I finally got to my first WWDC in 2015. I took the opportunity to scratch my train itch and took an Amtrak out there from Chicago. It was a two-day trip, so I split a roomette with my friend Dan Peterson and it was amazing.
Verizon had decent-to-good 4G nearly the whole way. We hung out in the snack and observation cars a lot, splitting time between working, sightseeing, reading, and striking up conversations with our fellow cross-country strangers.
The original Apple Watch landed just a couple months before WWDC that year, slowly trickling out to people who preordered. Like a good chunk of attendees, I had mine and was busy exploring what it was all about, how its features worked, and how it would fit into my life.
Not being a developer, I was out there for the community and to make new friends. By day I attended AltConf, an excellent new indie conference that runs in parallel and just so happened to be streaming the keynote in the Metreon theater across the street from Moscone West.
My memory wants to say AltConf attendees filled up probably three quarters of the theater. People streamed in, found their seats, silenced their phones, and the show began.
It was a good keynote, but my favorite part happened in the Metreon theater. About 50 minutes in, a cacophony of Apple Watches all beeped nearly at once—according to the Activity features, it was time for us to stand.
We remembered to silence our phones, but it sounded like most of us were not yet in the habit with our Watches. I’m pretty sure no one actually stood, but we all sprung into action to ensure the rest of the keynote went uninterrupted.