Avanza meets Apple
An insight into Apple’s annual World Wide Developer Conference
Summary
What’s the best part of Apple’s developer conference? It’s as hard to answer as the question, what’s the best part of a banana split? It’s an overall great experience. However, I found the music played at the conference to be particularly good, so I picked out a few goodies and compiled a list at the bottom of this article, enjoy 🎧
The adventure begins
Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, called WWDC, (“DubDub” for short), is an annual 1-week conference where Apple uses the event to showcase its new software and technologies for software developers.
It’s a highly desired conference although a ticket costs ~$1.600. I guess that tens-of-thousands apply for a ticket all over the world, but only ~5.000 randomly selected applicants (with a registered Apple developer account) gets the honor of purchasing a ticket.
Avanza Bank, my employer, a strong fin-tech company located in Stockholm, lets all our iOS developers apply for a ticket every year, which is very appreciated. But as far as I know, no iOS developer at Avanza have ever won a ticket. Until this year, where I alone won the great prize to my big surprise 🎊.
I have had an Apple developer account since 2008 and tried to get hold of a ticket for many years, I guess Apple gave me a 10-years present 🎁.
And so the adventure begins…. Avanza goes to WWDC for the first time.
The great city of San Jose
WWDC began in 1987 in Santa Barbara, continued in San Jose from 1988 to 2002. For 2003 it moved to San Francisco, and 13 years later it moved back to San Jose in 2016.
I visited San Francisco in 2014, but I must admit San Jose is more my cup of tea. The town is basically flat compared to San Francisco which probably is the steepest/hilliest city in the world? San Jose is smaller, cheaper, less touristic, less windy and warmer ☀️
I can recommend SOFA Market (a smaller food court with great food), San Pedro Square (food court, restaurants, and local shopping) and Santana Row (high-end shopping, restaurants, and bars).
The hottest new thing in personal transportation, in the Bay area, is a shared electronic scooter rent by the ride. You will see them all over the city, download an app and just “scoot”. You can leave them anywhere and other users will find them thanks to built-in GPS. But who charges them? Users get paid to take them home and charge them, brilliant!
Uber is phenomenal
I pressed Confirm ride, and 9 seconds later the Uber car was in front of me! One-time luck you might think….and you’d be right. But all the ~20 Uber trips I requested, all of them came within 4 minutes. Note that my rides spanned over all days of the week and even unusual times of the day (example Monday morning 4.15). phenomenal right?
I can recommend Uber POOL, sharing a ride with other Uber users can be fun. By the way, I did not see a single taxi car during the whole week I was in San Jose, are taxis gone forever?
Apple Swag
Once registered at WWDC, Apple gives you a nice welcome present. This year it was Levi’s jeans jacket (Levi’s started in San Francisco) and a cool set of quality pins.
There is an Apple Company Store inside of WWDC area, with Apple merchandise available only at this event, things such as T-shirts, water bottles, pens, notebooks, backpacks, jackets and more. Pro tip: Get in line early, they sold out the backpacks immediately and closed the store 1 day ahead of plan.
The conference
The conference spans from Monday to Friday, but the registration starts already on Sunday. Monday is dedicated to the following 3 important presentations:
WWDC Keynote
The main presentation, live-streamed and opened by CEO Tim Cook
Platforms State of the Union
In-depth technical overview of all the updates to all of Apple’s platforms
Design Award
Apple recognizes and rewards 10 apps/companies with 5-minutes of fame, and a bunch of top-spec’d Apple hardware including iMac Pro, iPhone X, AirPods, Apple TV 4K.
They also receive the Apple Design Awards trophy, which is a solid piece of metal with an Apple logo at the top (see the photo below), which illuminates when holding the trophy, oh yeah!
Sessions
After Monday, comes over 100 sessions (presentations) until Friday. Obviously, you won’t be able to attend them all, most likely you’ll be able to catch around 15 sessions, so choose wisely. All sessions keep a high level of content and presentation quality.
Here are 3 sessions I highly recommend
Here is a full list of all the presentation during WWDC 2018 https://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc2018/
Guest Speakers
In addition to the over 100 sessions, there were 3 guest speakers as well.
Mapping Archaeology from Space
By Sarah Parcak, an archaeologist specializing in the use of satellite images to map the world’s ancient treasures
Unleashing the Power of Kids
By Rajesh Anandan, founder of UNICEF USA’s Ventures group
The Art of Science: Bringing Pixar’s Imagined Worlds to Life
By Danielle Feinberg, Director of Photography for Lighting at Pixar Animation Studios.
I attended “The Art of Science…”, it was very inspiring and fascinating, giving insight into how an animated motion picture is made at Pixar. It ended with standing ovations 👏. I think everyone who hadn’t seen Pixar’s latest movie, Coco, added it to their Todo-lists, I know I’m gonna see it soon.
Technology Labs
Alongside the sessions, there are around 200 Technology Labs available. These are really great! They are full of Apple engineers that will answer questions you have. Bring your Macbook and your code and show them any problems or concerns you need assistance with.
Lunch time
Breakfast, lunch, and snack served every day. Find a spot to sit, mingle and enjoy the sun.
The Bash
Thursday evening was dedicated to the Bash, Apple’s official WWDC party. Free food & drinks, a handful of games to participate in (they had the longest Fuzz ball table I’ve ever seen, 16 sticks!), and an energetic 🔥 show by American rock band Panic! at the Disco from Las Vegas. I especially liked their version of Bohemian Rhapsody.
The great park
Apple Park, the extravagant, multibillion-dollar new campus headquarters that the company built in Cupertino, is a must-visit if you’re an Apple fan and happen to be in the Bay area, although visitors are not allowed inside 😭
It’s an impressive building, one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the world. The campus runs entirely on renewable energy, and use recycled water too. Any solar panel? You bet! The entire roof is packed with panels.
Visitor center
Next to Apple Park, is Apple Visitor Center. From here you can get a glimpse of the campus, but I heard rumours that Apple will open up some sections of the campus for visitors already next year.
For now, you can see the campus in augmented reality using iPads provided by the visitor center. Also, you can purchase Apple merchandise sold only at this store, such as T-shirts and caps. They also have a coffee shop where you’ll have the best cold brew coffee you have ever had!
The NBA finals
During the same week as WWDC, another interesting event was ongoing, the NBA finals 🏀. I’ve been a LeBron James fan for a long time, so obviously I rooted for Cleveland Cavaliers, not a popular thing to do in the Bay area! I might have been the only one in San Jose rooting for Cleveland.
Unfortunately for me, Cleveland was crushed, they lost 4 games in a row 😥.
The music, my god the awesome music!
Being at WWDC means you will be exposed to music. I found myself using Shazam all the time, tagging a heap of awesome songs I hadn’t heard before, here are a few, enjoy! 🎹 🎼
For more insight into WWDC check out my tweets, especially those tagged with #WWDC18
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