Formerly known as the Omniture Summit, next spring’s event will convene thousands of marketers, advertisers, publishers, agencies and developers across industries “to examine how to better manage, measure and optimize digital experiences.”

On Thursday, Adobe announced that digital marketers, advertising professionals and business leaders can now register for the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit 2012.

According to details made available in a press release hyping the event, Summit 2012 will be hosted at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah from March 20-23, 2012.

“Attendees will immerse themselves in up to four days of informative sessions, training workshops and numerous networking opportunities focused on gaining a competitive advantage, deepening customer relationships, harnessing digital content to engage and acquire customers, and extending brand value,” Adobe says.

For more information about registering and pricing click here.

The MMA has scheduled it’s first ever “Mobile CEO and CMO Summit” for July 24th through the 26th at the Casa de Campo resort in the Dominican Republic.

The goal of the event is to provide CEOs, CMOs, presidents and other senior-level executives “with a rare opportunity to discuss the future of the mobile marketing industry.”

The MMA is calling the event “exclusive” and “by invitation-only.”

Guests and participants will span the mobile marketing ecosystem, including brands, agencies, wireless carriers, publishers, regulators and developers.

“It is critical that, as the leading global trade association for the mobile marketing industry, we create opportunities for senior leaders from around the world to come together and collaborate on the important issues facing our industry,” says Greg Stuart, MMA Global CEO. “The MMA Mobile CEO and CMO Summit brings together the best and the brightest minds in the industry and is a not-to-be-missed event if you want to be part of defining the future of mobile marketing.”

According to a press release issued by the Mobile Marketing Association, the summit will feature:

• Opening night keynote: charity: water founder and president, Scott Harrison will talk about how clean water can change the world
• A CMO’s Perspective from Best Buy executive vice president and CMO, Barry Judge
• A look at the power of location-based mobile marketing from The Weather Channel Companies CEO and president, Mike Kelly
• A fireside chat on privacy and other legislative issues with U.S. Federal Trade Commission deputy director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Jessica Rich
• A brand marketer’s view on what is needed to shift additional budget to mobile from Colgate-Palmolive Company’s vice president, global advertising and digital, Jack J. Haber
• A spectacular Kandelá! Show under the stars in the majestic Altos de Chavón Amphitheater
• A wine and weather dinner on the beach with a renowned sommelier

Promising three days of “mobile marketing insights, collaboration and transformation,” the MMA says this year’s forum will deliver 115 speakers and more than 750 attendees. And the knowledgeable mobile marketing gurus in attendance will “share and generate insights that are transforming consumer engagement.”

In a press release issued Tuesday morning, the MMA said that its confirmed list of speakers extends to every conceivable segment of the mobile marketing ecosystem, including brands, agencies, wireless carriers, publishers and developers.

Google, GFK, Synovate, Zokem, InMobi, Adobe, Web Trends, Microsoft Advertising, Millennial Media, Out There Media, NHL, The Gap, American Express, Live Nation and numerous others will provide concrete evidence that mobile marketing works and is here to stay.

The MMA also confirmed today that the forum’s lineup includes:

• InMobi, Out There Media and others who will discuss consumer mobile commerce preferences
• Zokem who will present details on what consumers are doing with phones as seen through permission-based device metering.
• GfK will discuss the rich data sets available within carrier networkd and the opportunities for carrier engagement
• Synovate, Webtrends, Adobe and Motricity will discuss in their track, session, roundtable and panel respectively on what insights can be garnered from mobile consumer interactions
• And Truste, Microsoft, Acxiom and LCG will discuss the issues of consumer privacy and what brands, agencies and others can do with user data and the best practices for engaging consumers

“The most worthwhile events enable attendees to collaborate and share what they’ve learned, instead of just listening to someone talk,” says Michael Becker, MMA managing director for North America. “That’s why we’ve structured the MMA Forum to make it convenient for executives to exchange ideas, both during presentations and throughout the forum. It’s rare to have this many industry leaders and visionaries in one place, creating the kinds of networking and collaboration opportunities that have made the MMA Forum a must-attend event.”

