This blog is in English version. For Thai version: https://mesodiar.com/2a96946e6703

---

Hello! In this article, I will share my experience attending the Google Developer Groups SEA Summit 2023, held at the Google Asia-Pacific HQ Office in Singapore.

Normally, the GDG SEA Summit occurs yearly (excluding the COVID-19 period). Last year, it was held in Bali. However, I became Women Techmakers Ambassador in November 2022, so this was my first year attending.

Each Google Developer Group chapter sends two representatives, and in Thailand, we have GDG Bangkok and GDG Cloud Bangkok. That means there were four representatives from Thailand at this event, including O, March, Fon, and myself. 😊

What is GDG SEA Summit?

GDG SEA Summit is an event that gathers members from GDG (Google Developer Groups) and WTM (Women Techmakers) across Southeast Asia, including South Asia Frontier countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

There were 95 attendees representing 13 countries and 37 cities.

The primary objective of this event is knowledge sharing and interactive learning. It provides a stage for Googlers and fellow community leads to share their insights and experiences in building communities. Additionally, representatives from GDG chapters also share various technical skills and use cases. Each country’s community size varies, leading to diverse event-organizing experiences. Some countries even host event with over 1300+ attendees.

Apart from learning technical skills, this event offers the opportunity to meet people from different countries with diverse backgrounds. It allows for conversations and understanding of how each country’s community operates, what special technologies they use, and their expertise in areas such as Web development, Mobile development, Cloud, and AI/ML. Importantly, it provides a chance to learn about their unique cultures.

Summer of Love theme — Groovy 70s

This year’s theme is the “Summer of Love” (inspired by the 70s), and initially, I was a bit puzzled about a theme, but it turned out to be a lot of fun! The color theme was absolutely adorable, and it was based on Google I/O’s design (2023), but with a more colorful twist.

One thing I absolutely loved was that the shirts for the event were in a delightful shade of pink! It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a community shirt in pink. Normally, they come in black, blue, or white, so this was a refreshing change.

One of the things I appreciated the most was how Janise (Googlers, SEA regional lead) emphasized making the community event as welcoming and inclusive as possible, offering more choices for everyone.

They didn’t just have shirts in the usual unisex style; they also had a women’s cut option.

Some people felt comfortable wearing dresses and heels, while others preferred the female-cut shirts.

Everyone had their own style and could wear what made them feel most like themselves.

Another thing I absolutely loved was the SWAG (free goodies) at the event. They gave out rainbow-colored socks! 🌈

What I learned

1. Achievements and Challenges in Each Country

Linh Vu Thi Khanh, the GDG Lead of GDG Hanoi, shared insights about the recent Google I/O Extended Hanoi 2023 event. It was a massive success with over 1300+ attendees! That’s an impressive turnout, and it’s fascinating to see the scale of their community.

What’s even more impressive is that they managed this event with a relatively small team of about 10 people who handled everything from design and logistics to PR. They had logo designs, venue maps, and promotional strategies all ready to go! Their primary promotion channel was Facebook, as most people in Vietnam are active on that platform.

And here’s the kicker: Linh mentioned that they’re planning to scale it up to 1400+ attendees for next year! That’s truly remarkable.

Comparing this to Thailand, where our communities are considered large, it’s clear that GDG Hanoi’s event is on a whole different level in terms of size and reach. 🚀

Haidar Zamzam, the representative from GDG Surabaya, shared that they are emphasizing Instagram as their primary communication channel. It’s interesting to see how different communities use various social media platforms to connect and engage with their members.

What’s particularly impressive is that their community continues to grow year after year, creating a vibrant and thriving tech ecosystem. 🎉🚀

2. Inspiration

Veronica Putri Anggraini from GDG Bogor shared an incredibly inspiring session about her event-organizing experiences.

Veronica mentioned that she usually talks to every participant one-on-one, asking for feedback on the event. During one of her interactions, she noticed that there was a male participant who didn’t seem to actively participate in the event, such as not raising his hand when the speaker asked to do so.

Veronica took the initiative to talk to him and discovered that he was deaf, which explained why he didn’t have any interaction.

Following this insight, in the next year’s event, Veronica added live captions and a sign language interpreter to make the event more accessible and inclusive for everyone.

This thoughtful move aimed to ensure that everyone could fully engage with the event.

What’s truly heartwarming is that, as time went on, the male participant who initially struggled to participate in the event encouraged his hearing-impaired friends from his community to join as well. It’s a heartening story of inclusivity and community building. 🤝😊

In addition, the GDG Bogor team shared a Chrome extension designed to facilitate the QR code scanning process during registration.

Sharing is caring indeed!

3. High-Quality event

This was another session that got us thinking:

“How can we create a high-quality event?”

“Why do we build communities?”

“What are our resources? ”

“How can we level up our community?”

We also learned a valuable tip from the Googlers: “A big event doesn’t always equal a successful event.” However, they emphasized that organizing larger events can help in requesting more resources, such as speakers.

Another enlightening session was on “Community Sustainability” by Amrita and Danang. It closely resonated with the concept of a high-quality event. It encouraged us to reflect on where we currently stand, what we are doing for our community, and whether we truly understand the needs and aspirations of our audience.

4. We love Tech topics !!

Eric ShangKuan, a regional lead (Googler) from Taiwan, opened the session with a question:

“Do you know Google’s mission?”

The answer to that question is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” primarily through search. This mission is why Google offers a wide array of services and devices, all designed to collect data and provide various tools and solutions for developers.

