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360iDev 2012 – Schedule V1

May 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It was a busy weekend for us, but after sending out 124 emails to everyone who submitted we wanted to get the schedule out to everyone as fast as possible. We know some folks were waiting to see what the line up was before buying tickets. So without further yacking from us, head over to the schedule page and check it out.

One word of warning, there’s likely to be some tweaks to the schedule in the coming weeks. So while the names aren’t likely to change, the days and times they’re speaking could. When we make changes we’ll make sure to blog or tweet about the changes as well as update the PDF, etc.

 

We’re also working on the session details doc which will have full descriptions for each session. expect a link to that sometime later this week.

 

See you all in September!

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Content, Denver, Geeking Out, Hands-On, Reasons to Come, The Speakers Tagged With: , , , , ,
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A True iOS Developer Story

May 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Thought this was pretty cool, if a smidge old. Did you hear the one about the Massachusetts State Trooper who became an iOS Developer?

Derek Langton, who had been serving as a state trooper for eighteen years, put in some mean hours to pick up and get adept at iOS application coding over the last year and a half, delving into and learning Cocoa and Objective C, all to be able to build the iOS version of Smoopa, a price check app which rewards you when you use it to comparison shop and share prices from the real, brick-and-mortar stores you patronize anyway.

How did he do it? According to the TechCrunch article, he began simply by auditing the freely available online computer science courses offered by MIT and Stanford, then continuing on with equally freely available YouTube instructional videos, such as this one which explains how to leverage the camera integration on an iPhone into apps.

Was it hard? According to Derek, the answer is, as you’d imagine, an unvarnished “yes.”. However, he also points out that though he certainly worked to get to the point where he could code with sufficient proficiency to create an iOS app, it was very attainable.

“I eat, drink and sleep iOS development. This is the kind of thing where either go or you don’t. You don’t go halfway.”

And of course, even beyond the MIT and Stanford courseware, there are other resources like 360|iDev :) and even other conferences, that not only help developers raise their game but almost more importantly establish social connections and support systems among other developers. The iOS community has really shined IMO with welcoming new people to the fold and making sure they can succeed.

Something to consider:

  • The current national unemployment rate is 8.1% according to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics – nearly doublenthe 4-5% unemployment rate the nation experienced before the 2008 economic crisis.
  • One of the sole market sectors which is not experiencing this same dearth of good jobs is Silicon Valley – there is currently what TechCrunch calls a “Hiring-pocalypse,” where coding houses simply cannot find enough skilled workers.

Given this, it seems that there has never been a better time to pick up coding skills.

Being an iOS developer has been described as a “lottery;” but it’s a lottery you can cheat at by being better than many others playing the same game.

 

See you in September!

Filed Under: Content, Denver, Reasons to Come Tagged With: , , ,
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360iDev 2012 – Now with Dates!

April 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Yup, it’s taken a while, but we finally locked down some dates and a hotel.

Actually the dates were less up in the air, we’ve been aiming for the week of the 9th since we started planning 360|iDev 2012, but finding a hotel we could work with, well that was a bit harder than it’s ever been before.

However we’re really happy with the hotel we’re working with. We use them for other events and everyone loves them. One of the best hotels we’ve ever dealt with.

So yeah…

September 9-12, 2012 come learn from the best of the best in the indie coder world. It’s gonna be epic.

 

Remember we sold out last year, and we’re already 1/3 sold out for this year… I wouldn’t dilly dally. Register now.

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Denver, Reasons to Come Tagged With: , , , , ,
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360iDev 2012 – Call For Papers is Open

March 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

OK it’s official. The Call For Papers is open. Now before you freak out and start asking “when does the call close, I’ve got an idea but it’s not done yet, etc, etc” you’ve got time.  We should be locking down the exact dates and such this week, but likely you’ve got 7 months until 360|iDev 2012, so the call for papers isn’t likely to close until mid to late April.

 

Of course as with all things iOS, NDAs and announcements play a big roll, so we’ll be playing that stuff by ear, and hoping that when 360|iDev 2012 rolls around we’re not under NDA. That means feel free to submit NDA topics, and we’ll see what happens.

 

You can submit as many topic ideas as you like of course.

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Content, Reasons to Come Tagged With: , , , , ,
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360iDev 2012 – Signs and Portents

March 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

So last friday we opened up ticket sales. As we always do before we have the full event locked in we put our “Faithful” ticket on sale. For those that might be new to the conference the faithful ficket is basically  an inexpensive ticket that you buy before we announce the exact dates or hotel. Usually it’s on sale for a week or two and limited to a small number of tickets.

Well we’re about a week from locking the in the hotel and the dates, and so we turned on the ticket sales page, and sold out of faithful tickets in 6 hours. Now while I’d love for this to be a WWDC-esque story of 5,000 tickets moving in the blink of an eye, it’s actually less than 100. So just under 1/3 of our total capacity. But still, that’s never happened before. Normally the faithful tickets are turned off with a few left.

We sold out last year, I’m pretty sure we’re well on our way to selling out this year, and we’re still at least 7 months from the conference. I’m really excited by everyone’s excitement around 360|iDev 2012.

