That’s why we invited young people – from first-graders all the way to college age – to join us last week at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2017 in San Francisco. We wanted to showcase some of the educational opportunities that can help children gain true digital literacy, and demonstrate Samsung’s passion for giving young people the future-proof skills they need – not just for the jobs market, but also to express themselves, solve the problems of tomorrow, and “do what you can’t”. Judging by their response, we believe we also inspired many of the developers at SDC 2017 to pass on their own enthusiasm for all things tech, from generation to generation.

Children enjoy a safe and educationally rich digital experience with Kids Mode and Samsung Kids on Galaxy tablets at SDC 2017

For parents, however, there is one must: the first digital experience of their children must happen in a safe but also educationally rich environment, and that’s why we set up the Samsung Kids Experience at SDC. In our interactive zone, we showed off Kids Mode, your children’s first digital – and safe – playground that makes learning easy. Within Kids Mode there are thousands of age-appropriate games, available to help children learn in a fun and interactive way. Kids Mode comes pre-loaded on Galaxy tablets launched from 2016 and available to download for free across 185 countries.  Consistent with the focus on learning in a safe digital environment, at SDC this year we also demonstrated the huge value of a complementary service, Samsung Kids, a US-focused membership program that teaches skills like math, languages, coding and more.

We also gave a flavor of Code Jam, which introduces children aged 5 to 10 to the magic of learning code. And the young kids visiting SDC 2017 just loved Crocro Adventure, a clever education app that teaches children coding through a game that makes them hunt for tasty treats for their Kids Mode characters. Using basic coding concepts to solve problems, Crocro Adventure has been popular ever since it was released with the Galaxy Tab A 2017; the app is now coming to more and more Galaxy devices.

Kids get hands on with Handy Code in a demonstration by staff at SDC 2017

As kids get older, there are plenty of programs that teach them how to code, but most are still stuck in a 20^th century technology environment: the PC. Fact is, the majority of children now live exclusively in a world of mobile computing; they rarely go near a PC. That’s why, at SDC we developed and presented a program called Handy Code: a coding environment for the mobile generation. With Handy Code, kids can learn coding using the tool they’re most familiar with: a smartphone or tablet, and using just their fingers. The feedback from students was clear: with Handy Code, learning to code is much easier – and faster – than they thought it would be.

The Solve for Tomorrow competition at SDC 2017 invited students to showcase solutions and applications they have developed

Teaching 21^st century skills also means to inspire the next generation to learn the STEAM skills – in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics – that modern economies so urgently need. In the US, we run Solve for Tomorrow for children in 6^th to 12th grade, where students learn that technology has a purpose and can tackle very immediate problems. We invited the winners of this year’s Solve for Tomorrow competition to share their achievements with all the developers at SDC 2017, and their exhibition was awesome. Among their innovative solutions was an app developed by students in New York that matched children from poor families that might go hungry with food from restaurants that was still fresh but would otherwise go to waste. A team from Nebraska developed software that helps farmers to use drones for highly targeted delivery of pesticides, which helps to protect both drinking water and the environment; and in Arizona, students developed a system that will save lives by using a clever sensor system that warns drivers when wildlife is near a road, to reduce the number of fatal collisions.

Young attendees at SDC 2017 take part in various workshops and experience Samsung’s latest devices firsthand

Boosting digital literacy has to go all the way to young adulthood and beyond, and that’s why we also invited 50 students from local high schools along with teachers and parents to join our Youth Track at SDC 2017. They had an opportunity to hear the keynotes and participate in a Gear 360 workshop, because it’s with Youth Track that we really hope to inspire young people for a rewarding career as developers and creators.

At SDC 2017, we showed young people that they can do something big with their digital skills, and even join Team Samsung in the future. Showing them the full range of internships and careers that Samsung can offer, we hope to have encouraged them to build their digital skills. Who knows: maybe one of the kids playing Crocro Adventure today may well deliver the breakthrough innovation of tomorrow.

