Google I/O 2013

https://developers.google.com/events/io/#

by palebluedot • 13 years ago

86 56 13 years ago

developers.google.com

cryptoz3• 13 years ago

There's certainly a profitable startup idea somewhere that targets improving ticket sales and purchases for hot items. Google itself is absolutely miserable in this area, and I think most other large sites are as well.

untog• 13 years ago

I'm not sure this problem is solvable. The capitalistic response to Google I/O tickets selling out is to increase the price until they don't. But that would be a PR distaster for Google and likely be contrary to what they actually want for their event.

A lottery, maybe?

cryptoz3• 13 years ago

Well, there are a number of areas for potential improvement. I know that the absolute number of tickets sold isn't really going to change, and the price isn't something a startup could fix. I was more thinking about qualities like server load, customer fairness, etc. Google Play went down when the Nexus 4 launched, gave incorrect information to customers, spat out ridiculous errors, etc. And it seems there is no end to the complaints about the lack of notification or timing for very qualified and excited people to purchase tickets to I/O. A method of holding tickets until the purchaser demonstration of value, for example. Or something. I don't know.

grimlck• 13 years ago

One way to solve it is to make people pass a quick programming test before they can buy a ticket

smackfu3• 13 years ago

Apple has the same problems.

* Increase ticket prices and then corporate people push out indie developers.

* Increase venue size and then each attendee gets less value out of it, and there's an upper limit to venues anyways.

* Add a lottery and now your most loyal customers may not be able to go.

It honestly seems like the best solution is to just throw open the floodgates at an announced time, and assume the people who really want a ticket will be the ones most committed to getting one.

bradleyjg• 13 years ago

The current system is a lottery. If the page loads in the first couple of minutes your in, otherwise your not.

Vermeulen• 13 years ago

I don't understand why they wouldn't do an auction - their entire business relies on auctions for ads, and they even did their IPO as an auction. Seems like it would be a unique solution to the problem of charging for events like this

let people bid for tickets, they see the current lowest bid that got in so they can increase their bid, then charge everyone the lowest bid that got in

HorizonXP• 13 years ago

Unfortunate, looks like I won't be going this year like I planned. It's overlapping with BlackBerry Live, that goes from May 14-16 in Orlando. Would've liked to have gone to both, since I love both platforms. Looks like I'll just have to catch the Web casts again.

eclipxe• 13 years ago

BlackBerry Live, yeah I'm sure whatever happens there will be relevant in 12-18 months. /s

RobAtticus• 13 years ago

Yeah! Just like Google Wave is still relevant! And Google TV!

(Keynotes from a few recent Google I/Os.)

rubyrescue• 13 years ago

Can someone who has been explain the value of attending?

cryptoz3• 13 years ago

I have not been. But I would expect a very large part of the value to be in networking - being surrounded by top industry experts, market leaders, etc will go a long way.

objclxt2• 13 years ago

Networking is definitely one of the main reasons. It's why I'd encourage anyone who doesn't get tickets (so, given the odds, probably me and most people here!) to stop by one of the local satellite events the Google user groups run. They're good fun, and the larger ones live stream many of the sessions.

ben10402• 13 years ago

I've been to I/O the last three years and I've found it to be worth the price of admission, even if you ignore the free stuff they've given out. The sessions are streamed or filmed, but if this stuff is your bread and butter professionally it's well worth it to go in person and talk to fellow humans.

The networking opportunities are great. I have sat down at lunch and realized the guy next to me was a developer of an open source package I was using in an Android app I've published.

They usually have office hours sessions for the various developer platforms they have, where you can bring your questions to their dev-rel people and engineers.

They've also been doing some code labs where you can try out some new part of a platform in a guided manner. There's another networking opportunity there, the way it's laid out means you get to exchange help and get to know the people sitting around you.

Having gone last year I got in on the Glass preorder (which was exclusive to I/O attendees) and I'm looking forward to having an opportunity as a developer to get out ahead of this tech.

And they generally have a pretty fun afterparty lined up, if you're into robots that fly, music, and games.

smackfu3• 13 years ago

If they don't want demand to be insane, maybe they should stop giving away so much hardware.

2012 free hardware: Samsung Galaxy Nexus ($300?), Asus Nexus 7 ($200), Nexus Q ($300), Samsung Chromebox ($330)

That's for a ticket price of $900.

objclxt2• 13 years ago

Putting the pros and cons of the free hardware aside, I'm not sure getting rid of it would solve the demand problems. Apple charges $700 more for WWDC tickets, give away no hardware, and it still sells out in under two hours.

protomyth• 13 years ago

I do wonder how many people dependent on corporate / government / educational institution training approval actually can go to these conferences.

smackfu3• 13 years ago

I agree that you can't do anything if your raw demand is too high. But I think free hardware creates artificial demand, where some people are there just to get the hardware, and other people are there because the hardware makes the financials a bit easier to swallow.

