In The Netherlands we have a thriving app community. Creative events, interesting meetups and great knowledge-sharing platforms, everything is available right here. We thought it would be a good idea to spread the love and share some of the coolest, most interesting ideas and events in this blog.
So let’s dive in and see who the key players in our Dutch app- ecosystem are, which meetups you should definitely go to and which communities are great for knowledge sharing.
Events for the app community
To kick off this list, let’s look at the must-attend events that are being organised in The Netherlands. Of course, since The House of Appril found its roots in events for app developers, we hope you don’t mind we include some of our (partner) events here too.
Trends & networking / appril festival.com
appril is a community-driven festival for professionals who work in the app industry and the roots of what has become The House of Appril. Visitors of the festival can be working in app development, design, digital strategy and marketing, account and project management or the company board. appril Festival consists of workshops, network events and a conference with multiple tracks, focussing on Product Innovation, Customer Satisfaction and Revenue Optimisation.
Check our online sessions
Let’s get technical - / Appdevcon.nl
Appdevcon is a conference by app developers, for app developers. With four days, multiple tracks, and sessions for Android, iOS, Windows, Web, TV and many other platforms - there is always an interesting and relevant session for you in it! The House of Appril is an official Appdevcon partner.
Appdevcon
Expand your skills set / Soft Skills sessions
This is another great event for skill development, soft skill development to be precise! Software development is a team sport and in order to make your product a great success, progress to team lead, or just to improve collaboration between team-members, it is crucial to up your interpersonal skills. For these developers, we have set up a special series of training sessions and workshops that help coders with these “other skills”.
Participate
App communities in The Netherlands
Meetups are a great way to get involved in the community and to learn the ins- and outs, the who-is-who and exchange ideas, preferably with a cold beer in hand. The Meetups listed below are well known, informal and freely accessible gatherings themed around everything apps. Be sure to check them out, and hopefully see you there!
Meet peers & share your skills / Meetup.com
The best way to get involved in the community is by active knowledge-sharing and networking. This Meetup group provides just that. It is aimed at programmers and people who would love to learn how to code. It provides a challenging, inspiring environment where you can explore the world of mobile coding. When you have questions, want to network or just like to be in a productive environment, this is the place to go! Get feedback, encouragement and support, no matter what level you are. Check their Meetup
Appsterdam
This is another great Meetup, in a bar no less! In 2011 Mike Lee and Klaas Speller started the Appsterdam community. Appsterdam began when a group of app makers started meeting on Wednesday nights to have dinner and drinks at Cafe Bax in the historic Old West. The movement grew, but the good vibes never changed. If you like to join appsterdam, hookup with their meetup.
Official website
Cocoaheads
Cocoahead started in 2010 and was previously run by Cathy Shive and Peter Robinett ( who works at Apple now). The organisation of CocoaHeads organises the CocoaHeadsNL / DO iOS event and online meetups for Apple developers. Check their website to see when the next meetup will take place: https://cocoaheads.nl/ check their video's at youtube.com
Android user group
Meet and connect with everybody and everything Android at this awesome Meetup. Fun, technical and open, a great opportunity to get to know the community better for sure! Join them at one of their scheduled Meetups.
FlutterNL user group
One of the founders of the Android user group started the flutterNL group. The Flutter Netherlands community is a great place to make some new Flutter friends, share knowledge and learn new skills! They organise online Meetups at the moment, you can check them out here: https://www.meetup.com/FlutterNL/
Hacker & Founders
The original Hackers and Founders started in California (talk about Mr. International as the famous poet Pitbull once said). The Amsterdam version of this meetup still has close ties to Hackers and Founders in Silicon Valley.
Hackers and Founders is for everyone who is interested in startups in the Netherlands. The community consists of designers, engineers, founders, product owners, business developers, investors, basically everyone who is interested in startups and tech. Join their interesting and insightful Meetups
Alternatively, if you also want to join the Hackers & Founders conversations in Slack, hit organisor feargal (@feargal) up with a DM) and he can send you a signup link.
