When Steve Jobs first unveiled the iPhone back in February, I was immediately convinced that this device would turn into a great tool for Office 2.0. This belief got reinforced when Apple decided to use the built-in web browser as main development platform, thereby adopting a pure Office 2.0 approach for all application developments. After using the device for a couple of days, my first impressions exceeded my original expectations, and when time came to select a device that could be given to every attendee of the Office 2.0 Conference, our first choice naturally went to Apple’s latest creation. There were a couple of problems though: First, could we buy that many devices, knowing that we are expecting anywhere between 500 and 750 participants this year? Second, could we get the devices activated before people show up for the conference? Today, I am pleased to report that both problems have been solved, and that every participant to the Office 2.0 Conference will receive a shiny new iPhone. Here is what we will do with them.

As mentioned before, the Office 2.0 Conference is a collective experiment aimed at discovering the future of mobile productivity & collaboration. In such a context, equipping over 500 people with the exact same mobile device will allow us to learn a lot about user interfaces, workflows, and usage patterns for mobile online applications. In essence, this upcoming edition of the Office 2.0 Conference will quickly turn into one of the largest experiments on mobile productivity & collaboration ever attempted. Quite frankly, it should be a lot of fun.

Handing iPhone devices out to all attendees is nice in and by itself, but it gets really interesting if we can match them with the right set of applications. For this purpose, we are working with Etelos, our Diamond Sponsor, and are developing applications to support what some people might eventually call Conference 2.0. When you will meet someone at the conference, instead of handing out a business card, you will just locate her name on the conference’s directory, then click a ‘Send Contact Information’ button. On the Demo Area, you will use a similar interface to share your contact information with exhibitors. And during presentations, you will be able to give real-time feedback and ask questions to the moderator directly from your iPhone.

From a logistics standpoint, ordering and activating 500 iPhone devices is also creating a very interesting challenge that will put our Office 2.0 Setup to the test. Supplies of iPhone are still limited, and Apple does not let anyone order more than two units at a time. As a result, we will have to buy them as people register to the conference, and get them shipped directly to participants ahead of time. This will let attendees activate their devices from the comfort of their homes, instead of doing it in the rush of the event. Also, we’re giving attendees a couple of options for the device: by default, they get the 4GB version, but they can also upgrade to the 8GB version for an extra $115 ($100 + taxes + PayPal fees), or opt for an alternative device (yet to be defined) if they already own an iPhone. As you can imagine, this process is fairly complex, for it requires integration with multiple online services (Event Wax, PayPal, Salesforce.com) and interactions with at least two different groups of people (attendees and staff). For this reason, we have decided to automate most of the process using what is probably the best Office 2.0 tool for the job — Coghead, now powered by Intalio.

Because of budgetary constraints and press policies related to corporate gifts, recipients of complimentary analyst and press passes are not eligible to receive the iPhone, but we will have several devices available for demonstration purposes. So far, all the analysts and press people we talked to agreed with the process, and many of them already own an iPhone anyway. Of course, all the speakers and sponsors will get their free iPhone as well, which means that virtually everybody will have one during the conference. So if you’re an Apple fanboy and want to see the largest gathering of iMacs (we should get about 50 to 75 of them) and iPhones, make sure to stop by.

Now, a couple of words of caution. As with any experiment, some things are bound to go wrong, and learning from failures and mistakes is really what the experiment is all about. So while we hope that everything will go well and are working really hard to make it so, we must ask all parties involved to remain supportive of the effort, even if your iPhone comes a little bit late (hopefully before the event), or has to be replaced by another device because the world’s supply of Steve’s latest gadget went down to nothing toward the end of the Summer.

In any case, we thank you for your support and look forward to meeting you soon.