Tag: keynote

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Google I/O 2025

It’s great to be back at Google I/O for the third time. What made this year especially exciting was the opportunity to work on-site and see the results of our efforts from the pre-production phase come to life.

My assignment was to produce both pre-recorded and live sessions for the AI track. In the past, sessions were split across many product areas, but Google has simplified things in recent years: AI, Cloud, Android, and Web now form the four core tracks. For the pre-recorded sessions, I had the pleasure of working closely with many enthusiastic presenters during post-production. Finalizing the content was no small feat—things move quickly in this industry.

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The Checkup with Google Health

I had the opportunity to work on my first external-facing project with the REWS Event Production Team since joining last December. Typically, our team focuses on supporting internal executive-sponsored events, which involve confidential content. However, this particular event stood out in many ways.

To begin with, the event had to be rescheduled multiple times due to concerns surrounding the Omicron variant. Given that the event revolved around health, the client placed great emphasis on ensuring the safety of the presenters and crew members. As a result, we planned the event without a live audience at Google’s MP7 Event Center in Sunnyvale, which has a capacity of 650 attendees. Instead, we transformed the event space into a large sound stage, allowing the presenters to address the cameras directly and engage with a virtual audience. This required significantly more planning than our usual MP7 events.

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We did it!  First Virtual Google I/O

It was a fast and furious four-month journey to be deeply involved in Google I/O.  Our department, Google Developer Studio (GDS), has traditionally provided ENG style video crew on site as well as video editing of technical sessions. But this year was nothing like the past in-person events. GDS’s primary assignments were to pre-record 100+ technical sessions at the presenters’ homes and to live stream 50+ coding or Q&A sessions from home.  I led cross-functional teams plus collaborating closely with developer marketing.

Android Product Keynote (pre-recorded)

We often brainstormed how to execute these deliverables in terms of production timeline, staffing, home recording equipment, live streaming show flow, and VOD publishing schedule.  I might have communicated with more than 500 different people during the project.  My primary responsibility is to provide execution strategies and timelines.  I did briefings weekly to various groups and created playbooks, trackers, and FAQ’s so that I did not have to run a call center 24/7.

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San Francisco Hotel Strike

It was my privilege to work on one of the biggest enterprise user conferences in the city.  While this event finished successfully, the city of San Francisco displayed the reality of the wage discrepancy between the tech industry and others.

This city-wide hotel strike has been going on for weeks.  It is ironic that the conference brings in so much revenue to the local hospitality industry, but its 60,000 attendees were not getting the services they deserved.  When I was at a Union Square hotel (one of the venues for the event), I could not locate some equipment because the hotel personnel misplaced it, which probably would not have happened if their regular workers were on staff.

Moscone Hall D

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A Blind Date in Hong Kong

This was a rare event project.  I had no pre-production work until I got onsite.  It was almost like a blind date partly because of their strict NDA.  Agency J provided project briefing to me and another producer from Singapore when we arrived in Hong Kong.  Both of us were speaker support managers for a keynote session.  I was quite impressed with all the resources and documentation Agency J prepared for us.  They were very experienced in hiring an international crew.

I can’t talk about the event itself, but I was impressed with a dozen British crew who was very diligent, polite and seasoned.  Agency J even hired one of stage managers all the way from Mexico.  One of many things I learned from this project was that you get hired based on whom you know, instead of where you live.

Loves the juxtaposition between the old and the new in Hong Kong.

 

 

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Live Streaming from Orlando

This is my first time for me to work for Client S.  Agency I booked me six months ago, but the majority of my work happened a month leading up to the event.  My role was to manage live streaming and video-on-demand for the 3-day general sessions.  Managing two new vendors took me a while to figure out their process.  Because the venue (Orange County Convention Center in Orlando) is huge, I chose comfort over fashion and wore running shoes most of the time.  Who cares?  I was in the dark backstage as you can see.

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Product Launch at Roppongi Ex Theater

It was impressive to see how many rehearsals Client A went through for this product launch. The 90-minute keynote session was comprised of multiple presenters with technically challenging product demos using all devices you can think of (Mac Pro, MacBook, iPad, iPhone, Surface tablet, Android phone). The client chose Tokyo this year as Japan is the second biggest market for them. It was interesting to attend a series of rehearsals both in San Francisco and Tokyo, and to see the progress along the way. Thorough preparation definitely paid off to the flawless presentations.

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In spite of the midnight load-in schedule, the local Japanese agency put together all the necessary personnel and equipment by 6:00am as scheduled.

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Live Streaming from Tokyo International Forum

The venue was Tokyo International Forum which is very impressive architecturally. This is my fifth time working as a live-streaming producer for Client O. I had already visited the venue for a location scout last summer, which was a big help. Unlike a similar event I did for the same client three years ago in Tokyo, we had good pre-production in place as some lessons were learned from past experience. Live streaming went well without any technical glitches thanks to my supervisors, John and Tim as well as the client and the local production company on the Tokyo side.

The only disappointment is that I missed cherry blossoms by one week.

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