It was the day before my birthday. I was sitting in front of my laptop, working on my project, wondering how in less than 24 hours wishes will start pouring in from people most of whom I had last spoken with only on my last birthday. 💁
Then I get a call, with the best news of my life — that I have been invited to attend Google I/O this year! 😯
Now, all these years I was waiting for my acceptance letter from Hogwarts and.. well, finally!! Here it was.. a ticket to the magical land! ❤
Google Udacity India Challenge Scholarship — Where the journey began
I have completed the Android Basics Nanodegree from Udacity as a Google scholar. As part of the program, I got to be part of an amazing community, proudly referred to as the Google India Scholars. I had absolute fun participating in activities and challenges, answering questions on the discussion forums and conducting technical webinars to help fellow students. I was learning something new, every day.
We were all very upset when the program ended in October 2018. But then, we got a surprise announcement in February this year, saying that Google will be sponsoring 3 scholars for a fully funded trip to the conference.
My online presence, contributions and active participation in the program had led me to be recognized as one of the deserving candidates 👼
Prepping for I/O
As much as I was excited about my first ever international conference, I was also a bit nervous. I wanted to make the most out of it. I began preparing — reading the first timer's guide, listing questions to ask the Google engineers and taking tips from the previous I/O attendees. After spending 3 months on planning and 3 days on packing, I was all set for my trip and I left for the US on May 6th.
Day 0 — The day before the I/O
I reached San Francisco on May 6th. I was staying at this beautiful hotel — Wild Palms at Sunnyvale. After checking in, I rushed to attend a Welcome Dinner in one of the Google buildings. The program was hosted by William Florance, the head of Developers Training at Google and included all the Google sponsored invitees from India, South Africa, and Indonesia — Udacity scholars, AAD certification alumni, DSC leads. I got to hear some inspiring stories from the attendees about how the Google programs had helped them in their career.
Day 1 — Exploring IO
I woke up early on May 7th, rushed to the venue as early as 6 am to collect the I/O badge. I was one among the few to get a pic at the I/O sign without having to stand in a long queue. 😛
After having a light breakfast, and exploring the venue a bit, I waited in the queue for the keynote. Being early has its perks! I got a perfect seat in the center of this beautiful amphitheater.
The event started off with an AI DJ and a human DJ playing music side by side. After we all settled in, the much-awaited keynote started. Sundar Pichai walked on to the stage to a thunderous applause. He talked about the latest developments in Google and stated how this year, they’re aiming at building a more helpful Google for everyone —with features from exploring the world with AR to detecting cancer with AI.
After the keynote, it was time to explore the sandboxes.
AI/ML sandbox
I learned about AI researches that were aimed at protecting whales and at improving the accuracy of flood alerts across various cities in India. In most of the sandboxes, they also showed us how they were simulating the huge sets of data for the experiments.
Android Sandbox
I spent half of my time at the IO at the Android sandbox. 😛
I got to meet many of my favorite people from the Android community including some of the Udacity instructors.
I also visited the Flutter sandbox, Google Assistant and Experiments sandbox.
Flutter was always the most crowded. They had beautiful apps on display everywhere.
Google Assistant had interesting demos — games on the interactive canvas, demo for 2F authentication on a locked cookie jar that would unlock on voice commands and a treasure hunt with the assistant.
At the experiments sandbox, I learned about Plus Codes — a project that aims at assigning digital addresses to locations where there is no definite street address.
And then it was 5 ‘o’ clock in the evening. End of day 1. I stepped out of the campus to do a bit of G-biking 🚲 😛
Along with a few of my friends, I visited the Google Merchandise Store to do a bit of shopping.
Luckily for us, right next to the merchandise store was the very famous Android Lawn Statues.
We then set off on foot to attend a Flutter party hosted by Nilay Yener. We spent the rest of the evening connecting with awesome Flutter people. It’s unbelievable how the community has grown! Oh and hey, what do you know? I got a Dash too! 😻
Day 2 — Attending the sessions
After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, I left for the venue at 8:30. I stopped by the community lounge to meet with some of the AAD alumni to learn about the certification.
I spent the rest of my day attending sessions — Android Architecture Components, Kotlin, Jetpack, and Flutter. It felt great to see the developers live on stage as opposed to seeing them on Youtube every year! 😀
In between the sessions, I visited the “MirrorMe” photobooth, clicked a pic of mine, which was put up on a map that initially said I/O and would later turn out to look like the world map.
Later that evening we had an India community dinner at an Indian restaurant — Mantra. I got a chance to talk to the organizers of GDG and WTM communities from all over India. I met with Karthik Padmanabhan, lead of the Developer Relations team and learned about how we can be more involved in the community and help other people gain more exposure to the Google programs.
After some interesting discussions with the people around, I realized how hungry I was! Being a vegetarian, relying on coke and cookies every day I sure was craving for Indian food and so, I had my fill. 😋
But wait, the day didn’t end there. We headed back to the amphitheater for the beautiful I/O concert.
Day 3 — Saying goodbyes
Day 3 was the shortest. I spent some time walking around the campus alone. There were now a lot of familiar faces now. 😄
After exploring a few codelabs, it was time to attend a focus group session with the Google engineers where we were given a chance to try out the new google.dev website and share our feedback.
The last one to explore for me was Android Auto. It was very cool to see a live demo of Google Assistant’s integration to cars.
After that, it was time to board the Hogwarts Express back home! 😢
There is always so much at the I/O! I kept wishing I could split myself into 4 parts and go everywhere I wanted to go. 😅
It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I will always be grateful to Google and Udacity for this. I also have to thank my GIS community for always being so supportive. I will continue to do my best to give back to the community. ❤
Now, before I go… As promised...
Tips for first-time attendees
- Read about other people’s experiences, talk to them, learn about how the event is going to be.
- Reserve your seats for the sessions on the IO app when it’s announced. Plan to attend some of your favorite sessions.
- Prepare questions — as many as you can. This is your chance to talk to the engineers who build the products you use every day. Make a list of questions you want to ask and the people you want to ask it to.
- Visit the sandboxes, play with the demos, talk to the people, learn about the experiments.
- Reserve slots for app review and office hours to get feedback from the Google engineers for your apps.
- Be early. Be early to collect your badges, be early to take pics at the I/O sign (😛), be early to the keynotes!
- Talk to people, make some connections. Learn about their journey in tech, share your stories.
- Last but not the least, remember to rest when you need and have lots of fun!
Thank you for reading my article. Hope you enjoyed the tour of the wizarding world with me! 🧙
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