Apple Announces WWDC 2020

It is likely that you are aware that there is an international pandemic known as Covid-19. The highly transmissible virus is a problem and in order to minimize the spread, it is best to avoid large gatherings where transmission is possible.

In order to avoid having anyone contract the virus with 5,000 developers gathering in one place, Apple is changing the format of this year's WorldWide Developer Conference (WWDC) to an online format. For a vast majority of Apple's 23 million registered developers experience Apple's WWDC in an online-only format. In fact, the number of developer who can actually attend WWDC is 0.022% of all developers.

Apple will still hold a keynote and online sessions. To quote Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Marketing:

“The current health situation has required that we create a new WWDC 2020 format that delivers a full program with an online keynote and sessions, offering a great learning experience for our entire developer community, all around the world. We will be sharing all of the details in the weeks ahead.”

One of the downsides to moving to an online format is the fact that San Jose, where WWDC has been held the last few years, will lose out on a significant amount of revenue because of the conference. In order to help San Jose, Apple is going to provide $1 million to San Jose organizations to help offset the loss.

My prediction is that next year's WWDC will return to an in-person conference, although some of the changes made this year will still be incorporated into next year's conference. I hope to be able to watch the keynote in June, but either way I will be writing a post about what Apple announces. It will be interesting to see how this year's WWDC goes.

You can keep up to date with what Apple announces by "email, in the Apple Developer app and on the Apple Developer website".

Source: Apple