Bringing the XR World Together at the VR/AR Global Summit, with Executive Director Anne-Marie Enns

XR for Business

English - October 14, 2019 09:51 - 25 minutes - 23.3 MB - ★★★★★ - 12 ratings
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Alan, along with his wife Julie, are members of the VR/AR Association, and as such, one of the annual XR gatherings they look forward to most is the VR/AR Global Summit in Vancouver, which is just a few weeks away (Oct 31-Nov 2). Alan has the event’s executive producer, Anne-Marie Enns, on to talk about what attendees can expect on the show floor this year.

Alan: Welcome to the XR for
Business Podcast with your host, Alan Smithson. Today’s guest is a
great friend of mine, Anne-Marie Enns, the executive producer of the
VR/AR Global Summit, coming to Vancouver, Canada, October 31st to
November 2nd. And I am super excited to announce that both my wife
Julie and myself will be speakers at it, and it’s hosted by the VR/AR
Association, which we are also members. She’s served as the executive
producer for the show for two years and previously was the producer
of the CVR, the Consumer VR Show, also hosted in Vancouver. She’s the
founder of Pulled In Productions, a live event production company
that specializes in tech events and live productions. You can learn
more about the VR/AR Global Summit by visiting vrarglobalsummit.com.
Duh.

Anne-Marie: [chuckles]

Alan: We’re here now with
Anne-Marie. Thanks for joining me.

Anne-Marie: Thanks so much for
having me, Alan.

Alan: I’m super excited for two
things. One, to come and see everybody in Vancouver and two, to find
out who else was gonna be there speaking at this. So let’s get into
it. Tell everybody what is the VR/AR Global Summit, and what can they
expect from this?

Anne-Marie: Well, the VR/AR
Global Summit is going into its second year, and it is two days that
are jam packed full of amazing industry speakers, workshops, speed
dating, great events, amazing exhibits and demos. And so it is just
*the* show to go to if you’re looking for great content, great
conversations and awesome networking in a beautiful location.

Alan: I have been a guest
speaker at your conference for a couple of years now, and I can tell
you — for the people listening — there’s two conferences that I —
or three, I guess — that I look forward to every year: AWE, which is
by far the most impactful augmented reality conference, and that
takes place every year in San Francisco, and now there’s going to be
one in Munich. But then there’s the Virtual Reality, Toronto; VRTO:
That one is a small but very powerful group. And the Global Summit is
kind of like taking both of those. Where you’ve got this small,
intimate group talking about the future of technology. Then you’ve
got AWE, which is very kind of enterprise focused, how to make money?
And you bring those two together and you’ve got this global summit.
And it’s just incredible because it feels like a small conference,
even though it’s not small, it feels like a small conference because
everybody there is super passionate. They’re willing to share their
experiences. What can we expect from the speakers this year?

Anne-Marie: [chuckles]

Alan: We’re here now with
Anne-Marie. Thanks for joining me.

Anne-Marie: Thanks so much for
having me, Alan.

Anne-Marie: Sure. Well, we’ve
got so many amazing speakers this year, and we take a lot of time to
carefully curate who goes on our stage. So it takes us a while to get
that program launched. But we’ve got some amazing people this year,
both in the enterprise side — so talking about training — we’ve got
a whole defense and government sector that’s happening at the event
this year, a couple hours of that. We’ve got beautiful immersive
artists and people working in immersive storytelling that are coming.
So we’ve got Lenovo, Niantic, MasterCard, HP, Forbes, a whole bunch
of great of the big name companies. But then we’ve also got beautiful
artists that are coming, like Nancy Baker Cahill, and a beautiful
voice, Galit Ariel, who’s from Toronto, who was a TEDWomen speaker.
Yourself, Julie, we’ve got people from Viacom, we’ve got people from
Hasbro. There’s a lot of really interesting, diverse voices happening
at the event. We try to balance it with names that you know and with
names that you’re going to know after you come to the summit.

Alan: Let’s go through this.
There’s so many great speakers coming. You’ve got somebody from
MasterCard. What are they doing in AR and VR?

Anne-Marie: So they have taken
their training globally into VR and AR with their staff. And so
they’re talking about how they’re– they started small with that, but
now it’s a global entity, and how that changes when you’re going from
different country to country, and what they’re doing. So they’re
speaking about that. We’ve got people that are talking about sports
and fitness in VR and AR this year, from FORM Swim and YUR Fitness,
so VR in training for your body, which is great. Yeah, there’s all
kinds of great people coming to speak this year.

Alan: Sergio from Hasbro’s gonna
be there. What is Hasbro doing in VR and AR?

