If recent years have informed anything in my life, it is that life is short and also that life is always changing. So it is with enthusiasm I am coming to London for XDC next month. As you probably recall, we had been trying to host a Xojo Developer Conference in London for years but the COVID-19 pandemic had other ideas. And after a successful XDC in Nashville, Tennessee in 2022, we felt the climate was right and we collected data saying the demand was high. We felt this despite reading again and again about the decline in in-person and virtual event attendance. Developer conferences across the board have been affected by this trend but, in general, business conferences and trade show attendance is down, sporting event attendance is down, church and even school attendance is down.
Now, please don’t worry, the Xojo Developer Conference in London is going to be an excellent event. Check out the growing list of sessions. And to keep XDC excitement high, we are releasing session videos from XDC 2022 over the coming weeks, watch them and get a feel for what a cool event a XDC is! That said, we don’t have plans for a XDC 2024. And that is why I am writing this. More than a few people have mentioned they plan to skip this event. But when attendee numbers aren’t growing like they used to, and the costs and logistics are increasing, XDC and many events like it may not be around next year. In the US, conference costs have gotten astronomically higher as hotels struggle to recover from the pandemic; this is in addition to general inflation and an increased costs of goods. Previous XDC hotels have seen more than 150% increase in cost per night. One hotel that previously hosted a XDC has seen a 300% increase in cost per night. XDC hasn’t ever been profitable, but we have always recognized its importance to the Xojo Community, and we also like it a lot ourselves. Dana works hard to keep the event big and cost low, but that isn’t feasible in a world where hotel costs are up 300%.
I’m not saying XDC is over. After all, we’ve taken breaks from XDC before. I’m saying things change and if you want to come to XDC, you should come to London. If you are thinking perhaps you will come to XDC in 2024, I highly recommend you come to London.
And for those of you who cannot be there, we are keeping an eye on all things conference related and we are listening to what the Xojo Community tells us. Currently, there is a huge demand for live webinars, Xojo has 2 planned for March, and training videos. And we may host more meetups like the one Dana hosted in London in November and the one Geoff hosted last month in California.