Kicking off the full slate of presentations, discussions and hands-on labs held at San Francisco’s Moscone West convention center were keynote speeches from Samsung and tech industry leaders. The opening keynote event illuminated Samsung’s efforts to usher in the new phase of IoT that it’s calling “Intelligence of Things”, and showcased the exciting implications for developers and consumers.

Check out the highlights of the keynotes below.

SDC 2017 attendees take their seats before the start of the conference’s keynote event.

DJ Koh, Samsung Electronics’ President of Mobile Communications Business, opens the conference by discussing how Samsung’s leadership in hardware, IoT, artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) is bringing the company closer to realizing its vision of an innovative future created through “connected thinking”, where connected experiences are seamless and unified across devices.

During his speech, Mr. Koh announced that Samsung will unite its IoT services – including Samsung Connect, SmartThings and ARTIK – into a powerful, integrated platform called SmartThings, which will go beyond smartphones and ultimately unite the world’s largest ecosystem of mobile devices, appliances, TVs and IoT sensors.

Next, Injong Rhee, Samsung Electronics’ Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Software and Services, discussed some of the user-experience challenges that can arise with screen or touch-panel technologies, and how Samsung’s Bixby interface – which currently features over 10 million active users – alleviates them.

Mr. Rhee also demonstrated exciting ways that users will be able to interact with their connected services in the new Intelligence of Things era. To illustrate this point, he offered attendees a glimpse of Project Ambience – a prototype dongle that may be applied to a variety of electronics to make them Bixby-compatible.

Gilles BianRosa, Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer for Samsung’s Visual Display Business, revealed that beginning in 2018, Samsung will offer Bixby-enabled TVs in the US and Korea. He followed up that announcement by discussing the exciting opportunities that the TVs’ Bixby integration and seamless connectivity will create, including intuitive voice controls and multi-device viewing experiences.

Yoon C. Lee, Samsung Electronics America’s Senior Vice President and Division Head of Content and Services, discussed how adding Bixby support and SmartThings integration to Samsung’s Family Hub refrigerators marks a big step – one that will offer developers “tremendous opportunities to develop new content, applications and experiences in areas like food, health, home management, entertainment, and more.”

Eui-Suk Chung, Samsung Electronics’ Executive Vice President and Head of the Service Intelligence Team, offered attendees a peek at Bixby 2.0 – an update of the intelligent assistant that’s even more ubiquitous, open and personal.

Dag Kittlaus, CEO and Co-Founder of Viv Labs, described the exciting benefits that Bixby 2.0 presents for developers. These include the abilities to build services without being limited by domains or interfaces, and make services compatible with any and all electronic devices. Mr. Kittlaus also announced that Bixby 2.0 is currently being introduced as a private beta SDK available to select partners, and is set to roll out in 2018.

Robert Parker, Samsung Electronics’ Chief Technology Officer of SmartThings, elaborated on how the platform’s support for broad integration allows developers to create seamless experiences that utilize the full Samsung device ecosystem, and highlighted how partners like ADT and NVIDIA are harnessing SmartThings to better serve their customers.

James Stansberry, the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center’s (SSIC) Senior Vice President and General Manager of ARTIK IoT, outlined how Samsung’s ARTIK IoT platform will merge with SmartThings to become an ideal platform for developing enterprise-grade IoT products and services, and introduced new, secure system-on-modules (SoMs) that offer important security enhancements for IoT solutions.

Pranav Mistry, Samsung Electronics’ Senior Vice President of Research, shared some of Samsung’s exciting developments in AR, and discussed how the company incorporates advanced object recognition and spatial understanding software into its smartphones’ cameras to create new ways to interact with the world.

Google’s Vice President of Virtual and Augmented Reality, Clay Bavor, joined Mr. Mistry on stage to illustrate how Samsung and Google’s partnership on ARCore, an augmented reality SDK for Android, is opening the door for incredible AR innovations that will benefit developers and users. A preview of ARCore is currently supported by Samsung’s Galaxy S8, and support for the Galaxy S8+ and Note8 is coming soon.

