Last week I had a great learning and networking opportunity as part of my job here at Small Box. The Google I/O Web Developer Conference, Google's largest developer event, was held for the first time ever last week in San Francisco, bringing the nerds and experts of web development together to explore new possibilities brought to the Internet by products like Google's API's, Earth, Maps, Android (the open source cell phone software) and Gears (a new standard that brings database technology to the end-user's browser), plus technologies that are already standards or quickly becoming standard like OpenSocial, AJAX and Javascript. Google called it "Two days of in-depth, technical sessions on how to build the next generation of web applications with Google and open technologies."

The diverse array of presentations, code labs, tech talks and fireside chats were refreshing for me professionally as it presented a nice balance of new information (OpenSocial, Android, Google Gears) and reinforcing that which I already know and use often while developing sites here at Small Box (AJAX, Javascript, Google's APIs).

The conference was divided into specific areas: AJAX & Javascript, APIs & Tools, Maps & Geo, Mobile and Social. Next week I'll dig in to everything I took away from the conference and try not to get too technical.