This year, I had the privilege of attending Apple’s WWDC in-person. Pre-pandemic, the event was held in-person with a live keynote and live sessions. These days, it’s primarily virtual, with a smaller in-person gathering for press, Swift Student Challenge winners, and a group of lucky randomly selected developers—including myself.
This was my first in-person WWDC experience, as well as my first time stepping inside of both Apple Park and Infinite Loop, so there’s a lot to talk about. If, by chance, you’re attending a WWDC event in the future, this post will have a lot of insight on how to make the most of your experience.
Day 1 – Welcome Reception
To kick off the week is a welcome reception at Apple’s Infinite Loop Campus on Sunday evening. I’ve visited the outside of this campus many times, but I was excited to finally get to see the inside firsthand. I arrived 15 minutes early and waited about an hour in a bag check line. Once through security, I presented my event pass and digital ID in Apple Wallet, and received my goodie bag and physical badge. The swag included a luggage tag, water bottle, and this year’s pin set. Inside the campus, there was a Developer Heat Map where attendees could tag where they were from, a WWDC logo photo-op, Caffè Macs food stands, and displays for the Apple Design Award finalists and winners.
Caffè Macs, Apple’s on-campus cafe for employees, also caters WWDC events. Highlights from that day’s menu include:
- Pretzel and cheese sauce
- Pretzel and vegan cashew queso
- Ahi poke
- Arancini
- Lemon pepper wings
- Beef brisket slider
- Corn salad tostada
- A sundae bar
I appreciated Caffè Macs’ efforts to accommodate many dietary restrictions. Their dairy-free/vegan options were consistently excellent throughout the event. That said, please keep in mind that cross-contamination may occur with allergens.
Outside of the badge pickup and photo ops, this event was mainly for meeting other developers in the community. One of the developers I met had created Nihongo, a Japanese dictionary app I’ve used before. Part of the fun of WWDC is there’s a fair chance you’ll run into someone who made something you’ve used in your life.
It was also where I found out about the community GitHub page for unofficial WWDC events. This page listed various get-togethers, watch parties, and events outside of Apple’s own, perfect if you didn’t get a WWDC ticket or have some extra time on your hands. There are also app discounts listed, so it’s worth a look.
Day 2 – Keynote and Platforms State of the Union
Monday was the big day: keynote day. After the long line from the day before, I made sure to get up early to beat the crowd. I arrived at Apple Park at about 8:00 a.m. and was in by 8:50. Apple advised attendees to plan on being there until about 6:00 p.m., so come well-rested.
Before the keynote at 10:00 a.m., breakfast was served. Options for the morning included:
- Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs
- English muffin and smashed avocado bruschetta
- Latin style fruit cup
- Blueberry puree chia pudding parfait
- Pistachio and saffron Kheer rice pudding
- Mini chocolate croissant
- Mini cinnamon roll
- Green juice (cucumber, kale, celery, parsley, fennel, and lemon)
- Sunrise juice (carrot, orange, coconut water, lemon, turmeric, and ginger)
- And, of course, coffee ☕️
During breakfast, I happened to run into popular influencer Marques Brownlee, also known as MKBHD. It was pretty incredible to meet him in person.
In addition to developers, there were also influencers and members of the press in attendance. I noticed that some attendees had differently colored lanyards than mine. From what I could gather, this is the legend:
- Black – Developer
- Green – Swift Student Challenge Winner
- Blue/Yellow – Media/Press
- Orange – Apple Design Award Winner/Finalist
- Grey – Apple Employee
The pre-recorded keynote was displayed outdoors within Apple Park, not the Steve Jobs Theater. Front row seating filled up fast. Behind it was a section with plenty of open seats, but there was no sunshade over these seats. I sat in the shaded section a bit farther back, which had its own screen. I sat with a supply chain employee who worked for Apple and a developer who worked on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, an Apple Design Award finalist. Before the keynote started, Tim Cook and Craig Federighi took the stage to give some opening remarks exclusively to the in-person audience.
Then, the keynote played. Although pre-recorded, I can’t stress how nice it was to finally hear an audience at an Apple event again. Ever since the pandemic, Apple’s events have been pre-recorded. And while that keeps the pace quick, prevents embarrassing on stage bugs, and reduces fluff, it also takes the human element out of it. Hearing the audience applaud the foundational models API for Apple Intelligence was awesome.
Following the keynote was lunch. I happened to meet both Ben Sandofsky and Sebastiaan de With, the developers of Halide and Kino, the professional iPhone photography and cinematography apps. They also run the Lux blog, which has some very in-depth and interesting articles about how iPhone cameras work. I highly recommend checking out their work.
