I just recently had the pleasure of attending Mobile HCI 2012 in San Francisco. It was a week of firsts for me – first time in San Francisco, first presentation of a full paper and first academic workshop.
I was pleasantly surprised by the conference. My only other academic conference experience has been CHI 2011 and CHI 2012, and I have to say, this conference was a much better experience. Don’t get me wrong, CHI has it’s positives, it is often inspirational, very diverse and the food snacks are well thought out. The Mobile HCI experience was focused, and this allowed me to connect with researcher’s specifically doing work in my area.
The workshop I participated in, Mobility and Web Behaviours, was put on by Karen Church, Jaime Teevan and Matt Jones. I can honestly say that I very much enjoyed the workshop, especially talking with researchers whose studies have been included in my annotated bibliography, such as Chad Tossell. Cool.
Overall, I would highly recommend the conference for researchers looking for an intimate setting of friendly and passionate researchers. Thanks Mobile HCI! Hopefully I will see everyone next year.