Anne-Marie: They’re doing some
great things with toys for kids, mostly in the AR realm and
developing educational apps with their toys and without their toys,
really working on some STEM programming as well. So he is really
interesting and they have got a lot of new things that they’ll be
launching at the summit as well.

Alan: I’m scanning through that
— if you guys want to take a look, it’s
vrarglobalsummit.com/speakers — and I’m scrolling down. Of course,
there’s familiar faces like Charlie Fink. And then there’s Amy Peck
and there’s — who’s there? — Cathy Hackl. These are people that if
you’re in the industry at all, you’ve seen these names come up. But
then there’s a whole host of people that are kind of new, and up and
coming. And it’s really, really exciting. Martina from the WXR Fund
and Amy from the WXR Fund — that’s the Women’s XR Fund — that are
really promoting women entrepreneurs in the space. I think it’s
wonderful that they’re doing that. You’ve got Jeff Olm, Alex Snider
from Patio Interactive. It’s like a host of incredible people, John
Cunningham from DiSTI. Who else is there? Oh, it’s everybody! John
Mc– Jason McDowall from The AR Show, I was on his show. Nathan
Pettyjohn, who was the founder of VR/AR Association. Who else? I’m
just going down the list, this is an incredible list of people.

Anne-Marie: Well, then we’ve got
people like Kavya Pearlman, who are doing the XR Security Initiative,
talking about ethics and security in VR and AR, and she’s amazing.
She’s a top 30 under 30. And Dr. Uma Jayaram from Travancore, who
just got bought out by Intel Sports. So they’ll be talking about
e-sports and VR and AR. And then we’ve got Renée Stevens and Amy Lou
Abernathy, who are both talking about education and diversity and
inclusion. There’s beautiful storytellers that are coming to talk
about that. So it’s really– so there’s one stage that’s enterprise,
and one stage that’s immersive. And then another stage on Saturday
that’s all about defense and government. So really, it covers
basically everything you could ever want to know about VR and AR.
It’s great. It’s great. I’m super excited.

Alan: Teppei Tsutsui.

Anne-Marie: Yep.

Anne-Marie: From GRF, or the
GREE Fund. He’s actually gonna be on my podcast in about an hour from
now.

Anne-Marie: Oh, awesome! How
excellent!

Alan: [laughs] Yeah!

Anne-Marie: Small world.

[laughs]

Alan: Jesse Damiani from VR
Focus, just like– this is gonna be like a big family gathering of
awesome people that are passionate, that are really just rolling up
their sleeves and doing stuff in this industry. So I’m super excited
for this. It’s really amazing. Is Ross Finman from Niantic speaking
as well?

Anne-Marie: He is. So he is one
of our keynotes on Friday. So we’re super excited to have him, and
what they’re talking about. And then Matt [Miesnieks] from 6D.ai. Oh,
there’s just so many good people. And Jimmy Vainstein, who’s speaking
from World Bank and how they’re helping to change the world, and
document what they’re working on with World Bank through VR and AR
and storytelling through that. And then there’s a couple of surprises
that aren’t even up there yet, that will be launched this week, that
are really cool, that I’m super excited for.

Alan: So we’ve talked about the
people that are gonna be there, which is literally the most important
part. But let’s talk about what are some of the demos that you guys
are going to have there, because I think seeing VR and AR is the key
to all this. So what are some of the things that we’re gonna be able
to to try, and touch, and play with?

Anne-Marie: Oh, there’s so many
great demos.

Alan: We really just want to
play with toys. Come on, let’s be honest.

Anne-Marie: We want to–

[chuckles]

What am I excited about, though? I don’t know, everything.
I always get lost in the exhibitor room. Lenovo’s bringing a great
exhibit this year, you’ll get to try out all of their fun stuff.
Archiact just did a great AR experience with Marvel, so that’ll be
there and, we’ll be able to experience that and engage with some of
the awesome Marvel characters. We’re going to have great gaming
companies. There are a lot of different headsets going on. It’s going
to be great. There’ll be a lot of things to try. Dreamcraft
Attractions — who are from Canada, but have never really exhibited
in Canada — they do great gaming and attraction based VR, so they’ll
be there for the first time. So there’s lots of great things. A lot
of local companies, a lot of really interesting startups. And then
we’ve got workshops too.

Alan: Oh, tell me about the
workshop! That’s important.

Anne-Marie: Magic Leap’s doing a
workshop. HTC with Vinay [Narayan], who’s always wonderful. Amazon
will be there talking about Sumerian, and then a couple other with
immersive storytelling and volumetric capture, that will be announced
this week too. So I’m excited for those.

