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

This is the second post in my Google Cloud Next '26 (Las Vegas) recap series. You can find Part 1...

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

1. On the order screen, choose the type of latte you want (Latte, Non-Fat milk, Mocha, etc.)
2. Answer a few questions about the design you'd like
3. Pick your favorite from 4 generated design candidates and hit Submit
4. 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"