Let's keep it remote! The presentations are so much better now. Plus, WWDC was so popular before that most of the people who wanted to go couldn't attend in person. All of the tickets sold out immediately.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Asks Developers Whether They Would Attend In-Person WWDC Following Two Years of Digital Format
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
These online presentations have been more efficiently presented, shorter to watch, and quicker to appear on the website. I'll miss them if WWDC returns to a live format. I gain nothing watching someone talk to me about Swift on stage in a hastily edited video the following day rather than in a polished, error-free presentation that was posted the day it was scheduled.
I'm fine with having the keynote and platform state of the union presented live, but I hope the sessions continue to be online-only.
I'm fine with having the keynote and platform state of the union presented live, but I hope the sessions continue to be online-only.
Most people like attending conventions so I would expect the majority answer to be yes.
As part of its annual survey given to developers at the end of WWDC, Apple is asking community members whether, following two years of the conference behind held in a digital format, they would be open to attending an in-person conference.
Due to the global health crisis, Apple has held its typically in-person Worldwide Developers Conference in an all-digital format for the past two years. The digital format, which includes a pre-recorded keynote from Apple Park and several sessions available online for free, has been loved by many in the community due to its openness and inclusiveness.
Unlike the in-person conference, the online format has allowed Apple to reach millions more developers and users worldwide. Now, as the world begins to see the light at the end of the tunnel, Apple is possibly planning to return to an in-person conference next year while still retaining some aspects of a digital format.
One of the questions as part of this year's end of WWDC survey reads, "How likely would you be to attend an in-person conference after experiencing an all-online event?"
While not totally indicative, it is worth noting that Apple is beginning to receive and collect feedback regarding the community's outlook towards possibly returning to the in-person conference. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has previously noted that Apple is contemplating the idea, and does plan to hold its first in-person event since the global health crisis began in the coming months.
Article Link: Apple Asks Developers Whether They Would Attend In-Person WWDC Following Two Years of Digital Format
Only if it's free for everyone who can't attend and all the videos are released at the same time. I hope the days of not being able to livestream an Apple Event are over.
I think it should be hybrid. Product announcements and important keynotes are pre-recorded whereas WWDC is live and in person with the ability to watch all the events and videos online like we can at the moment. Those that want to go in person and reap the benefits of in person networking can do so. Those that can't attend can still get the same value from Apple by watching online.
Why not have both options?
What I'm curious to know is whether Apple will ever do a live event again, especially as they have polished their video productions to a high level now.
What I'm curious to know is whether Apple will ever do a live event again, especially as they have polished their video productions to a high level now.
You can make it look flawless with a finished UI without needing to make it work right on the backend. If you are demoing something completely fake modern prototyping tools are quite powerful in that regard, and I would imagine Apple would have even better tools capable of doing that internally as well.
Shows that include fake UIs are very apparent. Even on Silicon Valley and many shows on Apple TV when the UI is fake it's so obviously fake that it's painful to watch for anyone with an interest in technology. Obviously Apple would do it a lot better since it's the focus of the video, but I doubt it wouldn't look somewhat fake as well.
In any case, I can't imagine Apple demoing something completely fake on stage or on video, especially since it's being readied for release in just a few months' time.
Nothing beats an in person lab session, and then finding yet another Apple engineer who isn’t in a lab session to ask even more questions, sometimes in a mosh of devs with similar interests. Webex or Zoom is pretty sterile in comparison.
Now if I could only win even one of the new WWDC lotteries….
Also, too bad Stump has been deprecated …. It kept traditional knowledge dating back to the Apple II alive.
Now if I could only win even one of the new WWDC lotteries….
Also, too bad Stump has been deprecated …. It kept traditional knowledge dating back to the Apple II alive.
Well, watching the Keynote, I'm very tired of the overly produced line up of super motivated storytellers who endlessly espouse all the great things on the horizon from the wonderworks of Apple. It becomes painful to watch as I try to use Siri for simple things that she/he can't deliver on, or the ridiculous hacked email warning that is really junk mail, or the slow but steady increase of ways Apple tries to get me to subscribe to their services, or how my phone struggles to figure out it is in my pocket and turn off the screen, or the way that after all these years they still use a charging method that stops working from pocket lint.