Alan: Incredible. I know
volumetric capture’s starting to heat up, with Verizon acquiring
Jaunt and ooh, it’s getting crazy!

Anne-Marie: [laughs] It’s
getting fun!

Alan: One of my interviews today
was with Michael Mansouri from Radiant Images. And they’re really
pioneering some work in photogrammetry, volumetric capture, and light
field capture as well. So, very interesting.

Anne-Marie: Cool.

Alan: Holy moly. There’s just so
much to unpack here. There’s Telus, Facebook, Siemens, Raytheon,
Viacom, Microsoft, Lenovo, Niantic, Canadian Tire. It’s just– [sound
of mind being blown] You know, it’s nuts. There’s so many companies
that are part of this. What are some of the challenges that you’ve
had with bringing this together?

Anne-Marie: I think always the
challenge is just trying to fit this all into two days. Literally,
you could have stages upon stages and days upon days of topics and
interesting people. We had so many amazing people applied to speak
that we just couldn’t fit in. So I think it’s narrowing it down. It’s
also trying to give people the quality that they want and the current
topics, because the topics change so quickly in this industry. So
what we started talking about last year is either no longer
necessarily relevant or where it was or what’s going on. So it’s just
trying to make the most up-to-date, current, exciting show that we
can when it’s changing so dramatically daily, with companies being
bought out and everything. It’s just– that’s probably the hardest
part, is containing what we have, because we can do this for days,
really.

Alan: Yeah. It’s– you know, if
you go back kind of three or four years, the news would come out once
every two days or we’d like, okay, here’s some VR news. It would be a
couple of things. It’s coming out every couple of hours now.

Anne-Marie: Yeah. Yeah. And you
know, it’s funny because I’ve been doing a show like this for three
years, and the topics, what’s relevant and what’s not changes month
to month.

Alan: Okay, what was relevant a
year ago, that’s no longer today?

Anne-Marie: Well, this year we
found that we are getting a lot of people applying to speak about–
it’s basically getting down and dirty into it, like we’re doing the
training, this is what’s working, and we’re in it. And when I’ve been
doing that for the two years prior, it was a lot about where’s the
industry going, and that. Like that hockey stick curve of where you
might be and what’s going on.

Alan: Everybody with the hockey
stick curve!

Anne-Marie: I’m like, “No,
hockey stick curve!” But now it’s the people that are really
into it, and working into it, and what is actually going on in it,
rather than theory. Like it’s at practical application. So a lot of
it, when we were looking for practical applications two years ago, it
wasn’t quite there. And now that’s everything that we thought. So a
lot of enterprise training, a lot of especially military and defense.
We’ve got a lot of people talking about that. And then the quality in
storytelling and content that goes with that, not just the demand for
it, but the actual delivery of it now. So it’s just a really
interesting conversation to see how it’s grown and changed.

Alan: So three years ago — or I
guess four years ago — there was a couple of companies, Greenlight
and some other companies that made these crazy, wild, outlandish bets
on the size of the market. And most of them were wrong by a large
margin. What are we seeing now? Are we seeing more pragmatic kind of
predictions for the future? What are we seeing in the next five
years?

Anne-Marie: I mean, just based
on what I read and podcasts like yours and chatting with you and
stuff like that, I think– I don’t know. I think it’s the down and
dirty applications of it. I think people are into it. I don’t think
anyone’s looking for that huge, exciting growth that was predicted
five years ago.

Alan: [laughs] We’re not looking
to get rich. We’re just looking to get shit done.

Anne-Marie: Yeah. And that’s
what it is: it’s getting shit done. And that’s what a lot of people
are doing, and putting their heads down and doing it. And the people
that are doing gaming are doing gaming so well, and the people that
are doing enterprise are doing enterprise really well. And I think
that a lot of people are trying to do a lot of things, but it’s more
streamlined. And the people doing beautiful artwork are– they really
got an issue for it now. And you can make money off of it, you can do
those things. And I think people are getting really creative in it,
as opposed to just trying to jump on the bandwagon. I think that
people that didn’t really see the potential of it are gone a little
bit. And those that are really into it, and dove into it, and love it
are persisting and making great things. But that’s just my personal
experience. [laughs] That’s just what I see.

Alan: I think you’re absolutely
right. You’re seeing people kind of drop off of this, and people that
got into it for the shiny penny are really falling off, because it’s
hard to build something of value in any industry, especially in an
industry that’s emerging, where there’s sometimes no answers. You’re
like, “Okay, how do we do this?” And people are like, “I
don’t know. Nobody’s done it. So how do we do it?”