Attendees examine the wide range of Samsung technologies that empower developers to design connected solutions that enrich daily life.

The Samsung ARTIK IoT Platform with SmartThings Cloud will provide everything companies need to quickly develop secure IoT products and services including production-ready hardware, software and tools, cloud services and a growing partner ecosystem. The addition of new ARTIK secure IoT modules enables device-level protection for safe data exchange, interoperability, and secure access to ARTIK IoT services including device onboarding, orchestration, management, and over-the-air updates.

“Security in the age of IoT means new levels of complexity and risk. The next generation of IoT products and services will be more deeply integrated into our lives than ever before,” said James Stansberry, Senior Vice President and General Manager of ARTIK IoT, Samsung Electronics. “Unfortunately, most companies are not prepared to address the challenges of securing every link of the chain, from device to IoT cloud. With the ARTIK IoT Platform and our new security hardened system-on-modules, we make it easier and more affordable for companies to adopt best security practices and deliver trustworthy products that will shape the future of IoT.”

New ARTIK Secure Systems-on-Modules

The new ARTIK secure IoT modules combine hardware-backed security with pre-integrated memory, processing, and connectivity for a broad range of IoT applications, from simple edge nodes like sensors and controllers, to home appliances, healthcare monitors, and gateways for smart factories. This helps protect data and prevent devices from being taken over, disabled, or used maliciously.

“The New ARTIK secure systems-on-modules provide the performance and security features we need for our new Samsung IoT appliances,” said Youngsoo Do, Senior Vice President of Digital Control Group at Samsung Electronics. “Together, Samsung ARTIK platform and SmartThings Cloud will create opportunities to help us to get to market faster and safely deliver new services that will enrich the lives of our customers.”

ARTIK secure IoT modules provide a strong root of trust from device-to-cloud with a factory-injected unique ID and keys stored in tamper-resistant hardware. Samsung’s public key infrastructure (PKI) enables mutual authentication to the cloud to identify each device on the network and support whitelisting. Customers can use the new Secure Boot feature and code signing portal to validate software authenticity on start-up. In addition, the secure IoT modules provide a hardware-protected Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) with a secure operating system and security library to process, store, and manage sensitive resources, including keys and tokens on devices. Information is protected using FIPS 140-2 data encryption and secure data storage.

“Hardening the security of IoT devices once the product has been deployed is extremely difficult,” said Vikrant Gandhi, Digital Transformation Industry Director at Frost & Sullivan. “Manufacturers must use components that have built-in defenses for both device and data integrity. ARTIK IoT platform’s new security measures provide this protection from the start, and helps companies operate more safely in the Internet of Things.”

ARTIK “s” secure IoT modules will be available on November 30 through Samsung ARTIK channel partners. The ARTIK IoT Platform and ARTIK cloud services are available today.

Ecosystem Expansion

Samsung’s new SmartThings Cloud will unite all of the company’s existing IoT cloud services – Samsung Connect Cloud and ARTIK Cloud – into one consolidated IoT cloud platform. This seamless, open ecosystem will allow better and easier connectivity across an expanded set of devices and services from home to industrial applications.

In addition to today’s announcements, Samsung continues to expand the ARTIK IoT Platform and accelerate businesses’ path to profitability. This expansion includes the recent launch of the new ARTIK service to monetize data from interoperable devices and enable an IoT data economy, as well as the addition of Ubuntu, the industry’s most familiar Linux distribution, on ARTIK high performance system-on-modules. Earlier this month, Samsung – as a member of the Industry Council (ITI) – also announced a commitment to enable a National IoT Strategy Dialogue that is open, collaborative and secure.

For more information:

Samsung ARTIK platform, visit https://artik.io and https://artik.cloud

Samsung ARTIK marketplace, visit https://www.artik.io/iotmarketplace

Today at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC) 2017 in San Francisco, I was honored to share Samsung’s vision for intelligence, with the introduction of Bixby 2.0 – a powerful intelligent assistant platform that will bring a connected experience that is ubiquitous, personal, and open.  Bixby 2.0 will be a fundamental leap forward for digital assistants and represents another important milestone to transform our digital lives.

