The day 2 at AWE 2021? Talks, Auggie Awards, Expo Area, Happy Hour and After Party! What else?
The second day of AWE 2021 opened with a great talk “Reinventing the camera: a fireside chat” with Bobby Murphy, CTO of Snap Inc. who took the stage with Brielle Garcia of Taco Lamp, and Lauren Goode of WIRED who managed the debate. A conversation about the vision of “reinventing the camera”, evolving the camera from a communication tool to an augmented reality platform. They explained how Snap is pushing the boundaries of augmented reality together with Snap creators, businesses and the community, shaping the way we experience the world around us.
Tony Parisi, Unity Technologies, with Catherine D. Henry, Media.Monks and Keith Soljacich, Publicis Media, gave a talk on “Fire Side Chat with Unity, Media.Monks, and Publicis on the State and Future of XR for Brands” to learn more about the current and future state of XR for brands and agencies. They discussed current successes in XR, challenges and opportunities for immersive experiences, and the future potential of XR, plus where the metaverse fits in.
Charlie Fink, Forbes, with his speech on “The Race to Build the Metaverse” spoke about the central position of the book “Ready Player One” is The OASIS, a fully embodied VR metaverse that started out as a game, but it has been so. compelling, so useful and fun, that everyone – every person, every company, every institution and even every game – had to have a presence there. A bit like the educational Internet in the 90s. This is fiction, of course, Mark Zuckerberg says we will soon see Facebook as a “metaverse company”. Epic Games (creator of Fortnite), has announced that its latest funding round of one billion dollars will be spent on building a metaverse. But how to define it? Who else is building – or has built – a metaverse? What technology requires a metaverse? What could its terminal form be? On which platforms – AR, VR, Mobile – will these virtual social spaces manifest themselves, when and how?
“How to Safely Navigate the Metaverse” was the panel that involved Anne Hobson, Meta with Joan O’Hara, XR Association, Ellysse Dick, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Kavya Pearlman, XR Safety Initiative. This panel explored how to both define and address trust and safety concerns in immersive experiences. Experts in trust and safety and multi-user immersive experiences will highlight the unique challenges for trust and safety in the Metaverse and discuss how companies building these realities can begin to address them…
“From Cookies to Cars: How Brands are Getting Metaverse-ready” with Raffaella Camera, Epic Games – Unreal Engine. In this session, talked about what global brands are doing to prepare for the Metaverse. Examples were shown of how fashion, consumer packaged goods and automotive brands are inspiring consumers to virtually interact with products and try them out. And it was shown how real-time 3D workflows are used to create hyper-realistic resources and experiences with more efficient workflows.
And again there have been important talks given by Avi Bar-Zeev, RealityPrime, Gavin Newton-Tanzer, AWE Asia, Sunrise International, Patrick Levy-Rosenthal, Emoshape Inc, Angelo Stracquatanio, Apprentice.io, Raymond Mosco, Pinscreen… All talks are available on the official AWE youtube channel at this link: AWE YOUTUBE CHANNEL
EXPO Area
What was my favorite experience? Oh, we were really spoiled for choice! Here some photos…
Happy Hour!
“Happy Hour” was held from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm, which this year took place in the playground of the Convention Center in Santa Clara.
Auggie Awards
The annual Auggie Awards have been the most recognized AR & VR industry awards in the world since 2010. Now in its 12th year, the Auggies continue to showcase the best of the best in augmented, virtual and mixed reality. Winners have been presented with a prestigious Auggie Award at the Auggie Awards Ceremony, that took place on November 10th at the AWE USA 2021 event in Santa Clara, California.
2021 AUGGIE AWARD WINNERS
24 judges, 15 categories, of which 12 were awarded on the evening of November 10 by Ori Inbar on the main stage of the Santa Clara Convention Center, (3 will be awarded on the afternoon of 11 November).
Among the judges, Tom Emrich, Mark Billinghuhrst, Avi Bar-Zeev, Alice Bonacio, Adario Strange, Rick King, Christine Perey, Bob Fine, Mike Boland, Brad Waid, Christopher Lafayette, Dave Lorenzini, Amy Lameyer, Cathy Hackl, Nonny De Le Pena, Tom Furtness, Tony Parisi, Rob Crasco, Helen Papagiannis, Graham Roberts, Emily Olman, Tish Shute, Kavya Pearlman.
You can find all the information on the winners on the AWE website at this link: AUGGIE WINNERS
These are the winning categories and the names of the winners. You can see the trailers of the winners in the video.
BEST COLLABORATION TOOL: ShapesXR – TVORI – video
BEST ART OR FILM: Peaceful Places – video
BEST CAMPAIGN: Countdown Super Insects – video
BEST CONSUMER APP: Maps Live View – video
BEST CREATOR & AUTHORING TOOL: Masterprice Studio Pro – video
BEST ENTERPRISE SOLUTION: Beamo – video
BEST GAME OR TOY: Hand Physics Lab – video
BEST HEADWORN DEVICE: Spectacles – video
BEST INTERACTION PRODUCT: Tactsuit X40 – video
BIGGEST SOCIETAL IMPACT: Breonna’s Garden – video
BEST INDIE CREATOR(S): Hand Physics Lab – video
BEST USE OF AI: Mixed Reality Navigation – video
BEST IN LOCATION BASED ENTERTAINMENT: The Edge VR Matterhorn Experience – video
BEST HEALTCARE & WELLNESS SOLUTION: C19-Space – video
You can see the video of the 12th Auggie Awards Award Ceremony here:
After Party!
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.