It’s that time of the year again folks! Later this month we’ll be heading down to the city of San Francisco, California to attend Casual Connect USA 2016 from July 18th – 20th to catch a glimpse of what’s happening in the world of indie developers as well as the mobile industry as a whole. For the first time of all the USA events, the conference will be held at the downtown Marriott Marquis on Mission Street and for those of you traveling internationally, VISA applications are available.

I will be partaking in a panel consisting of a small handful of Indie Prize judges on the third day, Wednesday July 20th, from 2:00 PM PST to 2:50 PM PST, so be sure to not miss out on that. In other Indie Prize news as well, I’ve been informed that it has been maxed out again this year and there will be over 100 games represented on the showroom floor, which is pretty exciting news.

Keeping par with previous conferences, there will definitely be plenty of networking events going on both during the event and at the end of each day. If you’re interested in attending and looking to get a discount hotel rate, you can book a room at the Marriott Marquis at a special price. Indie developers on the other hand should email the head of Indie Prize, Yuliya, to get a discounted rate as well. If you’re not able to attend but still want updates and pictures, tune into Casual Connect’s Facebook Page and Twitter as photos will be posted throughout the day.

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Casual Connect USA day two is now under way and so far it’s been pretty awesome. Taking a break from the meetings today, I’ve been hanging around the Indie Prize area talking to the developers and playing their games. So far we’ve got a fairly good start on taking photos of the Indie Prize games and definitely have found a few that are really exceptional. Be sure to give the photo album above a quick browse and we’ll have more photos added later today.

Rohith Bhat, CEO of the indie studio 99Games based in India with 15 games, and Filippo De Rose sat down earlier today with me at Casual Connect to have a quick chat. For about 30 solid minutes, we discussed the mobile industry, freemium vs. paid games, and tips for indie developers. Overall it was a pretty good conversation and some very good points were brought up about the mobile industry. Anyhow, be sure to check out the interview below via our Soundcloud channel.

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With the first day of Casual Connect USA 2015 in progress, we’ve had a great time meeting with developers, playing games, and meeting with various other companies. That being said, we’ve been able to take some photos of the event and will hopefully have more available throughout the day. Be sure to check out the album above and leave us feedback in the comments below or via Twitter.

Casual Connect, one of the largest conferences dedicated for mobile gaming, is about to start later this week and there’s plenty in store. Taking place at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square Hotel, Casual Connect USA will run from August 11th (tomorrow) to August 13th with the awards ceremony taking place on the 13th.

Judging from what we’ve seen so far with the list of participating games, the line up for Indie Prize looks pretty stellar this year. Being apart of the judging committee, I got to preview a good potion of the games and it’ll be interesting to see who wins this year as there was some close competition amongst some games.

As for PocketFullOfApps’ coverage, I’ll be walking around taking pictures of the event along with meeting with developers. If anything spectacular comes up, we’ll be sure to let you know. Speaking of that, if you’re attending the conference, be sure to drop us a line via email or Twitter.