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Don't forget tomorrow's FTC event on mobile

The Federal Trade Commission tomorrow holds its first town hall meeting on mobile marketplace issues. That event is bound to influence government's attitude to mobile marketing and commerce.

Thankfully for the industry, the roster of speakers is stellar and the agenda -- while tight -- well put together. Free and open to the public, the two-day event is titled "Beyond Voice: Mapping the Mobile Marketplace."

Marketers who haven't already made plans should try to either attend or send someone in the Washington area to sit in on some of the deliberations May 6-7 at the FTC headquarters. The topics indicate the extent of intelligence the FTC seeks in key areas of mobile commerce that affect the consumer.

After opening remarks from FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz, the meeting will immediately move on to an overview on mobile commerce in contemporary society, followed by what should be a heavily attended session: "Mobile Messaging -- Unsolicited, Premium and Interactive Messaging."

Other sessions on day one focus on mobile applications such as games and widgets, location-based services and mobile advertising and marketing and adapting to mobile devices.

Day two will cover managing mobile devices, children and teens, best practices and mobile security.

Mary Beth Richards, deputy director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection, will offer closing remarks.

In all cases, the sessions are moderated by a senior FTC official responsible for that area of mobile commerce or marketing. So expect the moderation to be rather sharp and not tiptoe around issues.

The good news is that major vendor-side companies are represented on the panels: MX Telecom, M:Metrics, Verizon Wireless, Mozes, Yahoo, Nokia, Google, Opera Software, Useful Networks, Loopt and Truste.

Also represented are Greystripe, Sprint Nextel, Ogilvy Interactive, Isobar Global, Siteminis, AT&T Services, Cricket Communications, AdaptiveMobile, iLoop Mobile, SinglePoint, Symantec and VMware.

To that list add representatives from media (MediaPost's Steve Smith), universities, consumer lobbies and trade outfits such as the Mobile Marketing Association, CTIA -- The Wireless Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

The bad news: there's only one executive from an actual mobile advertiser on a panel -- Procter & Gamble Co.'s Jean Berberich, digital marketing innovation manager for mobile.

And this is the problem with not just this industry but the larger interactive marketing field.

Not enough advertisers and marketers make their case in a public forum, leaving it to the service providers to do that job. If you don't present your side of the story, then someone else writes the script for you. In this case, it's the FTC and their script is legal.

Please click here for a copy of the FTC meeting's agenda.