Countdown to CTIA Wireless 2008

 I’m on my way to listen, learn, and contribute to the conversation next week in Las Vegas for the 2008 CTIA Wireless conference – the largest mobile conference in North America.

This will be my first time back since 2006 – and much has changed

I’ve signed up to follow the mobile marketing track and have made several appointments with all sorts of players in the mobile ecosystem.

Here are a few things I’m especially looking forward to this week:

1. Alcatel’s session on 4G networks…and their after-party
2. U.S. Spectrum announcement – we’ll find out this week who won the new spectrum that was secretly auctioned off this year. Will it be AT&T, Verizon, Google…. Somebody else?
3. Sneak peak at the Blackberry 9000 series. We’ve seen pictures on the interweb, now let’s hope we can get a closer look
4. Also looking for more Google phone or gphone previews
5. The official kickoff of the “I love the mobile web” campaign which was started by Bango and inherited by the dotmobi MAG to extend the campaign out globally. Their party on Tuesday night should be fun too
6. Examples and application examples of how 2D bar codes are being applied in America
7. Meeting other mobile bloggers!

I’m not a gambling man, but I’m betting this week will be a hoot.