This year AWE EU 2023 was held in the wonderful city of Vienna in Austria with a location truly avant-garde. The Austrian Vienna Center was a perfect place for AWE EU 2023. There was a great playground and the main stage was at the center of all the space with the minor talk rooms that revolved around.
Ori Inbar opened the event with a keynote entitled “XR State of the Union” and spoke of how AR and VR will integrate with AI. This is the synthesis from the blog of AWE:
(…) Kicking things off on the Main Stage was AWE co-founder Ori Inbar, whose welcome keynote highlighted the current strength of the global XR industry, with his “XR State of the Union” address. Inbar noted that augmented, virtual and mixed reality technologies represent a $38 billion industry in 2023, with over 606 million monthly active users in the metaverse. Even with AI turning out to be the wonder child for this year, rumors of XR’s demise have still been greatly exaggerated it seems. In fact, Inbar noted that rather than AI replacing XR, technologies such as VR and AR will actually act as the interfaces through which we interact with AI. With artificial intelligence now unleashed upon the world, it is hard to deny the power and potential that AI offers humanity. But XR is right alongside AI in terms of both its potential and the power that it has to radically change the future, and our lives.
However, of the two technologies, even though AI is the largest growing vertical within the tech sector, XR is still second. But, with the holiday season almost upon us, the reality is that “no one wants chatGPT underneath their Christmas tree.” (…)
Ori Inbar was followed by Era Sahni Senior Director, Global Channel Partnerships, Reality Labs at Meta… and immediately afterwards was held the playground presentation for the journalists while on the main stage and the smaller stages the various talks with very interesting speakers began!!!
In the video below you can see the introduction of Ori Inbar and the speech of Era Sahni:
During this AWE EU 2023, the Press Walkthrough was organized really well. Jonathan Hirshon and Ori Inbar presented the walkthrough at the beginning, but Nate Harper was the real showman of this moment and opened the presentations at all the stands. There was a great sound system and AWE set up their own Press Walkthrough video and immediately made available to journalists. This means, dear journalist friends, that from the next editions of AWE it will probably be easier to share this preview, given the professionalism of the AWE Team and the speed with which it was made available to everyone on AWE Youtube Channel! Thanks AWE!
You can see my lively video here (a real visit to the preview stands… while we walk!!!):
There have been some interesting talks among which we point out the great presentation from Sergiu Ardelean & Michaela Konrad held on the main stage.
Full Potential of Technology: Creating Value, Not Just Solutions How can we create value with technology?They talked about the Artivive use case, a 250k creators platform that uses AR to blend traditional and digital art, elevating both art forms and adding genuine value.
You can see their talk here (I entered running with the video camera in hand!):
Sergiu Ardelean during his talk presented the next event of Artivive, the AR Art Summit 2023 entitold “Beyond the Canvas: The Future of Art and Technology” that be held online on November 7 – 9 (and during which you can attend many speechs including mine!!!).
This summit will dive into the cutting-edge world of augmented reality and the future of art. From augmented reality enhanced artworks to the fast developing technologies like AI generated artworks, it will explore how artists are pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the digital realm.
If you want know more click here: AR ART SUMMIT 2023
How not to be enchanted by the incredible ability to be on the stage of Amy Peck? Amy the night before was a speaker of Artivive together with Sam Hunter Magee, Director on Creativity and Entrepreneurship for Harvard’s Lemann Program.
You can see a photo of us during the Artivive event, with Amy Peck, Codin Popescu, Cecilia Lascialfari, Sam Hunter Magee and his wife, Sergiu Ardelean, Wolfgang Hartl.
And during AWE EU 2023 Amy Peck presented a talk on Future-Proofing Companies through Human Performance Improvement.
In this talk Amy shared how organizations, as well as individuals, can leverage technology to improve their capabilities. She talked about how to combine human capital with visionary practices and how to lead the way into the future with technology and vision. Amy reviewed:
– The Pillars of Human Performance
– Augmenting Human Performance with XR, AI and BCI (Brain-Computer Interfaces)
– The positive impact of creating a holistic approach to elevating our capabilities and overall wellness
– How these practices will ensure a more productive and well-rounded workforce
You can see her talk here:
The second days of AWE EU was opened by HTC VIVE‘s Thomas Dexmier on the Main Stage at the Austria Center Vienna. Thomas discussed the pivotal role of enterprises in the adoption of XR. Dexmier also talked about HTC’s past and current projects from industries such as healthcare, automotive, construction, design, defense and emergency services. Thomas AVP of Enterprise Solutions for EMEA demonstrated the vast range of use cases that virtual and mixed reality technology have for the enterprise, and how HTC VIVE has been at the forefront of XR adoption for many enterprise organizations.
