Indie Conference
A list of conferences for indies: independent app & game developers, digital nomads, freelancers, bloggers, writers, creatives & makers.
Indies are independent, self-employed, run their own small business,
are bootstrapped, and distribute their creations independently. These
are conferences for anyone who doesn't have a boss, is non-conformist
and unconventional, and lives outside the mainstream.
If that sounds like you, these are the conferences for you.
September 2020
Laracon EU
(3 - 4 September 2020, Amsterdam, Netherlands)
European edition of the conference dedicated to the Laravel PHP framework.
Past speakers included Taylor Otwell, Freek van der Herten and Joe Ferguson.
/dev/world
(2020 to be confirmed, usually early September, Melbourne, Australia)
For Apple developers on macOS, iOS, watchOS or using Swift.
Run by AUC, the Apple University Consortium. Previous year's
keynotes have included Quentin Zervaas
(maker of TransitTimes & Streaks for Apple Watch), Paul Fenwick,
and Michael Shaw of Savage Interactive (makers of Procreate).
iOS Dev UK
(6 - 9 September 2020, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK)
UK based iOS development conference, running since 2011.
Freecon: The Freelance Conference
(Postponed to 2021 due to Coronavirus, 12 - 14 September 2021, Denver, CO, USA)
US conference for freelancers, organized by Emily Leach. Topics
include refining your gig pitch, selling for introverts, mastering
Upwork and growing while staying a solo freelancer. Past speakers
include Pamela Slim, Starley Murray & Brian Clark.
Digital Dragons
(14 - 15 September 2020, Online due to Coronavirus)
The biggest game industry conference in Central Europe.
Features an Indie Showcase of 100 indie games and talks from
100 speakers. The 2017 conference was attended by 1500 people.
AppDevCon
(15 - 18 September 2020, Amsterdam, Netherlands)
A one day conference with three extra days of tutorials
and training sessions. Focuses on iOS and Android mobile app
development. Past speakers include Sebastiaan De With.
DjangoCon Europe
(18 - 19 September 2020, Online due to Coronavirus)
Three days of Django and Python coding talks and workshops.
The conference focuses on clever hacks, cool use cases,
security, pushing Django to its limits, and the challenges
of modern web development.
Business Of Software USA
(21 - 23 September 2020, Online due to Coronavirus)
US version of the conference for anyone running a software business.
Speakers in 2019 included Alex Osterwalder, April Dunford and Sunish Gupta.
Past speakers included David Heinemeier Hansson, Patrick McKenzie,
Laura Roeder and Dharmesh Shah.
Signal
(30 September - 1 October 2020, Online due to Coronavirus)
Hosted by Twilio. Learn how to integrate SMS, VoIP and two-factor
authentication into your apps with their stack.
Past speakers have include Patrick McKenzie (@patio11 / Stripe),
Leah Culver from Dropbox, Michael Kadin from Uber and
Joseph Wilk from Soundcloud.
October 2020
TBEX (Travel Blog Exchange) America
(7 - 9 October 2020, Lafayette, Louisiana, USA)
North American edition of the conference for travel bloggers and
freelance travel writers.
Indie Romance Convention
(7 - 10 October 2020, Lebanon, TN, USA)
For indie romance authors, aspiring authors, readers,
cover artists, editors, bloggers, and fans of the romance genre.
Tickets limited to 40 authors and 55 readers.
DjangoCon US
(Postponed to 2021 due to Coronavirus, 17 - 22 October 2021, San Diego, California, USA)
Six days of Django and Python tutorials, talks, sprints and
networking.
Assembly Summer
(15 - 19 October 2020, Helsinki, Finland)
Summer edition of the longest running Demoscene event in the world.
Alongside its now popular eSports events & LAN party, Assembly focuses
on the intersection of art & technology, primarily through 'Demos'
(short electronic artworks).
IndieCade Europe
(18 - 19 October 2020, Paris, France)
Conference supporting independent game developers
and promoting indie games. Speakers in past years included Cliff
Harris (Cliffski) with "How Not To Go Bankrupt: Surviving 20 Years
As An Indie Game Developer", Cassandra Khaw with "Do The Damn
Time", Lottie Bevan with "Open Production On Sunless Sea And
Sunless Skies", and Paolo Pedercini's talk "Indiepocalypse Now:
Mad Maxing The Attention Economy In The Age Of Cultural
Overproduction".
IndieCade Festival USA
(23 - 24 October 2020, Santa Monica, CA, USA)
Conference & festival of independent video games from around the world.
November 2020
December 2020
Chaos Computer Congress
(2020 to be confirmed, usually late December, Leipzig, Germany)
One of the world's leading events on tech security, DIY hardware, how computing
affects society, and electronic art. Great for embracing the DIY indie ethic.
Hosted by the Chaos Computer Club for over 30 years.
January 2021
No conferences yet this month!
February 2021
Foolscap
(12 - 14 February 2021, Seattle, WA, USA)
A conference for writers, artists and makers. Foolscap focuses
on community, with attendees encouraged to bring books to share
with others and to eat together (and even cook together).
Previous guests of honor have included Nancy Kress, author of the
"Yesterday's Kin" series and winner of six Nebulas and two Hugo
awards.
alphaTECH
(2021 to be confirmed, usually early February, Miami Airport Hilton, FL, USA)
Business and technology conference for business travellers who
spend all their time up in the air. Topics include how to reach 10
million Frequent Flyer Miles through hotel loyalty cards, how to
downsize/rightsize your company 85% cheaper using teleconferencing,
and "What Is Glocal". Keynote presentation is by Ryan Bingham, author
of "What's In Your Backpack". The 2010 conference included a surprise
performance by Young MC of "Bust A Move".
