XR for Business

Today’s guest — Sector 5 Digital‘s Jeff Meisner — hopes to put grave robbers out of business, among other things. He pops in to talk to Alan about all the experiential learning experiences his company has developed, from digital cadavers to study anatomy, to the VR design process of Bell Helicopters. [Editor’s Note: due to an uploading error on my part, this episode was previously released last week with the wrong audio. We’re re-releasing today with the correct audio. We appreciate your understanding, and in particular, Jeff Meisner’s understanding in this matter – Chris, Podcast Editor] Alan: Hi, I’m Alan Smithson. And today, we’re speaking with Jeff Meisner, CEO of Sector 5 Digital, about their pioneering work on the Fantastic Journey Anatomy VR Ride, Fork Lift Training Simulator, and the work they did with Bell Helicopters, shortening design times from years to months. All of this and more on the XR for Business Podcast. Jeff, welcom

We live in a three-dimensional world, and according to today’s guest — You Are Here Labs president John Buzzell — our computers are finally starting to catch up with that. John shoots the proverbial breeze with Alan on how spatial computing is going to fundamentally change our relationship with computers, and thus, our relationship with the world. Alan: My name is Alan Smithson, your host for the XR for Business Podcast. Today’s guest is a good friend, John Buzzell from You Are Here Labs and You Are Here Agency. John is an award winning 28 year veteran of the digital industry, creating interactive experiences across augmented reality, virtual reality, video games, mobile apps and numerous high volume websites. To learn more about You Are Here Labs and You Are Here Agency, visit yahagency.com. John, welcome to the show. John: Thanks, Alan. Good to be with you. Alan: And of all the people we’ve had on the show, you have a lot of experience in this field. I mean, you bu

Your various realities — virtual, augmented, X, etc — are often talked about in the realm of vision, since we humans lean on vision as our major sense. But the folks at Bose, like today’s guest Michael Ludden, know that there’s room for sound in XR too. Alan: Welcome to the XR for Business Podcast with your host, Alan Smithson. Today’s guest is Michael Ludden, global head of developer advocacy and principal augmented reality advocate at Bose Technologies. Michael is a technologist, futurist, strategist, product leader, and developer platform expert who loves to operate on the bleeding edge of what’s possible, and is a frequent keynote speaker at events around the world. Michael was previously director of IBM’s Watson’s Developer Lab for a AR and VR, among some other career stops. To learn more about the work he’s doing at Bose, you can visit developer.bose.com. Michael, welcome to the show. Michael: Wow, what an intro. Thanks for having me.

Today’s guest, Lance Anderson of Lance-AR, got tired of seeing so many XR providers only help clients achieve their stated ROI goals, then leaving them to their own devices to scale. Lance helps those companies today, by understanding the need to marry emerging tech with legacy systems, so disruptive tech doesn’t seem so disruptive. Alan: Coming up on the XR for Business Podcast, today we’re speaking with Lance Anderson, founder and CEO of Lance-AR, a consulting and services company for enterprise AR space, focused on helping organizations scale deployment. We’ll be learning about the challenges and learnings from his experience. All that and more on the XR for Business Podcast. Lance, welcome to the show. Lance: Hey, great, thanks for having me on. Alan: My absolute pleasure. It’s very exciting to meet somebody as passionate as you are about bringing augmented reality to the enterprise. But before we start, explain how you got here and what is it you do for customer

Access to the Internet can be spotty in Northern Canada. But heavy industry happens up there all the same, and Bit Space Development’s Daniel Blair wants to bring those workers the same access to XR-driven training and remote expert assistance as anywhere else enjoys. He chats with Alan about how he hopes to bring that about, in the first XR for Business of 2020. Alan: Hey, everyone, it’s Alan Smithson here with the XR for Business Podcast. Today, we’re speaking with Daniel Blair, founder and CEO of a Canadian VR company called Bit Space Development. We’ll be discussing how virtual reality is revolutionizing industrial training and why it’s vitally important to define your key performance indicators to release you and your customers from the Pilot POC Purgatory. All that and more on the XR for Business Podcast. With that, I want to welcome my good friend Dan to the show. Welcome to the show, Dan. Daniel: Hey, thanks for having me. Alan: It’s my absolute pleasure.

Alan puts it best in this episode of XR for Business: Sam Schoonover’s job with Goldenvoice is to create “wow” moments at music festivals like Coachella. Sam talks about the groundwork they’ve laid at Coachella for immersive reality so far, and where he plans to take it going forward. Alan: Coming up next on the XR for Business Podcast, we have Sam Schoon over from Goldenvoice and Coachella, my favorite music festival in the world. We’re going to be talking about augmented reality spaceships, augmented reality portals, bringing video to life in a AR and El Pollo Loco. All that and more coming up next on the XR for Business Podcast. Sam, welcome to the show. Sam: Hi. Thanks for having me. Alan: It’s my absolute pleasure, man. As you know — and as people on the show who know because I’ve mentioned it before — Coachella is one of my absolute favorite music festivals. And having been a deejay for 20 years myself, I’ve been to a few. Coachella is just this magica

