Google I/O is sold out | Hacker News Reader

Google I/O is sold out

developers.google.com

34 pointsmbreese52 comments

Unfortunately Google I/O has become a "why not" conference. I would love to go to Google I/O at current prices even if they did not offer any swag. Unfortunately that doesn't seem apply to most people trying to get a ticket. They really should get rid of the swag and/or add random programming challenges during the registration process.

I was able to reserve a ticket only to time out trying to pay with Google Wallet: http://i.imgur.com/vSCppd8.png

The problem is Google I/O is used to launch new products and hold tech talks. There's a lot of overlap of people who are interested in both, but now the audience has grown too big.

This was the same problem GDC was having a while back--too many attendees weren't interested in the game developing but were there to check out new games. Making GDC developers-only and creating PAX for product announcements was a great way to handle the issue.

Well, I personally believe if they stop giving swags a lot of people won't go with $900 price tag. I personally will not. It's not just because I don't want swag, I want to meet the engineers working with the products and services I like and want to ask them questions but on the other hand almost all the talks are recorded online and you can view them for free on YouTube.

As opposed to the $2,200 RSA conference where the "swag" consists of a $15 equivalent back pack ? I suspect it would sell out quickly without the swag.

Fairly disheartening to watch the countdown hit 0 - Hit the register button immediately and spend the next hour being thrown back to the start for the progress 7 / 8 times to eventually find they are sold out. I personally didn't get to see the payment screen but I hear many peoples purchases timing out or making purchases to have them cancelled after they sell out.

I'm pretty sure I'd be ok with the fact that I wasn't able to get a ticket if I could understand WHY. What a frustrating process.

A result of PR people wanting to generate headlines such as the one in the OP. WWDC will sell out even faster, 'etc.

It's a quasi-random lottery. If the client-side code is similar to last year's, then the Javascript on the holding page polls the server at random intervals for an "available" ticket, which are released at random intervals and/or as orders fail to go through (e.g. payment times out, etc).

Why so much bitching about everything? The conference is popular - they got sold out quickly. All important talks will be streamed live and recorded for later viewing? So what are you all complaining about?

I'm guessing you didn't spend an hour today waiting in opaque queues that weren't first-come-first-served (and errored out when it seemed likely to succeed).

Probably because it's a chance to get the latest and greatest hardware for a ridiculously low price.

the problem is with the way they are selling tickets. All they've managed to do is tell a load of developers that Google Wallet is flakey.

I don't know what they are so worried about that they give you 5 minutes to pay. The thing is going to sell out even if they give people a week to pay!

The problem is that people expect more from Google. People understand the conference is popular and so should Google. If anyone could handle this type of load, you would think they would be near the top of the list. However, every year people need to sit at their computer staring at animated gif or rapidly hitting F5. Even when you get past the first screen and are told that you have tickets waiting for you, the payment processing often fails. That is exceptionally frustrating.

Did anyone else get 500s from the server? I got a 500 early on, and two of my friends got tickets and subsequently got 500s from Google Wallet. In retrospect, I wonder if my initial 500 was actually a successful ticket.

Hm, maybe, I got a 500 when I first clicked at ~t+2 seconds, then after refreshing it was all spinning wheel until sold out.

Got a 500 early on, only once, then not again during the next 45 minutes...

I had 3 of them, and wondered exactly the same thing.

It'd be awesome if an SRE could chime in on this.

I had a couple of 500 error as well and have to reload.

Another thing I noticed is that, in the registration waiting page, it shows "sign in" on upper right corner, while redirected back to main page after 6 min, I saw that I was logged in Google+ without problem.

And Google Wallet has quite some issue as well.

It may be good marketing campaign for Google, but bad for desperate developers like us. I was even chatting w/ my wife on purchasing air ticket and booking hotel last night.

We want to be there, not for those free stuff.

This is very disappointing. I started attempting to reserve at 7:05AM tried for 8 times (waiting 6 mins everytime for it to find a ticket) and finally came back with Sold Out message.

Dear Google, we also love you if we are outside the USA. :) Please organize other such big events in Europe or Asia. Thanks. (BTW, why do I never see events organized by Zooglers?)

Xooglers, as in ex-Googlers.

He means the Zurich office - they're known as Zooglers.

jooglers - johannesburg

wooglers - warsaw

booglers - berlin

fooglers - frankfurt

I feel like Alan Davis

So who else got a ticket, but then timed out at the payment screen?

I managed to find 3 academic tickets, and all of those timed out when I tried to pay for them.

one of my co-workers did. He ended up closing the google Wallet popup 4 times and re-trying the payment and was able to get through.

I had this as well, but the payment was ultimately declined.

