Google dev cloud day Istanbul

Yesterday, I attended the Google /dev/cloud Day in Istanbul, and what an adventure it was! As a developer who loves building solutions (sometimes for problems that don’t even exist yet 😅), this event was exactly what I needed for some fresh inspiration.

The Talks: Mind = Blown

Richard Seroter’s “What’s the future of software development” was absolutely incredible. This man knows how to give a presentation! His delivery was engaging, and those funny notes he added throughout kept everyone attentive. Beautiful presentation, just beautiful.

While Valentin Deleplace presented on Gemini 2.0 for developers, I found myself caught in an interesting side conversation with Richard and Önder Güler. Sometimes these hallway discussions are just as valuable as the scheduled talks!

Guillaume Laforge’s “A practical introduction to retrieval augmented generation” was eye-opening. The presentation was so good that I’m actually considering writing my own article about RAG. The concepts he explained have so many practical applications that my mind was racing with ideas. He is a great sport, go follow him on mastodon!

Wietse Venema’s “The ultimate Cloud Run guide” was delivered by quite a character! I loved how he welcomed questions throughout and didn’t just save them for the end. His demo showcase really helped solidify the concepts he was discussing.

The Legendary Demo Problems

OK, I have to talk about the demo problems! These unplanned intermissions turned out to be some of the most entertaining parts of the day:

• During one of the Cloud Run demos, Wietse, Guillaume, and Richard’s screen decided to go completely haywire, and their reaction was priceless. Their jokes about demos had everyone laughing.
• Valentin tried to demo a product that has not been published to the public yet 😀 As you might have guessed it, he couldn’t finish the demo.
• That awkward five minutes when the projector decided to display nothing in what can only be described as “psychedelic mode”.

These little breaks from the technical content actually gave everyone a chance to breathe, laugh, and remember that even the experts face technical difficulties – just like the rest of us!

Workshops: Hands-on Learning

The workshops were good, though I had higher expectations. Still, they were valuable:

• Guillaume Laforge’s “Gemini with Vertex AI and LangChain” was my favorite – it actually inspired me to start working on a Rust port of the LangChain library. That’s what these events are for, right? Sparking new ideas!
• I attended part of Wietse Venema’s “Cloud Runner 2049” workshop before having to bounce to another session.
• Laurent Picard’s “Gemini Multimodality and Long Context” had a fantastic atmosphere. The audience was engaged and asking great questions, making for a collaborative learning environment.

My Public Transit Adventure

Believe it or not, this was not my first time using public transportation in Istanbul! We mapped out this crazy route from Istanbul Airport (IST) all the way to Sabiha Gökçen (SAW). It was quite an experience – exciting but exhausting. I don’t think I’ll repeat that exact journey anytime soon, but it’s definitely going in the memory books as a “character building exercise” 😂

Final Thoughts

Overall, the event was fantastic for networking and getting inspired about Google Cloud (though I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of their AI business but I love their research). I connected with some interesting developers and came away with several project ideas I can’t wait to start working on.

The venue at UNIQ Istanbul was impressive, and despite my transportation adventures, it was worth every minute. Looking forward to applying what I’ve learned to my next software engineering challenge!

What about you? Have you been to any tech conferences lately that sparked new ideas?

Maybe I’ll attend the next event, who knows?
Until then,