The reality is it is a smart phone that is not too smart, does some things fairly well, but is not going to move my world too much. Get out from behind the screens, come back down to earth, and talk to your customers face to face and figure out how to reduce the pain points for a change, and bring back the charger in the box!
The reality is it is a smart phone that is not too smart, does some things fairly well, but is not going to move my world too much. Get out from behind the screens, come back down to earth, and talk to your customers face to face and figure out how to reduce the pain points for a change, and bring back the charger in the box!
I would not likely be able to attend in person, but I would rather they have an in person conference. The prerecorded presentations are overly polished to the point they are not as interesting to watch. I'd rather see a live presentation with the theater full of people going wild over exciting things that get announced. Maybe they could have Craig do the whole keynote. He seems to be the best presenter they have.
I'd like to see it go back in person. But there's some aspects that it would be cool if they stayed online as well. I watched Paul Hudson's thing last night and it was great, he's really awesome! But my feed kept cutting out. That sort of thing is way better live where as the demos I sort of like to watch the video.
You do realize it costs Apple a lot of money to produce these FREE keynotes you're watching throughout the year right? For a developer the $1599 price tag is worth it for the amount of service Apple is providing to them during the week of WWDC. It's the cost of doing business. Funny how you think developers should get these sessions for free at the expense of Apple. SMH.
I think they should stick with this remote format for WWDC. The videos are more compact and bite sized, since they no longer need to shoehorn a bunch of stuff together to make an arbitrary ~hour duration target.
The new in-person event should follow at least 3 weeks later, after people have digested the pertinent sessions, dabbled with the sample code, the APIs have had a revision or two, and then people come in for some hands-on labs. Both the unstructured ask-us-your-questions labs from before, as well as some guided walk-throughs of sample code talking about deeper details, gotchas, corner cases, reasons why, etc. Often the documentation won’t give some specific numbers and limits, since they might change with tuning, but all that can be covered in the labs.
People can network and have their parties at the live event. Sure, less excitement this way, but more practical.
The new in-person event should follow at least 3 weeks later, after people have digested the pertinent sessions, dabbled with the sample code, the APIs have had a revision or two, and then people come in for some hands-on labs. Both the unstructured ask-us-your-questions labs from before, as well as some guided walk-throughs of sample code talking about deeper details, gotchas, corner cases, reasons why, etc. Often the documentation won’t give some specific numbers and limits, since they might change with tuning, but all that can be covered in the labs.
People can network and have their parties at the live event. Sure, less excitement this way, but more practical.
Yes, I realize it cost Apple money. I also see nothing wrong with the developer getting to see the same event without having to pay said fee, if that is what Apple wants to do. If getting revenue from the event was priority, Apple wouldn't have taken the survey with developers.
Your post might have merit if Apple wasn't conducting the survey and if I had made a post stating that Apple owes the event to everyone for free regardless.
If you feel bad should the event be free next year, send Tim Cook a check for $1600.00
I would love to attend! Imagine Tim Cook flying to my Sunshine Coast airport in his private jet, collecting me to fly into Cupertino. Us both talking about our love of all things Apple, technology in general, privacy, IT security, our different backgrounds and life experiences. Then to sit up front to watch all the execs present WWDC and Craig Federighi is a natural public speaker. Maybe Zane Lowe could fly back with me to catch up with Anna Lunoe and give all the gos in music, what exciting things that are yet to come to Music, about his interesting artist interviews and more information on my favourite Musician.
I want to go once. I'll be paying for it but it's a bucket list item.
Absolutely agree. I got a lot out of labs this year.
LOL spoken from someone who is not a developer. You don't get it. I'll move on to others who do.
Nobody's forcing you to attend in person. The question is, "should there be an option to go live?"
I say, "why not? Choice is always good."
You two act as though allowing an in person option will raise the price of the online option. The more people pay to go live, the more likely the online option is to be free. Don't you want to be free, too?