Dover Castle Field Trip — Sunday 17th May

Arriving early for SwiftCraft? Join us the day before the conference for a group trip to Dover Castle — one of the most impressive medieval fortresses in Europe and the gateway to England's wartime history.

Walk the battlements with views across the Channel to France. Descend into the secret WWII tunnels where the Dunkirk evacuation was masterminded. Explore the medieval Great Tower brought to life as it would have looked in Henry II's time. And if the weather's kind, the White Cliffs are right at your doorstep.

The details

• 📍 Meet: Leas Cliff Hall, Sunday 17th May @ 10:00am
• 🚌 Travel: Scenic coastal bus along the White Cliffs (~30 mins each way)
• 💷 Cost: ~£36–40 total (castle entry with car-free discount + DayRider bus pass)
• 🍽️ Food: On-site cafés and restaurant (gluten-free and vegetarian options available)

This is self-organised and self-funded — everyone covers their own transport and entry. We'll travel together and make a day of it. It's a brilliant way to meet people before the conference starts.

Useful links

• Dover Castle — English Heritage
• Car-Free Discount (20% off walk-up price)
• Stagecoach DayRider Bus Tickets
• Things to See & Do at Dover Castle

Videos

• Dover Castle — The Key to England (9:20 — overall castle)
• Dover Castle: Rescue from Dunkirk (2:09 — shows tunnel)

Let us know in the Discord if you're interested so we can get a headcount. See you there!

Keynotes for 2026

We're thrilled to announce our keynote speakers for SwiftCraft 2026!

Keynotes

If you use Photoshop on your iPad or now on your iPhone even, you've already benefited from Laura Savino's Swift. Laura is a Photoshop engineer at Adobe who has been writing Swift in production since the very first release. What makes her one of the most recognisable voices in this community isn't just the code she ships, it's how she thinks and talks about the craft of working with it.

Her keynotes and sessions have covered the stuff most conferences avoid: how we communicate through code, how we survive other people's codebases, and how we stay effective when a codebase surprises you at every turn. She's given keynotes at NewCrafts, CocoaConf, DDD Europe, Qt World Summit and CppCon - rooms full of developers who leave feeling both seen and challenged.

We're genuinely over the moon to welcome Laura as our Tuesday opening keynote speaker.

Do you know the app on your phone that plays your music? Janina Kutyn helped ship that. As part of the Apple Music launch team, Janina has worked at the very edge of what iOS can do - UIKit performance, CALayers, the kind of deep craft that makes apps feel effortless to use and deeply satisfying to build. She's worked across Vancouver, London, Silicon Valley, Amsterdam, and Singapore. She brings a perspective that's genuinely hard to find on a conference stage.

She's spoken at Pragma, iOS Conf, try! Swift, and ARCtic. We couldn't be more thrilled to welcome her as our Tuesday closing keynote.

If you've spent any time in Swift development, there's a good chance you've already learned from Daniel Steinberg. Currently giving workshops on App Intents and Foundation Models ahead of upcoming books on those topics. Writing books on Swift Concurrency, Swift Testing, SwiftUI, and others going back to the first book on Swift, "A Swift Kickstart". Writing apps for iPhone and iPad since the very first SDKs. Teaching Swift to engineers at Apple, Google, and eBay. Presenting at conferences on every continent. Daniel has shaped how a generation of developers thinks about this platform, and he does it with a warmth and curiosity that's rare.

We're honoured to have Daniel close out SwiftCraft 2026 as our Wednesday keynote speaker.

This year your conference ticket includes workshops - no separate purchase needed.

Early bird pricing ends when the schedule goes live the week of March 23rd, so now is the time to grab your tickets. You're going to want to be in the room for these.

Dates for Swift Craft 2026

Swift Craft is returning to Folkestone in 2026! We're excited to announce the dates for our third event:

18th-20th May 2026

That's Monday to Wednesday, following the same format as this year.

What to Expect

We'll be back at Leas Cliff Hall with its stunning views over the English Channel. The format remains the same:

• Monday 18th May - Workshop day with in-depth tutorials
• Tuesday 19th May - Main conference day
• Wednesday 20th May - Main conference day

As always, we'll be a single-track event so you won't miss a thing.

Super Early Bird Tickets Available Now!

We haven't announced speakers yet, but if you want to lock in the lowest price (while showing your support for the conference), Super Early Bird tickets are on sale now!

Only a limited number of Super Early Bird tickets are available, closing on 6th February 2026.

Or you can register to be kept informed as more information becomes available:

Call for Speakers is Open

Interested in speaking? Our Call for Speakers is open until 30th January 2026.

We look forward to seeing you in Folkestone in May 2026!