An update for UIKonf 2020

Conference Updates

We just published tickets for our Social Events. If you haven’t booked your ticket for UIKonf yet, then please do so now because you need your UIKonf ticket reference to register for our Social Events.
Register for a social event.

After lots of research, we have settled on a platform to run our event: We will be using Hopin since it provides lots of opportunities for networking. To still provide you with the best possible life-streaming experience, we will mix it up with other technologies but you won’t notice much of this as an attendee.

The conference will consist of four components:

1. The Main Stage – This is where you can follow our talks and post your questions in the chat.
2. Sessions – Here you can:
   • Join our extended live Q&As
   • Participate in a workshop
   • Hold an impromptu talk on our side stage
   • Mingle with other attendees
   • Contact us via the Help Desk if you have any questions
3. Networking – This is a place to meet [random] strangers. Our Code of Conduct applies here, too.
4. Expo – Learn more about our sponsors and talk to them during their “office hours”.

We will be sending out invite links to sign up in the next couple of days. Check out our Hopin event page

Speaker Updates

Get excited! Our preliminary schedule is now available (pending feedback from our speakers) and we updated our speaker page with all talk titles and summaries or links to the CfP.

Also, if you want to meet our speakers already and are, for example, interested to see what Paul Hudson’s dog has to say about SwiftUI, you can now do so through our short interview series on Youtube. UIKonf’s long-term supporter, Jeff Watkins, put a lot of work into interviewing everyone - thank you, Jeff 💙 New videos are released daily - subscribe to our YouTube playlist or follow us on twitter so you don’t miss a thing!

Unfortunately our speaker Dave DeLong had to cancel his attendance due to the still pending approval of his talk by his employer. :( We will announce his replacement next week!

UIKonf Swag Shop

Did anyone say “swag”? 😍Yes yes… this year you can get your shirt (or cap / cup / apron) for UIKonf 2020 delivered right to your doorstep! Our official swag shop has opened its doors and offers shipping to most European countries, the USA, Canada and Australia. If that doesn’t cover your country, contact us and we will see what we can do.

Join UIKonf 2020 in style or finally get that mug you always wanted but that doesn’t really fit onto your already overflowing cupboard (is it konmari -time, yet?).

Don’t like the colors? You can pick your own (at your own risk and entertainment). Missing something? Send us an email and we can see about adding the item(s) to our shop.

Head this way to your personal UIKonf 2020 swag (Use the country picker in the page footer to find your country): Get Your Swag On!

A big THANK YOU to our Sponsors

Platinum

Silver

Bronze

UIKonf goes remote

As the world continues to battle the Coronavirus, we have been hard at work looking to adapt UIKonf for 2020.

We are excited to announce we will be taking UIKonf remote for the first time ever! Join us in a live streaming experience online from May 18th-19th plus community social events on the day before. Since we want to accommodate viewers and speakers from as many time zones as we are able, we will be kicking off at 2pm CEST and ending the conference days at 10pm CEST (Berlin time).

Although we are still facing significant costs in moving our event online, we are sure that modifying this event will be worth it for everyone. If you have already purchased a ticket, you should have heard from us about your options. If you have already cancelled your tickets due to the uncertainty but would love to join us online after all, please follow the ticket registration link.

UIKonf was created to connect with others and learn from the best of the best. Our conference has always been about meeting up and connecting in-person. Help us keep it alive by translating this same great experience into an online one! We are working tirelessly to bring you the same great event you have always expected, just online: Coronavirus edition.

We are thrilled to be able to modify our plans and continue onward with a great solution for everyone. See you all online in May!

Best,

Bianca, Julia and Sabine

UIKonf update regarding the corona virus

Published March 10th, please check our blog for further updates.

Despite the current situation, we still think it's too early to call UIKonf off. Cancelling the event is expensive, as there are costs we will not recoup. The good thing is, this is not going to change until later in April, and the situation may look better by then. That's why we've decided to continue for now. However, since no-one can foresee the future, we encourage everyone to get travel insurance for their visit to UIKonf and thoroughly check the cancellation policy of their hotel and flights - just in case.

For the case that things clear up and we can continue as planned, we are looking into ways where people - attendees and speakers alike - can also join the party remotely. We are talking to our venue about additional measures to reduce the likelihood of spreading disease: hand-washing stations outside, additional smaller viewing rooms, closed lunch containers, etc. We will update you with a full list of protective measures closer to the conference, please be assured that we will do our best to help everyone protect themselves.

