WWDC is a fantastic, fun and overwhelming time for iOS developers and designers. Here's how to best use your time throughout the week.
I still remember my first WWDC. It was the 2018 conference, and it was a career-defining week for me personally. Getting to meet face-to-face with employees of Apple was incredible. I left inspired, motivated and learned quite a lot.
Apple's annual conference is a powerhouse of an event — both industry fans, analysts and the average consumer alike all pay attention to it. Though, for developers and designers, it's a bit different. We get to see what our summers will be filled with, what new APIs are coming and, of course, we'll see iOS 18.
This week can be mentally taxing as it is fun, so here's a primer on how to go about your week (no matter if you're here physically, or following along digitally).
First things first, should you fly to Cupertino?
Before the pandemic, WWDC took place primarily in a conference center and thousands of developers descended into one location. Next to it, other conferences such as AltConf or Layers would all be taking place around the same time. For the opening keynote, everyone would be inside one, gigantic conference venue to watch it live:
These days, it's a mix of a digital conference with a one day special event at Apple's campus that requires a lottery ticket to attend. Naturally, the first question people new to WWDC ask is something along the lines of:
"If I didn't win a ticket, should I still go?"
My answer to this question has always been a resounding yes! There are so many benefits to being in the area both from a professional growth aspect, networking and more. You'll leave inspired by other developers, indies sharing their stories, or just chatting with a new friend about all of the announcements.
With that out of the way, let's cover what the week typically ends up looking like.
The conference itself
The conference will kick off with the primary keynote — this year, that will be June 10th. Typically, the event starts at around 10:00 a.m. pacific time. This is where the fun starts, but it pays to think about it strategically, too. I highly recommend taking lightweight notes during this — it'll give you a sense of where Apple is going with all of its platforms for the next 365 days:
If you're streaming it, it's nice to screen capture important slides (like I've done above) but if you miss anything — no worries, you can always watch these back in the Developer app. If you're attending in person, keep the notes high level. You're looking for the "big picture" APIs here (think widgets, App Intents — things like that).
Remember, the keynote is just as much for the greater public as it is for you. This is where the major APIs that'll help get you a coveted featured spot in the App Store once iOS 18 launches will be mentioned. They'll be obvious, too.
Shortly after the event is done, you'll want to frantically refresh Apple's developer website. Apple has become much, much better at collating all of the important information into just a few pages. If you simply replace "wwdc2023" to "wwdc2024" in the link above after the keynote this year, you'll find all of the big announcements there. Plus, Apple is even putting the sample code in one place too — very handy.
So, if the keynote is the "what", the Platforms State of the Union is certainly the "how" supporting those announcements. It'll take place (if history repeats itself) two hours after the keynote. That means you'll have time for lunch, but afterwards it pays to settle in to watch this session. It explains how everything works, where to find the new APIs and what frameworks are involved. For example, the year widgets were announced, it looked something like this:
Keynote: Announce and show widgets.
Platform State of the Union: Explained the WidgetKit framework, how to generally use the API and then it listed out future sessions to watch to learn more.
So, the keynote and the state of the union are sessions I recommend you watch live. Then, throughout the week - Apple will drip feed new sessions (totaling well over 100 sessions), but the good news is you can watch these at your leisure. To make things feel less frantic, go through and look at every session available throughout the week. Bookmark the ones that are most relevant to you now (it's hard to not bookmark them all!) — but be realistic with yourself and start there:
You shouldn't worry too much about watching sessions right away. There will be amazing community events happening all week that'll be more more valuable (again, you can watch the sessions anytime).
Community Events
The community events are, honestly, what make WWDC so special. You're bound to see friends you've only previously chatted with on Twitter, meet Apple employees and everything else in-between. There are events nearly every day of the week, and they are the best reason to make the trip.
Apple will usually update the official website with community events — but in the interim, Paul Hudson has done a fantastic job at collecting them all here. To that end, here are some highlights.
Streaming the keynote
The folks over at iOS Dev Happy Hour rented out a spot to stream the keynote last year, and I expect they'll do the same again in 2024. I went to the event last year, and had a blast huddling up with other developers to react and chat about everything that was announced:
Sponsored "Bashes"
Several companies typically hold some flavor of a "bash" and they are a great way to network. Plus, who can argue with free food? Keep an eye out on Twitter, or the linked resource above listing out events, to see when these might be taking place.
San Pedro Square Market
Almost every night of the week, you can find a small to large gathering of developers at the San Pedro Square Market:
This rings true especially on the Saturday and Sunday evening before WWDC officially starts. Every year since "dub dub" had been in the San Jose Convention Center, this was a great spot to make new friends, chat about what you're working on or simply grab some pizza and guess what Apple might've been up to in the last year. Even though the conference has moved to Cupertino, this tradition has remained and you can expect to find several developers here.
One More Thing Conf
This year, a spiritual successor to AltConf will be taking place — One More Thing Conf. This seems like a fantastic way to spend the week, and personally — I'm happy to see another adjacent conference taking place along WWDC. There are free tickets and paid options available, and it's happening in Cupertino — not only that, but very close to Apple Park.
The Coffee Shop Meetups and Impromptu Dinners
Of course, my personal defining memories aren't necessarily from the in-person labs that used to take place, or the keynote itself. It was the natural, organic and serendipitous dinners or morning coffee shop meetings. These are where you can make some friends for life, show off your app to friends and more. In short — this is what makes the week so fun.
Talk to you friends, join a WWWDC Discord or Slack and see where people are meeting up. I promise, there is always a coffee shop meetup happening every single day of the week, somewhere. And, this is also a great place to bump into Apple employees — and I think you'll find they are just as energized by the week as you are.
Final Thoughts
Whether you're gearing up for your first WWDC or you're a veteran, hopefully you picked up some tips from this post. My prevailing wisdom is this:
Watch the keynote and state of the union live.
Look for community events and attend as many as possible.
Don't stress about running the beta or learning APIs, you've got the whole trip home to do that.
And, make some new friends!
WWDC is like Christmas for the iOS community, and we at Superwall will all be there in person. Please say hi if you see us, and we are excited to meet some of you!
