5 ms·

The big problems with attendees last year were that the demographic imbalances were in many ways embarrassing, and that they didn't feel it was developer focuss

The big problems with attendees last year were that the demographic imbalances were in many ways embarrassing, and that they didn't feel it was developer focussed enough. It'll be interesting to see if there is a giveaway at all this year, since a large part of previous woes could be down to people attending just for that, and I'd cynically observe that for many attendees the long term value was actually just the giveaway. The lottery is a definite step in the right direction, but the branding is just all kinds of terrible, and makes me wonder how much they've really learned. If they can improve access to the same content and people at remote locations that might be a game changer (i.e. hangouts to allow remote participation in some of their sideshows), as most of the value of attending the main event is what goes on outside the main talks, thanks to YouTube being so effective for hosting those.

dotnick 13y ago
I honestly fail to see how the lottery improves things. IMHO the best way is to just announce that there's no giveaway this year. Not the best promotion for the event though.
- bestdayever 13y ago
  It was definitely depressing to not get tickets last year then see a group of 9 year olds with their parents throughout the auditorium just looking to soak up the free stuff. I wish they didn't do any free stuff to discourage non developers from going.
- fidotron 13y ago
  I believe the thinking is that the previous setup meant that most people there were the kind that would obsessively refresh windows in order to secure places. The lottery means there's no benefit to those possibly excessively enthused about the idea, and so the tone of the whole thing could be more balanced and professional. They're going to have to be careful about hotel bookings though, since the announcement of winners will cause a surge.
  - objclxt 13y ago
    > They're going to have to be careful about hotel bookings though, since the announcement of winners will cause a surge. Is this no different to selling out in minutes though? Besides, hotels already know a) the dates of Google IO, and b) how many people are attending, so you'd imagine they'd already have priced that into their rates. Unless you're talking about the actual booking systems going offline, but that seems unlikely as lots of people will use aggregators (Expedia, Kayak, etc) at scale.
- bradleyjg 13y ago
  bestdayever You're currently hellbanned, looks like because of this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7273699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7273699
  - libria 13y ago
    Why do that? If you oppose the hellban, email the mods instead of encouraging him to circumvent.
    - stock_toaster 13y ago
      Perhaps the parent objects to hellbanning on principle, and is partaking in some small amount of civil disobedience to right a perceived wrong. If a single post happened to result in my being hellbanned, I would surely hope someone would tell me so I didn't continue wasting my time trying to participate, only to have it sent into the void. I could instead use it as a signal to either move on, or do some self introspection about my actions which resulted in the ban in the first place.
- ipedrazas 13y ago
  To me, it only shows that Mighty Google cannot get booking to oversubscribed events right...
incision 13y ago
>"The big problems with attendees last year were that the demographic imbalances were in many ways embarrassing, and that they didn't feel it was developer focussed enough." I'm curious, what kind of demographic imbalances? Of all the better known conferences, material from I/O has routinely been the most interesting to me - I've gone through dozens of videos from years past on YouTube. I've been thinking about pushing to get some employer sponsorship for a trip to I/O one year in place of our typical trips.
- sgarman 13y ago
  The presentations and material are great but there are a lot of attendees there who are not developers which makes a lot of the interactions confusing. TBH if there were more developers there I'm not sure I would be been able to get a seat or stand for that matter at a lot of the technical presentations.
- fidotron 13y ago
  Every stereotype of the tech industry being a male dominated monoculture was reinforced. Very (very) few women, and general racial/ethnic imbalances not reflective of Google or the wider world. As I alluded to, I'd recommend going primarily if you think you'll get value from interacting with interesting people there. I'm big on Android, but my highlight of last year was chatting to a Chrome dev relations guy about their approach to profiling, so it is the pleasant surprises that are the main takeaways.
  - mncolinlee 13y ago
    How is Google supposed to address that? And why is it relevant to getting value from the conference? The few female developers I know tend to resent the fact that the only women they meet at conferences are marketers, thereby ruining the chances other attendees will treat them as developers. It does not help developers to invite more marketers or recruiters in order to achieve gender balance.
  - 10098 13y ago
    The question is: who on earth cares about the demographics of a conference? You go there to get information, so why should you care about who the people sitting in the hall are, especially given the fact that you won't see them ever again?

dotnick 13y ago

I honestly fail to see how the lottery improves things. IMHO the best way is to just announce that there's no giveaway this year. Not the best promotion for the event though.

bestdayever 13y ago
It was definitely depressing to not get tickets last year then see a group of 9 year olds with their parents throughout the auditorium just looking to soak up the free stuff. I wish they didn't do any free stuff to discourage non developers from going.
fidotron 13y ago
I believe the thinking is that the previous setup meant that most people there were the kind that would obsessively refresh windows in order to secure places. The lottery means there's no benefit to those possibly excessively enthused about the idea, and so the tone of the whole thing could be more balanced and professional. They're going to have to be careful about hotel bookings though, since the announcement of winners will cause a surge.
- objclxt 13y ago
  > They're going to have to be careful about hotel bookings though, since the announcement of winners will cause a surge. Is this no different to selling out in minutes though? Besides, hotels already know a) the dates of Google IO, and b) how many people are attending, so you'd imagine they'd already have priced that into their rates. Unless you're talking about the actual booking systems going offline, but that seems unlikely as lots of people will use aggregators (Expedia, Kayak, etc) at scale.
bradleyjg 13y ago
bestdayever You're currently hellbanned, looks like because of this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7273699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7273699
- libria 13y ago
  Why do that? If you oppose the hellban, email the mods instead of encouraging him to circumvent.
  - stock_toaster 13y ago
    Perhaps the parent objects to hellbanning on principle, and is partaking in some small amount of civil disobedience to right a perceived wrong. If a single post happened to result in my being hellbanned, I would surely hope someone would tell me so I didn't continue wasting my time trying to participate, only to have it sent into the void. I could instead use it as a signal to either move on, or do some self introspection about my actions which resulted in the ban in the first place.
ipedrazas 13y ago
To me, it only shows that Mighty Google cannot get booking to oversubscribed events right...

incision 13y ago

>"The big problems with attendees last year were that the demographic imbalances were in many ways embarrassing, and that they didn't feel it was developer focussed enough." I'm curious, what kind of demographic imbalances? Of all the better known conferences, material from I/O has routinely been the most interesting to me - I've gone through dozens of videos from years past on YouTube. I've been thinking about pushing to get some employer sponsorship for a trip to I/O one year in place of our typical trips.

sgarman 13y ago
The presentations and material are great but there are a lot of attendees there who are not developers which makes a lot of the interactions confusing. TBH if there were more developers there I'm not sure I would be been able to get a seat or stand for that matter at a lot of the technical presentations.
fidotron 13y ago
Every stereotype of the tech industry being a male dominated monoculture was reinforced. Very (very) few women, and general racial/ethnic imbalances not reflective of Google or the wider world. As I alluded to, I'd recommend going primarily if you think you'll get value from interacting with interesting people there. I'm big on Android, but my highlight of last year was chatting to a Chrome dev relations guy about their approach to profiling, so it is the pleasant surprises that are the main takeaways.
- mncolinlee 13y ago
  How is Google supposed to address that? And why is it relevant to getting value from the conference? The few female developers I know tend to resent the fact that the only women they meet at conferences are marketers, thereby ruining the chances other attendees will treat them as developers. It does not help developers to invite more marketers or recruiters in order to achieve gender balance.
- 10098 13y ago
  The question is: who on earth cares about the demographics of a conference? You go there to get information, so why should you care about who the people sitting in the hall are, especially given the fact that you won't see them ever again?