated six million. The mobile market in Vietnam is nascent but growing fiendishly fast. So it’s no wonder that Mobile Day is one of the biggest technology events in the country.

The first Mobile Day was in 2011 and hosted 800 people. In 2012, Mobile Day had over 1,200. This year, Quang Anh, the main organizer who also sets up events like PHP Day and Mobile Monday, expects over 1,800 to 2,000 people in Hanoi and over 1,000 in Ho Chi Minh city. This will be the first year it has ever happened in Ho Chi Minh city. It will be huge, to say the least, with about 3,000 people in total.

The whole point of the event is for the growing mobile community to come together, share experiences and research over the year in the mobile field, and give workshops that push the community forward.

I asked Quang Anh why he thought Mobile Day was so popular, and he said:

One, I think it’s because mobile is a really hot space. Two, the community is very close. And three, in terms of organization, we focus on quality and bringing in content that the audience needs or appreciates. We’re not about promoting or marketing. We invite sponsors but the point is not to advertise their product. Every speech has to be about sharing experience and knowledge. Only about 10 to 15 percent of the talks will touch upon products.

So if you’ve got a free few days, come and check out Mobile Day in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh city. In Hanoi, it’ll be on the 11th of May and in Ho Chi Minh city on 15th of May. If you can’t make it, please do check out the plethora of presentations that Quang Anh’s put up on slideshare.