Apple promoting developer community events in San Francisco during WWDC week including AltConf

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off in just a few weeks on June 13th in San Francisco, but high demand and limited venue space means Apple can’t accommodate every developer who wants to attend. This year Apple is responding positively by promoting other developer community events taking place in San Francisco during the week of WWDC.

Apple shared this message on its developer news portal today:

Apple’s developer community will come together at WWDC16 in San Francisco to see the future of Apple platforms and connect with thousands of developers from all around the world. In addition to the activities planned for conference attendees, a variety of other exciting developer events will take place throughout the week in San Francisco. If you’re attending the conference or will be in the area during WWDC, learn about these other developer events.

The update links to the official WWDC attendee site, which now promotes four non-WWDC events happening in San Francisco where developers can potentially meet up without attending Apple’s conference. Specifically, Apple is promoting AltConf 2016, Layers, The Loop’s Beard Bash 2016, and a live recording of The Talk Show with John Gruber.

Apple actively promoting AltConf 2016 is especially notable as the conference has had a  tricky history with the company. AltConf originally started as AltWWDC back in 2013, then changed its name to AltConf to avoid trouble with using Apple’s conference name. Then Apple took issue with AltConf promoting live streams of WWDC, which were available on the web, before reversing its position and allowing the keynote to be streamed to AltConf attendees.

Promoting the live recording of The Talk Show with John Gruber may also suggest Apple will once again be involved with this year’s taping. Apple surprised everyone last year with a lengthy and mostly candid interview with Marketing SVP Phil Schiller during the event. Apple execs Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi have also made appearances on the podcast since last year.

You can check out our ongoing roundup of WWDC 2016 expectations here, and stay tuned for more coverage ahead of the June 13th keynote where we expect to see iOS 10, OS X 10.12, and the next versions of tvOS and watchOS on stage.