Update (2022-05-27): As we are moving forward with this event idea for TwitchCon Amsterdam, please see this post for the latest information leading up to July.
Summary
Awareness and adoption of third-party creator tools can be a challenging goal for a developer community. To help with this effort, the TwitchDev team is considering how dedicated sessions at events like TwitchCon can assist to bring developers and broadcasters together.
In the past, we have hosted mixer events; dedicated time for developers and broadcasters to meet. However, we’ve noticed the following results without a specific structure to the event:
- Groups stay together; developers talk to developers and broadcasters talk to broadcasters
- Attendees may only talk to people they know
- It is unclear who is a developer and who is a broadcaster
- It is unclear who you may want to talk to and why
Event Concept
The idea behind lightning demos (2-5 minutes) provides structure to the event and a clear reason for attending. Developers can pitch their tools to broadcasters and broadcasters can learn what new tools may be available to enhance their viewing experience.
Interested developers can submit an idea for a lightning demo prior to the event and, if chosen, work with the Twitch Developers team to prepare slides. Then a schedule would be created from the list or participants.
If the entire session time is 90 minutes, about 45 minutes would be dedicated to demos and 45 minutes would be dedicated to networking time for developers and broadcasters to discuss tools and ask questions.
Other Considerations
The benefit of hosting this sort of event at conferences like TwitchCon is taking advantage of developers and broadcasters already present in the same location. However, an in-person event does not work for everyone so we could also consider lightning demos via broadcasts. The challenge would be gaining broadcaster attendance.
It is possible that interested developers may not have heard of the opportunity until they are at the event. It may or may not be possible to do day-of signups.
Feedback
We’d love your feedback on this idea in the comments below. What details could we add to improve the idea? Are there shortcomings to this approach or reasons this does not sound appealing?
