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360iDev come for the sessions stay for the parties

March 29, 2010 By 1 Comment

360|iDev is more than just sessions. I mean, the sessions are awesome, 40+ from some of the best and brightest in the iPhone dev community. And don’t get me started on the panels…. (seperate blog post)

But when the sessions are over, the parties begin.

The evening receptions give everyone a chance to decompress after having 8 hours of insanely awesome technical information jammed into their skulls. Grab a beer, some food, maybe a root beer float (That’s right!) and just hang out. Watch Joe rock out on Rock Band, chat with Mike Lee over beers, talk icon design with Dave, whatever.  The evenings of 360|iDev are a great time to meet new folks, enjoy the great community that is the iPhone dev community.

And that’s not all that’s going on during the receptions :)

We’ve introduced the idea of BOF (Birds of a feather) sessions, which are more free form, discussion type sessions, that take place during the receptions. Something you want to talk about? Post it to the BOF site. Maybe there’s a topic not covered at 360|iDev, throw out a BOF idea. The BOFs are open to any attendee, there’s no requirements, no guidelines. Want to talk about something, put it up on the list.

The BOFs are community organized. Heck, maybe a Sci Fi chat over beers BOF, skies the limit.

Our evening receptions are sponsored, so make sure you show some love to the party sponsors!

Sunday’s welcome reception is sponsored by: Double Encore

Monday night’s party is sponsored by: Ansca Mobile

Tuesday night’s party, the last official party of 360|iDev, is sponsored by: appFigures. The Tuesday night party also kicks off the Touch Arcade Game Jam!

Register now for 360|iDev San jose. Get more out of 4 days than you’ll even imagine possible!

Filed Under: Community, Drinks, Geeking Out, Hands-On, Networking, Parties, Reasons to Come, San Jose, Sponsors Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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360iDev – Who attends 360idev?

March 1, 2010 By 2 Comments

360|iDev, since it’s beginning has attracted an awesome mix of people.

The first conference in 2009, had several sessions, including a sunday Hands-On about Jailbreaking, and what you can do in the jailbroken environment. We also had tons of people who had just put 1 or 2 apps in the store, we had a few folks who had already gone full time, whether as indie developers for hire, or running their own agency, building iPhone apps for companies big and small. We had authors and more in attendance. Mike Lee talked about the Apple community, and why it’s so awesome. We had sessions on how to market your app, what you need to watch out for legally and more.

Then in Denver, we noticed a shift, seeing more indie game developers in attendance. Keith and Natalia keynoted, David Whatley, an awesome late addition talked about being successful in the iPhone game space. Matt Drance formerly of Apple kicked off the conference, with an incredible keynote. We had developers talking about game design and development, being successful in the app store, making a living. We had developers talking about integrating push, getting crazy with OpenGL ES,  Core Data, Core Animation, and more. We also saw the first Game Jam take place, developers spent the night churning out games. Presenting them on Wednesday. Several are in the app store now.

Were seeing the same thing as we plan for San Jose 2010 (You should register). We’re seeing tons more successful developers talking about how to succeed, how to rock the app store, even how to rock the app store with out being a “Smash hit”. We’ve got sessions that are sure to blow your mind, and be worth more than the price of admission, just for those 80 minutes. The Game Jam is back, sponsored by Touch Arcade, Aurora Feint is holding a Game Bar, to highlight games using Open Feint and talk about the added coolness of using OF in your games. We’ve got sessions, on marketing, running your business, advertising, and more.

360|iDev has proven to be an incredible mix of technical sessions, unlike any you’ll see at other events, and business and design sessions that will inform and inspire.

So to answer the question, who attends 360|iDev? Everyone.

  • Developers who want to be a success in the App Store.
  • Developers who want to hear about what the rest of the world will be talking about in 6 months
  • Developers who want to level up their skillset
  • Developers who want to meet other developers, and share experiences, and a beer.
  • People looking for work (3 people who’ve spoken at 360|iDev, have been hired by Apple, coincidence? Probably, but who knows), indies looking for projects, people looking to hire developers, etc.
  • People who are already a success, making their living from apps in the App Store
  • Authors of THE books you’re reading to learn iPhone Development
    • From Manning, O’Reilly, and Apress
  • People with new projects and products to announce!
    • Where better to announce iPhone specific things than to a very targeted group of people.
  • People who want to connect with the iPhone developer community. Not the hobbyist community, not the authors for x publisher community, THE iphone developer community. The people doing it daily, making and selling apps. The people who eat, sleep and breath iPhone development.