Got through the payment screens. Was interrupted during the survey to let me know that my work AMEX was declined :/

Yeah, sat through about 6, 6 minute sessions of loading only to be told it was sold out.

Google, you suck at tickets

Same here, using a Mastercard.

Feel upset after trying about 40 min. I was on conf call and keep jumping back to may personal laptop and trying registration every 6 min once redirected back to main page -- and cannot get one ticket. :-(. Really want to go check out this event but it is so hard to get a seat after years of trying.

I got two chances to buy a ticket. I chickened out the first time (about 20 minutes in)... and bit the bullet the second time (40 minutes in). I'll be coming from Toronto. Also my first time visiting San Francisco so this is a perfect excuse to do that. See you all there.

Lots of 500 errors when I "got" a ticket and was being sent to the registration. Unfortunately, that means I instantly appeared to lose the ticket and had to jump back into the ticket lotto machine.

What is the added value of being there physically?

The disgusting amount of free swag they throw at you.

Not so free if you consider the $900,- fee, excluding the cost to get there and place to stay.

That's the only reason I attempted(and failed) to get a ticket.

And this is why they should stop giving large amounts of free swag.

I've been preaching this for years- it's not a "developers" conference anymore when you have your average tech enthusiast queueing for swag.

Yeah, I wonder what percentage of attendees are actually developers working on Android or API-related projects. If it's a low percentage, that would actually kill a lot of my enthusiasm to go.

I wish you'd realize how damaging that is to the Android / Google ecosystem. Small-time developers who are working really, really hard to build the most amazing products and services possible in the modern world are being intentionally shut out of developer events by people like you who want "free stuff". Please don't do that next time.

If you've been to an I/O before you realize there isn't a whole lot of advantage to being there in person vs. watching live via the free streams they offer. It isn't like WWDC where there is an abundance of google presence for you to talk your issues over with. It is more of a dog and pony show where they give out free shit. You are assuming he isn't also a developer. Please don't do that next time.

> If you've been to an I/O before you realize there isn't a whole lot of advantage to being there in person vs. watching live via the free streams they offer

I've never been, that's true - but it's not for a lack of trying. I do disagree that there's not a whole lot of advantage to being there in person; I can't believe that would be true. I built a Top 30 weather app and I've never met a single Android developer in my life; I am certain, 100% certain, that actually meeting fellow developers would be immensely helpful.

> You are assuming he isn't also a developer. Please don't do that next time.

I think it's a fair assumption that the person isn't a developer; it's tough to imagine a developer would have no interest in going to any of the talks but only want to hold new tech devices. You're assuming the poster is male and not female. Please don't do that next time.

I think it's a fair assumption that the person isn't a developer

Take a look at my profile, at the youtube videos on there. Then decide what kind of job you think I have.

Fair point. Sorry, I was wrong. So why don't you have any interest in going to the talks or speaking with anybody at I/O?

Because while I like android(which is half of my job) & Google related topics, my main interest is in game console hacks which is at best a grey area in USA's legal system. If by chance I saw people talking about dumping encryption keys from Wii U's Flash ROM then it would be a pleasant surprise to me and I'd take part in and/or give talks.

Networking. Early developer advantages; I want to build the first innovative weather app on Glass, for example. It would help immensely to network with the other excited developers and get hardware to develop and test.

More accurately, "Google I/O tickets now available on secondary market for actual market-clearing price."

EDIT: I stand corrected.

I think they are non transferable this year.

This is correct, that rule changed this year. See: https://developers.google.com/events/io/help#reg_open

> Google I/O tickets must be used by the original registrant and are non-transferable. Tickets may not be sold, bartered, auctioned, or transferred in any way and doing so may result in Google rendering the ticket null and void without any responsibility to Google.

EDIT: to add, last year I bought a ticket and transfered it to a co-worker (my company picks 2 people a year to send, and I wasn't one of them last year. One of the people selected didn't get a ticket but I was able to, so I bought it and transfered it to him). So they've allowed it before, but I guess they wanted to get rid of the scalping market.

I believe they were made non-transferrable this year, main reason I was hopeful about actually getting one.

Can anyone explain to me why academic faculty get a discount? And students for that matter also.

Not sure about faculty but students is probably because it would be more difficult for them to afford the full ticket price and Google probably wants to introduce them to their technologies at the beginning of their career.

I am surprised Google keeps this "everyone pile in" approach - it seems hundreds or thousands of Google-evangelists are guaranteed a bad experience (apart from not getting a ticket).

A simple 72 hour pre-registration period where everyone can leisurely sign up, and a random allocation of tickets out of the hat, seems to be both fair, and lead to a experience for everyone where servers don't melt and 500 errors dont get presented to people who for the next year will be recommending to their clients / employers whether to use GAE or Google Wallet.

Why piss off your core supporters?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com