Now there's an app for that

Those of you who are APHA Annual Meeting veterans are familar with the phone book...uh, I mean the Annual Meeting program. It's big, heavy and packed to the gills with information. Don't get me wrong — this blogger actually looks forward to flipping through the many pages, using multicolored sticky notes and a brand new highlighter to plan out my time at the meeting. It's become a fall tradition of sorts.

But this is the new millennium and APHA is always up for taking advantage of new technologies (even this old-fashioned blogger is slowly being dragged — somewhat kicking and screaming — into the new world). So, if you've been searching through APHA's online meeting program and wondering to yourself if there's an app for that, your thoughts have now been answered. Introducing the new APHA2012 Annual Meeting Mobile App! 

The absolutely free APHA2012 app is now available for download for iPhones, iPads, Android and Blackberry devices — just search for "APHA Meeting" in your device's app store. And here's some of the cool stuff you can do with it: search meeting sessions, abstracts and author information; find info on Public Health Expo exhibitors and floor plans; and create a meeting itinerary that you can save to your device's personal calendar.

You can even use the new app to search for fellow Annual Meeting attendees and send them a message, which they'll receive on their phones and via email. (But don't worry, the app doesn't display any of your personal information.) And once you download the app, you don't need an Internet connection to use it. Pretty cool and crazy convenient.

Of course, the APHA2012 app is only one way APHA will keep you connected during this year's 140th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. There's also APHA's @APHAAnnualMtg Twitter (follow the #APHA12 hashtag to join the conversation), the @PublicHealth Twitter (which just recently topped 200,000 followers!), APHA's Facebook page, LinkedIn, Flickr, Pinterest, YouTube, Foursquare, Instagram and Storify pages, and APHA’s newsblog Public Health Newswire. And there's yours truly and her fellow bloggers at the official APHA Meetings Blog, where you can sign up for free daily email updates that'll go directly to your inbox.

Like we've said before on this blog, APHA's social media team is kinda like public health itself: we're everywhere.

For more on APHA's social media offerings, click here. For more information on the new APHA2012 Annual Meeting Mobile App, click here.