The IBM Watson Developer Conference kicks off November 9th in the heart of San Francisco, and TechPortfolio will be there delivering live insights.
Why IBM Wanted Developers in the Room
By late 2016, Watson was no longer just the computer that had won Jeopardy!. IBM had broken it up into a catalogue of cloud services, covering things like conversation, language analysis and image recognition, that developers could plug into their own apps through IBM’s Bluemix cloud platform.
That shift changed who IBM needed to win over. A service is only as successful as the number of people building with it, so the company started courting coders directly. This conference was part of that push, and it came only a couple of weeks after IBM’s big World of Watson event in Las Vegas.
It was also a first. A Cloud Foundry Foundation blog post from October 2016 billed it as the first-ever Watson Developer Conference, held at the Innovation Hangar in San Francisco on November 9 and 10, and aimed at developers, students and entrepreneurs.
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The three tracks of IBM Watson development content will be delivered in Spotlight and Flash talks, giving attendees and our readers a chance to Envision, Explore, and Engage.
https://twitter.com/Rommel_Rico/status/793833995922345984
From cognitive-enhanced fun in the Watson Beat: Making Music Cognitive session to a crucial security discussion in the Hacking with a Purpose: Safer Communities Through Mobile Tech seminar, this conference will deliver an augmented vision of IBM Watson’s capabilities for developers in all sectors of enterprise and industry.
https://twitter.com/IBMDataScience/status/793087717601120257
Experts from Uber, OmniEarth, Slack, and of course IBM Watson will get to the heart of making business, science, education, and the arts cognitive. As with all great tech revolutions, the cognitive age begins when developers truly get excited.
On-site developers will have access to a brand new Watson Developer Certification.
What Was on the Program
The talks were only part of it. According to the same Cloud Foundry post, the event included hands-on labs where developers could get started with Watson services on Bluemix, with Watson and Bluemix experts on site to answer questions.
There were sessions for developers working in Node, Python, Java and Swift, including live coding on stage and deep-dive spotlights on how different Watson services can be combined. A Watson Bot Competition invited developers to bring their own bot and compete in a head-to-head, tournament-style showdown in front of a panel of judges.
There was a lighter side, too. One demo zone let attendees try to move a Sphero BB-8 droid with their mind, built with IoT services on Bluemix, and then take away the code to build their own version.
The certification mattered more than it might seem. The Cloud Foundry post pitched it as a chance to become one of the first certified Watson Application Developers, which gave early adopters a way to show employers they knew their way around the new services.
If you can’t be there in person, make sure to follow along on Twitter.
What Came Out of the Conference
Bots ended up being the big story. In our recap from the first day, the conversation kept coming back to how developers should build chatbots: keep them simple, think about the tone of the people using them, and decide when a bot really needs to feel intelligent.
IBM also used the event to introduce Project Intu, an experimental platform for putting Watson’s abilities into devices like robots, avatars and drones. SiliconANGLE reported that it could run on Raspberry Pi, macOS, Windows and Linux, and that IBM wanted feedback from developers before opening a full beta.
Where Watson Went Next
Watson’s story since 2016 has been bumpy. In January 2022, IBM agreed to sell healthcare data and analytics assets from its Watson Health business to the investment firm Francisco Partners, saying it wanted to focus on its hybrid cloud and AI strategy.
The following year, IBM moved its AI efforts under a new name. In May 2023 it announced watsonx, a platform for building with foundation models and generative AI, at its annual Think conference.
The core idea behind events like this one has held up, though. Big AI platforms still compete hard for developers’ attention, with free tools, starter kits and certifications, because the companies building on a platform are what make it valuable.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was the first IBM Watson Developer Conference held?
The first Watson Developer Conference took place on November 9 and 10, 2016, at the Innovation Hangar in San Francisco. It was aimed at developers, students and entrepreneurs.
What could developers do at the Watson Developer Conference?
Attendees could join hands-on labs for Watson services on Bluemix, watch live coding and deep-dive talks, enter a tournament-style Watson Bot Competition, and take a new Watson Developer Certification on site.
Which companies spoke at the conference?
Experts from Uber, OmniEarth, Slack and IBM Watson were scheduled to speak about making business, science, education and the arts cognitive.
What did IBM announce at the conference?
IBM introduced Project Intu, an experimental platform for embedding Watson's capabilities into devices such as robots, avatars and drones. It could run on Raspberry Pi, macOS, Windows and Linux.
What happened to IBM Watson after 2016?
In January 2022, IBM agreed to sell healthcare data and analytics assets from Watson Health to Francisco Partners. In May 2023, IBM announced watsonx, a platform for foundation models and generative AI.