Why should you attend to WWDC?
Hello everyone, it has been a few weeks since WWDC 2015. I was lucky this year to attend it. But there was one thing that I was thinking on my way to San Francisco: How to make the most of WWDC? If it is just to see the sessions, it seems like I could do it at home. So why should I attend to WWDC?
An entire week to focus
Yes, you can watch all the sessions without going to WWDC, some of them were even live. But you are probably not living in the USA, (I am from Belgium) so watching live sessions is hard or not possible at all. Plus, you are likely to be busy every day of the WWDC week being at work and watch the sessions takes time.
Be able to have an entire week dedicated to WWDC, to focus on the sessions and all the new API's and functionnalities to learn is really nice to have. That's a first good reason to attend WWDC.
The atmosphere
When you are there, with another thousands of people as thrilled as you are, there is happiness, joyness and excitement floating in the air. And the only way to really feel all of it is to be in the crowd. Having the feeling to be Apple's guest, be able to give all the questions you want to a lot of Apple engineers is just so great! A WWDC week has the power to motivate you for the year to come!
Networking
There is so many people attending to WWDC. There are all happy to be there and everyone is friendly. If you are there, you will eventually end talking with someone, and you will probably want to with all the novelties announced after the Keynote. WWDC is a good place to meet very interresting people!
Parties
There are also a lot of parties going on during WWDC, wether you want to learn or get to know better a company hosting a party or just have fun. It is a good way to learn things aside Apple's sessions through conferences or labs. You can also meet (very interesting) people and it is a good time to exchange business card (or usually Twitter accounts) to get in touch. And there is the fun parties to relax after an exhausting day!
Labs
A big appeal (the main for some people) for going to San Francisco for WWDC are the labs! If you have unsolved questions about a specific part of your program or more generic questions about good practices, if you have an unresolved bug in your code or you want to know if you did something the right way, the labs are the place to go! Get face to face to Apple's engineers who build the things we use everyday. Apart from being an amazing experience, it is very useful and helpful!
There are labs about games, the App Store, User interface and user experience (UI/UX), and a lot of technical labs like Core Data, Auto Layout and many more... One of the most popular lab is the UI/UX lab and there is a good reason for that: if you are working on an app and want to have a feedback from an Apple designer you are guaranteed to have a very wise one at the UI/UX lab. And be able to have a designer from Apple reviewing your app is an unestimable advantage.
Personal benefit
Should I really mention that going to WWDC is nice on your CV. Either you are going as a freelance, that means you are interested and passioned and keeping yourself up to date with the latest technologies. Or you are going as an employee, that means your company trust you to learn things and bring back that knwoledge (and also wear you company's shirts).
Girls
(Macho mode one) For us men, we have now another reason to go to WWDC... girls!
(Macho mode off) Seriously, there was many more women this year. A lot of people were talking about that but I found it a little bit macho at first to say that because for me it was logical that the IT sector, as big and evolving as it is nowadays, counts a lot of women as men. But it is sure, a lot more women were seen this year and this diversity feels good!
Conclusion
Attending to WWDC is an amazing experience! And if you have to convince yourself or your company to send you to WWDC, you have got a lot of reasons: an entire week to focus on WWDC sessions, enjoy the amtosphere, meet a lot of interresting and friendly people, go to side conferences and parties and get the most out of the labs!
Hope to see you there next year!