The short answer is, the people who attend 360|iDev…

Want to make a nice living in the App Store. (Originally it was “Want to get rich on the App Store”, but I toned it down)

Want to get hired by Apple.

:)

Do yourself and your career a favor, be in San Jose April 11-14th for 360|iDev! Register now!

Filed Under: Community, Content, Drinks, Gaming, Geeking Out, Hands-On, Keynote, Networking, Parties, Reasons to Come, San Jose, speakers, Sponsors Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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360iDev – Birds of a Feather sessions

February 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

For those that don’t know what a Birds Of a Feather session is, it’s basically an ad hoc session organized by attendees or speakers, or anyone really for that matter (sorry can’t walk in off the street, gotta at least be an attendee).

Maybe it’s a Sci fi meetup or how to best create app icons, or a round table chat about the benefits of core data… whatever you want, literally. We’ve got a wiki set up with a BOFs page.

Simply go edit the page with your topic and your name. Then promote it of course. Once the listing is populated we’ll make noise too.

BOFs will take place from about 6:30 – 7:30. There’s time to enjoy the appetizers and beer and Rockband, then hop into a BOF, before heading to points unknown for the rest of the evening :)

It’s not too late to register, 360|iDev is coming up fast, don’t miss the most awesome collection of community awesomeness in one place, register now!

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Content, Drinks, Geeking Out, Networking, Parties, Reasons to Come, San Jose Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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360iDev speaker chat – Brian Robbins!

February 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Join us today at 12pm MST for a fun chat with speaker, Brian Robbins.

Ask him about starting his own Indie Game company, about game creation, etc. Whatever you like.

These speaker chats are a great way to get to know our speakers before 360|iDev!

Bookmark this link

See you later today!

Haven’t registered yet for 360|iDev? You’re missing out. Whether you’re a game developer, app developer, iPhone related business owner, or just someone who likes the iPhone and iPad (yeah we’ll definitely we talking about the iPad), there’s no better place to meet people in your field than 360|iDev! Register now!

Filed Under: Community, Networking, Reasons to Come, speakers Tagged With: , , , , ,
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360iDev make a video win Adobe CS4

February 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Blah blah, Flash this, Flash that :) CS4 is an awesome tool for anyone doing design work, let alone if you do any HTML work (Dreamweaver anyone)

You’ve got about 2 months until 360|iDev,  we’ve got a contest. Make a video about 360|iDev, win a copy of Adobe CS4.

Not a trial, the full blown real deal. One winner will come away with Adobe CS4.

We explained it here.

Here’s an example of what one of our speakers made for 360|Flex.

It’s that simple. If we get enough, we’ll run them before the keynotes at 360|iDev!

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Content, Geeking Out, Networking, Reasons to Come Tagged With: , , , , ,
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360iDev – Why you should be staying at the Marriott

February 1, 2010 By 1 Comment

If you haven’t heard, we have an official hotel. That’s right, boys and girls. There’s a spot where all the party people are going to staying under one roof. It’s the spot where you can stumble or crawl to your bed after an all-night rager of drinking, coding or perhaps a bit of both.

Why an official hotel that’s not connected to the conference center? For one, the conference center is on eBay’s HQ. They are trying to run a business, not make your beds or pick up your mess. Aside from that obvious reason, we want to keep having fun after we leave eBay. We’re still gonna party at Ebay after the last sessions; However, instead of taking the post functs to someone’s room, we want to take the party to downtown San Jose!

One thing that’s always nice at a conference is bumping into the “superstars”. While it happens a lot at the conference, it’s tough to pull someone aside to buy ‘em a drink to say thanks for contributing to the community. While we (the organizers) may not be the superstars you’re looking for, we will be at the hotel with all the speakers (who are the superstars). If you’re flying all the way to the show to meet and learn from these people, why would you bother staying anywhere else? Yes, it would be silly, especially after you read up on the deal we have for you!