Register now while there’s still some early bird tickets left. They went on sale after the Faithful ticket sold out and are moving fast.

Oh by the way, the Call For Papers is open too :)

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Content, Denver, Reasons to Come Tagged With: , , , , ,
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360iDev 2011 – Party like it’s 1999, except it’s 2011 and Prince isn’t here

September 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Though you never know, Prince could show up… Ok probably not, but still.

So you know there’s parties during 360|iDev but what are they?

Well they start Sunday and go thru Wednesday!

Sunday night we have a welcome reception in the hotel from about 6-8pm. It’s a nice and mellow way to start the conference. Meet new people and re-connect with folks you know from twitter and the internet or only see at conferences.

There’s a Speaker Sponsor dinner from 5-6 to show our awesome speakers and sponsors how much we love them (don’t worry attendees we love you too and you get lots of parties).

There’s also a Night of Meat forming. More here.

Click for larger map

Monday Night Push.io is hosting a party at 1-Up. If drinking a 40 of King Cobra while playing Dig-Dug is your idea of fun, 1-Up is for you. Actually even if that’s NOT your idea of fun, 1-Up is a blast :) It’s a classic Arcade game bar. The entire space is arcade games and pinball machines. It’s a blast from the past for those of us old enough and a damn fun time for everyone!

 

Tuesday Night On3 is sponsoring a party at Mellow Mushroom, just a few blocks from the hotel on the 16th St Mall. The entire restaurant is ours, including the awesome patio. There’s TVs all over so don’t think we won’t be doing some Rock Band or youtube roulette or something else fun. The bar is open (beer only, sorry wine people) and the food will be flowing. Not only will there be an awesome buffet set up but the entire menu is open to us so if there’s something you want they’ll whip it up for you. How awesome is that!

The Parties start at 7pm. That gives you time to drop of bags and such in your room and make your way out of the hotel. Groups will form in the lobby to head out together and our awesome volunteers will be stationed along the route to make sure you know you’re almost there :)

 

The map right over there on the left has points for Mellow Mushroom (B) and 1Up (C). The easiest way to get to both places is the 16th St Mall Shuttle. It runs up and down 16th st all day. You can get on at Glenarm and get off right in front of Mellow Mushroom, and get off at Market St. Station for 1Up. It’s the easiest easy to get there. Depending on the weather it’ll be a nice walk too. 16th St. Mall is a great walk with lots of people watching and is a great slice of Denver (yes, that means hobos and tourists as well as locals)

 

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Denver, Drinks, Geeking Out, Parties Tagged With: , , , , ,
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360iDev 2011 – Awesome icon assets from Tapptics

August 30, 2011 By 1 Comment

Click to Enlarge.

This post has been really tardy in coming. The awesome sauce Jen Gordon has offered up some incredible free icon assets from Tapptics.

You can download the sampler here.

This is a cool offer for 360|iDev attendees/fans. Check ‘em  out.

You can click the image right over there on the left as well to see the full size sample.

Gen has spoken at 360|iDev in the past and is great! You should definitely check out the sampler and take advantage of the coupon that’s included.

 

Go do it!

 

See you in Denver.

Filed Under: Announcements, Content, Denver, speakers Tagged With: , , , , ,
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360iDev 2011 – Crowne Plaza…. FULL

August 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

So…

you dilly dallied about booking your hotel for 360|iDev. Maybe you’re still dilly dallying about registering… Well Like we warned everyone months ago would happen, the Crowne Plaza has filled up our block. That means there’s no room at the Inn.

 

You’re not without options of course. Below are the three nearest hotels to the Crowne. All are within walking distance. We can’t promise a rate as good as we got for the room block, but you never know, maybe you’ll luck out.

 

Hilton Garden Inn
1400 Welton Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 603-8000
Hyatt Regency
650 15th Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 436-1234
Embassy Suites
1420 Stout Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 592-1000
Denver Marriott City Center
1701 California Street
Denver, CO 80202
(303) 297-1300

 

 

Filed Under: Announcements, Denver, Reasons to Come Tagged With: , , , ,
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360iDev 2011 – 31 days to go!

August 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

You know how many tickets are left? Less than 40.

Yes less than 40 tickets left for 360|iDev 2011. That means we’re closer to selling out than we’ve ever been. EVAR!

 

What’s that mean? Well if you haven’t bought a ticket, better get on it. Not only are tickets running low, so are hotel rooms. We’re gonna own the Crowne Plaza.

If you have bought your ticket, well you’re gonna be in some truly awesome company.

 

Sure there’s lots of other iOS conferences, but none are focused on the community like we are. Don’t miss out!

Register now!

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Denver, Gaming, Geeking Out, Networking, Parties, Reasons to Come Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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360iDev 2011 – Community App Awards Nominations

August 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We did this in Austin, and this year we mean to make it a little more formal and classy :)

Got an app or game or twitter client you love and think deserves some attention? Nominate it! Use this form. Voting will start in a few weeks.

Spread the word. Let’s really show the world how the iOS community supports each other.

Filed Under: Announcements, Community, Denver, Geeking Out, Reasons to Come Tagged With: , , ,