So You Want to Build A Mobile App? (Innovation and Ideation Session #1)

A frank, impromtu discussion for web developers, designers, entrepreneurs and/or anyone about what it takes to successfully design, develop and deploy an app to market. Also a continuation and, for some, a beginning for those who want to meet the $25,000 Appcelerator Challenge and team together or go it alone todesign and develop a mobile app. It is also for anyone else who is thinking about bringing a new mobile solution to market and want to discuss it in an open forum. We will then break off into groups, each at least having a few developers and designers included to discuss ideas of apps that could be brought to market quickly, fulfill a need/challenge and would possibly, plausibly go viral.

Open Forum:

First there is the idea, does it solve a problem or need? Due diligence is a critical component. What is your strategy for marketing? What are the business and revenue models? Funding and budget? Etc, Etc, Etc.

Let's talk about the anatomy of the app, the front end, back endand other elements. There are many time and money options these days you need to know about to design and develop the app these days, each one has it's pros and cons.

We will briefly discuss different wireframing and mock-up tools available to you, to help better design and define your idea. We will also briefly discuss the differences, benefits and challenges of leveraging cross platform vs native toolkits/frameworks to develop a mobile app.

Ideation Groups:

Get together in smaller groups, each including a developer and designer to discuss ideas of mobile app solutions and possible supporting services that can be developed and deployed quickly leveraging Appcelerator and/or cross platform or native toolkits/frameworks. These ideas should meet a need or challenge to be as marketable as possible ensuring success and return on investment. If you are participating in the $25,000 Appcelerator challenge, the app should try to meet all the criteria that the judges will be looking for including, leveraging their popular tools and services. It should also be targeted to multiple platforms.

Networking and Team Building:

Let's get back together in the larger group to share some of these ideas to the entire congregation. Then let's identify members who are willing to form teams to begin the process of designing and developing some of these mobile app solutions. You will not be confined to join a team to participate, anyone can go it alone, slect teammates at will or at some other time. There will be an opportunity to do so during the networking phase.

Why this approach?

This method of approaching the challenge will save time, reduce conflict and keep everyone participating in the contest on track. Those who are not participating can still benefit from the discussions, ideation and networking phases of the event. This also helps us fulfill our initiatives of education, empowerment and helping members move forward.

What's next?

Great question? Along with a few additional events to directly help members participating in the Appcelerator contest, we will be moving forward with our Designing for Mobile Devices Series of events which will include Photoshop, Balsamiq and other tools used build mock-ups and wireframes.

Expect to see more workshops, hackathons and the introduction ofNight Shift. More cross platform tools to present are on the way -Enyo.JS and Brightcove to name a couple.

Who should attend this meetup? Entrepreneurs, developers, designers, startups - anyone who has an idea for a mobile app that wants to learn more about how to get it done and possibly wants to twam up with others to get it to market.

More details to come, including list of presenters.