Episode 073 – 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
Promo Party Pro — a free gift with purchase app Karl helped build with the team at EtherCycle. Out of the box it gives you campaigns built to increase AOV and conversion: set a spend threshold, show shoppers how close they are to earning a gift, and let Promo Party Pro handle the rest. Discount Functions under the hood, one app embed (no theme surgery), and campaigns auto-pause when the gift sells out.
Agency offer: get one of your clients a full year free. Promo Party Pro - https://promoparty.app/agency
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.
