The group Mobile Monday lived up to half its name last night, as it held a meeting and panel discussion on a Wednesday at the Boston Harbor Hotel. The large crowd heard a clear message from the panelists: 2009 really is finally the year of mobile.

Andy Miller, CEO of Quattro Wireless, put the year in context in response to a question from moderator Shikhar Ghosh, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School: “The mobile web today is like the wired web was in 1997 or 1998. Is that exciting? I think that’s pretty exciting,” Miller said.

The panel also included Bill Scott, vice president of business development at Calif.-based application aggregator website GetJar; Jason Jacobs, founder of fitness app maker Runkeeper Inc.; and Seth Priebatsch, CEO of Scvngr Inc. As a sign of the activity in the mobile space, almost all of the panelists — as well as many of the audience members asking questions — took some time to note they were hiring and in great need of good talent.

“Yes, it’s difficult to hire and find people,” Priebatsch said in response to an audience question. “But I would rather do it here than anywhere else.”