Build an Alexa Skill in 60 minutes

Join the Front Endgineers London at Skills Matter on Tuesday 19th February for a hands-on workshop with Andrea Muttoni.

In the 60 minute session, learn how to build a voice experience for Amazon Alexa: from idea to working skill including some best practices to consider along the way. Andrea is a Technical Evangelist for Amazon Alexa. In his role, he travels the world to share stories, learnings and best practices for building voice-enabled experiences, aka Skills, with Alexa.

We caught up with Andrea ahead of the meetup to find out why the workshop is important to attendees and his advice for junior developers.

1.Who do you think should come along?
Anyone who is curious to explore what exactly goes into creating a voice experience with Alexa. On the technical side, it’s easier than it looks. On the voice design side, it’s harder than it sounds! Whether you are technical or not, you should walk away with a working Alexa Skill and an understanding of what it takes to build a good one.

2. What do you think are the three most interesting questions that this event will answer?
How does Amazon Alexa work?
How do I build a conversational experience on Alexa using the Alexa Skills Kit?
What best practices should I keep in mind when building for voice?

3. Why do you think this presentation is important for people?
This hour will cover the end-to-end experience of building an Alexa Skill, giving a comprehensive overview of what’s involved, the tools available, and all the shiny new features!

4. Any advice for junior developers entering the industry?
With voice experiences, it’s not so much about being an expert developer, it’s more about understanding how humans interact naturally with one another. The technical bar, in my opinion, is lower than in mobile apps, but the experience bar is much higher as people expect an assistant to behave as a human. In a world where frontend development is becoming ever more democratized, experience in this new frontier of “voice frontend” (that we call voice design) can be a positive differentiator for people starting out in the industry.

You can find all the information about the meetup and RSVP on our event page. You can find Andrea on Twitter.

For more information on the Front Endgineers London, please check out our meetup page.