Can’t Make RIM’s BlackBerry Developer Conference? Read All About it Here

I just arrived in beautiful Silicon Valley, Calif., and the excitement is palpable at the Santa Clara Marriott, the site of Research In Motion’s (RIM) inaugural BlackBerry Developer Conference, which will be held this Monday through Wednesday.

In fact, the very first thing I saw after wheeling my luggage through the lobby door was a gigantic, red BlackBerry logo thrown across the hotel’s thick shag carpet. That and a few large “building” blocks situated directly in front of the entryway and covered in bits and pieces of BlackBerry-related code. Oh yeah, and lots of folks click-clacking away on their Berrys.

Anyway, if you can’t make it to Santa Clara, that doesn’t mean you can’t join in the fun. I’ll be covering the event right here, on the Mobile WorkHorse blog, as well as through my Twitter feed. (FYI: My updates are protected, so you’ll need to request to follow me.)

There will no doubt be plenty of noteworthy happenings, but what I’m really looking forward to is some hands-on time with the touch screen BlackBerry Storm 9530 from Verizon Wireless. I mentioned last week that the Storm will be making an appearance in Santa Clara, and I’m anxious to share some first impressions. I’ve already been warned informed by RIM that there’s a strict no camera/video policy within the conference walls, but I’m not too worried. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, right?

I mentioned last week that I’ll be acting as a judge for the BlackBerry Cool 15—more information on that event is available here—but what I didn’t say was that the winners will be getting some very cool prizes…including BlackBerry Storms of their own! You can expect lots of details on the event, the winners and their applications on Tuesday.

RIM’s co-CEO Mike Lazaridis—who I interviewed last May at the company’s 2008 Wireless Enterprise Symposium—will also be giving a keynote Tuesday morning, and I’ll be sure to share the good stuff.

That’s not all: There will be sessions for a wide variety of mobile application developers—beginner, advanced and everything in between–and I’ll be popping in on as many tracks as possible.

Stay tuned…

AS