Given our goal of serving all the world’s App Makers, the things Appsterdam builds are not intended to be exclusive to Amsterdam, but to duplicated in cities all over the world, franchised by other passionate people who share our vision of building community, encouraging unity, and fostering collaboration.
This is why it gives me great pleasure to introduce our first Appland location, Appsterdam Delft. Delft is a great location for Appsterdam, not just because it’s convenient to people in South Holland, but because it is home to Technische Universiteit Delft, the oldest and largest technical university in the Netherlands, sometimes called the Dutch MIT.
It’s also a lovely town with a rich history, not unlike Amsterdam. We’re kicking things off there just like we did here, with a Meeten en Drinken, this Wednesday (July 27) at 19:00 at:
While we’ll be having our regular Meeten en Drinken at Cafe Bax in Amsterdam at the same time, I and several other Appsterdammers will be in Delft to help kick things off, pass out stickers, and talk about the future of Appsterdam in Delft.
In addition to the evening’s festivities, innovative ICT company and incubator SPING is offering its Grand Cafe to App Makers for the day. Meet your colleagues and spend a couple of hours working beside them. SPING is providing WiFi, coffee, tea and lunch.
One of the goals of the Appsterdam movement is to provide a place for the best and brightest from around the world to come together to make great things and train a new generation of App Makers. This is why we’ve built the world’s most advanced infrastructure for app development here.
It’s also why we’ve been quietly working to bring top names to Amsterdam. By leveraging our network of immigration, business, and tax specialists, we make the decision to come to Amsterdam easy. This is why it gives me great pleasure to welcome the Big Nerd Ranch to Appsterdam.
Big Nerd Ranch will be holding a 7-day iOS Bootcamp here from October 22-28, taught by yours truly. If you want to make apps for the iPhone and iPad, you should attend the iOS Bootcamp. After a brief introduction to my beloved Objective-C language and Cocoa framework, we’ll kick it into overdrive and make you an App Maker.
I’m thrilled to welcome Big Nerd Ranch to Appsterdam, but I’m just as thrilled to be a part of the team. I, and nearly everyone I know, learned Cocoa from Aaron Hillegass’ books. I’m also a big fan of the kind of immersive education the Big Nerd Ranch provides. I am really looking forward to it!
In addition to the upcoming public class, Big Nerd Ranch will be doing onsite classes for businesses in the Netherlands. They’ve done so for such big names as Cisco, AT+T, SAS, and many more.
Attending the Big Nerd Ranch is the quickest way to change your life, kickstart your career, and achieve your dreams. An intense, battle-tested program, and the insights of the World’s Toughest Programmer? Only in Appsterdam.
If you were ever curious what the Mayor of Appsterdam does all day, the answer is talk to people. A lot of that talking is in the form of answering questions. When I get the same questions again and again, or if the question is a particularly good one, I write about it here in this blog so I can refer people to it.
The faster I can respond to people, the more people I can talk to, and the more great stuff we can put together for Appsterdam. This also lets me spend more time teaching, which is really what I came here to do. My feeling is that my time belongs to the community, so I want to spend my time benefiting as many people as possible.
Which naturally leads to two questions I answer every day: “How do you feed your family?” and “Can you look at my app?” Good questions, and interesting answers, because it turns out, these questions answer each other.
I need to buy food and pay rent. You want some of my time to be your time. Hence, I make myself available as a consultant. I don’t have a lot of time, so rather than being picky about who I help, I set my rate to $1000 an hour. When I moved to Europe, that price became €1000 an hour.
That number usually shocks people. Has anyone ever paid me that? Yes. Have a lot of people paid me that? No. It’s a lot of money, though it’s not as dramatic as it sounds. If I go to a conference and give an hour-long presentation, for example, I’m there all day, but I’m only paid for an hour.
I really do want to help App Makers in Appsterdam make their products as successful as possible. That’s why we’ve built the world’s most advanced infrastructure for App Makers. So you can get lots of free advice to improve your products, your business, and yourself.