Anne-Marie: But you look at
people coming, like the guys that are– the two people that are
coming from Patio, which is a cannabis company. So when you’re
talking to them like, so cannabis is new. You can’t hire anyone
working in marketing and training and sales that’s worked in cannabis
before, like you can kind of take from similar, like alcohol
companies or whatever. But it is a different thing. So they’re using
VR and AR in training in a whole new industry that never even existed
two years ago.

Alan: Absolutely, and we have–

Anne-Marie: That’s the people
that are creative and innovative about it, because everything they’re
doing is creative and innovative. And that’s exciting.

Alan: Yeah, e’ve actually worked
with Charlie and his team at Patio over the years, and they do great
work. They’ve been really pioneering the cannabis space. We actually
did a project — that will never see the light of day, unfortunately
— we filmed the world’s largest cannabis facility in VR, in 360.

Anne-Marie: Oh, cool.

Alan: Yeah, it was amazing.
800,000 square foot cannabis facility. So you’re in VR and you’re
standing amongst the trees. And yeah, it was beautiful. But
unfortunately, it’ll never see the light of day, because the client–
it was under lock and key, so… But yeah, they do some amazing work.
They’ve done some really interesting work in photogrammetry of the
buds and really bringing them to life in AR as well, which is pretty
cool. And then taking that, which, you know, it’s really cool to see
a bud in AR. But what’s the point? So what they’ve done is they get
in a little bit further and said, “OK, well, let’s use it to
educate consumers about this.” And I think that’s really cool.
And recently they just did this really cool thing with wink cannabis
where they they 3D projection mapped a sign. And while it’s not kind
of VR or AR, it is really still the same technologies that we’re
using, the 3D map, and they 3D mapped a sign that says “wink.”
And it just– it looks really cool in an event. It’s really super
cool.

Anne-Marie: Yeah, awesome. And I
think that’s what you’re going to see, is people taking it and going
that one step further. Like I’m talking to some people about some
great immersive experiences that just take it that one step beyond.
And they’re exciting. They’re so great.

Alan: Yeah, I actually– Last
week I was in Orlando meeting with John Cunningham. He’s one of the
mentors for the XR Ignite’s platform or accelerator. And I got to go
to their office and try their training demos. And a lot of the
training they’re doing is in three dimensions, but it’s on 2D touch
screens. And even though it’s not in VR/AR, the 3D ability to turn
things around and see them from all angles, open them up. It really
does make a big difference. And then, of course, you know that they
can push a button and put you into VR with that. So I actually– one
of the demos I got to see was an F-18 fighter jet. And I got to put
my head in and walk around a fighter jet and open up the panels. And
that was just mind-blowing. And then it went from an F-18 fighter jet
to an HP large format printer.

Anne-Marie: I think I’d stay in
that fighter jet. [laughs]

Alan: It was like, the same
technology can be applied to this.

Anne-Marie: Yeah. Which is
awesome, right?

Alan: You get fighter jets and
printers! Crazy.

Anne-Marie: [laughs]

Alan: Who else is on this? Jason
McDowall, I was on his show recently, that was really exciting. And
he runs a podcast called The AR Show, which is really incredible.
Kavya Pearlman from XR Safety Initiative, they’re pioneering work in
making sure that we do things ethically, which is really great. Who
else is on? Tony Bevilacqua. Is he still with Cognitive3D? I think
so.

Anne-Marie: He is, yep, that’s
his company, he’s been–.

Alan: They’re doing analytics in
VR and AR, so being able to take the analytics out of that and make
sense of where people are looking, how long they interacted, all of
these things.

Anne-Marie: Yeah.

Alan: Very cool.

Anne-Marie: It’s awesome. And
what’s great to do, with it being the global summit, is we’ve got
speakers this year that are coming from Africa, and India, and Asia,
and Germany and– you know, we’re doing a European summit next year.
So you’ve got the Lisbon chapter president coming, who’s great at
marketing and VR. So it’s going to to have a lot of interesting
voices as well. So not just the standard what we’re doing here or on
the west coast of North America. But what’s the VR like in Nigeria,
and all over the world? And it’s really fascinating when you learn
what they’re doing, compared to that we’re doing and how the
direction is totally different, because there’s just not that
influence of being here. So there is going to be a lot of really
interesting discussion points, and the ability to network with people
from around the globe, that I think will be incredible always. And
that’s what I really like about this event.

Alan: And the best conversations
— let’s be honest — they always happen at the bar afterwards,
anyway.

