Exploring Conferences: Preparing for WWDC 2025!

Next month, I will land at the San Francisco International Airport for the fourth time to explore Cupertino and meet developers worldwide.

Since last year, WWDC does not mean the same as it used to, for me; so this year, my plan is a bit different from what I had jotted down for 2024.

Exploring Conferences: Preparing for WWDC 2024!

Attending WWDC 2024 in San Jose from June 8-12. Events from Runway, Emerge Tools, RevenueCat, visionOS meet-up and Core Coffee. Parallel One More Thing conference offers community-driven experiences. Focus on networking and shipping apps post-conference.

Rudrank RiyamRudrank Riyam

The goals for this iOS dev pilgrimage are:

• Restrain the urge to brick my iPhone and MacBook with latest beta OSes
• Hope for Swift Assist/Agent and be ready to write all about it
• Explore new APIs, especially related to AI and ML
• Meet new people! This is always a highlight.

7th June: Happy Hour Begins

The official-unofficial start to my WWDC week will be the happy hour hosted by Runway.

Just like early years, it is happening across the street from Apple Park around 6:30 PM. This will be the first time to see some familiar faces, and make new friends!

Apple Park Happy Hour

Runway.team is in town for WWDC, so we’re hosting a pre-conference happy hour.

Eventbrite

8th June: Coffee, Reception and Arcade

I will start my day by attending a casual Core Coffee meetup in Cupertino. I am hoping that I would have adjusted to jet lag but another cup of coffee to keep the social battery going never hurts.

Core Coffee – WWDC Edition 🍎 · Luma

It’s time for a special, in-person pre-WWDC event! This time, we’ll meet at Voyager Coffee (San Pedro Square) in San Jose. As always, there’s no specific…

Kai

Next on the agenda is going to for WWDC Welcome Reception at Apple Infinite Loop Campus. This will mark the official start of WWDC 2025!

I would have already known a lot of the developers because of the past few events, and it gets comfortable to feel at home in the inclusive iOS community.

Later in the evening, I will attend the RevenueCat Bash. I loved the event last two years, and need to get my app rejected (for genuine reason!) to collect some more socks!

9th June: Keynote Day and Some Stars

DUB DUB DEE CEE.

I still have those words echoing because that's how you would be greeted in the morning registering for the special event at Apple Park.

I saw the Apple Campus last time (Got to hang out with my manager from Voice Control team!) and I am delighted to see the huge glass windows again. Those are HUGE.

Those few hours will set the tone for the rest of my year.

At night, I will attend the Students, Swift, St★rs to cheer for the scholarship winners and meet some of the talented individuals. Their projects always keep me humble to the ground.

Students, Swift, St★rs - 2025

Students, Swift, St★rs is back for the third year in Cupertino, California! Join us for an exciting night filled with project demos by Swift Student Challenge winners. 📆 Event Details Date: Monday, 9 June 2025 Time: 7pm to 10pm (Pacific Time) Location: Hilton Garden Inn Cupertino (Cupertino, California) 🚀 What’s Happening Time Activity 7:00 pm - 7:20 pm ✅ Registration & Doors Open Make your way over from Apple Park, prepare your Tito pass, register, and pick up your lanyards! .onAppear { register(with: .titoPass) } 7:20 pm - 7:30 pm 👋 Welcome Includes an opening sharing! print(“Hello, World!”) 7:30 pm - 8:15 pm ✨ Presentations Grab a bite and hear the first 8 of our student presenters! for presenter in presenters[..<8] { presenter.showDemo() } 8:15 pm - 8:25 pm 😌 Break Have a break, take a breather, grab a snack! await eatSomething() await takeABreather() await getReadyForMoreDemos() 8:25 pm - 9:10 pm 💫 Presentations Hear the last 7 of our student presenters! for presenter in presenters[8...] { presenter.showDemo() } 9:10 pm - 9:40 pm ❤️ Community Panel Hear from prominent community members in the iOS community, learn what inspired them. panelists.forEach { speaker in speaker.shareInsights() } 9:40 pm - 9:50 pm 👋 Wrap Up A final speaker and a wrap up for the night to bring this exciting night to a... c*losure*! defer { print(“That’s a wrap! Thanks for attending!”) } 9:50 pm onwards ✌️ Mixers Stay along for some refreshments. The space officially closes at 10pm, but no obligation to stay till the end! while time < 10pm { attendee.exchangeContacts() attendee.sayGoodbye() } 🌟 A 2025 Distinguished Winner? If you won the Swift Student Challenge as a distinguished winner, this is your moment to shine! Grab a Presenter Pass and you’ll have the floor for 5 minutes to share all about your project! 📍 Hilton Garden Inn Cupertino This event will be held at the Hilton Garden Inn Cupertino on the first night of WWDC! What’s Nearby 20-minute walk / 4-minute drive from Apple Park Visitors Center 2-minute walk from Courtyard by Marriott 15-minute walk from Hyatt House (where CommunityKit is at) 20-minute walk from Residence Inn / Main Street Cupertino (where One More Thing Conference is at) 👻 Who should attend? Anyone! Everyone’s welcomed, student or not! If you would like to come by to support our student presenters, sign up for an Audience Pass! Thank you for showing your support for the Swift community! If possible, we would appreciate it if you could get a Donation Pass. It goes a long way to supporting this event and helping to make this event sustainable. P.S. Do check out our Attendee Code of Conduct. 💫 Check Out The Recording! Watch the recording of last year’s event! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpfEvlVMXTk 🧑‍💻 👩‍💻 Organizers This event is brought to you by the organizers of iOS Conf SG and iOS Dev Scout, and passionate Swift developers worldwide. People behind the event: Jia Chen Yee Don Chia Lena Mattea Stöxen Adrian Eves Zach Chong Meiyi Qiu Verity Lim Nadun De Silva Subhransu Behera

