The best thing about Next 2026? The people.

This is a submission for the Google Cloud NEXT Writing Challenge The opinions in this article are all mine. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. I usually write about AI Agents, A2A, and running MCP servers on toasters. This article is different. I rolled into Vegas on a random Sunday night in April. On a wing and a prayer. Or maybe I was just living dangerously and ready to be seduced by the wiles of Sin City once again. Google Next has outgrown Moscone - even a dec