Expo is trusted by thousands of developers - from solo makers to enterprise teams. But trust isn't built at scale. It's built in person. In 2026, Expo is sponsoring GitNation events for the first time, including React Summit Amsterdam and US. We sat down with Head of Marketing Dan Kelly to discuss why they're showing up now, what they've learned from past events, and why the gap between Expo's reputation and reality is mobile dev's most interesting untold story.

Dan, thanks for sitting down with us. For developers who might not know Expo yet, or who know the tool but not the team behind it - could you briefly introduce yourself and what Expo does?

I run marketing here at Expo, where we build infrastructure for apps. Expo is known and loved by millions of developers, primarily as a devtool company. As we’ve matured, we’ve added services that help businesses and enterprises get apps to the stores, maintain them, and update them with relative ease.

Of course, AI has had a massive impact on our world. LLMs and AI app builders have chosen Expo as the default framework for building mobile apps. That’s because we have 10+ years of open source documentation and a massive community that recommends Expo.

You're heading into 2026 planning your first sponsorships of GitNation events like React Summit Amsterdam and US. What motivated Expo to make this move now? What feels different about this moment for your team?

I’ve flip-flopped on my thinking around events. In the past, I saw them as inefficient: the cost of sponsoring plus the cost and effort of traveling. But then I started hosting a local meetup in Seattle, and I saw the power and impact of spending time in person. It’s not exactly a revelation to say that the impressions we make in person are more memorable than the ones we make on video or in writing.

So we developed a strategy to target events that make logical sense for growing awareness of Expo. React Summit fits because a ton of our users and customers are React developers who had never shipped a mobile app before Expo. React skills translate incredibly well to Expo. We know this audience will have a good experience and add value to their business or their ideas by adopting Expo.

Every company talks about "community," but developers are rightfully skeptical of inauthentic engagement. What does "showing up well" mean to Expo? What principles will guide your team's behavior at these events?

We never sell. Ever. People should build with whatever tools and services they want. We aren’t in the business of convincing people to use Expo.

Our mission is to listen. Show up with curiosity. Learn about the audience. Walk away knowing what kinds of projects they’re passionate about and what obstacles get in their way. If all we do is show up and learn from people, we’ve done our job.

You're coming into this as a first-time sponsor at GitNation events, but not as a first-time sponsor overall. What have you learned from other event experiences - good or bad - that's shaping how you're approaching this new chapter with us?

The first event we sponsored, I sent 700 t-shirts because we expected 700 attendees. I spent the entire event folding t-shirts while answering questions about Expo. Then I had to ship 400 shirts home. Lesson learned.

We’ve learned to optimize our event operations so we aren’t wasting time, money, or energy. We show up rested and ready, focused on connecting with people.

When Expo shows up at a conference booth, what do you want developers to walk away understanding about your product that they might not grasp from just reading the docs or following you on social media?

The biggest event-specific takeaway is that Expo is additive. At every event, we get a handful of people who come to the booth and say, “I don’t use Expo because I use Swift, or Kotlin, or bare React Native…” And then they seem surprised when our response is something like, “That’s great. We have a lot of users like you. They find it helpful to add Expo to their app for X, Y, and Z use cases.”

Expo is not an either/or technology. We have tools and services that are useful to add to apps that aren’t traditional “Expo apps.”

The React Native ecosystem has evolved significantly in recent years, with Expo playing a major role. What story do you feel hasn't been fully told about Expo's journey - and might events be a place to tell it?

There’s a story we’ve told a fair amount, but we must not be telling it well or to the right people.

For years, there was a real trade-off in mobile dev: if you wanted full native access, you wrote Swift and Kotlin. If you wanted cross-platform convenience, you gave something up. That was a fair criticism for a long time, and it shaped how an entire generation of developers thinks about React Native.

But that’s no longer the reality. Today, developers write Swift and Kotlin modules directly inside Expo projects. They use config plugins to modify native project configuration. They access ARKit, HealthKit, widgets, app extensions—all of it, without leaving the Expo ecosystem. The gap between what Expo actually is and what people assume it is has become the most interesting story in mobile development.

Events are a great place to tell this story, because a conversation with a human isn’t a blog post you can skim. We get to ask questions, connect, and get closer to the truth.

You've worked in marketing leadership roles, and now you're at a deeply technical, developer-first company. What have you learned about the difference between marketing to developers versus marketing in a way that actually serves them?

Ha! I’ve always said that I like developer marketing because if I can successfully market to developers, I can market to anyone. But there are two truths about developer marketing that I’m sure everyone already knows or is quickly realizing:

• Effective developer marketing is just education. Show them how to build cool stuff. Stay technical all the time. No handwaving. No engagement baiting. Show integrity.
• Developer marketing now also - possibly mostly - means marketing to agents. This is a moving target we’re all still learning about. But it’s important to optimize our websites for agents, optimize our onboarding flows for agents, and figure out how to make agents successful with your service.

Looking beyond Expo for a moment - what trends in the React, React Native, or JavaScript ecosystem are you most excited about right now? What's catching your attention as a marketer who sits at the intersection of technology and community?

This is the most fun I have ever had at work. And this is the hardest I have ever worked. It seems like that’s the case for a lot of people right now - because everyone is shipping.

As a marketer, the most exciting thing is the expansion of our audience. There are new people building apps now. How do we help them ship? How can we make Expo a meaningful piece of the process for solving problems?

Is there anything I haven't asked that you'd like our readers to know as you embark on this new chapter of community engagement with GitNation?

We are hiring. I can’t share the full roadmap here, but it’s ambitious. We need gritty, talented, entrepreneurial engineers to come and own new product areas. We want engineers who can take new projects all the way to the finish line. Send us a note if this sounds like you - and if you like what Expo has been building.

For the past 11 years, GitNation has been at the forefront of organizing developer conferences in Europe and US. Interested in sponsoring our events? Contact us: [email protected]