The 14th edition of MobileHCI, ACM SIGCHI's International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, will take place at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, California. The MobileHCI series provides a forum for academics and practitioners to discuss the challenges and potential solutions for effective interaction with mobile devices and services. It covers the design, evaluation and application of techniques and approaches for all mobile and wearable computing devices and services.

The Westin St. Francis is a luxury hotel located on Powell and Geary Streets on Union Square in San Francisco, California. This landmark hotel, which opened in 1904, has many historic features, such as the master clock in the lobby–the first in the Western United States. The hotel also boasts a number of restaurants and bars including celebrity chef Michael Mina's Bourbon Steakhouse restaurant.

San Francisco is the cultural and financial center of Northern California. It is famous for its beautiful skyline and steep hills. Among its famous sights are the cable cars, Fisherman's Wharf, Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, and the Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area has one of the most diverse food scenes in the world. It offers a variety of bars, restaurants, and eateries ranging from incredibly cheap to unbelievably expensive. Whether it’s a burrito in the Mission, a taco-truck in SOMA, an elegant dinner in the Financial District, or Dim-Sum on the Peninsula, the San Francisco area is sure to offer something for everyone.

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to over 7 million people. It includes San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley, Palo Alto, the Silicon Valley, the Napa and Sonoma Valley wine country. Geographically, the region ranges from spectacular coastlines, misty valleys with stately redwoods up to the Coastal Range crowned by Mount Tamalpais in Marin County and Mount Diablo in the East Bay.

The largest city in the Bay Area is San Jose, located in the South Bay and part of the world renowned technology region known as Silicon Valley. Geographically, Silicon Valley consists of the Santa Clara Valley including San Jose, the southern Peninsula, and the southern East Bay. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations as well as Stanford University, which has produced many spinoff companies, and a host of corporate research labs, such as PARC, which developed many of the innovations we take for granted today. Among the companies that make Silicon Valley their headquarters are Apple, Adobe, Cisco, Google, HP, Oracle, and Yahoo. The area is also home to new technology companies, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Zynga, and Tesla Motors. Silicon Valley continues to be the leading area for high-tech innovation and development, accounting for 1/3 of all of venture capital investment in the United States, with countless startup companies vying to be the “Next Big Thing.”

Oakland, in the East Bay, is the third most populous city in the Bay Area. It sits directly across the Bay from San Francisco, connected to it by the Bay Bridge. Oakland is a major industrial center and port. Berkeley, home to the University of California at Berkeley, is just north of Oakland.

The northern counties of Napa and Sonoma are part of California's famous Wine Country, home to hundreds of vineyards and wineries. The California coast rises steeply from the Pacific Ocean at the Marin Headlands on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Other places of interest along the coast include the redwood forest in Muir Woods, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Bodega Bay, where Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds.

Since it is surrounded on three sides by water, San Francisco's weather is strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean, which moderates temperature swings and produces a remarkably mild year-round climate with little seasonal temperature variation. September is the best time to visit San Francisco. The city's characteristic cool winds and fog of the summer give way to warm, sunny days in autumn, averaging 70 degrees F (21 C), and mild nights (56 F, 13 C). Rain is unlikely in late September. However, because of its varied geography and many microclimates, different parts of the city may experience quite different weather conditions.

There are literally thousands of activities and attractions to see in San Francisco and the Bay Area. The area has been home to writers, artists, musicians, social movements, and other cultural glitterati and a must-stop for tours of all sorts. Between now and the conference date, keep an eye on us! We’ll post more information about things to do in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as allow you to weigh in on your favorites things to do in San Francisco. You can find more information on what to do and what to see here.