IoT Sensemakers AMS
The Internet of Things! A very exciting and interesting area of expertise for app-developers. IoT Sensemakers allows you to work on project, learn from scratch and even join other projects during their meetups. Their events are held both at the Marineterrein and in the OBA Library in Amsterdam, where you have acces to a lasercutter and 3D printer as well! Check their Meetup schedule and join them when you have the chance!
Interesting app experts & developers to follow
The app community in The Netherlands has some pretty interesting folks running around in it. Insightful, clever, go-against-the-grain and independent. The people below are great to follow on Twitter if you like news and insights about coding, apps, app-news and really funny joke-tweets (important!). They come warmly recommended by us:
Mike Lee - iOS developer: @bmf
Wiebe Elsinga - Android GDE (Google Developer Expert): @welsinga
Ivo jansch - Founder appdevcon & Egeniq: @ijansch
Jolanda Verhoef - Android Developer Advocate: @Lojanda
Maike Warner - Art teacher - Appstrdam meetup: @githubgirl
Johan Pelgrim - Android / Flutter developer & FlutterNL Meetup: @jowipe
Jeroen Leenarts - iOS developer: @leenarts
Hugo Visser - Android GDE (Google Developer Expert): @botteaap
Jordi Bruin -iOS developer & active at wwdc2021: @jordibruin
Brechtje de Leij - PO Nu.nl: @brechtjedeleij
Louise Verschuren - App Marketing expert: @wuzzon
Jacqueline de Gruyter - Founder Appril festival & The House of Appril: @missappril
Robert Keus - Digital accessible: @brthrsagency
Bas Hennekam - Flutter developer: @bashennekam
Niels Mouthaan - Product Manager apps: @nielsmouthaan
Jovche Mitrejchevski - Android Developer: @jovchem
Dim Vleugel - journalist androidworld:@dim
Claudia Rahanmetan - journalist androidworld: @ClaudiaBliss
Jean-Paul Horn - Journalist iCulture: @JeanPaulH
Interesting blogs /vlogs/ websites/ journals/ podcasts about app developing
Samuel Goodwin - iOS developer: https://roundwallsoftware.com/blog
Brechtje de Leij - Product Owner: https://www.b-digitized.com
Niels Mouthaan: https://blog.nielsmouthaan.nl
Jeroen Leenarts - iOS developer: https://appforce1.net/
Jovche Mitrejchevski - Android developer: Test Driven Development Vlog
Android world: https://www.androidworld.nl
Antoine van der Lee - iOS developer: https://www.avanderlee.com
Miss appril: Podcast Miss Appril | Podcast on Spotify
The House of Appril: The House of Appril | Jobs Podcast
Cafés and places to meet developers in Amsterdam
Besides countless interesting events, there are some places (especially in the Amsterdam area) where app-developers come to meet and work on a regular basis. At any of the locations below, you are bound to find like-minded, innovative developers (during opening hours, people need sleep too, you know).
Cafe Bax: http://www.cafebax.nl/
Coffee room: http://www.coffeeroom.nl/
Alab: https://www.a-lab.nl/
Two for joy
Café de Doffer (H&F meetup)
S2m
B Amsterdam: https://b-amsterdam.com/
We work
Municipality and government
Government initiatives surrounding App-development, or tech startups:
Startup amsterdam: https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/business/startupamsterdam
Techleap - https://www.techleap.nl/
Education & training
Code Cult
iOS Development van nul tot geavanceerd
Want to get kids involved in coding in a fun and accessible way? The websites below are a great place to start introducing computer science to kids.
Join the Dutch app community today!
All up to date about the latest happenings and events? Great! We hope you find this list/collection/overview useful. But above all we hope that you’ll visit some of the events, blogs or people mentioned here. We really think these people and the effort they put in the community is what makes the Dutch app community as awesome as it is. By visiting and participating you can add to that and keep the fire going. So like, share subscribe and join, and we will see you there!
Did we miss a Meetup, venue, blog or person of interest that should definitely be on this list? Let us know and we'll post an update here.