This morning Box announced that it will hold its first ever developer-focused event in San Francisco on March 26.
Box, a company focused on enterprise cloud file storage, joins its rival Dropbox among the ranks of technology platform firms with enough of a developer base to host a conference dedicated to that base’s education. Google, Microsoft and Apple host regular developer events in San Francisco as well, though Microsoft’s Build event has taken place in other locales.
With Box’s news, it seems that we’re about to swing into developer conference season, such as it is. The rich tradition of different competing tech companies using the same venue continues: Box is hosting its conference at Fort Mason. Last year, Dropbox hosted its first developer event at, you guessed it, Fort Mason.
Box Dev, the name of the event, will set attendees back $100. Box will presumably continue its prior, more general interest conference Boxworks.
In a blog post, Box states that its event will be a “discussion” of sorts around enterprise software. The company also indicates that, in its view “not since the second industrial revolution has the world seen this significant of a shift in how businesses are built and compete.” That could be something of a stretch, but I would allow that business is certainly in a period of rapid evolution.
Box has an interesting proposition for developers: financial incentives to integrate its service into their own. Launched last summer, $rev pays developers up to 15% of an individual seat’s revenue if that user is an enterprise customer and uses the developer’s Box-integrated app. If you deployed such an app across a large company, the numbers could add up.
Box recently raised $100 million at a $2 billion valuation.
