UIKonf: Some updates

UIKonf logo

Slowly, the pieces for UIKonf are falling into place. (Check UIKonf.com for updates.) As we’re just three people organizing it with support from our fantastic event manager Max, it’s very much a part time and low-budget project. It is, in other words, as indie as it gets, and that’s a good thing.

That explains why we haven’t communicated quite as much as we would have liked to. However, we haven’t been lazy – far from it:

  1. Tickets are up for grabs as of a few days ago. Supply is limited as we want to keep it intimate. Get yours here.
  2. As we got asked daily about the target audience for UIKonf, we sat down to phrase it as clearly as we could: UIKonf is for serious iOS developers: Great people, top-notch talks, an intimate setting, and space to think & hack. In other words, we’re building the conference with advanced iOS developers in mind. No intro-level talks; our speakers dive right into technical topics, and dive deep. We also have a small number of speakers to bring in an outside perspective, meaning they come from a design, strategy or service design context. We expect participants from all over Europe, and all talks will be in English.”
  3. We’re starting to announce the first speakers. We’ll go with roughly a 50/50 mix of curated speakers we invited, and of those qualified and voted in through our anonymous call for proposals (help to refine and vote). Why anonymous? Because as we learned from the good folks over at JSConf, it helps foster diversity.
  4. Speaking of diversity, we’re trying to set smart defaults and just, y’know, do the right thing. This includes things ranging from adopting the ADA Initiative’s anti-harassment policy to conscious choices for great coffee and all-vegetarian catering.
  5. We’re also trying to build UIKonf to be self-sustainable. That’s an important, big choice as it means we won’t chase any sponsors. If we happen to find a perfect match for a sponsor to contribute to the event without compromising the content, we’ll work it out, otherwise UIKonf will simply stay free of sponsoring. The idea is simple: We are convinced our very limited time is better spent on making the event as awesome as it can be for the participants than on cold-calling potential sponsors.
  6. The program beyond the main conference day is coming together, too: As things stand today, we’ll have a kick-off event the night before, with some short talks, drinks and pre-registration, we’ll have a party after the main conference and there’s going to be a hackday the day after where we’ll try to bring in some designers as well. So altogether we’re looking at somewhere near two and a half days of programming.

So that’s where we are right now. Let me know if there’s anything we’ve missed (I’m sure there is) or that we should be considering. Thanks!

Leave a Reply