🗣 Because we know that AWE was the event of the year regarding Extended Reality, we decided to share with you a summary of the second part of this conference that brought more than 400 speakers together in Santa Clara, CA.
Starting things in the Main Stage was Magic Leap, with the company’s Head of Product Management, James Meskill, providing attendees with an overview of Magic Leap 2 and how it will power the next leap forward in enterprise AR. The company’s latest “WildFire Demo” was also shown off on stage and on the floor during the day, giving attendees the chance to finally try out the device. Hundreds of attendees waited patiently throughout the day in order to get their chance to finally try out the device.
Magic Leap’s Vision
👉 “Magic Leap’s vision is a world where the physical and digital are one,” Meskill said. “We’re focused on businesses who need to solve real problems and who have essential work to get done, and that’s going to continue to drive the industry forward. We’re in the early access period with Magic Leap 2 and we’ve had some amazing developers come in and experiment and learn what they can do with Magic Leap 2” he added.
👉 Following was Sravanth Aluru, Founder & CEO of Avataar, with a great talk on how the camera has evolved as a key tool for eliminating friction for consumers on their shopping journeys since it enables people to browse, search & discover products in the context of their own space, all thanks to the wonders of Augmented Reality (AR). “Digital reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one,” said Aluru.
Of course, running alongside the Main Stage track were all the other agenda tracks, including the Retail, eCommerce, and Advertising stages. There, Metadome’s Founder and CEO, Kanav Singla, discussed the transition from eCommerce to virtual commerce. He also demonstrated how the company’s 3D Virtual Showroom Platform can be integrated with all major eCommerce platforms (such as Shopify), to enable brands to create their own virtual stores so as to engage with consumers.
In a way, this focus on the consumer helped to nicely frame things for day 2. As expected, the Expo Floor and AWE Playground were all about letting users and consumers try out the latest XR hardware and software solutions from a range of leading OEM’s, businesses, developers, and start-ups who are all operating across the immersive technology industry. Plus, with the huge variety of exhibitors at this year’s event, there was something on display for everyone, from individual consumers to business and enterprise end-users.
For many people, the Expo Floor and the Playground represent the most exciting part of AWE conferences, as they provide attendees with what is truly the best opportunity to get hands-on with the newest technology from leading XR companies.
The combined space of the Expo Floor and AWE Playground was 120,000 sq ft and felt absolutely enormous. Yet, all that space was absolutely jam-packed with some of the most exciting XR technology that is around at the moment and really does demonstrate how AWE is the place to be for anyone who has an interest in this industry.
Finally, a major highlight was the AWE’s Start-up Pitch Competition, where 16 finalists consisting of AR/VR start-ups, pitched in front of a group of judges made up of industry executives and venture capitalists. This year’s winner, Croquet, was honored on the main stage with the winning title of “Start-up to Watch”.
👉 Once again, what an amazing opportunity AWE XR conference was to breathe, feel and experience what cutting-edge technologies in Extended Reality and The Metaverse industries, are planning to surprise us with this year.