I also got to meet Christian Selig, a very talented independent developer known for his work on Apollo, the former third-party Reddit app, and Juno, the former third-party YouTube app for Apple Vision Pro.
As for the lunch itself, here was some of the menu lineup:
- Teriyaki salmon
- Shaking beef over vegetable and egg fried rice
- Spiced chicken bowl
- Beef empanadas with salad
- Carrot cake
- Chocolate ganache tartlet
After lunch, we returned to the presentation area to watch the Platforms State of the Union, which gave a high-level overview of developer-facing changes. This was followed by one-on-one lab sessions. I attended two sessions. One was a Maps & Location session where I asked some questions about MapKit. The other was a Design session, where I showed one of my app’s designs and got feedback on it from a UX perspective.
Finally, the day closed out with a reception with lots of food and photo ops. The food lineup consisted of:
- Chile relleno empanadas with salsa rosa
- Honey BBQ chicken sliders
- Latin-style crab cocktail
- Buffalo-zucchini fritters with vegan ranch sauce
- Jackfruit dumplings with ponzu sauce
- Goccia di tiramisu
- Paris brest eclair
- Key lime cheese cake
- Blueberry raspberry tart
- Fresh cherries
- Gelato bars
- Vanilla
- Blackberry-swirl
- Chocolate banana
- Raspberry lemonade
The F1 car prop from the keynote and movie was one of the photo ops. Speaking of which, Susan Prescott, VP of Enterprise and Education Marketing, came out to announce that we would receive an email to register for an early screening of F1 The Movie at the Steve Jobs Theater on Tuesday evening. Only a small amount of developers could register, so it was first-come, first-served. I was lucky and managed to register in time.
Here, I had the opportunity to explore the inner ring of the campus some more, as well as meet up with more developers until the event ended. After walking out, I visited the nearby Apple Park Visitor Center to check out their selection of merchandise.
Day 3 – Developer Center and F1 The Movie Screening
Tuesday consisted of activities at the Apple Developer Center. These are sessions that require registration and have limited seating, even though they’re only offered to WWDC attendees. If you’re attending in the future, make sure to have notifications on for your inbox for WWDC emails, as I missed out on the initial registration. I was able to register for overflow seating, but that was limited as well.
This session started with a live presentation of some of the new technologies. If you’re familiar with WWDC’s sessions, this was effectively a supercut of the most important ones, like the Liquid Glass design fundamentals and the new Icon Composer app. After the presentation, we were given some light refreshments and had the chance to talk to Apple engineers one-on-one.
Refreshments included:
- Coconut cloud tart
- Purple pixel Chex mix
- Peach grove energy bytes
- Tropical fruit crudités
- Vegan chocolate chip cookie
- Sea salt chocolate chip cookie
Later that evening, I attended the movie screening. Due to embargo restrictions, I can’t discuss the movie itself in too much detail, so I’ll keep this post limited to the experience around the screening. I met up with some other developers who registered for the screening and walked towards the Steve Jobs Theater. Towards the top of the hill, we were greeted with a stunning view of Apple Park. We made sure to get our share of pictures of both the theater and the main building.
Inside the lobby was a mix of press and developers, as well as a table for snacks. The snacks included:
- Coastal crunch
- Cajun party mix
Closer to showtime, we made our way down to the underground theater. It has a traditional theater aesthetic, but with some Apple-like touches. For example, the flip-up seats folded seamlessly into themselves when not in use. I originally sat in the very back row of the theater, but an employee offered me the opportunity to move to one of the front rows since they had some empty seats there. Before the film, there was a brief Q&A session between Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior VP of Services, and Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of F1 The Movie.
Following the screening, I was able to meet Eddy Cue and take a quick picture with him. Then, we took the beautiful rotating glass elevator back up and snagged a few pictures of the theater and Apple Park at night. It’s so rare to see the campus up close past sundown, so it was a truly unique opportunity.
F1 The Movie releases in theaters June 27 in the U.S., and will be available to stream on Apple TV+ at a later date.
Conclusion
As a lifelong Apple enthusiast, this trip was truly a dream come true. Not only did I finally get to see the Infinite Loop and Apple Park campuses firsthand, but it was also amazing to meet and connect with so many fellow developers and Apple enthusiasts. From meeting popular influencers to watching developers walk around the campus wearing Apple Vision Pros, WWDC is truly a special experience in-person, and I would definitely take the opportunity to go again in the future.