WWDC 2014: personal experience
Most of the articles on WWDC tell you what happened during the conference, what new products were announced, which APIs Apple introduced, and so on. In my case, I would like to talk about how the conference itself is organized and how it is organized, how to prepare for it and what to expect from it.
Obviously, if you work in a company and your employer can pay for your trip to WWDC, you have to go there, you don’t even need to think. But if you are an indie developer like me, who bears all the expenses from his own pocket, then inevitably the question arises of the ratio of financial costs to the benefits.
If you are seriously thinking about going to the WWDC, then it is best to book a hotel or just a room through Airbnb in advance, before the start of the lottery of tickets to the conference. This will help to find the most affordable accommodation, especially since it is not so difficult to find options with missing fines for canceling a reservation at the present time. Apple, of course, negotiates with hotels about discounts on accommodation for conference participants, but it’s still worth it to insure and find an additional accommodation option.
')
Separately, I would like to advise you to take along an additional external battery for your smartphone and ... business cards. One of the main advantages of such events is new acquaintances that can be purchased. And if you want these newest contacts to not get lost on the day of your acquaintance, then it is better to have business cards with you.
Usually, the conference starts on Monday, and the day before on Sunday, you can already come to the Moscone West exhibition center in order to receive the WWDC participant badge. This is useful to get to Keynote without delay (the main presentation), which is held the next day. Coming early in the morning for a badge is not necessary, it can be done during the day when there are almost no queues.
It's no secret that the queue of people who want to get to Keynote is long enough, and people start to take it many hours before the official start of the event at 10 am. I would call the optimum time of arrival about 3-4 am, if you take a turn at this time, then you will definitely be able to get into the hall and sit in its front part.
This year, the crowd began to run into the building around 8 am, so the table board for those who want to spend time in the queue is as useful as possible: meet people around you, communicate. This will help pass the time, as well as allow you to leave the queue for a coffee / tea / bun for 10 minutes without losing your place.
Once in the building, you can expect a new line-up there, but this time with free drinks and muffins / muffins. They will have to spend at least another hour before they start letting those who wish to enter the hall.
The presentation itself is, without a doubt, an unusual event, which is very pleasant to visit. Sometimes it seems that you are at a football match, but instead of two teams on the field there is only one and she constantly scores goals.
After Keynote, there are usually two more events on Monday:
Platforms State of the Union - a more detailed description of the most important innovations.
Apple Design Awards - awards in the field of design.
The doors of Moscone West open at 8:15 am, sessions and labs begin at 9 am
Sessions are presentations of new products for developers, which are usually accompanied not only by slides and explanations, but also by the demonstration of real examples on Mac or iOS devices. It is important to note that all sessions become available online in PDF and video the next day. Recommended to attend the session from the “What's new in ...” category, they help to get a general idea of ​​the innovations and understand which other sessions it is better to go to.
On average, each session lasts an hour, and at the same time in the center usually takes 5-6 sessions. In general, the day can, if desired, to get to five sessions.
Labs are the most useful part of the entire conference. The point of labs is that you can come there with your question / problem / code and Apple engineers will help you solve the problem. I will name only some of the labs available this year: Core Animation, Core Data, Kernel Lab, Swift Lab, and so on.
A separate house is the UI Design Lab, which is wildly popular and where it is necessary to additionally defend a long line in the early morning. The fact is that there you can come either with your ready-made application or layout and get feedback from one of the Apple designers. However, I must say that in my case, the designer in this lab simply checked the application for compliance with the Human Interface Guidelines, which was not very useful. Some designers in this lab besides checking for compliance with standards still offer their ideas, express their personal opinions, which can be very useful.
In the morning breakfast is provided in the center in the form of buns and other pastries, and quite tasty food is available for lunch:
Before visiting WWDC, you should prepare yourself to visit labs as much as possible. It makes sense to review your code for problems, as well as bottlenecks that I would like to improve in the future. With such things you can safely go to Apple engineers and they will help you. This is the most useful part of the conference and should be given the most attention.
Another recommendation is to chat and make friends. I understand that the developers, in general, are not the most sociable people, but definitely worth going to try first to contact and communicate. It’s hard to imagine another event where you can meet so many iOS and Mac developers from around the world.
In addition to the labs and sessions at WWDC, several events are held that will help you to distract from the absorption of new information and have a little fun. These include The Bash - a party with free drinks and food, as well as a performance by some group, and Stump the Experts - an entertaining competition between Apple developers and engineers.
In addition, other companies hold events (parties) for WWDC members with the goal of promoting their own products. For example, this year there was a party from Xamarin.
A visit to the WWDC gives a psychological effect rather than an increase in knowledge or experience. Yes, of course, with proper use of the labs, you can improve your code, and when sharing experiences with other participants, you can learn new things. But the most important thing is that you get a positive boost of energy to continue developing and creating new products. This is something that can not be felt, but it can be felt.
So go to the WWDC at least once, but still necessary.
PS Waiting for one of the sessions next to me, Craig Federigi sat down absolutely accidentally. A book about the new Swift language was opened on his iPad, and he was also waiting for the session about Cocoa to start. It was very curious to take a moment and chat with him at least five minutes before the start of the presentation. And then the presentation began and he, along with everyone, began to listen to her and take notes. As if he were not the company's vice-president, but simply one of the developers.
