I recently blogged about my affinity for mobile apps, let’s consider this a follow-up. I’d specifically like to pick up on how impactful this new technology, always with me, always connected, and so powerful, can be showcased on a business trip. But this ain’t no ordinary business trip…it’s GForce! One of the biggest events in our industry! 

Savvy users are already hip to some these cool new capabilities…but I’m still taken aback when I contrast it to where we were just a few years ago. It’s also special for me at GForce this year, thrilled to provide an innovative mobile solution for customer service. I am here at Gforce to tell our customers about this unique capability. I anticipate my week here in Seattle will be heavily mobile-enabled. It has already started off with a bang. Check out my daily blog reporting on how I used mobile apps to "get the job done".

Day one, it begins. I woke up early and confirmed my flight info on my iPhone. I gave myself about 3 hours to pack and get ready. Then I used my TaxiMagic app to book a cab to the airport. This app lists all the local cabs and places the call right from the app…that’s efficient!

With plenty of time to get to the airport, I jumped on a business call. While I was on the phone, I noticed American Airlines called and left a voice message. When my call was done, I checked the message -- my flight was cancelled and they booked me on the next flight, 3 hours later. So I called the cab and rescheduled.

On the flight, I was able to use WiFi to take work on my breakout presentation and upload to Dropbox. When we arrived in Seattle, I shared a cab with my colleague, Liz, to the hotel near the Washington Convention Center, which was already teaming with Genesys customers, partners and employees preparing for Gforce. After getting into my room, I checked the weather on my weather app (did you know it was powered by Yahoo! And the Weather Channel?) - looks sunny, no rain…good, we can do some walking.

Planned to meet up with co-workers, so I texted them a couple of times to set that up. We met up and walked to the nearest coffee shop; used Google maps app to find that. We decided to grab a snack instead and went to a nearby restaurant, Wild Ginger, which the Yelp app recommended and provided directions to. Next we moved on to a bar in Pioneer Square, again using Google maps to get walking direction. 

After a couple of hours, we decided it was time for dinner. Yelp again - recommended a nearby Italian restaurant; we made a reservation using Open Table. After a fantastic meal, we took a cab back to the hotel - used Taxi Magic again, which in major cities like Seattle, actually allows you to book in the app -- something I've been doing to book ‘cool cabs’ via text when I visit Mumbai, at least since 2007.

Back at the hotel I met up with some customers in the lobby, took some pics, used Instagram for some cool effects, and texted it to a friend. I hung out for a few more minutes but the yawning caught up to me...so I called it a night. Back in my room, emptied my pockets and took pictures of all the receipts I’ll need to expense later, sigh.

Tomorrow, Day 2 of my very mobile GForce 2012