When CocoaHeads Macedonia – a developer community organizing monthly iOS meetups in Skopje – announced their first major conference, I questioned whether a debut event could deliver the same quality as established conferences like those I’d attended in Berlin. My team at N47 decided to attend and see for ourselves. We’d collaborated with the CocoaHeads organizers at their smaller meetups for years, so we trusted their understanding of the community. What surprised us was how they leveraged technology to transform even the fundamental aspects of conference attendance.
Initial Expectations
My expectations weren’t particularly high. This was the organizers’ first event and Macedonia’s first major iOS conference. I wasn’t anticipating anything extraordinary. When I ordered the tickets, the email confirmation didn’t impress me much. However, a few weeks before the event, the support team reached out requesting email addresses for my colleagues and me to send digital entry credentials. That showed progress.
The Conference Experience
Let me start with the venue. The organizers selected Hotel Limak in Skopje, and the spacious conference hall on the 6th floor proved ideal for the event. At reception, they verified your name and distributed small gifts including branded thermoses, pens, notebooks, and something distinctive – a digital card with your name on a lanyard. The clever part was that scanning the card with your iPhone camera prompted you to access the iOSKonf24 app’s App Clip, which you could use without installation or opt to download. This was a major advantage, allowing me to review speakers and schedules whenever needed.
Day One
The first day featured six speakers addressing various trending topics. One standout presentation focused on Accessibility in iOS, a subject gaining importance. Another highlight covered bidirectional streaming communication using gRPC with ProtoBuf. My favorite was Hidde van der Ploeg’s “Improve Your App with Quick Wins,” where the Dutch speaker explored minor code improvements that substantially boost app performance. The day wrapped up with two excellent presentations from Macedonian speakers: Nikita Gerasimovski discussed ScrollView optimization in SwiftUI through his PizzaApp, and Martin Mitrevski presented on writing performant SwiftUI code.
Day Two
The second day proved equally energetic with compelling topics. Ivana Mickoska delivered a noteworthy presentation on App Store Optimization (ASO), providing strategies for improving app visibility on the App Store. Orce Mihailov’s session on app security offered practical guidance for strengthening app protection. Donny Wals, a recognized figure in the iOS community, discussed when to stop refining your app’s codebase and rebuild from scratch. My top pick was Jordi Bruin, who built and published a macOS app to the App Store in just 30 minutes using the Gumroad platform. His app’s straightforward yet practical function created appropriate screenshots for the App Store for VisionPro by cropping larger images to required dimensions. He repurposed substantial code from previous apps and even used ChatGPT for code generation. This was undeniably the day’s standout moment.
VisionPro Hands-On
A conference highlight was the chance to test VisionPro. Given its premium price and restricted availability, this marked the first opportunity for many attendees, myself included, to experience Apple’s new technology directly. I was excited to try the Apple headset, playing two games: one involved disassembling a real plane’s wing, while the other transported me into a dinosaur world. Credit to the organizers for featuring Apple’s newest innovations at the conference.
Closing Thoughts
It was an excellent conference – contemporary, professionally organized, with quality speakers, and showcasing talented Macedonian developers on a major platform. I expect this conference will become an annual gathering for iOS and Apple technologies. As part of N47, it was my pleasure to connect with developers worldwide and reconnect with colleagues from my previous companies. A conference isn’t just about knowledge sharing – it’s an experience, an inspiration, a motivation. Sometimes we as developers encounter stagnant periods in our careers. These events serve as bright spots and sources of inspiration for embracing new challenges.
All talks are available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIvCc1v5F4g&list=PLVKQDFwOy1XZXhFOdWfXKdjCz4r_LBeto