Anne-Marie: Yeah. Yeah. We do
this awesome speed dating, where you get to meet 150 people in an
hour and then it launches into the cocktail bar.

Alan: Oh, I love that! That
looks great.

Anne-Marie: So we’re doing that
for cocktail hour and then we’re doing that at breakfast the next
morning, because it was so popular last year.

Alan: So you’re doing it twice?

Anne-Marie: With wine and with
coffee. So it’ll be good.

Alan: Oh my god.

Anne-Marie: Whatever gets your
fancy going.

Alan: Can you do both? Can you
do the cocktail one day, and then do the coffee the next?

Anne-Marie: Sure. It’s first
come, first go.

Alan: October 31st is coming up
really quick. October 31st to November 2nd is the Vancouver VR/AR
Global Summit. Is it too late for sponsors to come on board, or
exhibitors?

Anne-Marie: No. We still have a
few exhibitor spaces, because we opened up a bit of a different area.
So we’ve still got space for that, which would be amazing. And we
always welcome sponsors. We do custom proposals for everyone. So it’s
not just, you know, “here’s your money and here’s a logo,”
but you can let me know what you’re looking for to get out of it. And
I can help to custom something for you. It’s not too late. There’s so
much great exposure available on site and during and after the event
that we can help with, because of VR/AR keeps going all year. It
doesn’t just stop at the summit. So there’s great opportunities for
that. And of course, ticket sales, I mean, we’ve got ticket types for
full conference passes, if you can come Saturday only, if you just
want to check out the exhibits, if you’re a student, there’s all
kinds of great opportunities at any price point. Startups to be
involved with the summit, and it’s never too late to come on board.
We welcome everyone.

Alan: How much are tickets?

Anne-Marie: If you’re a member
there, $4.99. If you’re a non-member, I believe they are $7.99, US.

Alan: That’s full conference
pass?

Anne-Marie: That’s full
conference pass. So that’s all the workshops, it’s all the parties,
it’s all the talks. And then there’s startup passes and student
passes, and you can find them all on the website, listed on the
front.

Alan: And then, so I’ve got to
read this quote, “The VR/AR Global Summit is one of the year’s
most anticipated conferences. It attracts a broad international
cross-section of thought leaders, enterprise executives,
entertainment companies and developers for an intense two days of
panels, demos and networking.” And I’m assuming — because it
says Forbes — I’m assuming that’s a quote from Charlie Fink.

Anne-Marie: It is, it is.

Alan: Alright. So you have here,
“With over 230 companies active in VR and AR, Vancouver is the
second largest immersive ecosystem in the world. This is the fourth
time the show is happening in Vancouver. And this year’s summit will
have a strong focus on enterprise and AR, as well as immersive
interactive design.” And here, I just got to read some of the
brands that are participating in the summit. You got MasterCard,
Hershey’s, Verizon, Boeing, Wal-Mart, Viacom, Siemens, Raytheon,
Telus, Apple, Lenovo, Google, HP, Facebook, AWS, Varjo, Accenture,
Pico, Magic Leap, Vive, RE’FLEKT, Patio Interactive, BGC, Dreamcraft,
DiSTI, 8th Wall, Stryker, Atheer, Sector Five Digital, World Bank
Group, Naval Information Warfare Center, Invest Canada, Lethbridge
College, The Time, Fortune, Forbes. This is going to be an incredible
event. How many people are you anticipating this year?

Anne-Marie: We’re looking to do
about 1,000 to 1,500. That’s– our space is small, but it’s so
intimate and it’s great. So we’re just yeah, we’re just excited to
have those people come and join us. It’ll be awesome.

Alan: This is so cool, I can’t
wait for this. I’m really, really getting excited and I gotta figure
out what I’m going to talk about.

Anne-Marie: I know we have to
talk about it.

Alan: Awesome. Really looking
forward to it. I think this is gonna be a great opportunity for not
only for people to learn about the industry, but also to meet new
friends and really embrace the entire ecosystem of VR and AR in a
place where we can talk business, but also let our hair down and kind
of get to know each other from a personal standpoint. I think this is
a great opportunity. From anybody around the world, if you happen to
have a couple of free days, October 31st to November 2nd, Vancouver,
the VR/AR Global Summit and its vrarglobalsummit.com. Is there
anything else you want to share with everybody?

Anne-Marie: I think that’s all.
I’m just looking forward to seeing everyone there. And thank you,
Alan, for having me on your show. I super appreciate it.

Alan: It is my absolute
pleasure. I’m super looking forward to seeing you in — oh my God —
a couple weeks.

Anne-Marie: I know. [laughs]