Most kids who grew up spending too much time at the video arcade wound up with fewer quarters and a few earfuls from their parents. That’s not the case for Kevin Williams, who turned his arcade addiction into a career as an out-of-home entertainment guru. He drops in to talk about how XR is taking old ideas and breathing new life into them. Alan: Hey, you’re listening to the XR for Business Podcast with your host, Alan Smithson. In this episode coming up is Kevin Williams. He is the out-of-home location-based entertainment expert, and he’s what’s coming up next. We’re going to talk about Disney vision, the 90s, immersive entertainment, dream craft, driving go-karts in augmented reality, Great Wolf Lodge and magical wands. All that and much more coming up on the XR for Business Podcast. Founder of the DNA conference and publisher of the ever-mindblowing Stinger Report and my guest today, Kevin Williams. Thank you so much for joining me on the show. Kevin: Thank you, Alan, a re

Imagine owning the digital real estate surrounding the Taj Mahal. Well, to be real with you, you can’t have all of it – today’s guest, SuperWorld co-founder Hrish Lotlikar, already has a piece. But he’s made it easy for anyone who wants it to buy the rest, and other plots of digital real estate around the world. He also talks about The Rogue Initiative and SingularityNET! Alan: Welcome to the XR for Business Podcast with your host, Alan Smithson. Today’s guest is Hrish Lotlikar from the Rogue Initiative, SuperWorld app, and SingularityNET. Hrish is the co-founder and chief business development officer for the Rogue Initiative, a Los Angeles based entertainment company composed of award winning entertainment industry professionals, including alumni from Amblin Entertainment, Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, Disney, Activision and they are creating new original feature films, television, AAA cinematic interactive VR, and gaming content. He’s also the co-founder of Super

In between your regularly-scheduled XR for Businesses episodes, Alan has a brief update and recap of his recent trip to the Ritossa Family Office Summit in Dubai Hey there, it’s Alan Smithson with the XR for Business Podcast. And today’s episode is a very special recap of a conference that I just spent two days at, called the Ritossa Family Office Summit. This is a gathering of elite family offices, a total of 600 prominent business owners, sheiks, royal families, private investment companies, and international business people, getting together to discuss the future of investing. Now, to put it in perspective, the people that attend this represent about $4.5-trillion in investable wealth. And this conference is the world’s largest and most exclusive gathering of elite family office decision makers. This year’s topic was “East Meets West”, and the theme of Dubai summit will act as a bridge between Middle East families and their European, Asian, US, and Latin Americ

When you’ve been a journalist on the XR technology beat for 20 years, like VentureBeat’s lead writer Dean Takahashi has, you develop a hunch or two about the direction the industry might go. Alan picks Dean’s brain for a few such scoops. Alan: Thank you for joining the XR for Business Podcast with your host, Alan Smithson, today’s guest is the one and only Dean Takahashi, the lead writer for VentureBeat. He’s been a tech journalist for more than 28 years, and he’s covered games for a twenty one of those years. He’s authored two books: Opening the XBox, and The XBox 360 Uncloaked. He organizes the annual GamesBeat and GamesBeat Summit conferences. To learn more, you can visit games beat dot com or venture beat dot com. Dean, welcome to the show, my friend. Dean: Thank you. And thank you for having me. Alan: It’s my absolute pleasure. We had the distinct opportunity to meet at AWE this year for a very short amount of time. I think we rode the esca

As this episode goes live, Alan’s away giving a talk at the XR Intelligence conference in San Francisco. A little while back, he sat down with Event Director Kathryn Bloxham, to get a sense of who will be there, what there is to see, and where the XR market is as 2019 comes to a close. Alan: Hey everyone, it’s Alan here, with the XR for Business Podcast. Today, we’re speaking with Kathryn Bloxham from Reuters Events brand, XR Intelligence, about their amazing business conference, VRX happening in San Francisco, December 12th and 13th. I will be speaking at that conference on the transformation of learning with XR. We will also be discussing the findings of their 2019 XR industry report. All that and more, on the XR for Business Podcast. Welcome to the show, Kathryn. How are you today? Kathryn: Hi, I’m great, thanks. How are you doing? Alan: I’m so amazing. I’m really excited for a number of things. One, your industry report is the quintessential report on

Longtime listeners will remember one of Alan’s favorite AR anecdotes; the Burger King ad that digitally vandalizes a competitor’s ad space. But has anyone stopped to think, does that digital space belong to anyone? Or to someone who might not care for digital ads existing there? Yes, someone has — Dominic Collins from Darabase, who is building an AR digital permissions platform to ensure the AR marketing ecosystem is fair and equitable for everyone. Alan: Hey, everyone. Alan Smithson here, and today we’re speaking with Dominic Collins, CEO and co-founder of Darabase Ltd., a global platform that is managing and monetizing AR permissions on the physical world. All that and more, on the XR for Business Podcast. Dominic, welcome to the show. Dominic: Thank you, Alan. I’m delighted to be here. Alan: We did an event about six months ago — with our law firm in Toronto, Fasken — and we did this kind of “VR and AR through the legal lens” event

