UIKonf is an independent international conference in Berlin about developing apps on Apple platforms and I have been involved in organizing it since 2014 after Sabine, Maxim and I took over from the original team Chris, Peter and Matt.

We took the conference from about 200 attendees to about 500 while still keeping the open, social and inclusive atmosphere, which is the defining characteristic of UIKonf. When we first started, I remember being very worried about if we could sell enough tickets to cover the costs and if great speakers from all over the world would accept our invites and show up but it all worked out. UIKonf quickly outgrew its original home venue and found a new bigger home by the river Spree.

In addition to inviting experienced speakers, it has been always very important to us to be able to give new voices a platform to be heard. We have been running a double-blind call for proposals from the beginning in order to give everybody a level playing field. Many of UIKonf’s best talks were not invited but were submitted to our CfP and selected by the community.

But a great atmosphere, a great location, great speakers are only part of the story. Our industry is infamous for its lack of diversity. We worked very hard to achieve a diverse speaker line up on stage at UIKonf. Year after year we kept doing our part, but year after year others did not think twice about putting all-white-men on stage, because “finding women speakers is hard”.

We decided to raise more awareness about this problem: we organized a line up of 18 great women speakers ¹ for UIKonf 2019. When we announced our decision, we were overwhelmed by all the emails of support and encouragement we received. Endless thanks from the bottom of my heart for your support. Go watch the talks and see for yourself that “finding women speakers is hard” is nothing but a cheap excuse.

Organizing the last five years of UIKonf have been an amazing experience and when I look back, I am very proud of what we achieved as a team but have decided that it’s time for me to move on. UIKonf takes a lot of time and energy which I want to focus on my other projects and my family going forward.

It was a unique privilege to be able to organize UIKonf and I am very grateful for the love and support by our community. I cannot thank Sabine, Maxim, Julia, Bianca and last but not least Chrissy enough, who all put in a lot of effort into organizing UIKonf. It was a pleasure working with you!

It’s a bitter sweet departure for me but I am happy to know that UIKonf is in experienced and capable hands with Sabine, Julia, Bianca and Chrissy and they will do an amazing job of taking UIKonf further. I am hugely looking forward to attend UIKonf 2020 and actually to be able to take part in the social events and watch the talks for a change!