We hosted our first event in the Factory, Germany's largest startup campus. The Factory provides working spaces, communities and events for freelancers and startups to connect and empowers entrepreneurs and innovators in a beautiful space in Berlin.
Before the event developers had a great time exploring the Code the Road bus and enjoying a coffee at our Location Cafe. They also had a chance to play multiple games including the Maps Skydiving game.
Ed Boiling and Matt Toon kicked-off the event with a great Codelab focused on building an app that allows users to check into any mountain when going on a hike or visiting a new destination. Corien, a web developer and student, said, “It was great to learn more how to use Google Maps APIs on Android, a platform I don’t usually develop on as well as learn from the other developers at the event. It was great to see everyone working together and learning a thing or two about Google Maps APIs.”
Then, we had Ed Parsons kick off our presentation by explaining how location technology is changing the way we interact with the world to create a more dynamic, emotive experience.
Next up, Oliver from Kia Motors spoke about how Kia is using Google Maps APIs in the Kia cee’d Surprise Drive digital marketing campaign. Martin Kleppe from Ubilabs followed up with the specific technical points on how this digital marketing campaign was developed with Distance Matrix API, Directions API and custom pins. He also gave our attendees some tips and tricks about how to get their maps looking snazzy with Image Tiles, clustering, Marker Images, Data Layer and more. He even share his presentation for our attendees to reference.
Finally, our technical lead from Sydney, Enoch, presented on a range of topics from keys to quotas to JavaScripts tips and tricks.
Shenouda, a developer from Egypt told us, “The presentations gave a great overview of the functionality of the technology and how to use the APIs to the best of their abilities.” He plans to take what he learned on styling and overlaying data on a map as well as using the Elevation API to incorporate into applications to give users a really interactive and exciting user experience.
We had a great time in Berlin. Next we were on to Hamburg and London!
Posted by Tobias Espig, Head of Global Field Marketing, Google Maps APIs