What You Missed at Next ‘22

Last week, Google Cloud Next, our annual customer conference, took place in-person for the first time since 2019 with an amazing around-the-globe set-up. At every #GoogleCloudNext, leaders representing each industry and corner of our globe come together to share ideas, announce new initiatives and identify solutions for some of the world’s most complex issues. This year, I was lucky enough to be on-site at the main location in our NYC office and the energy was truly remarkable!

At this year’s event, the focus on collaboration was showcased more than ever with 24-hour content, broadcast live from 谷歌 offices around the world. Throughout each day, attendees had the opportunity to join dozens of virtual sessions, including keynote speeches, breakout sessions and customer innovation discussions. It was certainly a busy three days, but there’s no doubting the impact that this event will have on our business and our customers. Here’s a look at some of my favorite parts of the week:

Analyst Relations Dinner:?

I have been wanting to travel to our New York office for quite some time, so I was incredibly excited to step into our newest location in Pier 57 on Monday morning. After a day of exploring the brand new Cloud Space | New York (more on that later) and meeting with some of my team there, I had the opportunity to join Google executives for a dinner with our analyst community.

This was a great opportunity for my colleagues and I to continue building on our long-standing relationships with industry experts and talk about what’s top of mind for them. With Next ‘22 starting the following morning, everyone was excited to discuss their plans for the week. And of course, there were plenty of conversations about how we can work together to drive success for the future of Google and our customers.

Leader’s Circle:

On Tuesday, I joined a group of CEOs and CIOs representing our customers for Leaders Circle. In our breakout session, led by Jenn Bennett , executives were encouraged to have open conversations around the impact technology can have in leading #sustainability initiatives – a theme that is now more important than ever. During this event, I hosted a conversation at our table where we talked about some of the most pressing issues facing our global ecosystem and the role technology plays in driving solutions.

It was great to hear from these leaders about where they are prioritizing resources to drive meaningful change and where we can use collaboration to transform our organizations towards sustainable growth. With climate change on the rise, it is now critical that we have these conversations and introduce solutions that can mitigate the risks to our environment. I’m very thankful for the opportunity to participate in this event and am looking forward to seeing our work in action.

I also had a chance to run into some of my colleagues while at Leader’s Circle, including Betsy Atkins , who serves on the Google Cloud Executive Advisory Board, and Kirsten Kliphouse , President, Americas of Google Cloud. I met with clients old and new, like Tony Kerrison from 美国银行 and Archie Deskus – a long-time colleague and friend of mine from our days at 惠普企业服务 . It was great to see you all! Later in the evening, I attended a happy hour event with SADA, An Insight company where I got to enjoy drinks with some of our customer-facing teams, and of course had a great time hanging out with Tony Safoian and Michelle Ambrose !

Cloud Space | New York Opening:

Tuesday was particularly exciting because I had the opportunity to co-host the opening of our brand new Cloud Space | New York! This venue is not only a beautiful place for our teams to drive customer experiences, but its location makes it easier than ever for our East Coast and European teams to participate in EBCs. Not to mention, you can order pretty much any type of coffee you’d like at the touch of a tablet!

I am so excited to see this incredible space come to life with Google Cloud and customer teams alike. Huge thanks to everyone who attended this ceremony!

gCAB Event:

On Wednesday, my focus was all on our Google Cloud Customer Advisory Board (gCAB) event. This day was packed with content from breakfast to dinner, with several opportunities for me to meet with our customers and hear about what’s top of mind.?

There were several keynote sessions, but one that stuck out in my mind was a session on the future of #ArtificialIntelligence, led by June Yang , where we discussed how this technology can be used to break down barriers for development. I also hosted a customer breakout session where I got to speak directly with some of our clients to learn more about their needs and how we can address them. I couldn’t think of a better way to close out my time at Next ‘22!

Although we weren’t able to meet entirely in-person for this year’s Next programming, I still felt the sense of community and collaboration that makes me so proud to work for #Google and excited for what our future holds. Thanks to everyone who I had the chance to meet with, I’m so happy I could see so many familiar faces both in-person and virtually.

If you were unable to attend Next ‘22 or have a session you missed, please be sure to explore the #GoogleCloud Next ‘22 catalog for plenty of on-demand content that you can use.