Today’s assistants are useful, but ultimately still play a limited role in people’s lives. People use them to set timers and reminders, answer trivial questions, etc. We see a world where digital assistant play a bigger role, an intelligent role, where one day everything from our phones, to our fridge, to our sprinkler system will have some sort of intelligence to help us seamlessly interact with all the technology we use each day.

To understand where we are going with devices, it is important to understand how far we’ve come. It is hard to believe, when you think back to just a decade ago, how we used our phones. It was likely a feature phone, which was primarily used to make calls and use a limited number of apps. But I knew, we at Samsung knew, that there were greater possibilities for the mobile phone. During the early and mid-2000, I led the team at Samsung in creating the Mobile Intelligent Terminal by Samsung (MITs), which was an early generation of smartphones before the Galaxy S and Note series were finally born. Powered by open API, application eco-system and innovative touch UI, smartphone market has, ever since then, exploded and became a life-essential tool for everyone. It also brought new opportunities for businesses and developers.

I believe that we are now on the cusp of the next major tectonic shift. With our long legacy as the global smartphone leader, we’ve been bringing meaningful innovation and driving digital transformation for the industry, and we are excited to help lead the change during another revolutionary moment. Personally, I am excited to be part of this next great era and this shift is one of the reasons why we are motivated to continue to develop our intelligent assistant, Bixby.

We introduced Bixby to the world earlier this year with the launch of our flagship mobile devices, the Galaxy S8 and S8+ and the Note 8. Bixby is now available in over 200 different countries, with more than 10 million registered users. But this is just a start. When we launched Bixby, we focused on how it could help people with getting the most out of their smartphones and apps to make their life easier. We integrated a few close partner applications on the device to make those devices more intelligent. We created multi-step, and cross-app capabilities that have allowed more than millions of Bixby users get things done faster and easier, but it is just a stepping stone for us.

Now, we are ready to take Bixby to the next level. Bixby 2.0 is a bold reinvention of the platform. A reinvention aimed at transforming basic digital assistants from a novelty to an intelligence tool that is a key part of everyone’s daily life.

Bixby 2.0 will be ubiquitous, available on any and all devices. This means having the intelligence of Bixby, powered by the cloud, act as the control hub of your device ecosystem, including mobile phones, TVs, refrigerators, home speakers, or any other connected technology you can imagine. Soon, developers will be able to put their services on any and all devices and will not have to reinvent their services each time they support a new device.

It will be more personal, with enhanced natural language capabilities for more natural commands and complex processing, so it can really get to know and understand not only who you are, but who members of your family are, and tailor its response and actions appropriately.

And finally, and most importantly, Bixby 2.0 will be open. We know Samsung cannot deliver on this paradigm shift by ourselves – it can only happen if we all, across all industries, work together, in partnership. With Bixby 2.0, the doors will be wide open for developers to choose and model how users interact with Bixby in their services across all application domains e.g., sports, food, entertainment, or travel – the opportunities are truly endless.

Starting today, we’re announcing our first private beta program with Bixby SDK, which will be available for select developers. We will work as one team, innovating, collaborating, and bringing Bixby 2.0 to life. Over time, we will increase the number of participants in the beta, and ultimately make the Bixby SDK available to all developers.

Bixby 2.0 will ultimately be a marketplace, for intelligence. A new channel for developers to reach users with their service, not just on mobile devices, but through all devices. Over time, we will rollout variety of revenue models to maximize our partners’ business opportunities in this new paradigm. Hopefully making it as fruitful as the move from feature to smartphones was for our partners.

The future is yours. Whatever your technology platform, device category or industry sector: we call on all developers to unleash their creativity and help us to democratize intelligence, so that we can move beyond devices and into an open, connected ecosystem to simplify the lives of everyone.

