I had a wonderful time last week in Texas exploring the many pleasantries that is CHI. This is my second year attending the conference, the first was last year in Vancouver. I can say that as I develop along my academic journey, the appreciation and experience of these events becomes invaluable. Technology exhibits that expand your concept of “what-is-possible”, watching colleagues speak with such passion for their topics and getting to contribute a little more each year. This year my work on Mobile Commerce Trust was accepted as a Work in Progress.
After the event I was lucky enough to check out a couple other cities in Texas. After Austin we headed to Corpus Christi on the Texas coast, and finally San Antonio. Corpus Christi offered what one might expect, a beautiful ocean and a wonderful beach town feeling. While San Antonio allowed us to explore historical locations, such as the Alamo, while staying in a haunted hotel on the battle field.
We finished the trip off with a nice visit to a “Safari” right outside of San Antonio. While the other tourists seem to cause us a bit of grief, the animals seemed happy and were well fed, which lent itself to a pleasant experience. To view the entire album of this trip click here.
With CHI being in Paris next year, perhaps I should be practicing my french.
Top 5 Highlights of CHI 2012:
1. The Interactivity Session
2. Enough Google Glasses to bring some home for my lab mates
3. Turning 31 and having it rain all day– in Texas!
4. The Pretzel Snack
5. (ironic) Tie: Andrea Parker’s paper on: Health Promotion as Activism: Building Community Capacity to Effect Social Change
and the food in Austin
Disappointments
1. The line-ups for coffee
2. The rain
3. Not seeing anyone on my top 5 list 🙁