Google I/O is the company’s equivalent to Microsoft’s Build and Apple’s WWDC conferences. It is where Google announces what they’ve been up to not just on the Android front, but also on projects that they have been working on, whether it be wearables like Google Glass or Android Wear, or updates on its self-driving vehicles and so on.
Google has typically held the event in San Francisco in the middle of the year, but it looks like the company will be changing things for 2016. According to a recent tweet by Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, they will be holding Google I/O in May, and they will also be shifting its location from San Francisco to Google’s home in Mountain View.
According to Pichai’s tweet, “I/O’16 coming to neighborhood where it all started 10 yrs ago: Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, May 18-20. More details soon.” In terms of landing yourself an invite to Google I/O, there is a good chance that the company will resort to the similar “lottery ticket” system that they did last year.
Basically instead of it being a first-come-first-serve sign-up process, Google will instead draw a name from a hat (not literally) at random, and that person will then be given a chance to purchase a ticket to attend. Last year’s ticket cost $900 with academic tickets priced at $300. We’re not sure if this year’s tickets will be priced the same, but as Pichai said, more details will be shared.