GOOGLE CLOUD NEXT, LAS VEGAS – Hope you brought your virtual walking shoes, folks, because hooooo boy was there a lot to do at Google Cloud Next 2024.
Hosted in the Mandalay Bay Casino convention center, this year's show included keynotes held in a hecking sports arena (!), a dedicated Partner Summit and the mother of all Expo floors. We did the exploring for you, so kick back and enjoy the show.
The grand entrance
There was no way NOT to know you were walking into an epic expo hall. Google set the tone with plenty of Next decor and flashy signage.
And here's my obligatory show floor selfie, because was I even there if I didn't take one?
AI aids for sports fans
There was some really cool tech on display this year, including a booth that let you take a penalty kick to have Google's AI evaluate your form and suggest improvements.
AI was also there to provide helpful hints for folks who tackled this racing demo.
AI safari
Google also used its Gemini AI tech to let users explore planet earth. How? It uploaded 7 million animal images and metadata and used Gemini and retrieval augmented generation to create clusters of animals in different habitats. Pretty cool!
IoT monitoring
The guys with the coolest job may have bene those hosting this HotWheels demo, which focused on using IoT sensors for performance analysis. I raced a fellow show-goer with a white polkadotted car and guess who won? (Hint, it was me!)
Coffee robot
We've seen this at some other shows like MWC, but couldn't help including it on this list as well. Say hello to the robot that makes you coffee!
PUPPIES!
This is probably my favorite booth idea ever and I hope they never stop doing it. There were puppies on the show floor. If I didn't have a job to do, I probably would have just hung out with them all day. But alas, I have to bring you stories from the show! Onward!
Catch all of our coverage from Google Cloud Next 2024 right here.