San Francisco is a hotbed of tech development and activity. I continue to be impressed with the conferences I attend here, they are so very geeky and that is something I enjoy. MobileAppCon 2012 was a small conference, but a good one. My favorite speakers were:

• Sam Shank – Hotel Tonight
• Ron Conway – SV Angel

Sam Shank had a simple message, but he delivered it well. He spoke about the importance of using mobile functionality for a mobile app. This sounds basic, but I’ve seen so many mobile apps that are really just scaled down web pages. Mr. Shank emphasized that if you are not using some of the key features of smart phones such as location, camera, etc. then you should save yourself the heart ache and just build a web based application. Agreed 10000% sir! At some point it’s important to stop and think, is this application really suited to mobile? We all want to be a part of the mobile trend, but it’s not always a fit.

Mr. Ron Conway gave a more general type of lecture, but it was a great one. I particularly enjoyed it when he said that anyone with the guts to start a company deserves to get funded. Thank you! We appreciate your appreciation of our guts, sir. I also agreed 100% with Mr. Conway’s statement that in the war between Android and iPhone, the winner is the consumer. It’s a nice thought, for sure. I also liked the inspirational tone of the lecture, particularly that mobile is causing everyone to re-imagine what they are doing. Web applications are now following mobile ones! Wow. It’s crazy to imagine, but it’s true. Sounds amazing.