Personally, I don't own an Android device, but I'd probably sign up if I lived in the area. It would be fun and I'd probably break even so why not?

ghshephard• 13 years ago

It's fine to sell out a developer conference if there is high demand by developers. The problem with I/O, is that there are some who go, even though they aren't core Google platform developers.

I consistently hear the key reason to go to WWDC, is that a good portion of the Apple Engineers take the week off, and go there to answer, one-on-one, questions that external developers have regarding APIs and use cases. Quite often, the person answering the question, is the Apple Engineer who wrote that API in the first place.

bonzoesc• 13 years ago

They could also raise the ticket price. The demand is high, the supply is limited, and having lots of digits keeps people from flooding the registration page.

stephen_cagle2• 13 years ago

Hah, your forgetting about the black ball that never carried a tune.

RossM• 13 years ago

I've never been to IO - but have been wondering - does it seem like a significant number of people disappear after collecting the free gear?

rdl• 13 years ago

I wonder what the odds are for a free Pixel this year.

mtgx• 13 years ago

Doubt it. But they might offer the next-gen ARM one and some other devices.

stephen• 13 years ago

I/O used to be worthwhile, 2-3 years ago, there were tons of technical talks I was interested in.

Now it's just a dog & pony consumer technology show, and Google has so many irons in the fire that each technology only gets a few, if any, talks.

They should go back to having a true developer conference, and have some other conference for the big wigs to play Steve Jobs.

...but of course I'll try and get a ticket this year.

saurik2• 13 years ago

I have now been to every Google I/O, and I will say that this last year was exceptionally disappointing (by which I mean that I feel like it fell off a cliff as opposed to continuing a gradual decline). It used to be that you could go to the "office hours" areas, which were setup like rooms full of the developers that work on various projects, and kind of "hang out" with developers, talking about use cases and issues you had run into.

Last year, these were replaced with "help desks", and while the people there were very friendly (and while I really appreciated the one guy who went pretty far out of his way to obtain a stock image for a Nexus 7 when it seemed like I might have needed to flash one), all of the people identified themselves as "developer relations", not "developers", and none of the people I had gotten to know as key members of their team from previous I/O events were present.

(I also, like others, find the situation of "it is economically incorrect to not attempt to go to I/O due to handouts" ludicrous, and I wish they would stop doing it, even though I know it would make some of my friends who often attend with me sad. Google has tried to improve the situation by having handouts be given as part of talks and having the timing of central ones staggarred across the days, but it doesn't solve the core problem that there is no entrance cost to attending this conference.)

ryanhuff• 13 years ago

I would love a Google-operated, tech-talk only conference, without the product announcements, give-aways, etc.

kinlan• 13 years ago

Developer relations are normally engineers also on the product, but with more of a focus on Working with external developers.

walexander• 13 years ago

>Last year, these were replaced with "help desks" This was my main problem with IO last year. The informal developer gathering office hours from previous years were the best part of IO.

I convinced some colleagues to go last year on the merits of that alone. Was seriously disappointed with the help desk format it devolved into.

diego• 13 years ago

I hope no startups that I invested in bother trying to go to Google I/O.

stanleydrew• 13 years ago

Your comment is very intriguing. Do you mean as attendees or as partners in the Developer Sandbox Showcase Thing that Google always set up? And also, why?

stephen_cagle2• 13 years ago

A large part of the value of going to Ivy League schools is schmoozing with other Ivy League schoolers. If nothing else, I think the same applies here.

dysoco2• 13 years ago

I really want to see more Go talks this year, the Panel with Rob Pike and Ken Thompson was bad-ass.

jemeshsu• 13 years ago

Hoping that Google announce support of developing Android app using Go.

dysoco2• 13 years ago

Holy crap, that would be AWESOME. I really want to develop for Android, but I hate Java with passion, and Scala doesn't seem like an option.

donniezazen2• 13 years ago

How does Google verify Academic tickets?

Shank• 13 years ago

You present a transcript or student id at the door after ordering. You'll be turned away if you show up empty handed, however.

donniezazen2• 13 years ago

2012 webpage says proof of enrollment which can only be verified with a transcript. Student ID can be old.

lnanek2• 13 years ago

Wish they would rent all of Moscone center instead of just Moscone West. I clicked to buy a ticket the second it opened last time and still didn't get one through that means. I was lucky enough to win a coding contest for my ticket the year before and work for an OEM the next year, who seemed to get some pity tickets because they kicked all the OEMs out to make more room for fake living room setups for the Q.

jacquesc• 13 years ago

Prediction: Google IO will be heavily focused on Google Glass and they give everyone at the conference a free pair.

Hope they do this because I want to see some amazing Google Glass apps when they launch this year.

Google I/O 2013

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