Silicon Valley Web Builder: August Meet-up

If you were in Silicon Valley the last couple weeks, you were experiencing our short lived version of a real summer this year, where the temperatures managed to get to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit! It was on one of these sweat-filled, suntastic days that members of the SMI team in San Jose attended the Silicon Valley Web Builder’s monthly meet-up in Fremont, CA. The discussions of the night focused on games for mobile devices and how developers can deploy applications for the many platforms on the market.

Now, the evening started with a talk from someone you would not necessarily associate with mobile, applications, or even tech period. It was later explained that Bess Ho (one of the founders of the SV Web Builder) had met the first speaker, Mark Juarez (CEO of the Happy Company and author of “Thinking Cheese”), at his book signing. Bess is developing a game where you whack mice on the head and Mark’s book “Thinking Cheese” features a mouse with a wedge of cheese on the cover. So yeah… while it sounds like trying to connect two really different worlds with a thread that flimsy is as unlikely as me passing up an all you can eat buffet, it turns out that some unlikely pairs end up working out. Like condensed milk and bread; like peanuts and pancakes; like gummy bears and potato chips (mmm); apparently application developers and companies that make relaxation slippers are a killer combination as well! Mark inspired the group with his success story of turning one single idea into a large and profitable company that changes the world in a good way and Bess encouraged the group to do the same with their applications. And in case that heart lifting segue wasn’t enough to win our affections, everyone walked away with a free wrist massager to clear away our ergonomic dysfunction blues!

After Mark, Bess gave Samsung a better introduction than I could have ever done, which worked out for me since I was sweating like crazy by that point and happy to limit my time dripping in front of a crowd. Attendees then got to compete in a racing competition using Gameloft’s Asphalt 5 on our bada based device, the Samsung Wave and the winners received a huge bag of goodies from the Happy Company or their very own Wave phone from Samsung! As the finale, James Testa, founder and developer at Aerende, gave some real life experiences of developing and deploying his game, Secret Agent, on the multiple platforms and how he has handled the fragmentation of the mobile market. It was really nice to hear an honest developer opinion instead of all the marketing fluff we’re used to ;) All in all, it was a fun, exciting and HOT (in every sense of the word) evening! Thanks again to Bess Ho for inviting us to participate this month!

Mel Joskel
Fluff Manager, Samsung

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