C4 - Day 1

Friday, August 10, 2007

Today I caught a bus, took a plane, then a train, then grabbed a taxi to get to the C4 conference in Chicago, Illinois. This conference, hosted by Jonathan “Wolf” Rentzsch of Red Shed Software, is for independent developers like myself that are interesteded in trying to make a living by writing and selling Macintosh software.

After picking up my badge, a C4 t-shirt, and a very cool set of C4 dog tags personalized with my name and company name, I joined about 150 like-minded Mac developers for dinner at the City Centre Hotel. After dinner Wolf spoke about the meaning of “indie” as it applies to developers. It doesn’t have to be just a single developer -- it can be a company of hundreds of people. But it does have to involve a group of developers without the big-company mindset.

Next, Wil Shipley, formerly of The Omni Group, and now the creator of Delicious Library, spoke about “hype.” I love listening to Wil speak. He’s easily the one of the best presenters in the Mac software community. He doesn’t pull any punches as he describes his dealings with Apple, big retailers, and his own customers. I had to go pee halfway through his presentation, but stayed in my seat because I wasn’t willing to chance missing any of his sarcastic humor. In addition to being fun, his presentation is full of valuable content based on his experience making loads of money selling Macintosh software.

Afterwards we headed for the hotel’s rooftop pool for drinks and conversations about Mac software development. Then a large group of us continued the party at a nearby pub.

I’m very much looking forward to tomorrow’s presentations. Fortunately breakfast is being served at 10 AM. Perfect for a group of programmers.

0 Comments

« Previous                 Home                 Next »