Day 1 of WWDC
The SF Mac Indie Party
WWDC is a whirlwind of goodness. If you plan on coming next year, forget about doing anything but WWDC related activities - it’s a full time gig.
Sunday was the SF Mac Indie Soiree, and I met a lot of the #macsb folks and lots of ex-Canadians who now live in the California tech haven. There were the star sightings of John Gruber and Wil Shipley too, as a bonus.
I met icon designer Kenichi Yoshida and Nobuhiro Hasegawa of Panic who had just arrived from Japan, and it wasn’t until after they left that it clicked with me that I had already been corresponding with Kenichi. It’s great to get to finally meet some virtual contacts in person.
Unfortunately, there were way too many people there to have a chance to talk to everyone in just 3 hours, and I have yet to run into some of my mac heroes, Kevin Hoctor, Daniel Jalkut, and Scotty.
The Keynote Lineup
Although it seems silly to line-up early for what is essentially a product announcement, I had a great time in the line and the 6 hours I was waiting flew by. The reason? All the other great Mac developers in line with me. I met a lot of people in line, including the great guys from Acqualia (makers of Picturesque and last years Apple Design Award winners).
The conference is truly world-wide. On either side of of me in line there were attendees from Japan, Australia, Singapore, and Norway (with me handling the Canadian contingent). There are over 50 students here from Singapore and something like 300 attendees from Japan.
The Keynote line up was orderly and enjoyable, and we even got an escort from the SFPD up the escalator. Someone dropped their badge (non replace-able!) which was quickly found and returned by a good samaritan fellow Canadian.
Although the line was orderly, once the doors to the theater were in sight the crowd couldn’t resist running inside. The front few rows were already occupied by press and VIPs, but we managed to be sitting right near the front of the general seating area with a great view of Steve Jobs and the stage. There was also a brief glimpse of Al Gore as he sat down in the front row.
It was certainly a nerdy thrill to see Steve Jobs and one of his famous keynotes in person. Some things that you can’t realize from the keynote videos are that the hall is huge - if you are sitting in the back you can’t see the stage at all (there are rock concert style monitors tho). Another thing that doesnt translate to the videos is just how amazing the giant Keynote (the presentation software) slides really are. The slides for all of the presentations at WWDC are simply amazing (and giant!)
The Sessions
The sessions are under NDA so I can’t blog about them, but so far they are fantastic.
I did see Aaron Hillegass in his trademark big hat along with some of the other Big Nerd Ranch guys and I stumbled through a nervous hello and asked him if there would be an Advanced Cocoa course any day soon.
The Lineups
Strangely the line ups are one of the best parts of WWDC. In line there there is nothing to do but strike up a conversation with your fellow attendees. Today I met Dominic Feira of Ambrosia Software and he gave me a great demo of some of the Ambrosia products and some insight into how they refine their user interface designs.
The No Sleeping Part
The days are completely packed with sessions, standing in lines, meeting new people, and after parties. I was totally exhausted (the downside of lining up at 4 AM for the keynote) by the end of Day 2 and simply couldn’t make it to the Buzz Anderson party, which I regret as there were more star sightings, including Merlin Mann, Kevin Rose and Jeff Atwood.
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