TitoTeam Tito

I owe a lot to the folks organizing it (if they read this, I am forever grateful 🤗)

10th June: Developer Session and Winner's Dinner

I doubt I will sleep the night before to explore everything AI and directly wake up for the Apple Developer Center session. It was a great learning experience last year where there are exclusive sessions that are not published anywhere else, and I regret not making notes.

I love being a WWDC scholarship winner because it is still the hardest I have worked in my life. When I went to Seoul, I met many Korean winners (thanks Jaesung and Minji!) at the Winner's Dinner! There is an instant connection with them.

And, on a grander scale, we have a #WWDCScholars meetup!

I am hoping the awesome folks at iOSDevHappyHour will host one of their fantastic gatherings again this year. The dates are not announced yet as I write this but I look forward to for casual chats and martinis!

https://x.com/iosdevhappyhour

11th June: AI, AI and AI

This is a day I am particularly thrilled about, the AI day! I want this day to be better than WWDC itself for me, and I will do everything to make that a possibility.

The day starts off at One More Thing conference with a talk on "What's new in AI and ML" by yours truly. It is an act of bravely mixed with curiosity to prepare a whole talk in a few nights of time.

After that, I plan to spend time in the expert rooms, soaking up knowledge until the evening.

The evening is something I have been looking forward to for a year: I am co-hosting an AiOS meet-up with Ronald!

AiOS Meetup · Luma

A casual meetup to discuss everything AI + Swift announced at WWDC 2025! From Apple Intelligence to CoreML advancements to MLX Swift, we have a lot to talk…

One More Thing 2025 - WWDC Week Conference - Cupertino, CA

A casual meetup to talk about the new Xcode AI, new ML APIs and rant about Apple Intelligence. Everyone is invited!

Then, we close the night with "Vibe Code & Chill" event.

Vibe Code & Chill: WWDC 2025 Edition · Luma

Join us for a laid-back coding session where we will vibe code and create apps using the latest Apple APIs, frameworks, and features revealed at WWDC 2025.…

One More Thing 2025 - WWDC Week Conference - Cupertino, CA

The plan is to take whatever Apple announces in terms of AI integration with Xcode, explore the new APIs, try to build some cool new apps, and just enjoy the process with fellow developers.

12th June: One More Thing

I will spend the whole day at the One More Thing conference, just soaking in the atmosphere and attending some more sessions, and chilling out.

OMT is always a fantastic parallel track to WWDC, that helps you with a different flavor of learning and networking.

13th and 14th June: Winding Down

I will still be in Cupertino and San Jose to wind down. This will be a more relaxed day, dedicated to meeting anyone I might have missed and spending some time heads down exploring the new APIs and SDKs a bit more.

CommunityKit

CommunityKit is a new multi-day event held at the Hyatt House in Cupertino, designed to run alongside WWDC. Regardless you got a WWDC golden ticket or not, it is a refreshing place for us developers.

The event kicks off with an official opening, followed by a large, communal watch party for Apple's keynote and State of the Union addresses, hosted by iOSDevHappyHour.

Then, they have a unique and interesting "Choose Your Own Adventure" model, with various community meetups running simultaneously. You can freely move between these sessions. My favorite is the "First Timer Lightning Rounds" offering new speakers a chance to present short talks and receive feedback!

There is also live recordings of "Swift Over Coffee" and "Launched." with an "Indie Fair" where developers can showcase their apps and connect with fellow creators!

Moving Forward

Another year and another hectic week in Cupertino is on the horizon. As always, I anticipate it being an overwhelmingly fantastic experience.

Another year to feed my shiny object syndrome and take that energy into shipping actual, tangible apps on the App Store.

I learned well from the previous years of regret. That feeling is a powerful motivator. This time, especially WWDC most likely being all about AI and ML, I want to build, write and iterate quickly.

Hopefully for an Absolutely Incredible WWDC 2025 where Apple ships!