Santa Clara, California

Dear Friends:

Last week, I spent a good deal of time in California.  I was there in Santa Clara to attend a large event that my company had organized - it's called TechCon.  Essentially, it's a place for all the companies that we partner with, to gather and discuss new methods, technologies and ways to improve products based on our chip designs.  Since my company's tech is inside 95% of smartphones and tablets, we work with a LOT of companies.  In addition, our smaller chips are in a large number of consumer products:

After getting things set-up on the first day, I had a few hours to myself.  I drove up north to visit with my oldest daughter and my youngest grandson (Joseph).  I arrived in the evening, so I ended up playing with Joseph...and then reading him a ton of books before he went to bed.  He's a very happy guy:

I'm glad I had the time to see him for just a little bit.

The next day was the beginning of the conference.  My team held a series of presentations throughout the day.  We focused on virtual reality, and even welcomed a guest speaker from Google, to talk about their latest VR technology:

In another area of the event, we set-up an "expo" floor.  Here, our company had a large booth, but there were plenty of other stands from our partners:

As I said, our chips are pretty amazing - they are really small, and draw such low power, that they are ideal for smartphones and lots of other devices.  We showed our tech inside of several drones:

We even set-up a display showing some of the outdoor devices that our technology powers.  This includes a GPS, a GoPro camera, body sensors for heat/cold and radio communication devices.

Our technology is being used more and more to make devices "smart" - to connect them to the Internet and provide data.  In addition to home security systems, our tech is inside the WaterBit - a moisture sensor that let's you know when it's time to water crops/plants.  This information can be connected to a watering system to make everything as efficient as possible.

The following day, I spoke on a panel about virtual reality.  A product manager from Google was also on the panel, and it was moderated by an industry analyst:

The amazing thing was that the organizers had hired artists to create a visual interpretation of the entire conversation...while it was taking place.  I was really impressed.  Here is the summary of our hour-long conversation:

Here's another sample from a presentation on Nest security cameras:

Later that afternoon, my boss and I drove to the Google HQ and had some great meetings.  They don't always go well...but in this case, it was a great way to end the day.

Later that evening, I flew home and was so happy to be back in Austin.  A decent week...but it's always so much fun to come home ; )