[Google Cloud Next '26 Recap #2] Three Unique Booths I Tried at the EXPO

#googlecloud #gemini #ai

This is the second post in my Google Cloud Next '26 (Las Vegas) recap series.

You can find Part 1 here 👇
[Google Cloud Next '26 Recap #1] Hands-On with the Agentic Hack Zone

Beyond the Agentic Hack Zone I covered last time, the EXPO floor was packed with engaging booths. In this post, I'd like to share my experience at three booths that especially stood out to me:

GenLatte
CLI Mission Control
ADK and A2A In Action

1. GenLatte (Order an AI-Personalized Latte Art)

The first one is GenLatte. This was a demo where you could order a coffee personalized with Google AI — Gemini (nano banana) generates a custom latte art design, which is then served to you as a real, drinkable latte. A booth that was a treat for both your eyes and your taste buds.

The order screen appeared to be built with a combination of Gemini / Firebase / Flutter.

How the experience flowed

On the order screen, choose the type of latte you want (Latte, Non-Fat milk, Mocha, etc.)
Answer a few questions about the design you'd like
Pick your favorite from 4 generated design candidates and hit Submit
Wait a little while, and your latte — complete with the chosen art — is served

I went with a snowy mountain theme, and the result turned out really nicely.

The idea of "personalizing a latte" felt fresh, and the booth offered some great inspiration for designing AI-powered end-user experiences.

2. CLI Mission Control (Tackle Terminal Missions with Gemini CLI)

The second one is CLI Mission Control. This was a game-style booth where you used Gemini CLI to complete three tasks in the terminal and compete for a high score.

The tasks

Install an extension
Draw a fuel can and capture the image
Finally, launch the rocket 🚀

Apparently, faster input speed and higher-quality drawings translated into higher scores.

For the "fuel can" prompt, I went with a straightforward drum can drawing… only to be hit with a "too generic" verdict from the judges, and my score didn't take off as I'd hoped.

A leaderboard was set up right next to the booth, displaying the names of participants who had nailed top scores. It was a fun take on bringing the CLI into a playful, gamified context — a booth with a nice sense of humor.

3. ADK and A2A In Action (Experience Multi-Agent Collaboration Firsthand)

The third one is ADK and A2A In Action. This was a hands-on demo of multi-agent collaboration using ADK (Agent Development Kit) and the A2A (Agent-to-Agent Protocol), where participants worked together to build 4 agents that — through A2A — collaborated as a team to come up with a new game concept.

How it worked

There were 4 stations (tablets) set up, each responsible for an agent with a different role:

Marketing
Game Design
Art and UX
Engineering and Production

I sat at the station building the Marketing agent. Once the agents at each station started collaborating as a "team" via A2A, a new game concept report was automatically produced within a few minutes.

The resulting game concept

The report's title was…

Alien World Survival
Survive and thrive in a hostile alien world.

Cover art was generated alongside it, and watching multiple agents divide up the work and collectively produce a single deliverable in real time was genuinely educational. The booth was clearly designed to let visitors intuitively enjoy the possibilities of multi-agent architectures, and it left a strong impression on me.

Bonus: These Were All Part of the Skills Challenge

By the way, all three booths I covered here were part of a program called The Skills Challenge. The Skills Challenge is a setup that lets you pick up new skills as you tour the venue during Next, and it added an extra layer of motivation to keep visiting more booths.

Wrap-Up

Each of these three booths went well beyond a "look but don't touch" exhibit — they were all places where you could actually move your hands and run agents or AI yourself.
The EXPO offers a different way to engage with technology compared to sessions, and once again I felt that it really expands the ways you can enjoy Next. If any of these booths show up, I'd absolutely love to swing by them again.

To be continued in #3.
[Google Cloud Next '26 Recap #3] Anthropic's Vision for "After Software"