• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, May 16, 2017

Next week Google plans to hold its first Marketing Next 2017 conference. Sridhar Ramaswamy, SVP of Ads & Commerce at Google, will keynote the event and unveil new innovations on the company's advertising platform based on advances in machine learning and computing technology. 

The focus has been on artificial intelligence, remarketing lists for search ads and Customer Match in AdWords to segment traffic and target returning customers. Google published a guide offering advice on how to create an audience strategy ahead of the conference.

Marketing will be next week's focus. This week, all eyes turn toward developers. On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, Google is expected to announce plans at its I/O "festival" to bring the Google Assistant voice app to the Apple iPhone, per one report, helping the company compete more broadly with Siri and Cortana. Of course, users will need to download the mobile app.

Raymond James Analysts Aaron Kessler and Justin Patterson published a report Tuesday that calls out constraints around virtual reality as one of the topics Google will likely address at the festival. The analysts believe Google will announce updates on the Daydream VR platform such as more phone support and content. Google acquired the VR gaming studio Owlchemy Labs on May 10.

With the update to the Google Photos app made at last year's I/O conference, it become easier to understand how the company will now offer the ability to turn those digital photos stored in the cloud into a picture book the company will print and send to your home for a price.

Google now categorizes its massive I/O developers' conference as an outdoor festival, which I think is interesting because the company is trying to get as many developers involved as possible. I/O has a similar vibe to Bonnaroo, which takes place in Nashville.  

To get developers involved, the company offers something it calls I/O Extended. Google supplies all the knowhow to organize an event, such as logistics, agenda planning, livestream, attendee registration and support from Google. It also offers up information on promoting the event, links to resources, and even the ability to order Extended swag.

Overall, Google maps out the agenda in a template that provides activities, such as Hackathons and Codelabs, and details how long each should last along with the materials required. For example, the company says that Codelabs should be a "walkthrough of code exercises to get first-hand experience with technology that are new to developers." Each should take two hours and requires good Internet connections and laptops for attendees.