For instance, Android has been around for 14 years. In its early days, it was written in Java until Google introduced Kotlin in 2017, a new programming language they actively encourage developers to use. A fun fact: 30% of apps on Google Play are now written in Kotlin.

As for Flutter, it supports six platforms: Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, Windows, and Web. To work with Flutter, developers need to learn Dart, its programming language.

Firebase is another product mentioned, and it’s considered one of the more complex ones. It aims to minimize the distinction between frontend and backend, focusing heavily on data and cloud-related aspects.

There’s a lot to learn and explore 😊🌟

What makes Google Works? Google Culture & Values

In another session, Janise, the speaker, described Google’s culture & values. There are so many thoughtful points for adaptation. Mainly there are 3 key respects:

• Respect user
• Respect opportunity
• Respect each other

One part that resonated strongly was the emphasis on “Respect for each other.” For instance:

• Using inclusive language: Instead of saying “Hey guys,” opting for “Hey folks” or “Hey everyone.”
• Avoiding assumptions: When someone asks a direct or unusual question, respond with curiosity, such as “Why do you ask that?” Help me understand where this is coming from.

Janise covered various topics, including culture and mindset within Google, and how they want these principles to be applied to the community.

More and more inspiration 😀

Zhi Yi Ho, a representative from GDG George Town, shared their journey of joining Google Developer Groups, starting from their time with GDSC (Google Developer Student Club) and eventually transitioning to GDG.

Zhi Yi spoke fluently and confidently. If it was me at that age, I’d probably be shaking in front of the audience. Zhi Yi’s talks always leave me feeling inspired every time 😄🌟

Study Jams !

Cloud Study Jams are events organized to allow people in the community to learn Google online courses together. In Thailand, we have #ChaiyoGCP, and the latest one was in its third season. The GDG Cloud Bangkok team also participated in organizing it, and I got to speak at the event as well, hehe.

In other countries, Study Jams have adorable names like #QuanQuanGCP and #JuaraGCP in the local languages. “QuanQuan” and “Juara” both translate to “Champion”

As for GCPBoleh, “Boleh” means “can” in the local language.

Cloud certification tips !!!

Liu Weiyuan’s session on tips for prepping for the Google Certification exam was a lot of fun. He shared valuable insights such as tips, materials, the exam format, and so on.

It was an engaging and informative session that also had its share of laughter.

---

Besides these, there were many more sessions on various topics, such as:

• Efficiently using the Bevy system for event registration (GDG’s event registration system) and strategies to reduce attendee drop-off rates.
• Budget management and how to request event budgets.
• Learning about the different social media channels used by different cities. For example, Surabaya focuses on Instagram, while Hanoi relies on Facebook.
• Sponsorship techniques, emphasize the importance of promptly providing event details like venue, date, and time.
• Some GDG chapters, like GDG Manila, collaborate so closely that their teams become genuine friends and even go on trips together to Taiwan.

These sessions provided a wealth of knowledge and insights for the GDG community. It’s wonderful to see how GDG chapters adapt and thrive in their unique ways. 😊🌟

International Women’s Day in Bangkok

I won’t praise my own chapter, but this year, GDG Cloud Bangkok organized an International Women’s Day event at Agoda.

We had a total of 83 participants, with 42 of them is women. All eight speakers were women as well.

This can be counted as our success in advocating for safe and inclusive spaces for everyone, as well as providing a platform for women to showcase their abilities on stage. 👩‍💻

I’m lucky to have you on this journey 🥰 Kamolphan Lewprasert, Boonjira Angsumalee (Blue), and Key Intouch

Meet New Friends !!!

A memorable moment during short networking was when my Vietnamese friends (pictured above — whom I became Facebook friends with after Google I/O Connect in India) complimented me on writing many blogs. They found the blogs easy to understand. It gave me the motivation to continue writing more in the future 🥹📝

Another memorable moment was traveling with my Laotian friends. We (me and Fon) invited them to explore and savor delicious food together. We had TienTien (Hainanese chicken rice), Songfa and เบียร์จอก 😆.

During the trip, I also learned some Laotian words. It was a delightful experience, and I found the Laotian language to be charming.

I truly understand why they organize summits like this because, besides knowledge sharing from leaders, it also breaks down language and cultural barriers. I’d love to visit Vientiane and speak there someday. 😄🌍

Nice to meet you all. Let’s connect !!!

Relax time

We had a fun activity where we made keychains using beads

I opened up a picture and designed the bead layout myself. It was Airflow and BigQuery. Yay!

One funny thing that happened was that Fon and I made beads with the BigQuery design, but one of our Vietnamese friend said it looked like a mirror or a broken mirror. 😂 Noooo!

Office Tour

On the first day of the event, they had a Google Office tour, which was truly impressive. The office space is vast and spans multiple floors. Each floor has a different interior theme.

Some floors are designed around the theme of “Space,” while some is themed after “Earth” It’s really cool!

The meeting rooms are even named after train stations in Singapore, similar to how some offices in Thailand have rooms named after things like “Chitlom” or “Pluern Chit (เพลินจิต).”

It must have been a unique experience to tour Google Office on a day when most people are off work (because it was an election day so it was a public holiday). And yes, with such a vast and impressive space.

It’s really hard to explain in text. You can watch Frank Xayachack’s video to see what it likes. 😘

Thank you!

Thank you to the organizer team. YOU ROCK 🤘🚀!!!!

And special thanks to Kamolphan Lewprasert for the photo credits

ขอบคุณค่ะ !

Thank you!