I also want to make myself available for individual mentoring to as many people as possible, which is why I’m introducing an Appsterdam discount. Appsterdam members can have an hour or two of my time for only €100 an hour. This reflects my feelings on how to price things: just low enough to make it an easy decision.
There are a couple of simple restrictions to qualify for the Appsterdam rate:
You or your company must be Appsterdam members.
(Suspended until the membership sign-up page is online).
No contracts, NDAs, or other legal documents.
Our meeting must occur in the city of Amsterdam.
You pick the time and place. Lunch / Beer / Coffee is on you.
Limit 2 hours per member, per week.
Cash up front.
If you’d like to book time, contact Judy.I.Chen at Gmail with a time window and location. Once she schedules you, she’ll send you an invoice, which you will pay, in cash, at the beginning of our meeting. (This ensures I can deliver a completely honest assessment and escape cleanly.) Judy will then send you a receipt.
With all the great initiatives we’ve launched, there are so many chances for you to participate in the Summer of Appsterdam, it can be hard to keep track of them all. Here’s a quick summary of where the action is in Appsterdam:
Appsterdam Approved Hangouts are a place for you to bring your laptop and get some work done alongside other App Makers. Our first facility, Appsterdam Noord, is currently in beta testing at NDSM Wharf. It’s open Tuesdays and Thursdays. There’s no charge, but let us know you’re coming.
Weekly Wednesday Lunchtime Lectures, hosted by SourceTag, are educational business lunches presented by your fellow Appsterdammers. These happen every Wednesday at 12:30 at Vijzelstraat 20. Presentations are recorded and put online, so even if you can’t make it, you can still benefit. There’s no charge to attend, but bring your favorite sandwich filling to share.
Appsterdam Meeten en Drinken are informal get-togethers at cafes and bars around the city. This is a chance for you and your partner to have a night out surrounded by colleagues. We get together like this about once a week, and while you’re free to just show up, you can RSVP and see who’s coming on our Meetup site.
Appsterdam Family Weekends are fun outings for App Makers and their families, and your best chance to really get to know your fellow Appsterdammers. Our first one will be on Saturday, July 23, at the Artis Zoo here in Amsterdam. Please let us know you’re coming, and bring cash for admission.
In addition to these recurring events, Appsterdam also participates in other events, such as next weekend’s iOSDevCamp, and this September’s PICNIC festival. News of the former is coming soon, and planning for the latter is happening next Friday in Bloemendaal.
You’re also likely to run into Appsterdammers at any one of the many technical and cultural events constantly happening in the city. We maintain a “concert calendar” of all our events at the Appsterdammers site, and will soon include other events of interest to Appsterdammers.
When we talk about Appsterdam, we talk about App Makers, and when we talk about App Makers, we talk about nerds. Maybe they’re programmers, or designers, or lawyers, but they’re all nerds in their own way. But Appsterdam is about more than nerds getting together.
Even in the Netherlands, App Makers on a project leave their families. We might be sleeping at home, but we’re not there. We’re at the office for ungodly hours, distracted behind the eyes, and generally unavailable to tend to our families’ needs.
Having our families involved increases our diversity and makes our community more welcoming to a wider range of people. They also keep us in line. I firmly believe if people had brought their partners to WWDC, none of the hullabaloo from the after parties would have happened. We don’t call them our better halves for nothing.
That’s why it’s important not just to get the nerds together, but also to get our families together. When our families get to know each other, they will be able to build their own community, and their own support network. This will be especially important for families that move to Appsterdam.
Getting to know each other’s families will also help us to get to know each other better. It is one step past the Meeten en Drinken on the path to forming true friendships within our community. Those friendships are vital in building an ecosystem that allows us all to mind our businesses.
This is why I am particularly pleased to announce that our first Appsterdam Family Weekend event will be happening on Saturday, July 23, at the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam. All members are welcome, and encouraged to bring their families. We’ll meet at the zoo at a time to be determined and take this fantastic urban safari together.
Please bring cash to pay for your admission to the event. The prices are as follows:
Adults (10 years +) € 28,50
Children (3 to 9 years) € 25,00
Artis members (3 years +) € 11,50
Details will be added as we know them. You can RSVP now.