If after all, we really need to cancel the physical event, it will probably be our own decision and not force majeure - meaning you would get reimbursed for your ticket. Still we would be really, really happy about a donation to help cover the costs. In that case we will also try to continue as a remote conference, so you could convert your ticket to a remote ticket. We are currently figuring out the technical implications of that.

UIKonf update regarding the corona virus

Published March 2nd, please check our blog for further updates.

Due to the corona virus, some of you might have started to wonder if UIKonf will be happening this year at all. The answer is: yes, unless we are ordered by the government to cancel the event.

We’ve been following the corona virus crisis closely. Of course there is no prediction on how this virus will develop since it is completely new, but if it is anything like the most flu-like viruses, it is most likely going to die down with the onset of warmer weather. UIKonf is still more than 2 months away. By then summer will already be in the air. We therefore believe that this will blow over before UIKonf so that we will all be able to come together as planned.

To make sure UIKonf survives, we updated our refunds policy as well as our terms of service for the case of cancellation.

Our contingency plan
Of course there is still a risk for which we need to take precautions. Organising the average UIKonf costs A LOT of money. A financial risk that Julia and Sabine are currently carrying on our own. Some of these costs are fixed like the venue, some are variable (up to a point in time) like the catering, t-shirts, social events, etc. Let’s add some transparency:

There are two important scenarios for us we need to consider when assessing our risk: The first one being that UIKonf takes place but a lot of people cancel last minute so that we sell fewer tickets than needed to break even. The second one: If the corona virus continues to spread and does not die down, there is a chance that the German government orders us to cancel the event.

Risk 1: Lower attendance
To mitigate the financial loss in case of lower attendance rates, we might have to limit the costs of our social events (free bike tours for all 🎉) and might also not offer t-shirts this year. We are still compiling a list of things we could cut without impacting the experience of UIKonf.

Since there is also a chance that some speakers might not be able to travel after all, we might ask some people at the top of the CfP rating, who didn’t “make the cut” to prepare their talk anyway as back-up. Of course this would be completely voluntary.

Risk 2: Cancellation due to a force majeure
There is still a slight chance that the virus does not die down. We will continue watching the situation and reserve the right to cancel the conference to protect you, our sponsors and ourselves from financial loss, even though right now we are determined to make this UIKonf happen. However, should the situation suddenly worsen, we might be ordered to cancel the event by a governmental organisation - this event is called a “force majeure” (see Wikipedia).

We amended our terms of service to clarify that German law applies in case of force majeure. This means that in this quite unlikely case we will not be obliged to refund your ticket. After covering all open costs, we would of course return as much money as is left, however, we can’t tell you how much that might be (it could be zero).

Furthermore, we are adding a clause that frees us from any liability regarding any additional costs you might have for visiting UIKonf. We recommend getting travel insurance for your journey for the case of cancellation.

If you already purchased a ticket, we will inform you about our updated terms shortly. You will then have 2 weeks to cancel your ticket without costs, if you don’t agree with these new terms.

We will survive

UIKonf has been around for 7 years now. It was founded and lived on to help you, our community, to connect with others and grow your circle of experts. In these not-so-easy times the future of UIKonf depends on you. Help us keep it alive, by attending, spreading the word about UIKonf, and being understanding about this rather strict refund policy.

See you all in May!

Sabine, Julia, Bianca and Chrissy

CfP submission period extended for 1 week

Since a lot of people asked if they could submit multiple talk ideas, we added a fix so that you can now submit up to 3 proposals to our CfP. We also had a report about log-in issues. We are currently investigating this issue and will extend the submission period for one week. You can find the updated schedule below

The Timeline

17 Jan – 16 Feb: Submit your proposal on our CfP page or comment on already submitted proposals. We accept any topic you deem interesting may it be technical, design-focused, about building / running / failing a company or how to get a rocket into space using Swift - Inspire us! For inspiration, you can check out the speakers or videos of 2019.

17 Feb – 23 Feb: Comment on existing proposals to help the authors improve their talks. You can help talks you'd like to see at UIKonf 2020 become even better and maybe get elected for the final eight.

24 Feb – 1 Mar: A committee consisting of previous UIKonf speakers will do a preselection of the talks ahead of voting by the community.

2 Mar – 8 Mar: The voting week: our community and a committee consisting of previous UIKonf speakers will vote on their eight favorite talks. The final eight talks will be determined by equally weighing the votes from the public and the committee. We will inform everyone who participated in the CfP in the week after that and announce the chosen speakers one by one.

Don't miss the deadline - there are no exceptions for late submissions.