Conferences Condensed: iOS Conf SG
+ one of my own talks!
To kick off 2023, I headed on a time-traveling journey to Singapore, flying across multiple time zones and over 9,000 miles! iOS Conf SG brings together developers from around the world to learn from one another and find opportunities for collaboration. I had so many exciting new experiences on this trip, and made lots of new memories—here are some of my favorites.
🚀 Thursday: Async/Await Workshop & Kickoff
On Thursday, we started with a workshop! Daniel Steinberg walked us through how async / await works and how it’s used in different scenarios. We had a lovely lunch break, and then got right into the opening kickoff.
Erin Weigel’s talk, Experimentation for Engineers, really made us think about how we can contribute to both the customer experience and business results as engineers. She talked about the linear workflow vs. conversion design process, and how A/B testing can lead to unexpected results.
Later, Jordi Bruin wrapped up the day by showing us his 2-2-2 method for creating apps, which he’s used to ship over 20 apps in two years. The method goes like this:
- Spend two hours on a very basic prototype proving that you can make the app, with very minimal functionality.
- Spend two days refining that prototype to be more usable for yourself and possibly others.
- Lastly, spend two weeks to round it out and prepare to launch to the App Store.
I’ll be using this method from now on to validate my ideas without getting caught up in the details.
☕️ Friday: Talks, Demos, & Coffee
Friday was the big day! I started the day with my talk, What’s an App Without Data?—where I explored where to save data both locally and in the cloud, broke down some of the different situations you might run into, and went over how to choose the right database for your app.
A table with lots of coffee
Afterwards, Paul Hudson demonstrated to us that (for now 😅) ChatGPT is not going to be taking our jobs—after three iterations, it wasn’t able to recreate a clock SwiftUI view that mimics the one on the Home Screen.
After a quick coffee break, Paul Hudson, Tunde Adegoroye, Erin Weigel, and I were on a panel called More Than Code: Rooting Yourself in the iOS Community. We discussed being content creators, contributing to the community, and how anyone at any skill level can get involved. mb Garlington, a developer who has unfortunately passed on, was a great example of someone who had a big impact—he hadn’t spoken at a conference, published a book, or created a YouTube channel, but he was someone who was willing to help any other developers get into the tech community. You don’t have to be a speaker or a content creator—you just have to want to help others.
To round out the conference, Adam Bell gave a great overview and implementation of building responsive interactions, showing us that it’s the details that can make your app feel more responsive and polished. Having unresponsive scrolling and gestures, or not reacting to touches immediately, can make an app feel broken—Adam showed us how to fix those issues.
🤝 Community
iOS Conf SG was voted as the Best Conference in the Hacking With Swift community awards in 2021—and for a good reason! There were so many amazing talks that I can’t even mention them all here, but you can check out their playlist to see the rest.
The community emphasis throughout the conference was unmatched. The organizers started and ended the conference emphasizing the importance of socializing with others and making new connections. You never know—you might find your next business partners or beta testers at a conference!