The visual of IoT is a compelling one: With a simple command or touch of a button, you can control the lightbulbs in your living room, lock your back door and set the alarm for the garage door. And while developers and manufacturers all around the world are working hard to create their own smart IoT devices and solutions, few are compatible with each other. What this means for consumers who are keen to make their homes “smart” is a lot of work: how many different apps and what level of tech expertise will they need in order to have their devices work in sync? There are also concerns around privacy and security – surely all this technology means more risk of exposure. While there’s great appeal in the fantasy of the “smart” home, the barrier is all the work it will take to make this a reality.

Samsung believes in a future where our digital world is as ubiquitous and essential as electricity, with security so effective you almost won’t have to think about it. It will just work, on demand and just the way you want it; no need to interact with many different apps to achieve results. With our unified approach, we will deliver a truly integrated experience that touches every single “thing” around our customers – while ensuring privacy and security.

For over 40 years, the user experience is what has driven Samsung to develop technologies that – to put it simply – make people’s lives easier. While the features and products are important, the inspiration behind our IoT offering is the same: the tangible benefits for consumers. With Samsung Connect bringing together our appliances, TVs and other everyday items (such as lightbulbs and locks) to one touch control on your smartphone, ARTIK as our secure IoT platform, and of course, with SmartThings’ open and easy integration solution , we are closer than ever in transforming the “smart” home fantasy into a reality. What’s more, with the introduction of new cellular network infrastructure that can better support IoT, we are looking to expand the IoT experience beyond the boundaries of the smart home. Most importantly, we are removing the barriers and bringing them all together in one, integrated IoT experience.

Today at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC 2017), we are proud to announce SmartThings Cloud, which will unite all of our IoT clouds into a single powerful platform. Through this new platform and vision for more powerful intelligence through Bixby 2.0, also announced today at SDC 2017, we are working to democratize IoT with intelligence that is easy to use and accessible for everyone.

The newly united SmartThings  will be an open ecosystem, ready to work with not only Samsung devices, but a wide range of connected devices. From early next year, consumers will have the freedom to choose from the world’s broadest range of IoT devices and control them using just a single app. Whether it’s price or design or functionality driving their purchase decision, consumers can now select devices that suit their budget and lifestyle with no constraints.  This spirit of simplicity is also relevant to developers, as they need to code for just one single API to give their products and services instant compatibility across over 1 billion devices. Additionally, it’s a cloud that is designed for intelligence not as a bolt-on. The end result is a seamless experience that will enhance the lives of our consumers in a way they’ve only dreamed of.

As part of the world’s largest open ecosystem of IoT devices, with products that ‘Works with SmartThings’ or even ‘Works as SmartThings Hub,’ our partners are integral in delivering this ultimate seamless experience to consumers. Many are already harnessing the power and simplicity of the SmartThings Cloud to bring next-generation solutions to their customers. We want to help them drive change through scale and have a unique opportunity to grow their IoT business.

With the new and – most importantly – open SmartThings Cloud, Samsung is connecting the fabric of the IoT experience and leading the democratization of the Internet of Things. Imagine turning on your favorite playlist, adding a few items to your shopping list and dimming the living room lights with simple voice commands, all in quick succession. Imagine devices from different manufacturers and service providers no longer jostling for supremacy – they all just simply work together. This is what meaningful changes in technology ultimately delivers: A better, more enhanced experience that exceeds consumers’ expectations and simply delivers more. For more information on SmartThings Cloud, please visit our SmartThings Developer Website.

Samsung Electronics introduces the 360 Round, a new camera for developing and streaming high-quality 3D content for specialists and enthusiasts who demand a superior virtual reality (VR) experience. Announced at the Samsung Developer Conference (SDC 2017), the Samsung 360 Round uses 17 lenses—eight stereo pairs positioned horizontally and one single lens positioned vertically—to livestream 4K 3D video and spatial audio, and create engaging 3D images with depth.

