Major Highlights:

1. Introduction of Hooks - https://reactjs.org/docs/hooks-intro.html

• a new feature proposal that lets you use state and other React features without writing a class. They’re currently in React v16.7.0-alpha and being discussed in an open RFC.
• No Breaking changes & 100% opt-in with no plans to deprecate React Classes
• Hooks Keynote by Sophie Alpert & Dan Abramov
• Watch here

2. Concurrent rendering in React - Code-Splitting with React.lazy & Suspense

• One of the best talks of the conference
• An opportunity to remove all of the isLoading ? <MyComponent /> : <LoadingSpinner /> logic throughout your codebase.
• Suspense components have an implementation like ErrorBoundary components.
• Watch Here
• Code-Splitting Docs
• Andrew Clarks @acdlite

3. 90% Cleaner React with Hooks

• Ryan Florence talks about how you will be able to reduce code density with react hooks
• Watch here
• Ryans Examples
• Ryan Florence @ryanflorence

Other highlights of note

1. The Path to a declaratively Animated Future

• Learn about Pose, an animation library by Matt Perry, that uses Styled Components syntax
• Watch Here
• Pose Docs
• Matt's example of Popmotion w/ Hooks
• Matt Perry @mattgperry

2. Moving to Suspense

• This one was really interesting and pairs with Concurrent React, but too long.
• Watch Here

3. Chart-Parts - the missing abstraction from charting

• A flexible, React-friendly, Grammar of Graphics for data visualization
• MSFT R&D team built an extendable charting platform for opensource
• Watch Here
• chart-parts docs
• Chris Trevino @darthtrevino

Lightning talks

1. Create-React-App 2.0 Released

• Typescript Support
• Babel Macros available for Apollo, MDX, Relay Modern
• SVG Import available as React Component to use in JSX
• CSS Modules & SASS support out of the box
• Babel 7, web pack 4, & Jest 23 updated.
• Lightning Talk
• Joe Haddad @timer150

2. 5 Animations You Should Know

• Hover, Sticky, **Skeleton**, slide up/down, opacity
• Lightning Talk

3. Render Props and PureComponent

• Lightning Talk

4. Git Hooks

• Lightning Talk

5. Breaking down Context in React

• This was one of my favorite talks from the event, Sophia does a great job of breaking down React Context
• Lightning Talk

Additional Links

• Index of All React Conf Talks