As one developer on google i / o traveled

Better late than never, I thought, and decided to share my impressions. In May of this year I visited, perhaps, the main event of the year for the Android developer - the Google I / O conference. Thanks to Google and e-Legion for making this possible.

As a mobile developer, I was mainly interested in topics related to Android. I wanted to learn something new that we in the company can integrate into the development process to improve the quality of the result, optimize the development process or reduce its costs. But in this article I will not talk about technical details. I am sure that all those interested have long since studied and discussed the innovations presented at the conference, and it will not be possible to speak about the results of innovations soon.
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My story will be about the organization of Google I / O through the eyes of an ordinary visitor. If next year you plan to attend this event and spend $ 900 on a ticket, it will be useful to know in advance what is waiting for you there.

It was possible to select the reports of interest in advance in an application carefully prepared by the corporation. So I did, setting up my grandiose plans everywhere to have time and see everything.

So, in the morning of May 18, in anticipation, I left the house in Sunnyvale, in which I rented a room, and headed for the shuttle, which was supposed to take me to the I / O.



Arrived, registered, passed the test. And the first thing I met when I got into the conference area was a long line. The queue for breakfast, mixed with the queue at Keynote.



This year, the venue for the event was the Shoreline Amphitheater. The main reports were held in the open air in the morning and in the evening, at other times it was too hot there. During the daytime hours, for the business program and the stands, the adjacent territory was used, where ten tents were located, in which reports were held in parallel.



Nearly 7,000 people gathered at the conference, they fit perfectly in the amphitheater during Keynote. But in all other cases, there was not enough room.



Unfortunately, the organization of the event did not meet my expectations. Of course, the expectations were too high, because it’s Google (!). To see the report of interest, it was necessary to come to the tent in advance and for half an hour to stand in a long line under the scorching sun, while in the other tent there was an interesting report that had to be sacrificed for the sake of the next. As a result, it was possible to visit only a few speeches, and the rest of the time, be content with a queue or a business program in a large room.
The impression was made that the guys who watched the broadcasts sitting at home on a comfortable sofa received much more information than the conference visitors.
In the end, we even joked that it seems we have developed a habit: you see a line - you need to stand in it.

As for other aspects of the organization, such as food and parties, there are no questions to the organizers. Maybe I misunderstood everything and this is the main part of the event? :)

Option dishes that were offered to guests for lunch. Satisfied with all.



In the evening of the first day in the amphitheater were performances of several groups, for example, Charli XCX. It was fun and interesting, although I wonder why they invited a group popular with schoolchildren.



The most popular place for a photo.



Is there really no benefit from visiting Google I / O? The biggest value of the conference is to concentrate developers in one place. There you can find like-minded people, meet friends you met earlier at other conferences, and most importantly, talk to the developers of the products presented at the conference.

Around the themed stands, in the intervals between queuing, you can get together and discuss new features, various nuances and even figure out how to implement a new feature in your project.



However, to communicate about updates you need to be ready. All night, try to try the products on your project to ask the experts at the stands the next day. All these actions involve certain difficulties, but many benefits can be derived from them.

In addition to the great opportunities for networking, Google I / O is worth going for vivid impressions, for being the first to see and try how news and concepts work.

For example, here you could see the prototype of the ball, which in the future will carry the Internet to people.



There were also stands with various devices for the smart home.



It was possible to sit in Maserati with Android Auto, having stood the corresponding queue ;-)



Look at the cute self-propelled google car



Perhaps this is due to the fact that I stood for the majority of the conference in queues or sat on uninteresting reports to me, but the general impression was that the guys from Google did not expect that something would have to be presented this year. We started preparing for a month or two and did not have time to do anything by the time of the conference. Something they promised us to release in the summer, and wait for the rest in the fall. And even what should be available now, will also be a little later. This situation, of course, has developed not with all products. For example, we were presented with a completely ready Firebase.

Go to Google I / O or not next year, decide for yourself. I definitely want to repeat this experience. This event is a global scale, it is 7000 like-minded people, it is an opportunity to talk live with the developers of the most advanced technologies and the opportunity to be the first to see and try out the development of Google. I hope the organizers will consider shoals and solve problems with queues.