Howdy!

I'm a software engineer from Texas. 🤠

About Bret McGowen: I'm a software engineer and former Developer Advocate at Google, where I focused on serverless Google Cloud products like Cloud Functions, App Engine, Firebase, machine learning APIs, and more. I love travel and have been to 70+ countries 🌍. I've also been an avid runner, completing 19 half marathons and 5 full marathons.

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Build a bot for Google Assistant using Google Cloud (2017)

Use Google Cloud to build a chatbot for Google Assistant - Node Summit 2017

Summary: Google Assistant is the conversational user interface for Android, iPhone, and Google Home devices that helps you get things done in your world. Actions on Google let you extend Assistant with your own application to interact with your users. Come learn how to build a custom Action and see how the same tools can help you build a serverless chatbot for Slack, Facebook Messenger, Google Home and more using Google Cloud Platform.

Slides available on my Slideshare

Video also available from Node Summit 2017 on Vimeo at Build a chatbot for Google Assistant, Google Home, and more - Bret McGowen.

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2015 flashback: Mount Kilimanjaro

In 2015 I went to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, which at 19,341 ft (5,895m) is the "Roof of Africa" and the highest the highest freestanding mountain in the world! Read more about my visits to Africa.

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Rediscovering old content part 2: Cloudability 2013

Some more old video content from 2103: Track Cloud Cost With Rackspace & Cloudability (2013)

Summary: Former Racker and Googler Bret McGowen discusses the importance of monitoring the costs of hosting your app in the Rackspace Cloud using the tool Cloudability. Video originally from 2013.

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Running!

I'm going to start posting some of my old travel runs on my running page.

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Rediscovering old content part 1: Stripe+Rails 2013

I've recently begun looking through some archives of old videos and talks and will try to post a few here. Here's the first one, Online Payments with Stripe+Rails - Bret McGowen -- recorded all the way back in 2013!

Summary: Racker developer Bret McGowen guides you on how to set up Stripe in your Ruby on Rails web application so that you can easily accept online payments. Follow along with the coding exercise as well. Video from 2013.

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About Bret

I'm into nachos, running, volleyball, and raccoons. Here's me meeting an awesome raccoon:

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Actually I love both you and tacos. Taken by Bret McGowen
Texas, y'all. Howdy. Taken by Bret McGowen
Working with a view of New York City. From my time at Google.

Prior to Google, I worked in the cloud industry at Rackspace as a software engineer. Before that, I led engineering teams at an e-commerce company, non-profits and tried my hand at creating two startups. I'm often on the running trail, volleyball court or kickball field.

I earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Texas A&M University. You can find me on Twitter at @BretMcG or @BretMcGowen.