iPAQ developer to keynote Pocket PC Summit

HOLLYWOOD -- Sean Burke, vice president of Hewlett Packard's iPAQ products, will be a keynote speaker at the third Pocket PC Summit to be held in Hollywood, California, October 21-24, 2002.

The Summit, which will be held in conjunction with the Mobile Entertainment and Gaming Expo (MEG Expo), will bring together industry leaders to discuss today's hottest Pocket PC and wireless topics. A corresponding exposition is planned, showcasing the best Pocket PC, handheld, and wireless technologies, as well as enterprise mobile computing solutions.

Prior to his current position at HP, Burke was vice president of the Presario Products Division. His duties incorporated worldwide strategic management, product marketing, and product development of Presario personal computers, consumer iPAQ devices, and peripheral products. 

Burke also previously served as vice president for HP’s consumer business in Asia. Based in Singapore, his duties included strategic management, product planning, sales and marketing. He led the effort to develop and launch HP Connect, a franchised network of retail stores in the region.

Future of wireless

"The Pocket PC Summit in Philadelphia was extremely successful and illustrated just how much this industry has grown," said Event Co-Founder Mark Winstanley. "At the Hollywood Pocket PC Summit we will continue to shape the future of the wireless industry through engaging panel discussions, presentations and exhibits featuring the leaders in the handheld and wireless industries."

Additional keynotes and speakers include John McLeod, Executive Vice President for North America and World Markets for Navigation Technologies; Barry Shilmover, Founder and Chief Technical Evangelist for Sonic Mobility; Scott Gode, Director of Americas Product Marketing for Mobile Devices, for Microsoft; Todd Kort, Principal Analyst, Gartner Dataquest; Chris De Herrera, Founder of CEWindows.net; and Bob Schreib, Director, Symbol Technologies. 

Symbol Technologies is providing 802.11 wireless LAN cards and access points, and HP's ProLiant server is the official wireless LAN server of the Summit, enabling Summit attendees to plan their conference schedule via the Web and through connected Pocket PC devices. In addition to the session information, attendees will be able to access full session descriptions and speaker bios. Discussion forums will allow people to engage in general discussion related to the Summit, post messages to the speakers, and network with other attendees.

Implementing technology

"In many ways the Pocket PC Summit is the conference of the future," said Event Director John Forrester. "From the way delegates plan their itinerary in advance via the web and connected pocket PC devices, to the dynamic interaction between attendees and exhibitors through the Wireless LAN, the Pocket PC Summit walks the talk when it comes to implementing the technology into the event mix."

The Pocket PC Summit will highlight enterprise use of wireless devices and Smartphone technology. The Summit will cover a variety of enterprise themes and focus on vertical markets such as government, healthcare and heavy industry. Conference sessions will cover such applications as field force automation, medicine, and e-learning, as well as take a detailed look at the technology behind global positioning systems and high-end wireless video. 

Both the conference sessions and the exhibit hall will provide real-life examples of how corporate America has embraced the Pocket PC as its choice for a mobile computing platform. In addition, a Pocket PC Summit Awards Ceremony will honor the best of the best in emerging Pocket PC technology.

During the past decade, the market for wireless devices has grown exponentially. Today there are over 90 million wireless subscribers in the US, according to the Congressional Wireless Caucus. Accenture predicts the global market for wireless internet devices will grow by 630 percent by 2005 and the estimated 1.7 billion mobile connections will be worth $20 billion in the US alone.