Attendee registration and full agenda details for the event can be found by clicking here.

On May 4th, the MMA Forum in Singapore will begin.

According to the formal announcement by the MMA, the three workshops in question will introduce participating marketers to global mobile marketing strategies and tactics, methodologies for collating and utilizing user data to power new revenue models, and the benefits of integrating social strategies with mobile marketing efforts.

“The MMA Forum in Singapore will see some of the most influential players in the mobile ecosystem come together to collaborate on effective consumer engagement strategies,” says Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director – APAC, Mobile Marketing Association.

“With the three workshops prior to the event, we want to ensure that we draw on the global experiences of the Forum participants to educate marketers on how to ensure mobile success in today’s consumer-driven marketplace. The workshops will equip participants with the tools to gauge the right mobile marketing and social strategies for their businesses and drive new revenues through the mobile marketing ecosystem.”

Based on the information presented in MMA’s press release heralding the workshops, the three presentations will include the following:

• Workshop I: Global Truths of Mobile Marketing – Essentials for Successful Consumer Engagement
• Workshop II: Advertising, Analytics and App Stores – How to Drive New Revenues through the Mobile Marketing Ecosystem?
• Workshop III: Social Mobile Commerce – Best Practices in Integrating Social and Mobile to Drive Revenue

For more information, you can check out the Mobile Marketing Association’s official MMAF Singapore page.

On Wednesday, during the iPad 2 launch event, Steve Jobs played a video that detailed the iPad’s adoption rate in certain vertical markets, one of which being healthcare.  Featured in that video was Dr. John Halamka, former chairman of the US government’s Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP), who talked about why the iPad is such a revolutionary device within the healthcare space.

“Sometimes doctors are overhwhelmed with data,” he said during the presentation.  “What we have tried to do with the iPad is to give doctors at the point of care the tools they need at the exact moment the doctor can make a difference.  We’re finding with the iPad doctors are spending more time with patients.  In fact, doctors are engaging patients by showing them images, showing them data on the screen.  So it has empowered doctors to be more productive but it has also brought doctors and patients together.”

As the mHealth market continues to evolve, tablet devices will obviously play a central role — with the iPad being the overwhelming choice, at least in the short-term.  According to a survey of healthcare workers conducted by Aptilon, a healthcare marketing company, 79 percent would choose Apple’s iPad for professional use.  Their 4-to-1 preference for the iPad stands in sharp contrast with Windows PC and Android-based tablets at 12 percent and 9 percent, respectively.  “The research indicates that an Apple iPad is going to be an ever more important part of a HCP’s daily life as a tool to enhance productivity and remain up to date with the latest developments in their medical field,” said Mark Benthin, Aptilon’s COO.

“People think that Foursquare is just limited to hipsters in New York and San Francisco,” co-founder Dennis Crowley announced as one of the first presenters at the global conference. “But we’re seeing it used all over the world and for more than just bars.”

With more than 6.5 million users worldwide, foursquare is aptly broadening the linguistic reach of its service to five new languages.

“We’re making a significant investment in getting this stuff around the world,” Crowley said, adding that the new version of Foursquare is available in Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese.

In only two short years since its introduction, Foursquare users have contributed better than 400 million check-ins to the service. According to Crowley, there are two million Foursquare check-ins each day.

New languages aside, Crowley foreshadowed further growth for Foursquare in the coming months. Based on published reports coming out of Mobile World Congress, Foursquare and its makers are working to reach a point in the near future where the service will effectively be able to gather enough user data, habits, and interests to dramatically cultivate the sophistication of the platform.

“Think about the way Netflix does recommendations,” Crowley noted, suggesting that Foursquare will become more “intelligent” and capable of greater personalization.

“Devices are getting smarter,” Crowley concluded. “They’re changing the way we experience the world and our physical space.”

