LOS ANGELES, Sept. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — How will emerging technologies such as 5G, facial recognition, and telehealth impact the future of the United States? The App Economy Conference (AppCon) is an annual event that aims to answer this question. Previous AppCons brought together America’s top mobile innovators and political leaders in Washington, D.C. to discuss the most pressing issues facing technology and society in the near future. Due to COVID-19, this year’s event is completely virtual.

The four-week-long conference is being held by ACT, the App Association. ACT is an international organization that represents more than 5,000 small- and medium-sized tech companies across the $1.7 trillion mobile economy. By connecting the tech industry’s top leaders with preeminent policymakers, ACT strives to drive smart innovation and regulation.

Among the cohort of tech business leaders joining AppCon 2020 is Marc Fischer, CEO and Co-Founder of Dogtown Media, a Los Angeles-based mobile app development company. Fischer is attending as a representative of California.

In past AppCons, Fischer had the opportunity to 5G’s future in rural areas with FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly and Director Ajit Pai, lowering chronic health condition costs via telehealth with Congressman Joseph Kennedy III and Senator Amy Klobuchar, and accelerating American AI innovation with the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Fischer hopes to have similar fruitful and productive discussions this year.

The first week of AppCon 2020 will focus on improving 5G and broadband connectivity for rural and urban communities. More than 20 million Americans currently lack adequate access to broadband connections, causing the digital divide to grow into a chasm. Political and tech leaders will explore the benefits of broadband mapping, 5G deployment, and utilizing television white spaces (TVWS) to address this issue.

AppCon 2020’s second week will concentrate on connected healthcare technologies. Telehealth has proven to be an invaluable tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. During these sessions, AppCon 2020 attendees will examine the recent results of temporarily lifting U.S. telemedicine restrictions, removing reimbursement restrictions for digital health tools, and the WEAR IT Act.

In the third week of AppCon 2020, political leaders and ACT members will discuss current issues regarding privacy legislation and the need for ubiquitous end-to-end encryption. They’ll also tackle one of the most timely issues of the last few months: facial recognition. AppCon attendees will delve into the implications of this technology for the near and far future.

AppCon 2020 will close out its fourth and final week with a discussion focusing on platform regulations. This includes antitrust, Wi-Fi standards regulations, Bluetooth, Internet of Things device chips, and more.

After four years of meeting with political leaders on Capitol Hill, Fischer and ACT’s other members feel that progress is being made in the right direction. While virtual, this year’s AppCon carries immense potential to help ensure that positive policy change is enacted for many of the technologies emerging in society today.

Based in Venice Beach, Dogtown Media is a mobile technology studio that leverages disruptive design strategies and dynamic development to deliver industry-leading apps. To date, the company has created over 200 mobile apps in industries including Healthcare app development, IoT, and Artificial Intelligence. The firm has also been featured on the Inc. 5000 List of Fastest-Growing Companies in America for three years in a row.

SOURCE Dogtown Media