I Hid Swag and I'd Do It Again! - Recapping our DotDev Adventure

I Hid Swag and I'd Do It Again! - Recapping our DotDev Adventure

Karl and Taylor reunite for a full-week recap of Shopify Dev in Toronto — from a canceled Air Canada flight and a border crossing full of event signage, to Taylor's metaobjects talk, the live podcast recording at Dev Studio, and the Shopify-shutting-down-an-entire-street Block Party. 

They also debrief BrightWork, the first-ever event Taylor hosted after Tectonic was canceled, and close with a run of street-style interviews from the Dev floor covering POS development, agent search and LLM indexing, customer accounts, Sidekick extensions, and — of course — the snacks.

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Sponsor

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Find it in the Shopify App Store today.

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Timestamps

    00:00 – Cold open: two dudes, a minivan, a border
    00:31 – Welcome back, Taylor returns from episode 72
    01:31 – Taylor's full Dev swag outfit on display
    05:28 – The retro Pizza Hut detour
    08:09 – Taylor's drive up and the Trudy's-apartment-as-storage-unit problem
    11:02 – Karl's canceled Air Canada flight and the two-ticket trap
    14:19 – Meeting Toby on the plane and taking the train to Union Station
    16:28 – Sponsor: Promo Party Pro
    17:10 – Airbnb vs. hotel, and Toronto neighborhoods for next year
    20:07 – Monday events: agency brunch, Good API tree planting, live podcast, pickleball
    24:43 – Being grateful for the community and welcoming first-timers
    26:03 – Day one: rain, badge lines, and a pushed-back keynote
    27:22 – The Dev snack review series explained
    30:32 – Build Award dinner, the Shopi mascot, and a Rubik's Cube
    32:08 – Taylor meets Adam Wathan (and immediately regrets it)
    34:42 – Day two: Taylor's metaobjects talk and the Dev Studio live recording
    36:33 – The Block Party: Shopify shuts down a Toronto street
    41:21 – BrightWork debrief: what worked, what to fix next time
    44:00 – Frat party, yacht party, and the flotilla rules
    46:44 – Street interviews from the Dev floor begin


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Resources

    Promo Party Pro – Free gift with purchase app built on Discount Functions; this episode's sponsor. https://promoparty.app
    Ether Cycle - https://ethercycle.com – Karl's partners on Promo Party Pro.
    The Support Heroes - https://thesupportheroes.com – 24/7/365 specialized customer support for Shopify apps; Angie's team, and co-hosts of the live podcast panel with Martin.
    Good API - https://www.thegoodapi.com/shopify/ – Sustainability app for planting trees, removing ocean plastic, and donating to over a million US charities; Amy's team.
    Raise Wave – Fundraiser app Good API built together with Felix & Norton - https://apps.shopify.com/raisewave
    POS Cafe – Shopify point of sale app built by Adam Wooding out of South East Queensland, Australia - https://apps.shopify.com/poscafe
    Three Acres – Brendan Quigley's agency. https://threeacres.ca/
    Helium / Helium Customer Fields - https://heliumdev.com – Customer accounts and B2B registration/approval apps; Brett and Josiah's team.
    Locksmith - https://uselocksmith.com – Longtime Helium app partner.
    Kirill Platonov's Rails on Shopify template - https://kirillplatonov.com – Bootstrap template for building Shopify apps on Ruby on Rails.
    Tailwind CSS - https://tailwindcss.com – Adam Wathan was at Dev; Shopify is looking at incorporating Tailwind into Liquid.
    Centreville Amusement Park, Toronto Centre Island - https://centreisland.ca – Where Taylor's family ended the trip.
    Karl's snack review series – Posted throughout Dev on Karl's X profile: https://x.com/kmeister2000