Global Summit 2007 will be biggest to date

Global Summit 2007

06 Sep 2007 at 10:11 GMT Roger G. Pineda

With bags packed and e-tickets booked, delegates are leaving their home cities and converging on Helsinki, the venue for this year's MobileMonday Global Summit. Over 1,500 delegates are expected this year. Not bad for a growth story, considering that "MoMo" regulars met at Molly Malone's Pub in Helsinki during its early years.

During a (mobile)phone conversation with MobileMonday CEO Jari Tammisto on Wednesday, you can almost see the Cheshire Cat smile on his face as he rattled off some figures: "The first summit in 2005 brought four MoMo chapters and 500 delegates. By the 2006 summit, the number of chapters have grown to 17 and 1000 delegates attended. And by the time the 2007 summit starts on Monday, there will be 50 chapters around the globe."

What is new this year: besides the not so typical Executive Morning and the usual rapid-fire, mildly anarchic MoMo panels in the afternoon, a group of delegates will hop on the Sibelius train the following morning to continue networking on their way to St. Petersburg, Russia, where they are being awaited by Russian colleagues to do even more networking.

Not bad. Compared to the Molly Malone's experience, the only thing that will be missing during the Executive Morning part of the summit in Helsinki is the free beer.