March 2021
Global Indie Meetup @ SXSW 2021
(2021 to be confirmed, Austin TX, USA)
A meetup/networking event for indie record labels, distributors,
indie tech companies and more. Organized by the Association of
Independent Music, so expect a heavy music focus.
Business Of Software Europe
(2021 to be confirmed, usually mid-March, Cambridge, UK)
Conference for anyone past the starting stage and looking
to grow their software business. Derek Sivers (founder of CD
Baby) was speaking in 2019. Speakers in past years have
included Rand Fishkin from Moz, Steli Efti from Close.io and
Bridget Harris from YouCanBookMe.
XOJO.CONNECT
(21 - 23 April 2021, London, UK)
The conference for Xojo developers, a cross-platform RAD development language
inspired by Visual Basic (and evolved from REALbasic).
April 2021
Revision
(2021 to be confirmed, usually mid April, Saarbrücken, Germany)
The world's biggest pure Demoscene party, presenting new
code driven electronic artworks and music.
May 2021
FemtoConf
(2021 to be confirmed, usually early May, Darmstadt, Germany)
A very tiny conference (25 people only) for small self-funded software
companies, also called microISVs. Focuses on meeting people rather
than on talks. Run by Christoph Engelhardt (aka @ITEngelhardt)
UIKonf
(2021 to be confirmed, usually mid May, Berlin, Germany)
A conference for serious indie iOS developers. UIKonf has a strong
social / networking focus, with lots of fun events planned including
kayaking, and a visit to the Computer Games Museum.
June 2021
WWDC: Apple Worldwide Developers Conference
(2021 to be confirmed, usually mid June, San Jose CA, USA)
The official Apple conference for Mac & iOS Developers. Since 2017, Apple
has moved the conference from San Francisco to San Jose.
Tickets to WWDC are now only available via random drawing.
Craft & Commerce
(Postponed to 2021 due to Coronavirus, 11 - 14 June 2021, Boise ID, USA)
Organized by Nathan Barry and ConvertKit, a conference for online
entrepreneurs, especially bloggers, podcasters, and vloggers.
Topics include goal setting, content marketing, money and metrics
and (of course) selling via email, with presentations from
Seth Godin and James Clear.
World Domination Summit: The Finale
(Postponed to 2021 due to Coronavirus, 22 - 27 June 2021, Portland OR, USA)
A conference for freelancers, bloggers, coaches, digital nomads,
minimalists and anyone who wants to live an unconventional life.
WDS was founded by Chris Guillebeau of the blog "The Art Of
Non-Conformity" and has run for 10 years. WDS 2020 will be the
final conference.
IndieWeb Summit
(2021 to be confirmed, usually late June 2020, Portland OR, USA)
An annual gathering of independent web creators of all kinds - writers, artists,
developers, designers and more. Has a focus on personal websites and the
interoperability standards that connect them.
July 2021
Ludicious: Zürich Game Festival
(2021 to be confirmed, usually early July)
Switzerland's biggest game event, with a focus on indie games.
Their games business track in previous years featured presentations
from Eric Zimmerman of Gamelab (makers of Diner Dash) and Koh Kim
from Google Play Games Development.
August 2021
GDC: Game Developers Conference
(2021 to be confirmed, usually early August, digital online conference)
Mostly for bigger game developers, but also includes the Indie Games
Festival (IGF) for indie developers. Previous editions also included a
Virtual Reality Developers Conference.
360|iDev
(2020 to be confirmed, usually mid August)
Regarded by many as the best Mac, iOS, tvOS and watchOS developer
conference for indies. Past speakers have included Dave Wiskus,
Jean MacDonald & Janie Clayton.
The Conference
(Postponed to 2021 due to Coronavirus, usually late August, Malmö, Sweden)
"Exploring Complexity In A Digital World". 2017 speakers include Chris Grantham from Ideo,
while past speakers have included Derek Sivers, Aral Balkan and Anita Sarkeesian.
Set in Malmö, one of the most beautiful startup cities in the world.
Laracon Online
(2020 to be confirmed, usually late August)
Conference dedicated to the Laravel PHP framework. In past years
speakers included Ryan Holiday (author of The Obstacle Is the Way),
Jason Fried (founder of Basecamp), Samantha Geitz (senior developer
at Tighten), Evan You (creator of Vue.js), Justin Jackson
and Jeffrey Way (of Laracasts).
DIY Musician Conference
(27 - 29 August 2021, Austin TX, USA)
Conference for indie musicians & songwriters run by CD Baby.
Past speakers include Jack Conte (CEO of Patreon) and Bob Boilen
(host of NPR's All Songs Considered).
LTV Conference
(Postponed to late 2020 due to Coronavirus, San Francisco CA, USA)
The "Life. Time. Value" conference for SaaS developers.
A conference for people who are already selling their own services
but know they can do better. Past speakers
include Rachel Andrew of Perch, Patrick McKenzie from Stripe,
Laura Roeder from Edgar, George Palmer of SendOwl,
and Alex Hillman of 30x500.
Did I miss a conference? (Yes, even if it's a conference you're
organizing yourself!)
Send me details of other conferences via the
contact page.
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