RWDevCon: Taking a Break!

Feb 4 2019

We are planning on taking a break from RWDevCon for a little while. Read this post to find out why, and what’s next. By Ray Wenderlich.

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RWDevCon: Taking a Break!

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For the past four years, we’ve had a blast running our annual tutorial conference, RWDevCon.

The conference sold out all four years, and is a truly unique conference. As far as I know, it’s the only conference 100% focused on hands-on interactive tutorials, and the conference has become known as being one of the most friendly and inclusive conferences in the community.

We’ve built something truly special! So you might be surprised to hear we’re taking a break with RWDevCon.

In this post, I’ll explain why we decided this, and what’s in store for the future of RWDevCon.

Why Take a Break?

There are two reasons we’re taking a break.

The first reason goes back to the history of raywenderlich.com. Back when we started, we were primarily an iOS tutorial site. And as such, when we started RWDevCon back in 2015, it was primarily an iOS and Swift-focused conference.

But since then, things have changed. Our site is no longer just about iOS development – Android is now a major focus of the site. We’re also expanding into other areas, such as Unity, Unreal Engine, and some other new areas that are coming soon (hint, hint).

Therefore, RWDevCon (focused on iOS) didn’t reflect the range of technologies we cover at raywenderlich.com. Although the conference was a huge success, we needed to take some time and redesign the conference so that it will serve not just our iOS community, but our whole community.

Android and iOS unite!

A typical RazeFace

Android and iOS unite!

We’ve also sold out the conference for the past four years, and our current venue just doesn’t have the room for us to grow any larger. Reworking our conference to serve everyone in our growing community will require a new venue, a new city, and a new approach to our entire conference!

And that leads me to the second reason…

We Need a Break!

We have loved bringing together the best and brightest minds in the development community for several days of learning and sharing for each of the the last four years, but running an event at this scale is an incredible amount of work. I have mad respect for the organizers of all the other amazing events in our community, especially those organizers that have been doing this for many years!

Even though organizing a conference is very rewarding, it can also be a bit exhausting. And the planning never ends — even before the current year’s conference is over, you’re already planning the event for next year!

For the past four years, my wife Vicki and I have organized and led the team behind this conference, while running everything that goes along with this site at the same time, and we’ve reached the point where we and the team need a bit of a break to recharge and regroup after the intensity of the last four years.

To all of our loyal attendees, we apologize for having to take a break — we wish we had the energy to rethink/retool the conference immediately! But in the end, we’re only human.

The good news is that we’re confident that, when the time is right, we’ll be ready to bring this conference back, better than ever — and with some new and exciting twists!

Where To Go From Here?

While we’re retooling RWDevCon, the good news is there is a wealth of amazing conferences to choose from! Here are a few of our favorites:

If we’ve missed any conferences you recommend, please add them in the comments.

We definitely recommend attending a conference or two if you can every year, as it’s a great way to keep your skills sharp, meet members of the community, and get inspired.

Thanks again to all of the RWDevCon speakers, organizers, and attendees for making the past four years so amazing. Vicki and I look back fondly at these conferences as some of the best times in our lives.

We hope to see you again in a few years! :]