Here’s what execs learned at our Mobile Summit boardroom sessions (video)

One of the more unique offerings in VentureBeat’s Mobile Summit event are breakout sessions where executives can talk off the record about some of the most pressing problems in the mobile world.

While “who said what” is somewhat anonymous, attendees can take notes and ideas down from these sessions to take back to their own companies. We also dedicate time at the end of the Mobile Summit to communicate lessons learned from the boardroom sessions so everyone gets to hear a bit from each session. A representative from each session comes up on stage and gives a quick play-by-play of the biggest takeaways.

At our last Mobile Summit, which took place two weeks ago at Cavallo Point resort (in Sausalito, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge), we covered the following topics and takeaways during the boardroom sessions.

Check out the full recap of the boardroom sessions in the video, below the bullet point summaries.

User experience and design

• Many companies are moving away from “mobile first.”
• We want unique identifiers for people at large.
• App discovery still needs serious work.
• Communication between apps is a problem.
• Huge problem is having content people want.
• Design around specific use cases.
• Privacy can be hurdle to good design.

User acquisition

• More platforms are needed — there’s too much dominance by iOS and Android.
• Search needs to be optimized for apps.
• App stores don’t have enough transparency.
• Marketing can’t be an afterthought.

Mobile commerce

• Frictionless user experiences (like Uber) offer the most compelling experiences.
• Apple, Google, and Amazon have millions of credit cards but aren’t going to work together on a single payments platform.
• The majority of attendees were not bullish on NFC.
• We need to get more details about our customers (Google could help with this).

Infrastructure and mobile ecosystem roles

• The ecosystem needs to work better together.
• Mobile operators could help by offering location, billing tools, and better relationships with customers.

Mobile device as a remote control for your life

• We need to think about all consumers, not just early adopters.
• A lot of love for Nest as mobile connection improving your life and saving you money.

Mobile enterprise

• Security is a big issue (maybe the biggest) for the enterprise and creating a unified framework is a big concern.
• 80 percent of companies are doing BYOD, and 10 percent actually have BYOD policies — that needs to change.
• Educate users better about their devices and the full-range of these devices.
• Apps should also improve employees’ lives.

Mobile monetization

• There are multiple revenue streams — microtransactions are working particularly well at the moment.
• Software and services on devices shouldn’t be blanketed with nonrelevant ads.
• Consumers spending a lot of time in mobile, but ad dollars aren’t following.

Photo by Michael O’Donnell/VentureBeat