One of the leading conference in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), AWE 2017 (Augmented World Expo), now in its eight year, has announced their conference agenda, dedicated to AR+VR and the technologists and captains of industry behind it. This year, the conference takes place on May 31st to June 2nd, returning to the Santa Clara Convention Center.
AWE’s agenda this year includes over 300+ speakers in the burgeoning fields of AR and VR, with keynotes by “Shots of Awe” filmmaker, philosopher and futurist Jason Silva, “The Fourth Transformation” author and Transformative Group partner Robert Scoble, and game designer, author and Carnegie Mellon scholar Jesse Schell. These sessions will be presented from AR+VR thought leaders on best practices and uses cases of AR+VR within the consumer and enterprise space along with workshops tailored for designers and developers on creating content for these technologies. AWE 2017 sessions cover a wide range of topics including manufacturing, training, transportation, retail, healthcare, aerospace, media, entertainment, marketing and advertising — and of course, gaming applications in AR and VR.
New additions to the AWE lineup include major mainstream brands, such as Audi, the U.S. Olympic Committee, NASA, Boeing, Lowe’s, Shazam, Wayfair, Walmart, 3M, Technicolor and Bosch, as well as technology icons Google, Epson, Huawei, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Oculus, Unity, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony and Vuforia.
“IDC* recently projected that the augmented and virtual reality spend will grow from $6.1 billion last year to $143.3 billion by 2020,” said Tom Emrich, partner, Super Ventures and co-producer of AWE. “This implies an imminent seismic shift in AR+VR technology use from primarily consumer entertainment and retail experiences to the broader world of sales, training, field work, energy, military and medical applications—all of which echo the theme for this year’s event “Superpowers to Change the World”.”
Brands aside, AWE attendees will have the opportunity to plug into keynotes and discussion panels on the future of AR+VR consumer and enterprise technology led by industry futurists and pioneers, hardware, software and mainstream brands, and investors and venture capitalists. Noted industry executives scheduled to speak on the AWE stage include:
- Jim Heppelmann, President & CEO, PTC
- Rikard Steiber – President Viveport & SVP Virtual Reality, HTC Vive
- Achin Bhowmik – Vice President & General Manager, Perceptual Computing Group, Intel
- Zvi Greenstein – General Manager, Nvidia
- Gaia Dempsey – Co-founder & VP, DAQRI
- Ralph Osterhout – CEO, Osterhout Design Group
- Tony Parisi – Global Head of VR/AR, Unity Technologies
- Mounir Zok – Director of Technology & Innovation, United States Olympic Committee
- Jerri Ellsworth – Co-founder, castAR
- Tim Leland – VP Product Management, Qualcomm
- Jay Wright, President & General Manager, Vuforia, PTC
- Rachel Sibley – VP Product, Leap Motion
- Edward Tang – Co-founder & CTO, Avegant
- Meron Gribetz – Founder & CEO, Meta
- Max Cecchini – VP Digital Innovation, Luxottica
- Ana Serrano – Chief Digital Officer, Canadian Film Centre
- Tish Shute – Director AR/VR, Corporate Technology Strategy, Huawei
- Fabio Santini – Chief Product Officer, Shazam
- Kyle Nel – Executive Director of Lowe’s Innovation Labs, Lowe’s Home Improvement
- John C.C. Fan – CEO & Chairman of the Board, Kopin Corporation
- Richard Lucquet – Head of AR/VR Product & Strategy, Verizon
- Gary Radburn – Director of VR/AR, Dell
- Tom Furness – Founder, Virtual Worlds Society
- Ruth Bram – Producer, Oculus/Facebook
- Steven Feiner – Professor, Columbia University
IEach year, companies big and small pave the way for the continued success of AR+VR through unexpected innovations. The Auggie Awards have recognized these contributions annually since 2010. Now in its 8th year, alongside the conference, the Auggies continue to showcase the best-of-the-best with 200 nominations across 10 categories. Public voting is open April 29 to May 22 via the Auggie Awards portal. Winners will be announced at AWE USA 2017 on June 1, 2017.
The eighth annual AWE conference will welcome thousands of attendees from around the world to the Santa Clara Convention Center, May 31-June 2. Event details and registration are live at http://www.augmentedworldexpo.
*Source: IDC Worldwide Semiannual Augmented and Virtual Reality Spending Guide, February 2017
