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82 THE ACCIDENTAL SOCIAL DISTANCING APP Dave Conlan set out to improve the hunter/jumper horse show experience with BackGate LLC, but he's not stopping there. By Christina Keim TECH SPOTLIGHT W hen Dave Conlan's daughter started riding, he promised he would attend all of her horse shows. For the past five years, Conlan has spent thousands of dollars and countless hours ringside with other horse show parents, growing increasingly frustrated over the lack of communication among trainers, clients and show management. No one ever seemed to know what was going on, and he could see the situation was negatively impacting the experience for everyone. "This is a group of some of the most powerful and affluent people in the world," explains Conlan. "They can't hang out at a show all day long, unable to leave or take a conference call, because they have no information about when, what or where something will happen." With nearly two decades of experience working in the Silicon Valley tech industry, Conlan recognized a problem that he was uniquely qualified to solve. The result is BackGate LLC, a "show experience app" designed to improve communication among essential show personnel and exhibitors. The app was beta tested earlier this year at popular California showgrounds like the Desert International Horse Park in Thermal, the Del Mar Horse Park and the Sonoma Horse Park in Petaluma. Currently, BackGate's basic functionality is complete, with additional advanced features scheduled to debut later this year. But Conlan hopes the app will ultimately translate into something much bigger—an equine-specific social media network. BACKGATE TODAY Conlan recognized that most equestrians are good with horses but not so much with technology, so he sought to make BackGate an app through which info could be found in "three taps or less." It's a progressive web app, meaning that the system can be accessed on a laptop, tablet or mobile phone through any common web browser with no download from an app store. Riders create a simple personal profile, including their name, their