Google’s developer conference, Google I/O, will be coming up on May 18-20th in Mountain View, California and starting next week you can register for the event. Earlier today the company rolled out the conference website where you will be able to register for the opportunity to attend. That’s right, just because you register doesn’t mean that you will actually get into the event. Tickets, as you can imagine, are extremely limited even at their $900 price tag.
If you are new to this whole registration process, here is how it works. First, you have to go to the I/O website and register for the event using a Google account (for most this will be their Gmail address). You complete the application and you will receive a confirmation email letting you know that you are registered.
Now comes the tricky bit. Google randomly selects attendees after the registration window closes. If you are lucky enough to get selected, a full event ticket is $900 while an academic ticket (yes,
Google I/O Website
you have to prove you are a student) is $300. When you are selected, you will get an email outlining the details of what to do next including payment. You will have a small window of time to make a payment to reserve your spot or you will lose it to someone else. If you change your mind or things change and you can’t make it, you can get a refund up to April 29th.
As for what to expect at I/O this year, the banner item likely is to be Android N where it is expected that Google released split-screen viewing (particularly important for tablets), some smoothed out notification shade bits, losing of the app drawer…. or maybe not?, and a host of other tweaks. This will be an evolutionary build on Marshmallow so don’t expect a lot of game changing stuff.
There will also likely be a lot of announcements around VR given the push the company is making in that space, as well as autonomous devices like cars, drones and so forth. It should be an exciting few days for sure for the lucky ones who get to go.