We have a room block of Sunday night thru Tuesday night. We lined up an amazing rate of $99, for you all because we love you so. :) You don’t think we love you? How about this? In addition to the low rate of $99 for a Mariott (read: Not Sleazy 8 or Motel 6), we’ve also negotiated free wi-fi access for everyone’s guest rooms. That alone will save you some additional coin.

Assuming you’re arriving Saturday to take advantage of our awesome Sunday Hands-On training, and staying until Wednesday to make sure you don’t miss the final panel, that’s likely to be “tablet related” you’re still only paying about $125 a night when you average the prices. Compared to other hotels in the area, that’s a damn good deal. Saturday night and Wednesday night are a bit beefier on the price because the majority of people just stay Sunday to Wednesday, so that’s what our block is for.

I’m sure you have all been to conferences where there’s the, “Which hotel are you at dialogue?” Then there’s time and effort spent on who will go where and when to meetup, etc. Make it easier on yourselves and sure to be newfound friends. Just stay at the Mariott so you’re all in the same place and will be easy to find each other. We’ll be there, the speakers will be there, so there’s no reason you shouldn’t be.

You can book online, easy peasy :) Just click here.

While you’re booking your room, you have registered for the conference right? We have so much awesome lined up it’s hard to contain ourselves when talking about it :) Register now!

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Drinks, Geeking Out, Networking, Parties, Pricing Tagged With: , , , ,
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360iDev – Speaker Chat – Nathan Eror

January 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Join us next Tuesday at 11am MST for a cool live chat with San Jose speaker Nathan Eror.

You can sign into Adobe Connect on Tuesday using this URL.

The chats are open to anyone who’d like to hop in. Feel free to ask about his session at 360|iDev San Jose, iPhone Development, dragons, whatever you want.

Don’t miss this great opportunity to chat with speakers before 360|iDev!!

If you haven’t registered for 360|iDev yet, use this link! It’ll help Nathan in our Speakers get a Fly Suite contest. The speaker who gets the most registrations from their link, get’s a kick ass room upgrade.

Filed Under: Community, Geeking Out, Networking, San Jose, speakers Tagged With: , , , ,
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360iDev – The Speakers – Marcus Zarra

January 13, 2010 By 2 Comments

I was at Cocoaheads the other night, and Marcus had come up from Colorado Springs to attend, and sign some books.

We got to chatting a little bit about 360|iDev (Of course!)

Me: You’re speaking in San Jose right (He nods) which 360|iDev was your first?

Marcus: Denver this past year.

Me: Ah nice. You’ll like San Jose, it’s a great place, Ebay has an awesome campus.  What do you think people who attend your session will be most surprised by/about?
(One of the other cocoaheads comes over, book in hand, kinda gushing, but that’s to be expected and Marcus handles it with aplomb. He signs the book, chats a bit about Core Data and turns back to me)

Marcus: The ease of use of the API I am presenting and how valuable it is to the iPhone community.

Me: (nodding) I’m a nut for synchronization. Regardless of the situation, i want data in sync, whether it’s shopping lists, contacts, or whatever. What session are you most excited about, besides your own of course :)

(Another cocoahead comes over, i don’t recall seeing him earlier. He looks like an Android developer. He holds out his copy of Marcus’ book for signing, asks that it be made out to Sergey…. weird)

Marcus: (Handing the book back to Sergey) Nathan’s talk on Core Animation, Brent Simmons on best practices, Ashley Streb on team development

Me: All good choices, great guys too, that always helps.

(We order more beer, after all it’s a cocoaheads meeting)

What are you most looking forward to at 360|iDev San Jose?

Marcus: The networking. It is always great to meet the other iPhone developers in the community and share a conversation with them. You never know what is going to come out of it but it is always interesting.

