DeveloperWeek New York 2019

In the near future, a digital twin of the world will exist via new technologies, and Foursquare will be there to help developers power it with our phone’s eye view of millions of places. It’s the magic of Pilgrim—our proprietary tech with industry-leading precision and stop detection—that makes all of this possible. The engineers who understand how to use it will have a leg up bridging the gap between location data and understanding of the real world. In its 10 years, Foursquare has always been thinking about the future of location-based and contextual-aware services, and working to invent the pieces of this future that didn’t yet exist. In his first Developer Week session, Foursquare SVP of Engineering Matt Kamen will raise the curtains behind how Foursquare solved the most complex problems inherent in location technology -- like understanding where a phone is in a multi-level, multi-purpose building (ie. shopping malls), as one example. Today, Pilgrim SDK helps developers understand how mobile phones see the world—quietly, efficiently, no action required. Foursquare has evolved from a search and discovery explorer app into something much bigger: the first independent location technology platform. Kamen will unpack the lessons learned along the way, via the creation and commercialization of Pilgrim and our belief that it can help developers create the next generation of contextually-aware services. Kamen’s talk will include: an inside look into how we built our proprietary Snap-to-Place machine learning technology that helps accurately “snap” visits to identifiable venues; our approach to privacy by design; our methodology to separate good data from bad; and a look into the new building blocks Foursquare is inventing to help developers create the future.