DEV | WRITERS | RETREAT San Diego 2025
DEV | WRITERS | RETREAT is back!
DWR Miami 2022 was a first-of-its-kind experiment, pushing forward the state of coders-who-write and writers-who-code. It all took place over one magical week in November 2022 in Miami, Florida. You can see our sizzle reel here.
Three years later, we’re back for 2025 — DWR: San Diego Edition, right after NeurIPS in San Diego!
Purpose
We believe that writing is an incredibly powerful way to organize thought, transfer knowledge, entertain millions, create luck and learn in public — and we believe that humans are social creatures that work best when they can get support from others doing the same thing.
Whether you write for work as a professional developer advocate, or for fun as an experienced dev, or for learning as a founder or newcomer, we believe that we can improve and learn from our fellow writers!
The Program & Schedule
The Full Retreat is five days, Saturday, December 6th through Wednesday, December 10th. There will be plenty of time and allowance if you need to dip out to NeurIPS workshops on the weekend.
The Intensive Daily Structure (Saturday through Wednesday)
Mornings: Include structured talks, guest speakers, hands-on workshops, and collaborative brainstorms. (A complete schedule will be available soon!)
Afternoons: Are free, giving you dedicated time for focused writing or remote work.
What We'll Cover Each Day:
Sun: Setting your goals, finding inspiration, and defining your aspirations.
Mon: Choosing your topic and experimenting with different formats.
Tues: Deep-diving into editing techniques and craftsmanship.
Wed: Learning marketing tactics for promoting your work.
Thurs: Final reflections, graduation and closing ceremony. Stay on Thurs night for our big social at Punchbowl Social!
You can see the 2022 content library here: https://github.com/Nutlope/devwriting
Logistics & Pricing
The Dev | Writers | Retreat is a not-for-profit, community effort led by swyx (Editor, Latent.space & DX.tips). We will charge enough to cover program costs and will take sponsorships; attendees are responsible for arranging their own travel but we've secured very affordable hotel room blocks on site with registration. If you are coming to San Diego for NeurIPS, you can use these same room blocks at the same rate and not move! It is a 20 min walk from NeurIPS venue.
Intensive + Unconference (5 days): $500
(increases to $750 after November 28th - please buy earlier to help us confirm size).
This is a not-for-profit event - fees go toward venue booking, organizing costs and writing kit swag! Company sponsors welcome (see below).
Attendee Takeaways
A portfolio of work: Walk away with up to five pieces of well-written content, created and polished during the retreat.
Actionable insights: Gain valuable knowledge, skills, and strategic information to immediately apply to your work and career.
Community and network: Forge meaningful connections with other industry DevRel professionals at all career levels.
Limitations & Application
We are keeping the group to a max of 30 DevWriters, as we want to curate the vibe of people serious about writing.
By registering here, you are simply helping us gauge interest without committing. You will be the first to know when applications open!
Sponsorships
If you or your company are interested in sponsoring Dev Writers Retreat: San Diego, please contact Kaylin: [email protected] (or DM @swyx if you know him). Sponsorships range from $2.5k-$10k and come with speaking slots and referrals for your developer relations role/writing exercises sponsored for you!
Click here to download last year's PDF of our sponsorship tiers and benefits - and just contact us for what you want
Available sponsorships:
Platinum, Gold, Silver!