Me: (nodding vigorously) Yeah the presentations are awesome, and we strive for the best tech talks around, but the awesome is often the community interaction. Meeting new friends, business partners, publishers, etc. You can’t put a price on that aspect of the event.
(Marcus nods)
What would you tell someone that was on the fence about attending 360|iDev to convince them to come?
Marcus: (takes a sip of his beer, buying some time to think. He’s probably finding more PC words than the expletives that come to mind for these fence sitters)
That if they want to be a part of the iPhone community and not just an iPhone developer, they need to be there.
Me: Well said. Anyone can start coding, buy a book, etc. but to get the most out of the experience and process of being an iPhone developer, get involved in the community. No one can exist and thrive in a vacuum.
(The meeting is wrapping up, every is paying their tabs)
So who do you think would win in a fight? Lion Voltron or Vehicle Voltron?
Marcus: (Not even needing a second to think) Lion, without a doubt.

Whether you’re new to the iPhone community, or been here a while, you’ll be kicking yourself for missing 360|iDev San Jose. It’s gonna kick ass. Join Marcus, Brent, Ashley, Nathan and almost 40 other speakers in San Jose for the best iPhone conference around. Register now! Don’t miss out!






Filed Under: Networking, Reasons to Come, San Jose, speakers, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , ,
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360iDev – The Touch Arcade Game Jam

December 7, 2009 By 3 Comments

What started as an idea during 360|Flex Denver, and executed with a day’s planning and work, is now “a thing”

We’re pleased to announce that 360|iDev San Jose, will host the Touch Arcade Game Jam!

The Game Jam in Denver, the brain child of Noel Llopis, who organized it, and stayed up all night to “run” things, was a huge hit, with more games being created in 10 hours, than I thought humanly possible. Touch Arcade has a great write up that links to a few others, and after Denver Touch Arcade approached us about making the Game Jam a more permanent and visible feature of the conference, which worked for us, because this kind of hacking is what we love!

Some of the projects from the Denver Game Jam are available in the store! You should check them out!

Hippo High Dive (iTunes Link) From our pals Imangi Studios

Gravity Sling (iTunes Link) from Riptide Games

for Example!

With Touch Arcade sponsoring the Game Jam, it’s gonna be epic. we’ve got time to plan for it, so it’s gonna rock, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see 2x as many games come the Wednesday Game Jam Review.

Touch Arcade is awesome, and we’ve wanted to work with them since we started 360|iDev, so it’s great to finally get a chance! I can’t wait!

Don’t miss the Game Jam, sponsored by Touch Arcade, your game idea could be launched in a night! Register now, before the early tickets sell out, and save $100!

Don’t miss the best iPhone conference in the world!

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Content, Gaming, Geeking Out, Networking, Parties, Reasons to Come, San Jose Tagged With: , , , , ,
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360iDev – The Hotel and Group Rate

December 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

For those that have been to a 360|iDev in San Jose, you know that there’s not much near eBay Town Hall. It’s an awesome space, but surrounded by other office parks.

Normally everyone has to stay at one of the two hotels nearby then walk, light rail or drive over.

Screen shot 2009-11-24 at 4.37.34 PMThis time we’re trying something different. We’re going to be staying downtown (near bars that stay open past 8!), at the Downtown San Jose Marriott

There’s an awesome bar on site, and a great restaurant, and it’s right on the VTA line so you can come and go to the conference.

But wait I’m not done :)

The Marriott has agreed to provide a shuttle loop for an hour in the morning and at night to shuttle everyone back and forth Monday – Wednesday. Just be outside ready to go during that hour, and you’ll be on your way to eBay Town Hall. (We’ll have signs)

Also, every attendee staying at the Marriott will get free internet in their guest room. Just in case you have to work when you’re not partying with us :)

We think this will make the hours between sunset and sunrise much more interesting for everyone. Party with us at eBay then when that’s done, we can party all over downtown San Jose!

The room rate is an awesome $99/night

Book your room now! The room block isn’t huge. If you stay somewhere else, you’re on your own to get back and forth to eBay.

You can call 800-266-9432 to book your room, or book online at the special portal they’ve created for us!

While you’re at it, you should make sure to register, 360|iDev San Jose is gonna be bigger and better than previous events! Don’t miss it! Register now!

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Networking, Parties, Reasons to Come, San Jose Tagged With: , , ,