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WWDC 2012 – The Keynote |

WWDC 2012 – The Keynote

In the queueIf you’re going to go to WWDC, there’s one tradition you must partake in above all else. And that’s the attending the opening keynote!

Since I’d never been to WWDC before, I went around and asked some of the veterans what time they thought would be best to start lining up for the keynote. Several recommended 5:00am, others recommended 3:30am and a certain sexy Apple engineer wearing a pink shirt even recommended 11:30pm the night before!

Since I knew waiting in a line from 11:30 would absolutely destroy me, and I didn’t want to risk missing out by going at 5 (given how fast the tickets went!), I decided to join the 3:30 contingent. So after a rather brief sleep, we all woke up at 3:30, met in the lobby and headed down to Moscone West to line up!

Blimey was the line already long! Already, the line had gone from the entrance, down the width of the block and around the corner. By 5:00, it had already continued down the entire length of the block and around the corner. By the time we were actually let into the building, it had already wrapped around the entire block, and the back of the line was right next to the entrance!

This is how long the line was from orbit. XD The back of the line, visible from the front!

Either way, it was a pretty enjoyable experience hanging out in the line. There were plenty of people to chat to, and I was able to knock off a sizeable amount on iComics. 😀 It was also pretty amazing that a lot of people representing other companies were walking down the line and handing out free stuff like cups of coffee and brownies, doing a bit of much well-received advertising.


One of the brownies being handed out to people in the WWDC 2012 line

We were let in at about 7:30 where we were promptly taken to the second floor of Moscone West. Up there, there was a huge array of coffee and donuts at our disposal, and we sat on the floor to wait for the actual keynote. After another hour or so of waiting, we were finally taken to the top floor, where all of the posters announcing new features of iOS 6 were covered up with sheets of black cloth.

The waiting line inside Moscone West

After walking past all of that yet-to-be-announced stuff, we were directed into the Presidio room, which had been fully decked out for the keynote. It was big. SERIOUSLY big. By the time we had made it in there, the first 30 rows or so had been cordoned off, which I was guessing was for VIPs and the press. Thanks to our getting up at 3:30, we actually had some really nice seats up close to the cordoned area. On either side of the room, a ridiculous amount of cameras from news stations were set up.

The press with their cameras at WWDC 2012

It was at about this time that someone form Wired.com took a photo of me and one of my buddies, which made their liveblog! XD

Wired.com snapped my buddy and I in this photo aptly named 'sea of nerds' XD

And finally, after all of that, the keynote started at 10:00 on the dot.

Tim Cook at his best at the WWDC 2012 Keynote

I have to admit. Sitting in an Apple WWDC keynote is a very surreal thing. I’ve seen recordings of these things on iTunes for several years, so seeing one as it actually unfolded was absolutely amazing. Since we were the absolute first people to be receiving Apple’s new announcements, I felt compelled to try and tweet as much of it as I could. Yet at the same time, I just wanted to sit there and enjoy it. Next time, I might just leave all the tweeting to the journalists. XD

I probably don’t have to talk too much about the keynote itself as all of that has been recorded. But it was extremely interesting to watch the crowd around me and seeing their reactions to all of the announcements. Some announcements garnered a complete ‘meh’ (Facebook integration on iOS XD), and others had the entire room losing their s**t (Retina MacBook!).

In any case, lining up for and then attending the keynote was just the beginning of an even better week ahead. It was definitely one of those awesome lifetime experiences. And I’m glad I decided to go at 3:30… XD

  • Published June 27, 2012
  • Categories Tech