“You went to see a taping at Apple Park” is a comment that it was repeated both on the Applesfera forum and on social networks. WWDC 2022 guests turned out to see a keynote taped and played at Apple Park. The same thing the rest of us have seen from the comfort of our homes.
It makes sense, right? The problem is that it’s not true. Because an Apple keynote has always been and always will be more than just a presentation.
The invisible value of serendipity
Serendipity is defined as “that valuable discovery which occurs accidentally or by chance”, often associated with the performance of actions for wholly unrelated purposes. It may sound like a typical phrase you find on a self-help mug or book cover. But the truth is serendipity exists. And WWDC 2022 is proof of that.
Pedro Aznar told in Las Charlas de Applesfera this week how someone told him he had gone to see a registration in California and that for this it was not necessary to travel by plane. You see it from the comfort of your living room and that’s it. If Pedro had taken this advice he would have missed many opportunities for serendipity, in addition to having a first contact with the MacBook Air M2, as it happened.
When you go to a professional event, it is impossible not to network. At least something, a little. Greet some, introduce yourself to others, hand out business cards. He is make contacts of a lifetime without an English word to make it more sophisticated than it actually is. In a keynote, this also happens. But at a brutal level.
People come to WWDC from all over the world. People united by the same interest, Apple. And with the same intention, develop the best applications for their platforms. When the focus is so narrow and the people present are the best of the best in their field, serendipity is inevitable.
Pedro says in this episode that WWDC 2022 felt like a festival. the opening speech it was like a party. A particular vibration surrounded the whole event. And to notice that you have to be there. Call it what you will, but bringing talented people together makes for a lot of chance encounters.
Thus, he was able to meet a developer who, thanks to augmented reality, could reduce the stress of the person immersed in this experience. He also met a developer who had created an alarm clock based on the rhythmic sounds of yoga. Apple is aware of this and, to a certain extent, encourages this type of interaction between developers, Apple engineers and even the press who attend the event.
But what was by no means planned was to bump into a developer in the airport lounge. Away from the conference and already on the way home after exhausting days. It was there that a boy introduced himself to him. because I had recognized it from the developer conference. During this meeting, he presented his application capable of recognizing objects and moving with LiDAR to help blind people. Thanks to this, this application will gain a little more visibility when we analyze it soon in Applesfera. Who knows, this could be the start of a promising path for the app and its creator. It’s a story we’ve seen successfully repeated on other occasions. It is serendipity.
Virtual meetings they will never be able to imitate this. And that’s one of the reasons why Apple wants to do away with telework 100% and bet on at least a hybrid model.