A wonderful panel on “Reshaping Arts, Narratives & Talents in the Era of Immersive & Emerging Tech” with exceptional speakers such as Victoria Bousis, Jennifer Bettinger, Alexandra Payne, Fabien Barati, Liz Rosenthal moderated by Elisabetta Rotolo, was held on the main stage in the second day.
A discussion that delved into the fascinating intersection between arts, immersive and emerging technologies, experiences and people, exploring how the creation of new languages is revolutionizing content production and reshaping the arts landscape. This panel brought together visionaries, experts, and thought leaders who delved into the transformative impact of AI, Web3, and immersive interactions on the narrative landscape of the digital age.
Startup Competition:
– Startup Competition: Eight innovative finalists made their presentations for the AWE EU 2023 Start-up Pitch Competition
Event Wrap-up & Best in Show Awards
Start-up to Watch
The winner of this year’s Start-up to Watch Auggie award was Brainspark Games.
As well as the Start-up to Watch award, there were two ‘Best in Show’ awards handed out this year.
Auggie Awards
The Auggie Award winners were:
– Best in Show VR | VRgineers
– Best in Show Audience Favorite | Bad*ss Girls by Women in Immersive Tech
You can watch the full event wrap-up below:
You can read the in-depth coverage of AWE EU 2023 with Day 1 & Day 2 recap blog posts.
AWE EU 2023 on AWE YOUTUBE CHANNEL
You can watch all the videos of AWE EU 2023 in Vienna, on AWE Youtube channel followed these Playlist:
– AWE EU 2023 – Main Stage
– AWE EU 2023 – Retail, E-Commerce & Advertising
– AWE EU 2023 – Developer & Creator
– AWE EU 2023 – XR Safety & Security
– AWE EU 2023 – Healthcare & Wellness
– AWE EU 2023 – AI & Virtual Beings
– AWE EU 2023 – Start-Ups & Investors
– AWE EU 2023 – Gaming, Entertainment & Media
– AWE EU 2023 – Enterprise
– AWE EU 2023 – Collaboration, Training & Education
– AWE EU 2023 – XR Enablement
PLAYGROUND
Among the many companies present in AWE EU 2023 in Vienna in the playground, we interviewed the XTAL and Exit Suit, because we are affected by their innovative technology.
XTAL
The XTAL is a pilot dedicated virtual reality headset with extremely high fidelity, 8K resolution, and a market-leading 180° field of view. Dive deeper into the world of virtual reality. This is their website: https://www.xtal.pro (in this video Terence Leon Bina).
EXIT SUIT
EXIT SUIT is a full-body support that lets you move in amazing ways and has full- body force-feedback potential. EXIT SUIT is sustainable technology and is modular and will evolve with the user. EXIT SUIT is the future of human/computer interface.
This is their website: https://exitsuit.com/
Next Event of AWE:
- AWE USA 2024 | JUNE 18-20, 2024
- AWE ASIA 2024 | AUGUST 27-28, 2024
- AWE EU 2024 | 30-31 OCT, 2024
- Follow AWE.live online on his new domain live.awexr.com! Starting on November 1st, awe.live will be transitioning from its old platform to a new home on the AWE domain. AWE continually strive to improve and find the best solutions for the community to connect, learn, and grow, and now it’s time for a positive change. The new platform, which will be launched in a few weeks, will offer an improved user experience with a more unified look and feel that is consistent with the rest of the AWE ecosystem.
See more information here: https://www.awexr.com/
See you soon, at the next AWE!
THANK YOU TO AWE TEAM!
VIENNA IS A WONDERFUL CITY!!!
In this photo you can see the Schönbrunn Castle on the border of the city of Vienna and residence of Princess Sissi, the famous painting of “The Kiss” (Der Kuss) by Gustav Klimt preserved at the Belvedere Museum, an image that shows the animation of 8th Wall which was present in garden of the Belvedere Museum, and finally our chance meeting with Ori Inbar and his family at the Belvedere Museum!
Cecilia is also an artist, photographer, videomaker, community manager and International Journalist. She is the organizer of AWE Nite Florence and she is the Italian Representative for Artivive.
Cecilia is a member of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA is a member of the EurAI/ECCAI) which includes professionals from the most important research institutions and Italian universities.
Cecilia created a project called “Flying Into The Metaverse Through Books & Culture”, which is a series of interviews with the most important professionals in the XR field and manages an online Journal called ARea6DoF, registered to the Italian Court, where she writes the articles about the different topics she is concerned with.