WWDC 2009 – fifteen hours and counting!

Over the years I’ve attended NeXTStep, JavaOne, 360Flex, and 360iDev Developer Conferences but this will be my first WWDC! I am pretty lucky to be attending WWDC this year and I am really looking forward to all of the sessions, labs, and the chance to meet other developers. It’s been five years since my last trip to San Francisco and each trip was to attend either a NeXTStep or a JavaOne Conference. My last trip to San Francisco was for my ninth JavaOne Conference and over the years I had seen attendance mushroom from about three thousand to well over 20,000. Decidedly not intimate and definitely frustrating because of the difficulty of navigating through and around so many people. So this will be a welcome change. Other differences aside from the number of attendees are that I think the conference will be a lot less frenetic since there are no BOFs scheduled late into the evening to compete with other functions. And during the day there will be no exhibit hall to visit allowing the focus to be on the sessions and labs. And I’m not really expecting Steve Jobs to show but it sure would be great if he did put in an appearance. I’m sure he would receive a standing ovation from the audience. The last time I heard him speak was at the last NeXTStep Conference I attended. He’s a great speaker. Wouldn’t it be great if Phil Schiller stole Jobs’ keynote line “…oh and one more thing…..” and out steps Steve Jobs to announce the next new device?