On May 25, Google Developers’ Group (GDG) Daejeon held the event Google I/O Extended at Hotel Adria in Yuseong-gu from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Google I/O is Google’s annual event for introducing their latest technology and products, newly incorporated services, and the future roadmap of the company’s development direction. Google I/O Extended, as the name suggests, is an extension of the main event and takes place in 480 cities worldwide, consisting of talks given by those that attended Google I/O and those who wished to share expert knowledge on issues relevant to information technology in general.

Sun-jun Lee, co-organizer of Google I/O Extended Daejeon, opened the program by introducing what he hoped that this event would deliver – a place for developers across Daejeon and the country to meet each other, exchange opinions, and build a network of a wide spectrum of talented developers.

Of the many valuable talks during the day, arguably the most notable one was the venture experience story of Gwang Su Kim, the developer of the food delivery smartphone application The Delivery Nation. He revealed the rather dark downside of ventures and the difficulties he encountered on the way to making his application - their application and their company were only next to unknown until the sudden increase in demand for delivered food during the 2010 World Cup. Since then, Kim was able to expand his business to reach six million downloads and connect more customers everyday with some 130 thousand eateries.

Another speaker was Kyoungwon Lee from the Division of Web Science Technology at KAIST. As the chief technology officer and co-founder of Welothree, a travel information services company, he explained the goal of his start-up, his story on choosing computer sciences as his field, and his diverse experience, including some failures- he connected with the audience. He said that the most important thing, as always, is to experience different jobs at different positions inside and outside the campus environment, such as laboratories and private companies, to get exposed to the otherwise unimaginable work demands and networking opportunities as well as build up confidence.