Obviously, if you work in a company and your employer can pay for your trip to WWDC, you have to go there, you don’t even need to think. But if you are an indie developer like me, who bears all the expenses from his own pocket, then inevitably the question arises of the ratio of financial costs to the benefits.
Training
If you are seriously thinking about going to the WWDC, then it is best to book a hotel or just a room through Airbnb in advance, before the start of the lottery of tickets to the conference. This will help to find the most affordable accommodation, especially since it is not so difficult to find options with missing fines for canceling a reservation at the present time. Apple, of course, negotiates with hotels about discounts on accommodation for conference participants, but it’s still worth it to insure and find an additional accommodation option.
')
Separately, I would like to advise you to take along an additional external battery for your smartphone and ... business cards. One of the main advantages of such events is new acquaintances that can be purchased. And if you want these newest contacts to not get lost on the day of your acquaintance, then it is better to have business cards with you.
Day 0. The day before the conference
Usually, the conference starts on Monday, and the day before on Sunday, you can already come to the Moscone West exhibition center in order to receive the WWDC participant badge. This is useful to get to Keynote without delay (the main presentation), which is held the next day. Coming early in the morning for a badge is not necessary, it can be done during the day when there are almost no queues.
Day 1. Keynote and other official presentations.
It's no secret that the queue of people who want to get to Keynote is long enough, and people start to take it many hours before the official start of the event at 10 am. I would call the optimum time of arrival about 3-4 am, if you take a turn at this time, then you will definitely be able to get into the hall and sit in its front part.
This year, the crowd began to run into the building around 8 am, so the table board for those who want to spend time in the queue is as useful as possible: meet people around you, communicate. This will help pass the time, as well as allow you to leave the queue for a coffee / tea / bun for 10 minutes without losing your place.
Once in the building, you can expect a new line-up there, but this time with free drinks and muffins / muffins. They will have to spend at least another hour before they start letting those who wish to enter the hall.
The presentation itself is, without a doubt, an unusual event, which is very pleasant to visit. Sometimes it seems that you are at a football match, but instead of two teams on the field there is only one and she constantly scores goals.
After Keynote, there are usually two more events on Monday:
Platforms State of the Union - a more detailed description of the most important innovations.
Apple Design Awards - awards in the field of design.
Day 2-5. Normal WWDC days
The doors of Moscone West open at 8:15 am, sessions and labs begin at 9 am
Sessions are presentations of new products for developers, which are usually accompanied not only by slides and explanations, but also by the demonstration of real examples on Mac or iOS devices. It is important to note that all sessions become available online in PDF and video the next day. Recommended to attend the session from the “What's new in ...” category, they help to get a general idea of ​​the innovations and understand which other sessions it is better to go to.
On average, each session lasts an hour, and at the same time in the center usually takes 5-6 sessions. In general, the day can, if desired, to get to five sessions.
Labs are the most useful part of the entire conference. The point of labs is that you can come there with your question / problem / code and Apple engineers will help you solve the problem. I will name only some of the labs available this year: Core Animation, Core Data, Kernel Lab, Swift Lab, and so on.
A separate house is the UI Design Lab, which is wildly popular and where it is necessary to additionally defend a long line in the early morning. The fact is that there you can come either with your ready-made application or layout and get feedback from one of the Apple designers. However, I must say that in my case, the designer in this lab simply checked the application for compliance with the Human Interface Guidelines, which was not very useful. Some designers in this lab besides checking for compliance with standards still offer their ideas, express their personal opinions, which can be very useful.
In the morning breakfast is provided in the center in the form of buns and other pastries, and quite tasty food is available for lunch:
How to get the maximum benefit
Before visiting WWDC, you should prepare yourself to visit labs as much as possible. It makes sense to review your code for problems, as well as bottlenecks that I would like to improve in the future. With such things you can safely go to Apple engineers and they will help you. This is the most useful part of the conference and should be given the most attention.
Another recommendation is to chat and make friends. I understand that the developers, in general, are not the most sociable people, but definitely worth going to try first to contact and communicate. It’s hard to imagine another event where you can meet so many iOS and Mac developers from around the world.
In addition to the labs and sessions at WWDC, several events are held that will help you to distract from the absorption of new information and have a little fun. These include The Bash - a party with free drinks and food, as well as a performance by some group, and Stump the Experts - an entertaining competition between Apple developers and engineers.
In addition, other companies hold events (parties) for WWDC members with the goal of promoting their own products. For example, this year there was a party from Xamarin.
What to expect from WWDC
A visit to the WWDC gives a psychological effect rather than an increase in knowledge or experience. Yes, of course, with proper use of the labs, you can improve your code, and when sharing experiences with other participants, you can learn new things. But the most important thing is that you get a positive boost of energy to continue developing and creating new products. This is something that can not be felt, but it can be felt.
So go to the WWDC at least once, but still necessary.
PS Waiting for one of the sessions next to me, Craig Federigi sat down absolutely accidentally. A book about the new Swift language was opened on his iPad, and he was also waiting for the session about Cocoa to start. It was very curious to take a moment and chat with him at least five minutes before the start of the presentation. And then the presentation began and he, along with everyone, began to listen to her and take notes. As if he were not the company's vice-president, but simply one of the developers.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/225665/
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