Announcing the second edition of App Design & Development Conference in July 2018
This June we wrapped up the organization of the first edition of App Design & Development Conference. 200 people attended this two-day single-track conference held in Barcelona.
The attendees were more or less evenly split between designers and developers, with a sprinkle of project managers and other professionals from our industry.
While coming from dozens of countries and countless different companies, we all shared our passion to craft great apps, to learn from each other and to start discussing how we could improve collaboration between app designers and developers.
For the organizational team, it was our first. The first time we organized a conference. The first time we brought designers and developers together. The first time we hosted international guests. The first time we looked for sponsors. And the first time we organized anything at all in Barcelona.
We’ve spent more or less all the weekends this year planning, improving and replanning what was to become the first edition of the App Design & Development Conference.
On June 22nd, all the hard work came together and 15 speakers, more than half of them selected on a public call for papers, presented their talks to our 200 attendees.
While the talks were central to the event, the conversations that started among attendees during our long breaks represent the core of what ADDC was.
It was a fantastic experience to stroll along the many restaurants where the lunch was organized for our attendees, and to hear people passionately discussing topics of design and development collaboration. Spontaneous and honest conversations about this theme is exactly what we were hoping for.
We’ve topped the event with a great boat party that was just crazy enough for all the creative and technical people to blend together and to create some lasting friendships.
It was important for the organisational team to learn about what we achieved with an event that was so intense and demanding to organize, so we’ve conducted an anonymous survey after the conference was over.
While we hoped for certain level of confirmation that we are doing a good thing, we never dared to expect such a positive response. 95% of participants thought that we should organize another edition and claimed it is likely that they will attend again. What attendees liked the most was the theme (design & development collaboration), the fact that the conference only has a single track, the relaxed format of the breaks that allows spontaneous discussions, the creative atmosphere, and activities in the breaks that encouraged meeting new people. And of course, the location of the event — the beautiful Barcelona and the AXA venue.
We also heard your suggestions for improvements. While our attendees loved most of the talks, they felt that we should put even more attention to vetting our speakers and working with them on iterating on their talks before the conference. They’ve also asked for even more in-depth presentations and some dive-in-the-topic workshops.
Let’s be honest — organising an international conference is not a side project, but a second job. It is time consuming and intensive. But it’s also rewarding and — when done right — an important experience for hundreds of people attending it.
Looking at your feedback and dozens of personal requests and emails we received, we have no other option than to proudly announce the App Design & Development Conference 2018 🙌 🎉. For you, because of you.
The second edition will be held in Barcelona on 4–6 July 2018. We’ve just now announced the date on our website and will be publishing more information, call for papers and the first batch of tickets soon. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and subscribe to our mailing list to stay up to date with the announcements.
See you again this summer in Barcelona!
Matej, Lenart & Pedro — the ADDC team
Photos and videos are made by Olivier Servieres, copyright ADDC.
