Developers and government workers will meet side-by-side this week to start building the next generation of government mobile apps. The ModevGov event on Government Mobility Development will be held this week on Wednesday, February 26, in Rosslyn, Virginia.

According to event organizer Peter Erickson, interest in ModevGov has been high. "Keynote speakers like David Bray, CIO of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Lisa Wolfisch from the Census department, and more than 40 other speakers are a testament to the event itself," Erickson told ProgrammableWeb. "We currently have about a 50/50 mix of government mobile leaders and commercial attendees, which is exactly what we were looking for. We’ve also seen a strong response to our offer of free admission for veterans. This is important to us as one of our missions is to help vets reenter the workforce in the mobile space, which is so strong and will continue to be for years to come."

Erickson believes using APIs and open data will be a consistent theme across the day's agenda: "[APIs are] a big part of the discussion, and we’ll hear a lot about this at the conference. From NYC's 311 initiative at the local level to the Census use of APIs to engage the developer community, there are countless examples of how APIs are driving a new kind of public-private partnership that starts at the developer."

With the continuing availability of open data via APIs from government agencies, civic hackathons being held regularly and hosted by government departments, and a widening discussion of the role that digital can play in reinventing government, Erickson and his team believe now is the time to host a conference focused on supporting developers and government workers to partner on new mobile apps aimed at connecting citizens to government services and engagement.

"We’ve been asked to do a government-focused conference that reaches the developer level for a few years," Erickson said. "The stars aligned, and here we are. The primary difference with our conference versus other mobile government events is that you’ll see the developers playing a key role in our event and leading and taking workshops with how-to guides for getting the job done."

Developers can still register to attend. Erickson encourages anyone interested in "the convergence of data, devices, and possibilities" to participate. "The developer community has matured to a point where the possibilities are really limitless, and we want to capture and put that on display," he said.

By Mark Boyd. Mark is a freelance writer focusing on how we use technology to connect and interact. He writes regularly about API business models, open data, smart cities, Quantified Self, and e-commerce. He can be contacted via e-mail, on Twitter, or on Google+.