While the Mobile Marketing Forum in Los Angeles was not as well attended as its New York counterpart, the mood at the daylong show was upbeat and the discussions not overly defensive. False dawn or new day for mobile?   

Fewer than 300 people are said to have registered for the show, including exhibitors and speakers and their guests, matching last year's West Coast forum in San Diego. Slightly more are said to have showed up at this year's New York Mobile Marketing Forum in June.

The venue choice of the Sheraton Downtown in Los Angeles proved convenient for attendees as they networked and discussed mobile issues ? thank goodness no one raised that inane question anymore, ?Is this the year of mobile??

The big debate over such shows is the absence of executives from brands and agencies. And that is truly a lamentable fact, not just at the Mobile Marketing Forum but also at ad:tech and other trade shows.

It may be that brand and agency executives do register, but chose not to identify themselves lest they get mobbed.

Which makes it all the more laudable for executives such as Coca-Cola Co.?s Tom Daly and CNN Mobile?s Louis Gump to steadfastly support the Mobile Marketing Forums nationwide through presence and presentations. If only more such executives stood up and spoke for mobile marketing, then this industry would leapfrog many growing pains and hurdles.

What sense did attendees get from this Mobile Marketing Forum? That while attendance was down, enthusiasm was up. The mobile marketers, by and large, seemed happy and excited about the future.

In other words, these members of the Mobile Marketing Association were finally breaking through to the ad agencies and brands. They must continue to hang on to that optimism. Each passing day is a new smartphone activated somewhere, a new Web experience delivered, a new SMS campaign engaged, an application downloaded.

LA confidential
The choice of Los Angeles couldn?t be faulted, either. The city?s downtown is more appropriate for gatherings such as the Mobile Marketing Forum than a salubrious stint in a resort fit for reality shows.

Shows feed off the energy of the city they are in and the neighborhood in which they are hosted. No one wonder the cocktail parties hosted by Mobile Messenger and Neustar at the Sheraton and Mobile Marketer at The Standard?s Rooftop Bar were packed ? the views were uplifting and weather tailor-made.

If there was one thing that could have helped lift this forum?s numbers, it would have been a larger contingent of delegates from California.

The Golden State, along with New York, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington, hosts a large proportion of the major mobile marketing firms. California, given its tech and Silicon Valley heritage, should have been better represented.

No doubt times are tough and budgets tight. But an industry that plays together stays together. Now is not the time for mobile marketing firms to cut back their branding presence, not when brands and agencies are actively searching for mobile partners.

The benefit of shows such as the Mobile Marketing Forum ? even the West Coast edition, which has a thoroughly clubby feel ? is the demonstration of solidarity and shared hope.

Even if it was mostly service providers, the Los Angeles event was an opportunity for MMA members to exchange notes and throw back a drink or two to celebrate a year that could have been worse for mobile but wasn?t.

An undercurrent of the conversations at the forum was the Google-AdMob deal announced just a few days prior.

Many attendees were obviously envious of AdMob?s good fortune, while others saw it as a win for mobile: a huge recognition that interactive marketing is not complete without mobile.

The wind is behind mobile marketing?s back, but it takes someone to step out to notice that.