iOSDevUK

2015-09-15

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to attend and speak at iOSDevUK in Aberyswyth, a lovely Welsh town by the sea.

It was the first time I’ve attended a developer conference. The closest thing I could compare it to in my mind was academic conferences where the community present their findings around a specific topic that gets published in a journal.

Conference Impressions

iOSDevUK was a breath of fresh air and not just because of the sea nearby. The variety of backgrounds and talent you had at your fingertips to immerse yourself in and learn from was staggering.

There was community treasures like Natasha “The Robot” Murashev and Mic Pringle. Megaminds in the form of Simon Whitaker and Marcus Zarra, and thats just a brief mention of the well known faces I saw.

There was also the unfamiliar faces who I spoke to each day, each with a different approach to how they develop and a journey to where they were today.

Some were even working whilst attending the conference because their livelihood depended on it, I’m not quite sure I could do that myself but It was humbling to witness and appreciate the time I had.

My Speaker Picks

Every talk I attended was excellent. My favourite talk was from Benny Weingarten-Gabbay about a tool he created using Web Sockets to allow on the fly changes to content in an app during runtime.

Web Sockets is a topic I’ve spoke to other developers about and something I’d like to investigate in time. Benny’s talk and his answers he provided when I asked him ambushed him during the coffee break has only further ignited that curiosity. I’ll be diving into Web Sockets soon thanks to you Benny!

Another talk I particularly liked was from Amy Kinney and the role of Agile Development in mobile. She definitely knows what she is talking about and has the t-shirt to prove it.

Thinking in an Agile manner is something I definitely need to work on and her talk helped solidify my own understanding as well as have something new to think about. Amy hit the nail on the head with the wide reaching definitions and preconceptions people have about “being Agile”.

Final Thoughts

iOSDevUK was everything I hoped it would be and more. Its the people that made it for me and the huge amount that arrived in a small isolated Welsh seaside town for a conference shows that each and every single one was passionate in what they do.

Every talk imparted new knowledge that I will definitely use and pass onto others. The speakers were wide and varied, I don’t think I could say that was a lack of anything in particular. Although I guess tvOS may have been underrepresented ;)

I will definitely be returning in the future.

*My talk was about using your iOS development skills to develop for Android. Sacrilege I know but it really is possible!