Google teasing I/O 2018 with series of encrypted puzzles

Google has a long history of using puzzles to tease and communicate. Their latest puzzle sequence tells you about this years Google I/O conference.

It all started with this tweet:

If you are interested in solving this, start by deciphering the image in the tweet above. If you get stuck, or just want to read through the sequence of solve steps, follow the headline link to a sequence of clues.