I haven't been to a WWDC in my life. I have no idea about what the quality of the giveaways or service has been before or was now. But it seems to me that, if the quality of those drops significantly, which Matt says it has, it's worth bringing up.
The giveaways shouldn't be the reason you go to a conference, that's right. However, there's no reason whatsoever the service shouldn't be as good as it can be. I'm fairly positive that poor service, and indeed guards "herding people" can put a damper on a conference, no matter how informational, productive and fun otherwise. I don't see Matt poo-pooing the factual nature of the conference or the more extravagant extra efforts (campus bash, stump the experts, ADA), but if your experience is not enjoyable, it could be a factor in deciding not to go next year. There's no reason for Apple to blow this feedback off, even if the service could be deemed "good enough". The Apple I know wouldn't settle for "good enough".
That said, I do have a theory why it's worse this year. Apple had over 1000 engineers on site this year, as opposed to over 500 engineers last year. If there's a bonus salary somewhere, that could well have affected the budget.
by Jesper — Aug 29
The giveaways shouldn't be the reason you go to a conference, that's right. However, there's no reason whatsoever the service shouldn't be as good as it can be. I'm fairly positive that poor service, and indeed guards "herding people" can put a damper on a conference, no matter how informational, productive and fun otherwise. I don't see Matt poo-pooing the factual nature of the conference or the more extravagant extra efforts (campus bash, stump the experts, ADA), but if your experience is not enjoyable, it could be a factor in deciding not to go next year. There's no reason for Apple to blow this feedback off, even if the service could be deemed "good enough". The Apple I know wouldn't settle for "good enough".
That said, I do have a theory why it's worse this year. Apple had over 1000 engineers on site this year, as opposed to over 500 engineers last year. If there's a bonus salary somewhere, that could well have affected the budget.