First off, I want to thank Samsung Members and @Jeremy_from_Samsung for providing me the wonderful news about winning the MyBestApp contest that was held a couple weeks back. I appreciate all of the time and coordination staff at Samsung Canada took to bring these amazing contests and opportunities to engage deeper with Samsung as a whole.
Gear360 Photo of Dev Park
Day 1 of the conference was packed with lots of activities starting with the Fit@SDC Yoga session. It was an hour long session that highlighted the use of the new Galaxy Watch Active 2 wearable paired with the Workout Trainer app by Skimble. It was my first time doing Yoga so it was a really great experience for me to help kick start my morning.
Shortly after they had set up stations that served light breakfast with coffee and tea. Dev Park had many different booths spanning One UI 2.0 to Samsung XR where they were taking 3D photos of people in a massive booth. I didn't see the final result but will get a chance tomorrow to revisit the Samsung XR booth to check out more of their experiences.
SDC2019 Keynote - One UI 2.0 - Sally Hyesoon Jeong
If you didn't get a chance to check out the highlights of the Keynote I would encourage you to give a quick read at the link or scroll down for the video that was posted. The keynote covered several new updates ranging from Knox, SmartThings, One UI 2.0, Bixby, and two brand new products to the Galaxy Book lineup (Galaxy Book Ion & Galaxy Book Flex).
Afterwards, I met up with the other winner of the MyBestApp contest and we got a chance to look at and hold the new and improved Galaxy Fold. I must say the phone was a lot more impressive in person to see, hold, and actually use.
We took a look around Tech Square and hit up some of the booths to see what was new with Samsung, their partners, and some products.
We also got a chance to attend some of the numerous sessions that they had available to hear more about the progress on certain products like Samsung Health, Bixby, and Knox. I really enjoyed this part of the conference because we got to interact with some of the panelists to ask some questions about new and upcoming solutions. This really helped me appreciate what goes into the development of these applications and put things into perspective how much work and research is required to get things right. It's a very different experience than the Samsung Unpacked conferences where the focus is more consumer hardware/device driven. However, hearing about what is up and coming was really exciting for me as well as the cool stuff like the Hackathons going on and activities in the Code Labs.
Last but not least, the end of the night ended on a good note with the Dev + Drinks event where they served some free drinks and amazing food like Wagyu Beef Hotdogs, Vegan Sliders, and Mashed Potatos. There were also servers walking around serving a wide assortment of h'ordeuvres. They had several activities during the night event: A Virtual Reality Horror Experience (Gear VR), Pumpkin painting, photos with some people dressed up in halloween costumes, and networking with others.
Skeleton peeps chillin'
Overall, Day 1 of the conference was really great and very fulfilling. The opportunity to be a part of the Keynote and see things in person was truly a life changing experience. Looking forward to Day 2!!! Catch me on the next post on Day 2 shenanigans.
