Introduction

Hello. My name is Nakaguchi and I am the team leader of the iOS team in the Mobile Development Group. In my day-to-day job, I'm involved in iOS development for:

• KINTO Kantan Moushikomi App (KINTO Easy Application App)
• Prism Japan (Smartphone app version / Recently released web version)
  As a retrospective of iOSDC Japan 2024, held from Thursday, August 22nd to Saturday, August 24th, we hosted the [iOSDC JAPAN 2024 AFTER PARTY] on Monday, September 9th, 2024. I'd like to reflect on why I held the event, the preparations leading up to it, and how it went. In particular, regarding the part about "why it was held," I will present my own thoughts, and I would be happy if many people can relate to them.
  This blog is for:
• Those who participated in this event
• Those who attended iOSDC
• Those who often participate or would like to participate in events
• Those who organize or would like to organize events
  
  
  
  I'm also writing this as a Tech Blog post to share my experience with as many people as possible, because my own motivation has exploded by hosting this event.

Why I Held the Event

This event has been planned in my mind since around April.
If you ask me why I planned it, I honestly don't think I'd be able to express it in words.
Since I took on the role of team leader in October of last year, I have made an effort to attend many events that interest me, not only those related to iOS, but also those related to development productivity, organizational management, engineering managers, and so on.
In the midst of this, I noticed the following feelings arising.

• Participating in an event really boosts your motivation.
• The people who speak at events and organize them are so cool!
  If I had to put my feelings into words, it would be: "It's kind of cool! I want to host an event myself!" That's how I felt back in April.
  However, the purpose of an event that involves investing a lot of resources, such as money, time, and people, cannot be explained simply by "because it's cool."
  After that, I begin to struggle within myself about the significance of hosting an event.
  Even now that the event has ended, I don't think I've yet reached a clear answer. (I'm just grateful that we were able to hold the event under such ambiguous circumstances.)
  
  
  
  When hosting an event as part of an organization, certain expectations are inevitably placed upon you.
  Commonly mentioned benefits include "increasing the organization's presence," "spreading the word about services," "leading to recruitment," etc. I think these are all great benefits of holding an event properly, and if these results appear, I think the event can be called a great success.
  However, there are some aspects that I personally don't feel quite right about. I believe that most participants in IT industry events attend for the purpose of self-improvement, such as "I want to acquire new knowledge," "I want to expand my network," or "I enjoy participating in the event itself," and I think it is very rare for people to attend events because they want to know what kind of organization the organizer is, what services they offer, or want to change jobs to that company.
  
  
  

In the midst of this, after struggling with the significance of holding events, I came to my own conclusion.

"I want my motivation to be contagious to as many people as possible."

As I mentioned above, when I participate in an event, I feel a huge boost in motivation, and I think many others feel the same way. I believe that if there is even one more person who wants to work harder tomorrow, the accumulation of those efforts will lead to the betterment of the world.
Also, as motivation increases, some people may want to host events like I did, or speak at one. In turn, others will see this and want to do the same. I believe that good motivation like this is surely contagious!

So, at this stage, I decided to hold this event with the thought that "I want my motivation to be contagious to as many people as possible" as the significance of the event (although I hadn’t organized my thoughts to this extent back in April when I first came up with the idea).
(And, from an organizational perspective, the mere fact that it increases motivation does not mean that we should start holding events one after another, so it looks like the days of struggle will continue for a while.)

Next, I would like to give you an overview of this event.

Event Overview

Event name: iOSDC JAPAN 2024 AFTER PARTY


Date and time: Monday, September 9, 2024 from 19:00


Participants: Around 20 people


Three companies: WealthNavi, TimeTree, and us held a joint meeting as the iOSDC Retrospective.
There were three LT presentations, one from each company, plus a panel discussion with three people, one from each company.


Now, let me introduce the process leading up to this event.

Until the Event

In April, I came up with the idea to hold a mobile development-related event, but I was unsure how to proceed.
We have a Developer Relations Group (DevRel) that provides support for event management, so I thought that if I reached out to them, I could run the event smoothly without any issues.
On the other hand,

• Attracting attendees
• Calling for speakers
• Deciding on the theme of the event

are challenging even with the support of our Developer Relations Group. Therefore, we've determined that organizing a mobile-related event on our own would be difficult.
Under this circumstance, we wanted to ask Findy for their help, as they put a lot of effort into hosting events and have extensive know-how in attracting attendees and recruiting speakers. So, we attended this event which was held in May.
I have also posted a blogEvent Participation Report, so please take a look.
This event gave us the opportunity to exchange information with the person in charge at Findy. After much discussion about what kind of event to hold, we were introduced to WealthNavi and TimeTree, and decided to hold an iOSDC retrospective event.
I want to extend my thanks to Findy for their advice and help in organizing the event, and to WealthNavi and TimeTree for co-hosting the event.

After the three companies decided to hold an iOSDC Retrospective, many things were decided smoothly, including:

• How to structure the event
• Speakers and panelists for the panel discussion
• Date and time of the event
  Now that the event recruitment page on Connpass has been successfully completed, the next step is to recruit participants.
  This time, all three companies shared the desire to place emphasis on communication with event participants, so the event was offline only. Since the event was held in our company's event space, we aimed to recruit around 30 people, given the capacity.
  We opened the Connpass page on Thursday, August 8th, 2024, and within a few days we had about 10 people register to attend, which we thought was a good number of participants. However, the actual event promotion would take place from August 22nd to 24th, when the iOSDC would be held, so I thought it would be up to us to see how much we could increase participation during that period. This year, we displayed our first sponsor booth, which allowed us to promote the event there and carry out PR by posting on our official X page during the iOSDC period.
  
