Swift Thoughts on try!Swift NYC 2018
Tags: swift
Published: 2018-09-11 12:16:35

---
title: Swift Thoughts on try!Swift NYC 2018
published: true
description: I have to say I had a great time at try!Swift New York this year. I have been to many developer conferences over the years but lately I have been attending mostly business and startup conferences. Additionally, this is the first Apple developer conference I have ever attended as opposed to hosting, attending, and speaking at a Cocoaheads groups. This was a new environment. I wanted to get a feel of where the winds are blowing in Swift and there were some interesting trends to the topics presented.
tags: swift
---

![Everybody at try!Swift](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/m4l9lascwpkmwdx4i71q.jpeg)

I have to say I had a great time at [try!Swift New York](https://www.tryswift.co/events/2018/nyc/) this year. I have been to many developer conferences over the years but lately I have been attending mostly business and startup conferences (i.e. [MicroConf](https://www.microconf.com) and [Release Notes](https://releasenotes.tv)).

Additionally, this is the first Apple developer conference I have ever attended as opposed to [hosting](https://www.meetup.com/Lansing-CocoaHeads/), attending, and [speaking](https://www.meetup.com/A2-CocoaHeads/events/246212307/) at a Cocoaheads groups. This was a new environment.

I wanted to get a feel of where the winds are blowing in Swift and there were some interesting trends to the topics presented:

### ARKit and CoreML

Big surprise right! 🙃

Apple has been showcasing and backing these technologies for a while. Except for my occasional attempts at creating models, I haven’t been doing enough in this area and these talks reinforce my need to do so. [Aileen Nielsen](https://twitter.com/tryswiftnyc) really broke down how Machine Learning works. [Berta Devant](https://twitter.com/bertadevant) explained how ARKit does face tracking and can be used. [Audrey Tam](https://twitter.com/mataharimau) explained how to build your own model using Apple’s new tools. [Kentaro Matsumae](https://twitter.com/kenmaz) showed a great application using his *Super Resolution* technique. Overall the need to invest time in Machine Learning technology will continue to grow.

### Swift on the Server

Swift on the server is real and there is real coroporate backing to it. I happen to attend the workshop by IBM on [Kitura](https://www.kitura.io) and got a glimpse of how to develop and deploy with Docker and Kubernetes. [Gopal Sharma](https://twitter.com/gopalkri) spoke about the challenges he’s faced with Swift on the server. [Johannes Weiss](https://twitter.com/johannesweiss) spoke about [SwiftNIO](https://github.com/apple/swift-nio) which is the future of client and server side communication. [Chris Bailey](https://twitter.com/Chris__Bailey) & [Ian Partridge](https://twitter.com/alfa) went into detail of Kitura’s deployment process and its future and [Logan Wright](https://twitter.com/logmaestro) spoke about [Vapor](https://vapor.codes).

If companies continue to adopt Vapor and Kitura, we’ll continue to see growth in that space. It’s something Swift developers should seriously spend some time understanding.

### Podcasting

Podcasts continue to be hot growing area. I am the host of two podcasts: [OkProductive](https://okproductive.com) and [EmpowerApps.Show](https://www.empowerapps.show). I have followed podcast networks like [Relay Fm](https://www.relay.fm) and [Gimlet](https://www.gimletmedia.com), as well as software creators like [Marco Arment ](https://transistor.fm)and [Justin Jackson](https://transistor.fm). So it was really interesting to see [Leah Culver](https://twitter.com/leahculver) from Breaker talk about their story and what she’s learned about growing a software company. It’ll be interesting to see what other startups flourish in this new industry.

### Other Topics…

Other Swift topics which were of interest to me included:

* [Christina Moulton](https://twitter.com/ChristinaMltn) talking about **Siri Shortcuts**

* [Tom Harrington](https://twitter.com/atomicbird) on [Core Data in Swift](https://halide.cam)

* [Felix Krause](https://twitter.com/KrauseFx) from [Fastlane](https://fastlane.tools) on trusting 3rd-party SDKs

* [Peter Steinberger](https://twitter.com/steipete) on hacking Marzipan (i.e. using UIKit to build Mac Apps)

* [Kaya Thomas](https://twitter.com/kthomas901) on building advanced notifications

* [Sebastiaan de With](https://twitter.com/sdw) on building delightful user interfaces at Apple and now with [Halide](https://halide.cam)

### Conclusion

try!Swift was a great conference and a great opportunity to meet a lot of great people in the Swift space. If you are in the Swift space, especially a beginner, I would definitely recommend checking it out.

*Originally published at [Learning Swift](https://learningswift.brightdigit.com/swift-thoughts-tryswift-nyc-2018/).*