The 360 Round’s durable, compact design features IP65¹ water and dust resistance for use in everyday weather conditions and a fanless design to reduce weight and eliminate background noise. With additional features, including PC software for controlling and stitching and expandable external storage², the 360 Round provides long lasting shooting for any sized job.

The growth of 360 content platforms, such as Samsung VR, Facebook and YouTube, as well as the spread of 360 videos through major media, has increased the need for high-quality 360 videos among VR professionals and enthusiasts. The 360 Round is the first product to meet these needs by combining high-quality, 360-degree imagery with advanced 3D depth at a reasonable price compared to other professional 360 cameras.

“The Samsung 360 Round is a testament to our leadership in the VR market. We have developed a product that contains innovative VR features, allowing video producers and broadcast professionals to easily produce high quality 3D content,” said Suk-Jea Hahn, Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics’ Global Mobile B2B Team. “The combination of livestreaming capabilities, IP65 water and dust resistance and 17 lenses makes this camera ideal for a broad range of use cases our customers want—from livestreaming major events to filming at training facilities across various industries.”

The Samsung 360 Round combines high-quality images with a durable design and a content management software solution that allows VR directors to transform virtual reality through a complete set of advanced features.

High-Quality 360 Content

The 360 Round offers high-quality 3D images with a 4K camera, thanks to 17 paired lenses that capture a 360-degree view for a full 3D experience. In addition, the 360 Round enables live streaming with little-to-no latency³ and broadcasts easier than ever, with one-step stitching and control software provided by Samsung.

Durability

The Samsung 360 Round uses a uni-body chassis designed to reduce heat, removing the need for a cooling fan and minimizing size and weight. The compact design helps eliminate excess noise and reduce power consumption for hours of continuous shooting. Additionally, the 360 Round is IP65¹ dust and water resistant, making it an ideal choice for capturing content in the most challenging environments. With expandable connectors and ports, the 360 Round is designed to easily and quickly connect to additional equipment, such as an external mic, and storage for saving large files.

The Samsung 360 Round will be available in October in the United States before expanding to other markets over time. For more information please visit http://www.samsungmobilepress.com or www.samsung.com/galaxy.

360 Round Product Specification

¹When using this feature, please put AC adaptor in a waterproof pack

²Sold separately

³Depending on network connections

*All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.

“At Samsung, we’re constantly innovating in order to deliver smarter, connected experiences for our consumers. Now we’re taking a big step forward with our open IoT platform, intelligent ecosystem and AR capabilities,” said DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics. “Through an extensive open collaboration with our business partners and developers, we are unlocking a gateway to an expanded ecosystem of interconnected and intelligent services that will simplify and enrich everyday life for our consumers.”

Samsung also demonstrated Project Ambience, a small dongle or chip that can be applied into a wide variety of objects, allowing them to seamlessly connect, and create a ubiquitous Bixby experience. This new concept reflects the next generation of IoT, that of the “Intelligence of Things,” which combines IoT and intelligence to make your life easier.

Democratizing the Internet of Things

Samsung is combining its existing IoT services—SmartThings, Samsung Connect, and ARTIK—into one united IoT platform: SmartThings Cloud, which will provide a single, powerful cloud-based hub that can seamlessly connect and control IoT-enabled products and services from a unified touchpoint. SmartThings Cloud will build one of the world’s largest IoT ecosystems, and will provide the infrastructure for a connected consumer experience that is innovative, versatile and holistic.

With SmartThings Cloud, developers will have access to one cloud API across all SmartThings-compatible products to build their connected solutions and bring them to more people. It will also provide secure interoperability and services for business developing commercial and industrial IoT solutions.

Next-Generation Intelligence

Samsung is moving intelligence beyond devices and into an ubiquitous, personal and open ecosystem with introduction of Bixby 2.0 with SDK, integrated with Viv technologies.