  
  As a result, the number of registrations that increased during the iOSDC period was
  
  
  
  "0"
  
  
  
  ...!
  
  
  To be honest, I was lazy about the event's call for participants.
  Looking back, I think there was a need to improve the way we promoted the event at the sponsor booth. Rather than just handing out flyers, we should have put more thought into creating a flow of people to register on the spot (for example, handing out novelties to people who registered).
  Here is a reminder for next time.
  In fact, when we checked the statistics on the event page on Connpass, we could see that there were absolutely no registrations between August 22nd (Thu) and 24th (Sat), and that there was no increase in page views at all.
  Statistics confirmed by Connpass

After that, up until Monday, September 9th, participants gradually registered at the pace shown in the image above. I also had the opportunity to take the time to announce the event when I attended another company's event, so we were able to have 24 participants registered as of the day of the event.
I felt that the theme of "iOSDC Retrospective Event" was effective in drawing in a certain number of people.
Although we did not reach our initial goal of 30 registrations, I personally felt that the number of registrants was more than sufficient for the first organized event.



Now all that was left was to wait for the day.

On the Day of Event

These kinds of events are often subject to cancellation on the day of the event for a variety of reasons. In fact, several participants unfortunately canceled on the day of this event as well.
However, with the day arriving, I didn't have the time to be overly excited or upset about the increase or decrease in the number of participants.
We focused on making this an event that was worth attending for co-hosts WealthNavi and TimeTree, as well as for all participants who joined us on the day.
Here's a quick look back at what happened on the day.



We waited nervously for everyone to arrive. The venue seemed to be set up. Venue set-up completed



It was 7pm, and with WealthNavi, TimeTree, and all the participants present, the first LT session was about to begin.

"DX: Digital transformation starting with Package.swift" presented by Muta-san from WealthNavi.

Muta-san's presentation
I learned a lot from his explanation of the basics of Swift Package Manager, including aspects that I thought I knew but actually did not. I believe it was a valuable opportunity to hear about the initiatives of WealthNavi and what they envision for the future. I also learned a lot from the explanation of Swift 6, which is coming up soon.
Next is the second LT.

"Morphological Analysis of iSODC Proposals to Explore Trend Transitions" presented by Sakaguchi-san from TimeTree.

Sakaguchi-san's presentation
I was very interested in this presentation from the moment I saw the title. I have attended iOSDC several times in the past, and I feel that there are certain trends in the sessions, which was interesting to see reflected in the proposals. In addition, this analysis tool was created using Xcode, and it was fun to see it being demonstrated on a simulator during the presentation.
Next is the third LT.

"I want to share what we did before our first exhibit at iOSDC" presented by Hinomori-san from KINTO Technologies.

Hinomori-san's presentation

Since this was our first time exhibiting at a sponsor booth, he shared the challenges we faced during the preparation period. I was also involved in preparing some of the exhibits, and it was quite difficult to figure out through trial and error what kind of content would resonate with visitors and how to make it more visually appealing.
Please take a look at what we produced as a sponsor, which is introduced in more detail on the Tech Blog here.

Next, there was a panel discussion, followed by a break and a toast.
The panelists are:

• Cho-san from WealthNavi
• Masaichi-san from TimeTree
• Hinomori-san from KINTO Technologies
  And I was the moderator of the session.
  Panel Discussion Members
  These topics were prepared in advance as we looked back on the iOSDC.
  The topics were decided after interviewing the panelists in advance to find out what kind of content they would be interested in.
  Panel Discussion Topics
  Due to time constraints, we were unable to discuss all the topics, but we made a conscious effort to proceed by observing the topic at hand and picking out topics that fit the flow of the moment.
  They talked about the status of iOS development at each company, their efforts towards iOSDC, and the changes this year compared to previous years.
  Panelists
  
  
  
  
  

Finally, a group photo was taken with all participants.
Group photo

Thoughts After the Event

As I mentioned at the beginning, I started planning for this event around April and was able to hold it. I was constantly anxious about whether the event could be held smoothly, whether the participants would show up, and whether my moderation on the day would go well.
I personally feel that we were able to hold a very successful event, thanks to the cooperation of WealthNavi and TimeTree, our co-hosts, as well as the support of the Developer Relations Group and the organizing staff on the day of the event. Of course, everyone who participated on the day made the event a great success. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who was involved in this event.

● What I liked

It was invaluable to be able to connect with other companies such as WealthNavi, TimeTree, and Findy when hosting the event. Additionally, this was my first time organizing an event, I gained confidence from being able to successfully complete it.

● What I'd like to improve in the future

As I mentioned earlier, I find it quite challenging to attract participants. Since I haven't found a good solution to this yet, I'd like to carefully consider it with everyone involved the next time we organize the event.
I also wish more team members from our iOS team could have participated this event. At this event, Assistant Manager Hinomori-san took the stage as a LT speaker and panelist. While he usually has many opportunities to speak at events, I wanted to encourage team members who don't often get the chance to take on that challenge. However, when we reached out for speakers within the company, there were no volunteers from the team members, so we decided to have Hinomori-san take the stage.
I personally feel that there are major areas for improvement going forward, such as making efforts to lower the hurdles to speaking at the internal recruitment stage and establishing a support system for preparing for speaking sessions.

Conclusion

In October, we are planning to hold a review event for Doroidkaigi 2024 together with WealthNavi and TimeTree, and we hope to continue holding such events on an irregular basis in the future.
As I said at the beginning, "I want to spread motivation to as many people as possible," and I feel that the person who was most motivated by this event was none other than myself. If there were participants who felt that their motivation had increased, then I would consider this event a great success. I'd like to continue to motivate everyone involved through various activities, including holding events like this one.