Living the WWDC 2019
This year I had the chance to participate in the WWDC event in San Jose. As an iOS developer, this is the best conference I could have hoped to attend.
Let me expose my feedback on this conference.
Check in on sunday
When you arrive at the convention center, all the blue shirt people start to clap and cheer. They offer a warm welcome effect during all the way long to the entrance. In fact, pretty much every time you enter a building during this week, you are likely to be acclaimed !
So when I arrived they gave me my badge, a very nice reversible vest (I got the blue one), and some pins. I already heard about those pins, and some developers there were trying to collect them all.
The first Keynote
To fully get in the WWDC spirit, my team and I decided to stand in the line on the very morning of monday. We were there at 4:50 am, and we were absolutely not the first ones ! Some of the people were there since 2:00 am, and maybe even earlier. So we waited until 9:00 am to enter in the conference room, the WWDC staff were trying to make the waiting more fun so the time wasn’t too long.
Then Tim Cook arrived on stage and started the keynote. It was exciting and the way Apple presents their new features is always spectacular so being there in front of Tim Cook while he was talking was a great moment.
I particularly liked the way they introduced the new dark mode on iOS 13.
Craig Federighi is particularly appreciated in the Swift developer world so when he came to present the new iOS 13, there was a lot of applause.
He also is much more accessible than Tim Cook, and I even managed to get a selfie with him !
WWDC App
There is an iOS App called WWDC where you can find all the sessions and labs of the week. All the week planning is released just after the first Keynote, so when we grabbed our (delicious) lunch at the end of the conference, my team and I checked the planning so we could plan our week.
There was 3 main halls for all different conferences, a few smaller rooms, and some places where all the labs were located. The Hall 2 was the largest one, and this is where all the main conferences and the most popular ones (SwiftUI, Dark mode…) took place.
On the WWDC app you could also make an appointment with Apple engineers on the labs for any questions you have. The appointment system is quite good and you receive a notification on your phone when it’s your turn, then you have 5 minutes to get to the lab.
Events
There are some events at the WWDC that worth taking part of. The events that I liked the most were the sportive events : almost every morning of the week, a special event took place. It could be a 5 km run, a HIIT workout, or even a yoga session. I had to register to these events on the app to be able to participate.
Each session would give you a special pin, a colorful wristband and some other gifts (I got a yoga mat and massage balls at the yoga session).
During lunchtime, some special talks were organized in the conference halls. There were some guests that came to tell their successful and inspiring story. For example Chris Downey told how his sudden blindness has impacted his architect life. Dr. Ayanna Howards came to tell her story about her accomplishments since she was hired by NASA to work on a robot for future Mars missions.
These talks were very interesting and that was a great experience to hear from these inspiring people.
The Bash
The traditional Bash takes place every year during the WWDC. It is a kind of festival that takes place near the convention center on thursday. This year The Weezer was invited to perform on stage. It was a really nice event where we could have fun and meet other developers from all over the world.
Labs
During the WWDC you can make appointments with Apple engineers on different subjects, and there are the most likely to answer all your questions about these subjects.
I participated in some labs and here is my feedback : if you have a good understanding of the subject, and already have prepared some specific questions, a talk with an Apple engineer would definitely be interesting.
However, if you just want a overview of the problem, (for example Siri Shortcut with parameters), this is not really interesting, in my opinion.
Even if the lab description say “you can come if you don’t have any specific question and you want an overview”, I don’t think engineers are there to give you that overview. They are more likely to ask you “what do you want to know exactly ?”.
In my case I didn’t knew the technical details about Siri Shortcut and I didn’t even knew what to ask. The engineer was nice but the appointment last about 5 minutes and since I didn’t had any specific questions (except one bug that he couldn’t help me with, he just told me to open an issue on this).
On the other hand I went to the Swift packages lab and ask questions about packages and frameworks and since I am more comfortable with this, the appointment was very interesting and the engineer answered most of my questions with precision.
So I think these labs can be interesting but you have to know a minimum the technical details of the subject you are seeking help.
San Jose
San Jose is not a big city and except the McEnery Convention Center where the WWDC takes place, there isn’t so much to visit, or even for going out in the evening. Most of the bars close at 10 pm and if you want to eat in a restaurant, you better have to arrive early.
Concerning the housing market, both hotels and airbnbs are extremely expensive, overall during this week of the year. For example the Mariott placed just in front of the McEnery Convention Center was about $600/night minimum.
San Francisco looks much more interesting for visiting and going out but is at one hour’s drive from there (without traffic) so it’s not easy to go to San Francisco after the conferences, then come back to San Jose.
Conclusion
In my opinion, having the chance (or the privilege) to attend this global event is really an opportunity that anybody should not miss. The WWDC is a unique kind of event and as an iOS developer I think it is really a good thing to go there at least once.
Even if most of the conferences can be viewed online from anywhere, and if all the labs are maybe not that interesting, this event has the advantage of being global and unique. That means developers from all over the world come at this place at this time of the year. This is a place where you can have a conversation with americans, germans and french people at the same table while having lunch, and then sit between a russian and an indian during the following conference.
This is the best place to make contact and to talk with developers who have different cultures, different work process, different points of view.
To conclude, I would say that going to WWDC at least once is a must for any iOS developer.
