TL;DR: The Audio Developer Conference has been an important milestone in the lives of many pro audio and music tech enthusiasts, and has opened up new possibilities of what's next in the audio industry. If you've been meaning to attend, here's your chance. ADC25 is scheduled from November 10-12, 2025 in Bristol AND also has an online event hosted on the Gather Town app. Read further to know how ADC can be a turning point in your journey too.
Conferences are always fun and full of energy, but it can often feel overwhelming to even think of attending an event that has professionals from around the world who have become pioneers after years of hard work.
“How would I fit in?”, “I don’t think I know enough to add any value”, “I’m not good at making connections”, “I’m just a beginner. What would I even talk about with other attendees?” – These are just a few of the questions in this genre that I’ve come across more times than one can imagine.
Every time I hear these (or read them in my chat boxes), I get reminded of a couple of quotes I read a long time ago. First, “everyone is afraid of everyone else” and second, “the best time of your life was 5 years ago, and the next best time is now.” I never checked who originally wrote these, but there probably old proverbs. 😃
These sum up the essence of the whole idea. As a student or newbie, or even as a professional who has never attended a conference before, it might appear that everyone else has been so comfortable right from the very first conference they ever attended. But the fact in most cases is that they have all been hesitant in the beginning.
And they’ll all tell you: “Been there; felt that.”
Now coming to ‘not having new ideas to share’, I think some moments in life are about listening. After having more than a decade of experience in the creative audio industry as an audio director, I felt amazing becoming a student at my first ADC: playing the role of ‘audience’ in some conversations (that sometimes had just two people, including myself), to blabbering non stop in others (about the load time of DAWs & other amazing ideas).
What added to the magic was how well everyone at ADC received me in both of these situations – welcoming, understanding!
If you’re like me and would like to know more about what you can gain from attending ADC for the first time, here are my 2 cents:
- Get to know the ground reality of the industry: In a world where memes and internet gossip potentially drive public opinions, it’s not impossible that what you know about the industry, its work culture and growth potential from a few comments on LinkedIn, might have given you a skewed perspective – both true and false. Meeting people who are working in the industry can break prejudices and give you more visibility.
I remember the first time I attended ADC in November 2021 on Gather Town (the online version). I was so glad that I had access to not just all the talks but also to a huge community of people right from the comfort of my home. I was able to connect with awesome industry experts, many of whose products I was using in my creative audio work and got to share so many ideas with them. A lot of my time went hanging out in the Gather Town space in between and after the talks.
One thing I noticed after the event was a realisation that many of my assumptions about the industry were only partially true, and that clarity helped me plan my next set of learnings & decisions better.
- Access to opportunities: Believe it or not, but sponsors look for good candidates as much as the candidates looking for opportunities. ADC sponsors bring with them decades of experience and proven track record and they are always up to work with like minded folks. You never know when a chat about your skills or pet projects could lead to a creation of new roles.
Spending some time on sponsor booths (both in-person and online on Gather) can inform you of internship opportunities and more. You might even find fellow attendees who could guide you in your quest about applying for jobs vs pursuing masters / PhD.
- Learn from ideas, opinions, discussions and, of course, rants: What we see in newsletters, tech magazines, news reports and through marketing about an industry is only the “customer facing” side. What we see in the talks & workshops, on the other hand, is a more inside-story of how things actually work – how plugins are created, different APIs used & improved, how collaborations work and how the business side of things function.
On top of all this, the conversations that happen after the talks at ADC makes it all the more human. You get to see beyond the idea of ‘products’ and ‘repositories’ and understand how people working on them think, ideate and analyse the audio world.
- Understand challenges & problem statements of the industry: User surveys, experience interviews etc are some ways one can find out the undercurrent of an industry. But sometimes, an informal chat can reveal deeper insights. Opinions & rants even inform you of the existing problem statements that you could potentially find solutions to.
Maybe you end up connecting with people who could potentially become a partner in that groundbreaking idea you have.
- Share thoughts & first impressions without being judged: I write a lot of jokes. They are in a way my way of learning concepts (only a joke that is factually correct lands well). When I decided to perform some of them at the Open Mic in ADC22, I didn’t expect the audience to ‘laugh out that loud’! While they were all just humour bits, they were based on real pain points in audio tech and I was amazed to see so many audience members reaching out right after to discuss those points and ideating solutions.
I cannot imagine any other place or event where such niche topics can get the attention they deserve, along with access to people who can bring a change.
- Get inspired! It goes without saying that inspiration often comes from amazing people, and I can assure you that you'll find a lot of it at ADC.
- Bridging the gap: Creatives, researchers and industry often work in isolation. A lot of work done by Masters and PhD students translates into products after years. Sometimes even gets missed to help the industry at large or get used by the artists. The first step to solving this problem is by talking. And I’ve seen first hand such talks translating into products that mesmerised everyone!
ADC audience includes a good number of research candidates with their deep knowledge, and artist-turned-founders with their keen interest in doing something new. Witnessing such collaborations is a bliss!
That’s one key aspect of ADC that I have loved right from the start – there’s something for everyone, from beginners, hobbyists, creatives to hard core developers & product owners.
While reading all of this, I hope you noticed that ADC is all about the people. It always has been!
In 2022 when I decided to attend ADC in-person, even in a city 8,000 km away from my residence, I felt at home! It has been that way ever since. I wrote some of the stories that I captured here:
I have many more stories from rest of the ADC events since, including ADCx San Francisco as well as ADCx India (which I host btw). Are you attending the event this year? Let’s connect and I'll tell you some fun ones. Reach out to me at queries@prashantmishra.xyz to schedule an in-person meeting. Cheers!
PS: I'll be writing another article soon about making the best use of your time at ADC. Bookmark my blog to check that out.
