Compared to the past years, this year’s I/O 2024 felt much more like a developer conference that spanned all of two days. But that’s not the end of it. There was even an alleged third day of I/O where Google hosted a new “Demo Slam” event just for its employees where an internal Gemini hackathon was announced.
There was no I/O in 2020, with 2021 streamed in front of a very limited live audience in Mountain View. Attendees were invited for one day in 2022 and 2023. After the keynote in 2024, Google hosted live sessions for in-person attendees, as well as after-hour social events.
I/O 2024 already felt like a three-day event, since the pre-recorded live sessions were released to YouTube on Thursday morning, but there was in fact another day of programming just for Googlers at the Shoreline Amphitheatre.
And, according to an internal email, CEO Sundar Pichai, who hosted the event, stated that thousands of Googlers attended, with others internally streaming it.
He also shared some images on LinkedIn:
Android engineering VP Dave Burke and others from Google DeepMind, Search, and Labs showed off what was announced earlier in the week. Project Astra was once again demoed, and some of those announcements were then made available to employees.
Meanwhile, Pichai at I/O Demo Slam announced an internal hackathon that encourages Google employees to experiment with Gemini.
Googlers can work in teams, and this project is meant to encourage AI experimentation that could end up resulting in new products. Google executives will select finalists who will demo at a company-wide meeting, with this hackathon also offering a monetary prize for winning teams.
Pichai said Google wants “to create more opportunities for us to come together as a company in the spirit of innovation and problem-solving, focused on our biggest opportunities like AI.”
