It’s a new year, which means I am in the process of seeing if I can break my conference record this year. Not sure what that record is, but I think it’s around ten conferences in a year. Last year was pretty busy and it will be tough to beat, but it was also something of a furlough year because I was mostly talking about mental health and software architecture. This year I am going full on Metal for the work I am doing on the Metal Programming Guide.
Everything is coming up Milhouse!
GDC: February 27-March 3
This year I am working at/attending GDC(Game Developers Conference). I get to be a Conference Associate, so while I am not speaking at the conference, I still get to help participate in creating a great conference experience for everyone. I am looking forward to meeting some new people in the graphics programming space. I think it’s important to keep meeting new and different sets of people rather than staying in a bubble of people you already know. I’ve wanted to attend this conference for a while and I am super happy I got a chance to do so this year.
iOSCon 2017: March 30-31
I get to attend my first European conference this year, iOSCon 2017. Some old friends, like Saul Mora, are going to be speaking there, as well as some new friends I haven’t had the chance to meet in person yet, like Manuel Chakravarty.
I am incredibly excited about this conference because I am debuting a new Metal talk here. I have noticed over the last few years that a lot of people are interested in Metal, but they are not quite sure about how to approach it. They’re not able to break it down in the minds into manageable tasks and they wind up quitting in frustration. My talk here will focus on foundational structures and concepts that are necessary to work with Metal in a fun and approachable way.
CocoaConf Chicago: April 21-22
If you’re in the States and can’t afford a hop across the Pond, I will also be presenting my new Metal talk at CocoaConf Chicago. This will be my fifth time attending CocoaConf Chicago and my fourth time speaking! Holy smokes! Time flies when you’re frantically trying to meet deadlines.
CocoaConf Chicago was the first purely iOS conference I ever attended. The speakers and the Kleins gave me a community of people without whom I would not be where I am today. It’s always a great joy and pleasure to see all of my friends there that I only get to see once a year.
Please Say Hello
One thing I always look forward to when I go to conferences is meeting new people. It may not always come off this way, but I feel socially awkward. One reason I made friends with so many speakers in the Cocoa community was because it was easy for me to start a conversation with them because I knew something they were speaking about. When I go and sit at a table full of strangers, I don’t know anything to start a conversation with anyone. I am happy for people to come up and start talking to me and I am telling you to please take that first step, because if you don’t I assume that I am probably annoying you and to avoid embarrassment I keep to myself.
I am planning to have my service dog Delia with me at CocoaConf and GDC. She is an emotional support animal and it is okay for people to pet her. It was technically possible for me to bring her with me to London, but with all of the various travel SNAFUs and the unstable political situations, I don’t feel safe or comfortable bringing her with me. I am terrified that I will forget to do something important and she will be taken away from me and I won’t get her back. So might be a little emotionally fragile in London, but I will follow the old British saying of “Keep Calm and Carry On.”
Looking forward to a great Spring 2017 conference season!