PDA Developers West ’96 Conference Details (Pamphlet)

PDA Developers West '96 was a three-day technical conference for software developers building personal digital assistant (PDA) products, held in San Mateo, California, on January 14, 15, and 16, 1996.¹ It was produced by Creative Digital, Inc., the San Francisco publisher of PDA Developers magazine, and sponsored by General Magic, Psion, and Hewlett-Packard.¹ Creative Digital billed it as the first publicly available conference at which developers could learn to program Magic Cap 1.5, the HP OmniGo 100, and Newton OS 2.0.¹

The agenda expanded on the format Creative Digital had used at PDA Developers East in August 1995.¹ The first day was a set of full-day tutorials on developing software for the Magic Cap, Psion, GEOS/OmniGo, and Newton platforms, taught by members of the developer-support and training staffs of General Magic, Psion, Geoworks, and Apple Computer, and carried a separate registration fee.¹

The remaining two days were organized into parallel threads: Developer Programs, Wireless Development, Advanced Topics, The Business of Software Development, and an ongoing Tools Demos track.¹ The Wireless Development thread covered services and technologies including ARDIS, RAM, CDPD, PCS-based paging, Metricom, IrDA, and GPS, with presenters from companies such as RIM, Counterpoint Systems, and ARDIS.¹ The conference closed with a session called Cool Stuff, which promised one of the first U.S. showings of the HP OmniGo 700 wireless palmtop.¹

Keynote speakers included Andy Hertzfeld, cofounder of General Magic; Jeff Hawkins, chairman and founder of Palm Computing; Andy Seybold, author of Using Wireless Communications in Business; and a general manager from Hewlett-Packard's APCD division.¹

The conference was held at the Dunfey San Mateo Hotel, which set aside a block of rooms at $72 per night until December 23, 1995.¹ Registration fees included breakfast, lunch, and breaks each day, and attendees who registered by November 22 saved up to $200.¹ Creative Digital ran the conference from 395 Corbett Avenue in San Francisco.¹

AI generated using primary sources referenced in the footnotes