I started the try! Swift Conference 5 years ago because I was passionate about connecting the global Swift community in a personal way. There is something magical about traveling to a big city whose culture you might have never experienced before, learning from experienced Swift developers and asking them questions, and sharing a meal with other developers from around the world.

Since then, I’ve hosted try! Swift in Tokyo, New York, Bangalore, and San Jose. It’s been a truly magical experience to connect with so many friends all over the world. Despite us all being from different countries, cultures, backgrounds, we were always able to connect and become good friends. If you’ve attended a try! Swift, you know the feeling.

Unfortunately, given the current world situation, we made the decision to cancel try! Swift Tokyo & now NYC this year. The try! Swift Tokyo team, lead by @d_date, has been working tirelessly on the event for the past year and made the courageous decision to cancel the event a month before it was to happen in mid-March. This would have been the 5th year of try! Swift Tokyo.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to re-create a similar experience online. And to be honest, at first, I didn’t want to. I was mourning the fact that we cannot all meet in person right now – I know I’m not alone in feeling that way. After all, that’s the ideal experience. And try! Swift’s top values have always included creating deep personal experiences. I couldn’t conceptualize an alternative where this wouldn’t be possible.

But after a while of mourning and feeling sad about all of this, I realized that I can do something about continuing to help keep the Swift community connected during this time. It’s not my time to step out, but to step up and step in. It’s just that the online experience cannot be simply putting a conference online. It needs to connect Swift developers from around the world in a personal way, where they can get to know each other, learn together, and become friends.

With this in mind, an idea came to me…

Hello, try! Swift World

Say hello to try! Swift World. Instead of just one big conference, try! Swift World will be a continuous set of workshops taught by top Swift developers from around the World in a personal way. Each workshop will be limited to only 10 participants, so everyone has a chance to connect and get their questions answered. The first set of workshops will start on May 4th (May the 4th be with you!).

Magician @chrisbritt, who we’ve worked with over many years at live try! Swifts, will be joining the workshops to start them off in a fun way along with a few others. We are also planning to have a Social Hour event on Saturdays for those who participate in the workshop each week. This is only the start. We’re happy to adjust, get feedback, and change as needed by the community until we are back to meeting in person again.

May 4th – 8th Workshops include:

Creating forms with SwiftUI by Jeroen Zonneveld

An Introduction to Testing Logic with Unit Tests by Bas Broek

Lightspeed SwiftUI by Paul Hudson

KeyPaths: understanding the basics and more by Vincent Pradeilles

First steps in Combine by Daniel Steinberg

Using Core Data with SwiftUI by Samuel Goodwin

We expect these to sell out fast given how small we’re keeping them, but don’t worry, the same workshops might be taught in the future and we’ll be adding more each week. Check out the try! Swift website to register for these workshops and sign up to find out about future ones.

Economic Hardship

Currently, we set the workshop price at $50 / person. This payment will help support the future try! Swift as well as pay the instructors for their hard work and time. That said, we understand the current climate of economic uncertainty and we’d like to make sure everyone who would like to attend a workshop can do so despite the cost. If this includes you, please apply for an Economic Hardship Scholarship here.

Interested in sponsoring an Economic Hardship scholarship? Send us an email at world@tryswift.co.

Diversity

Diversity has always been a top priority for try! Swift, and try! Swift World is no exception. We have a Code of Conduct and are working to make sure that each workshop is a safe space for everyone. We would like to offer Diversity Scholarships here for anyone who needs it. Thanks Hacking with Swift for sponsoring the first ones.

One thing I must note (an elephant in the room so to say) is that if you go on the try! Swift World website right now, you might not see much diversity. Rest assured that we have commitment from really great Swift Developers of various backgrounds to teach. We’re just waiting for final details from them to post on our website. Sorry about that!

Interested in sponsoring a Diversity scholarship? Send us an email at world@tryswift.co.

We can use your help…

We are looking for help in a few areas:

Sponsors for Economic Hardship and Diversity scholarships

Sponsors who would like to participate in other ways – including sponsoring a Saturday Social Hour

Volunteers to help with each workshop

Companies currently hiring and would like to promote available jobs to those who need them in the community

We’re looking for more instructors. Apply here if you’d like to lead a workshop!

Contact us at world@tryswift.co if you are in a position to help or if you have any other ideas or thoughts. We’re happy to hear back from the community and adjust as needed in these times.

I hope to see you in a try! Swift World workshop until we meet again.

Natasha