Bixby 2.0 will be available on a variety of devices including Samsung Smart TV and Family Hub refrigerator. Now, Bixby will sit at the center of consumers’ intelligent ecosystem. Bixby 2.0 will introduce deep linking capabilities, and enhanced natural language abilities—to better recognize individual users, and create a predictive, personalized experience that better anticipate their needs.

In order to build this faster, easier and more powerful intelligent assistant platform, Samsung will provide the tools to bring Bixby 2.0 into a wider number of applications and services. The Bixby SDK will be available to select developers and through a private beta program, with general availability coming in the near future.

Leadership in Augmented Reality

Building upon Samsung’s heritage of creating pioneering technology that delivers incredible experiences to unlock new realities such as VR, the company is committed to continuing to advance technologies in AR. Through a partnership with Google, developers will be able to use the ARCore SDK to bring AR to millions of Samsung consumers on the Samsung Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+ and Galaxy Note8. This strategic partnership with Google offers new business opportunities for developers, and a new platform for creating immersive new experiences for consumers.

For more information about the Samsung Developer Conference, visit https://www.sdc2017.com or follow @samsung_dev on Twitter.

Samsung Electronics released its keynote speaker and program schedule for Samsung Developer Conference (SDC), the arena that brings together some of the world’s most prominent innovators, entrepreneurs, artists and storytellers that are shaping the future of connected thinking and technology.

SDC 2017 will feature a special keynote from DJ Koh, President of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics, who will unveil Samsung’s vision to connect all devices and services in an intuitive way and discuss a new initiative to create a seamless cloud experience for users. Additional notable keynote speakers include Samsung Electronics Executive Vice Presidents Injong Rhee, Head of R&D, Software & Services of Mobile Communications Business and Eui Suk Chung, Head of Service Intelligence of Mobile Communications Business.

Special guest participants will include Stan Lee, world renowned former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. Rain Paris, musician and YouTube star, will join Lee to lead a discussion of how connected thinking motivates creativity and disruption in a session called “Marvel, Movies and Music.” Arianna Huffington, Thrive Global founder and CEO, will join Marc Mathieu, CMO of Samsung Electronics America, in a keynote conversation on Samsung and Thrive’s shared philosophy on the use of technology to create social good. Additionally, SDC 2017 will feature a Creators Track, with talks from some of the most innovative and creative minds at the intersection of intelligent technology and design.

“At Samsung, the concept of connected thinking is at the heart of everything we do,” said DJ Koh. “Developers and partners are the backbone of Samsung experience and their work continues to enable us to drive innovation. That is why I am thrilled to be a part of this event and unveil some exciting news with this community at SDC 2017.”

“I am truly thrilled to have been asked by Samsung to keynote at their annual conference,” said Stan Lee. “Samsung has a long history of creating technology that helps push the limits of human creativity and as they continue to innovate, we’ll have greater opportunities to deliver our creative visions for the enjoyment of others.”

At SDC 2017, attendees can expect to learn about Samsung’s new initiative in creating a seamless cloud experience, which is part of its broader efforts to provide an easy and consistent user experience across devices. Samsung will also showcase its commitment to an open ecosystem of partners in areas including IoT and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Attendees will also have the opportunity to help build the next generation of services by learning about myriad topics including enterprise, games & entertainment, health, intelligence, IoT, mobile, payment, security, smart TV, virtual reality and wearables through technical talks, hands-on experiences and thought leader panels.

This year’s event will also feature activities such as stream.Code101, an in-depth and hands-on instruction for developers around emerging services such as VR, Samsung DeX and SmartThings, as well as Open Theater, an open stage for events and presentations such as startup pitch idea presentations, an Ask-Me-Anything session with Stan Lee and more.

SDC 2017 is a two-day event for leaders to network and learn about the next wave of intelligent technology. You can learn more about the SDC 2017 speakers here, and the full agenda here.

Register for SDC 2017

To sign-up for this year’s conference, visit https://www.sdc2017.com and register for your place today. Additional information can be found on Twitter (@samsung_dev) and at the hashtag, #SDC2017.