Qualcomm’s technology innovation, called FlashLinq, “enables devices to discover each other automatically and continuously, and to communicate, peer-to-peer, at broadband speeds without the need for intermediary infrastructure.”

According to an official press release from Qualcomm teasing next week’s MWC demonstration, FlashLinq advances a concept known as proximal communications, whereby users can continuously connect, disconnect and communicate directly with other mobile users at broadband speeds based on their physical proximity.

The technology is “designed to complement traditional cellular-based services” and serve as a scalable platform for new types of applications.

“By expanding the operator model of managed services to the frontier of proximal communications, Qualcomm continues to demonstrate its leadership in wireless technology and innovation,” said Ed Knapp, senior VP of business development and engineering for Qualcomm. “FlashLinq’s direct discovery and distributed communications allows operators to naturally extend their cellular networks. The technology can efficiently support new and enhanced services in areas such as direct local advertising, geo-social networking and machine-to-machine communications.”

Qualcomm plans to collaborate with SK Telecom to trial FlashLinq in South Korea and explore potential commercial uses.

Speculation first arose when a mysterious “convention/tradeshow” suddenly turned up on the Moscone event calendar for the June dates referenced. The Moscone West facility is where Apple typically holds its WWDC. In the past, similar mysterious calendar listings have regularly – but not always – proven to be Apple’s annual event under cover.

This year’s event is expected to feature the introduction of Apple’s next-generation iPhone. Rumors of the so-called iPhone 5 have picked up steam in recent weeks, suggesting that Apple is exploring the inclusion of an RFID near-field communications chip to use the handset as an electronic wallet.

At Apple’s 2010 WWDC – also held at Moscone West – Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone 4.

Although the WWDC usually features a keynote from Steve Jobs, it is not presently know if Jobs will have returned from his current medical leave of absence in time to present the fifth-generation touchscreen Apple smartphone.

Google’s Android platform manager Eric Chu is pleased that the number of Android smartphone users is on the rise, but purchases of paid apps in the Android Market continue to disappoint.

Chu made what have since become controversial remarks during a question-and-answer session with app developers at the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco yesterday.

Perhaps even more troublesome, however, is that Chu’s “roadmap for Android in 2011 lacked many specifics.” That’s according to Oliver Chiang, reporting on the conference for Forbes. The report notes that Chu used the phrase “stay tuned” enough to make a drinking game out of it.

Among the few revelations to surface during the presentation was that Android will finally debut an in-app payments system this quarter, closely emulating Apple’s winning formula in this enterprise.

Still, despite the apparent frustration and disappointment of some at Google over the perceived sluggish sales of apps in the Android marketplace, Android remains “a strategic investment for Google,” Chu reiterated. “I don’t expect to see any changes to that.”

The announcement came during the MMA CBP Forum (Consumer Best Practices) this week in Florida.

According to the MMA, the Committee’s objectives are both straightforward and practical given the evolution underway in mobile marketing. Consequently, the goals of the committee are vested in educating the marketplace, creating best practices and building standards around the effective use of interactive voice services in mobile marketing.

By the MMA’s own admission, interactive voice response services are being used with greater frequency and, as a result, the MMA wants to help “guide its use” in an effort to support and benefit both marketers and consumers.

“With the increasing use of interactive voice and the audio channel in mobile marketing, the time has come for mobile marketers to share our experiences, develop best practices and create guidelines to best use this medium to successfully deliver marketing communication and create broad acceptance by consumers,” said Michael Becker, North America Managing Director of the MMA. “The goal of the IVR Committee is to oversee the development of these standards, communicate them to the industry and support their use in the marketplace.”

According to a press release issued Wednesday, the MMA IVR Committee is scheduled to meet for the first time in mid-February.

The committee will be open to MMA members who are interested in participating in the development of guidelines, best practices, educational workshops, open forums and other relevant information to further the reasonable use of IVR based mobile marketing, the release noted.