definition for: #WCMECES2018

WhatCaughtMyEye.com

Listing of things that Caught The Eye of luminaries and insightful people.

Ken Blakeslee, Chairman WebMobility Ventures

What is "What Caught My Eye?" Web Mobility Ventures LogoThe easiest way to describe "What Caught My Eye" is to say that it is what I have been doing for the past 20+ years in the Mobile telephony and now the much broader Personal Mobility businesses. This sector is now much more about Business and Lifestyle enhancements which have been enabled by the ubiquity of cellular and all types of wireless broadband coverage globally rather than the network technology itself. Basically, I am interested in what people are doing now with the device we used to call a Cellular Telephone. This device earned its place and is carried by literally everyone. What is happening now is that the phone is playing a much more valuable role by being the Personal Mobile Gateway for Wearable Technology and APPcessories of all types. Mobile phone operating systems are migrating into some of these small wearable devices as well which leverages the capability of developers to apply their expertise to bring creative and knowledge based applications into the anywhere, anytime realm. So I go to exhibitions large and small and look for amazing stuff that has potential to improve life as we know it and try to take the possibilities technology enables into the bigger picture of the beneficial change. Some of this change involves disruption to industries or existing revenue models. I am observing many examples of technology enabled, but Consumer Driven Change. So if ecosystems and route to market are there or can be put into place, things can happen fast; often faster than large industries can move, so new economic models and possibly temporary roadblocks will exist. Consumers will win IMHO and there is money to be made in this sector! My approach is very much from a investment perspective, so always looking for the value propositions from the end user standpoint, then trying to see the route to market that produces wealth for innovators and wise investors. Understanding the valuable use cases and the user experience aspects are the biggest stumbling block for technology companies today. I am specifically researching the emerging areas of Personal Mobility - APPcessories, Wearable Technology, Smart (AR) Glasses, mHealth/Fitness, Augmented Reality, Personal Cloud, 3D printing and the consumer mobility end of Infotainment and Transmedia propositions. So my mission is simply to find innovative stuff and update myself on the art of the possible in these sectors and possibly discover some new emerging ones and through WebMobility Ventures, advise companies on strategy and investments. Through What Caught My Eye I hope to share some of the things I find, and put them into the contexts described above!