Thanks for coming to DiscoveryBeat; the best is yet to come

Entrepreneurs, developers, and others gathered in San Francisco yesterday for DiscoveryBeat 2009, VentureBeat’s sold-out event on how applications can stand out in “an age of noise.”

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It’s considered easier to get struck by lightning these days than to get someone to notice your application on the iPhone, now that there are some 100,000 apps on the App Store.

The afternoon was packed with panels and presentations from both the big players and the up-and-comers in the field — and wasn’t just about getting noticed on the iPhone, but Facebook, as well as the Web at large.

In addition to the specific tips and advice, panelists seemed united by the idea that this industry (or rather, these related industries) is just getting started — social gaming, for example, looks like it could grow into a $1 billion industry (the best is yet to come), and there will be plenty of surprises and uncertainty along the way.

We already published coverage of specific speakers and ideas: See 11 surprising facts about app development, the industry’s search for a flagship franchise, the role Apple plays as a gatekeeper, and gaming company Zynga’s tips for success. We’ll continue covering these issues on the site and at future events.

In the meantime, we owe a big thank you to our sponsors — Flurry, Zynga, AppLaunchPR, GetJar, YouWeb, and SGN. Thanks also to Fora.tv for recording video of the event (which we will post next week), and to Automattic for letting us use the Automattic lounge.

Here are some photos.

Matt Marshall of VentureBeat kicks off DiscoveryBeat 2009.

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Randy Angle, director of game design for SGN, speaks on the “Discovery 1.0: Starting from scratch” panel.

Ge Wang, co-founder and chef technology officer of Smule.


Julian Farrior, CEO of Backflip Studios, ponders another panelist’s remarks on the “Discovery 1.0: Starting from scratch” panel.

Dean Takahashi, our lead GamesBeat writer, moderates the second panel on “Discovery 2.0: Moving to the next level”.

Sebastien de Halleux, chief operating officer of Playfish, speaks on “Discovery 2.0: Moving to the next level” panel.

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Neil Young, founder of Ngmoco, speaks on “Discovery 2.0: Moving to the next level” panel.

Alex St. John, president and chief technology officer of hi5, speaks on “Discovery 3.0: Bringing in the big guys” panel.

Jon Vlassopulos, chief executive of Moderati (maker of the virtual light Zippo iPhone app) speaks on “Discovery 3.0: Bringing in the big guys” panel.

Lisa Marino, VP of Sales at RockYou, speaks on “Discovery 3.0: Bringing in the big guys” panel.

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Founder of AppLaunchPR and VSC Consulting, Vijay Chattha talks about “Make or Break: How to successfully leverage publicity and social media to drive awareness and downloads of mobile apps.”

Simon Khalaf, president and chief executive of Flurry, speaks on driving app discovery without hemorrhaging money.

Peter Relan, founder of YouWeb, talks on social gaming and the evolving technology platform (and monetization).

Bill Mooney, general manager of FarmVille and vice president of Zynga, fields audience questions after his talk on building social games at the speed of light.

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Chris Dury, vice president of product at GetJar, speaks on super-sizing the app economy by extending it beyond the iPhone.

The DiscoveryBeat2009 reception.

Event photography (cc) Kenneth Yeung – www.thelettertwo.com

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