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.

There is no shortage of things to see, do, eat, drink and experience in London. There is something to appease every interest – from history to food, fashion, music, the arts and everything in between. Having so much extracurricular options makes London the ideal city to host the Xojo Developer Conference.

XDC will take place from Wednesday, April 26th through Friday, April 28th at the Hilton Euston. With London being such a large city there’s no shortage of hotels. We chose this hotel because it had the right amount of meeting space and availability, is in a very accessible location and we’ve stayed there before (as recently as last week!) and it’s been positive, comfortable and the staff is friendly and helpful. There are a lot of options for food in the area, as well as coffee and breakfast, it’s just a 2 minute walk to Costa and Pret a Manger.

The rate the hotel is offering our group includes both breakfast and VAT, however, if this hotel is not in line with your budget, take a look on Google Maps- there are several hotels in the area. If you are traveling with kids, the Hilton Euston does offer family rooms, you can find those via their main booking site or on Hotels.com.

Many of you have asked for a blog post listing things to do in London and there are no shortage of those already in existence, I won’t reinvent the wheel:

• First time in London? Start here.
• Get Tickets to the London Theater
• London Hop On Hop Off Tour & Thames Cruise Information
• See what concerts are coming to London – The Flaming Lips, Blue October and Postmodern Jukebox are all performing the weekend after XDC
• 101 best shops in London
• Best day trips from London
• London Natural History Museum
• National Gallery – See Monet, Manet, Van Gogh and more!
• The British Museum
• Tate Britain
• Tower of London
• List of Museums in London
• London’s Parks
• Film locations in London
• List of guided walking tours
• Public transportation information – the stations close to the hotel are Euston, Euston Square and King’s Cross/St. Pancras

If you are a Harry Potter fan, add these to your list:

• Blog Post with details about the Harry Potter Tour
• Harry Potter Tour Information
• Tip: Check out the Harry Potter store and brick wall at King’s Cross Station

For something random, if you like optical illusions check out Twist Museum on Oxford Street. It’s not free, like many of the museums in London, but it is quite interesting and doesn’t take too long. A nice break if you’re visiting Selfridge’s for some shopping!

As you can see there is no shortage of activities and entertainment in London, this list could be so much longer! We have an exciting 3-day conference planned with great sessions and the whole Xojo Team is looking forward to seeing everyone. We hope you will join us – save on your registration when you sign up by February 14th!

William Yu grew up in Canada learning to program BASIC on a Vic-20. He is Xojo’s resident Windows and Linux engineer, among his many other skills. Some may say he has joined the dark side here in the USA, but he will always be a Canadian at heart.

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The environment at XDC is one of a kind. As Marc Zeedar said of the Nashville Conference in xDev Magazine, “Xojo itself is a unique product and the community is special; we really are a family. That’s evident at events like this and it’s a connection you just can’t form online as easily. I am looking forward to whatever comes next.”

Attending an XDC you’ll find everyone, including the Xojo Team, is approachable, willing to help and eager to hear about how you use Xojo. Karen Bintz has attended XDC multiple times, she said, “I’ve found this to be one of the most open groups of developers that I’ve ever encountered. At the company level all the way up through the CEO and the other developers who are attending are all very approachable, very willing to help and have discussions. It’s a great environment!”

Another multi-year attendee is Kem Tekinay, whose popular sessions range from MemoryBlocks to Text Encodings, said “The benefit of the XDC is not just in the sessions. Those are very valuable, to be sure, as you gain information and perspective from experienced professionals. It’s not solely in the unfettered access to the Xojo engineers who are eager to share their vast knowledge of the IDE, language, and direction of the product. Perhaps more important than these are the fellow attendees, your colleagues, who arrive as strangers and leave as valuable friends. The collective experience of these seasoned pros is unmatched and irreplaceable.”

Call for Speakers

We are now accepting session proposals for XDC London. If you have ever thought about presenting at a conference, this is your chance, plus all speakers get a 50% discount on their conference ticket! Send your proposed session topic and short description to xdc@xojo.com on or before January 10th, 2023.

Why become a XDC speaker?

• Boost your resume or CV with presentation experience.
• Share a tip or helpful topic that you think others can benefit from.
• Detail your experiences so others can learn from your success (or mistakes).

Pricing

Registering early has many benefits: it guarantees you a spot, it helps us with planning and it gets you the best price. For this conference we are introducing registration at our lowest price yet. All 3 days, including lunch, dinner, sessions, evening events, and session videos, is $475 now through December 31, 2022. After that time the price increases, full price is $700. Register now!

Accommodations

The conference will take place at the Hilton London Euston. This is conveniently located a few minutes walk from St. Pancras, so if you’re coming to London via the Eurostar you won’t have far to go. It’s also very easy to get to via the Underground from Heathrow and other airports. We have an arranged rate of £229/night, which does include breakfast, and though you do not have to stay at the conference hotel, we do recommend it. The booking link will be available soon.

Getting to London

If you’re coming from Europe, flights are affordable to get to London. To make it easy here are the flight prices during our date range from a few major cities:

• Amsterdam: $138
• Berlin: $102
• Frankfurt: $126
• Brussels: $113
• Paris: $85
• Dublin: $65
• Belfast: $45
• Madrid: $89
• Vienna: $109
• Salzburg: $113
• Rome: $101
• Stockholm: $84
• Prague: $124
• Lisbon $84
• Oslo: $67
• Athens: $120

To give you some idea, Eurostar (return) from Paris is $127 and from Brussels is $116.

From North America, there are many nonstop options. Austin, for example, now has two nonstop flights (on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic) that are around $700. Some North American options to consider:

• New York: $370
• Boston: $551
• Atlanta: $684
• Houston: $638
• Los Angeles: $620
• Chicago: $488
• Vancouver: $652
• Montreal: $593

Registration

Registration for XDC London is now open! There is a discussion on the forum about it here. We will be updating the schedule soon with more information once sessions are ready to announce, etc. In the meantime if you have any questions please write us and xdc@xojo.com. Hope to see you in London!

Last week while traveling in London I hosted a Xojo meetup. This was a social event where local developers could meet, share ideas, ask questions and get to know each other. Many of us who attended the Xojo Developer Retreat in Nashville were excited we got to see each other twice in such a short timeframe.

Though a small gathering, which was slightly affected by the possibility of train strikes, it was refreshing to get the opportunity to chat with everyone there. Most people were attending locally, but Xojo Engineer Javier Menéndez flew over from Valencia, Spain and MVP Jérémie Leroy attended from Paris, France. We got a lot of great feedback, the most popular being that there is a lot of enthusiasm to finally host a London Xojo Developer Conference. All I can say at this time is… we hope to! I had a great time getting to know everyone and hope to do another meetup again soon somewhere in the world!

Let’s move forward with the idea that anything can happen and we’ll plan for the best – so go get your passport now and check the expiration date! If you need to renew so you can travel to London uninterrupted, I suggest you start the process now. The US Passport office is 1.2 million applications behind and processing times are months longer than expected. I experienced this personally when I had to renew my kids passports earlier this year – their applications were sent in late January with standard 6-8 weeks processing time. The passports didn’t show up until June (unfortunately our vacation was cancelled anyways).

Hope to see you all in London!