It might seem like a small, even simple fix, to attach an AR device to a hardhat, but according to Trimble’s Mixed Reality expert, Jordan Lawver, such a simple fix exponentially expands the capabilities of folks working in heavy industry. He drops by to explain to Alan how that is, and how AR can take things even further as it goes hands-free. Alan: Welcome to the XR for Business Podcast. Today’s show, we interview Jordan Lawver, head of mixed reality at Trimble. They’ve got a number of different solutions for the construction worker that leverage the Microsoft Hololens 2, the XR10, which is their new wonderful hardhat based augmented reality/mixed reality headset. So all that coming up. And more on the XR for Business Podcast. Hey, everyone. My name’s Alan Smithson. Today, we’re speaking with Jordan Lawver. Jordan, welcome to the show, my friend. Jordan: Hey, Alan, good morning. Thanks for having me. Alan: Oh, it’s my absolute pleasure. I’m really e

Used to be the best way to plan a three-dimensional construction project was on a two-dimensional blueprint, or perhaps a wooden model. We live in an era where entire digital twins — models made of light — can be used, but not everyone is. Bentley Systems’ Greg Demchak drops by to explain why that needs to change. Alan: Thank you for joining the XR for Business Podcast with your host Alan Smithson. Today’s guest is Greg Demchak from Bentley Systems. Greg has been designing and driving the development of immersive digital simulation for architecture, engineering, and construction markets for the last 20 years. Educated as an architect, he transitioned to software design after completing a degree in design computation at MIT. He went on to become a senior user experience designer for the Autodesk Revit product, product manager for SYNCHRO 4D software platform — now owned by Bentley Systems — and currently leads the mixed reality team for Bentley Systems. He’s bee

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then a video is worth millions! That’s David Sime’s philosophy, anyway; he’s marrying online video marketing to XR technology, to reach people’s gaze — in a world with increasingly more competition for their attention — with Oncor Reality. Alan: Welcome to the XR for Business Podcast with your host, Alan Smithson. Today’s guest is David Sime, founder and technical director of Oncor Reality. With over 19 years of digital media experience, David delivers promotion and analysis at strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Disciplines include virtual reality, augmented reality, targeted online video, and strategic digital marketing across social media, mobile, pay-per-click, smart TV, and out-of-home mediums. David directs the multi-award winning digital media agency Oncor Video and now Oncor Reality. Based in London and Central Scotland, this multimedia team delivers results based in immersive media solutions across

Imagine being able to learn, hands-on, exactly how to operate a deep-sea submarine — without needing the submarine! That’s the kind of training opportunities VR training platforms like Immerse are able to offer with the technology at their disposal. James Watson and Justin Parry drop in to talk about all the other opportunities the tech presents businesses. Alan: You’re listening to the XR for Business Podcast with your host, Alan Smithson. Today, we have two amazing guests, James Watson and Justin Parry from Immerse. Justin is the co-founder and chief operating officer and leads product strategy for Immerse. As a founder, he designed and led product development of the Immerse platform from scratch. He now oversees the delivery of all technology and VR content across the organization. Justin has 20 years experience creating and growing B2C and B2B products from startups to global organizations. He’s developed and launched online platforms, websites, mobile products across the wo

“You cannot learn empathy on powerpoint!” Wise words from today’s guest, Somewhere Else CEO Christophe Mallet, who comes by the show to discuss how soft skills training — basically, training for human behavior — is now a wide-open industry, thanks to XR technology. Alan: My name is Alan Smithson, your host for the XR for Business Podcast. Today’s guest is Christophe Mallet, co-founder of Somewhere Else. Somewhere Else Solutions is a London based innovation agency specialized in immersive technologies. He’s now exploring how to leverage immersive technology and artificial intelligence to deliver soft skills training that actually delivers behavioral change. The end goal is to make the workplace a better place for everyone. Throughout his careers, he has strived to bring together brilliant minds, makers and businesses to deliver impactful projects and solutions. He’s worked with a variety of global clients, including Adidas, Samsung, Ernst and Young, Save t

Hands-free AR devices like those made by Kognitiv Spark are changing the way we work by helping us all work smarter, not harder. CEO Yan Simard drops in to remind enterprises shy to get started enhancing the workplace with XR technologies will — should they wait too long — be left in the dust. Alan: Welcome to the XR for Business Podcast with your host, Alan Smithson. Today’s guest is Yan Simard, the CEO of Kognitiv Spark. He’s designed and led many innovative business ventures through his own startups. He also has extensive professional experience with companies such as CGI, Zaptap, Vision Coaching, AIS, Incite Wellness, Bell Canada, Industrial Alliance, and more. I’m just going to read this quick quote from Yan. “We believe that mixed and augmented reality, if used right, can not only allow frontline and field workers to stay relevant, but make them more crucial than ever before.” With that, I’d like to welcome Yan and it’s kognitivspark.com.

A lot of XR technologies started from projects in the military sector, including AR. Today’s guest Nick Cherukuri is working to bring what he’s learned from years working in tech for the defense department, and is bringing it all to enterprise — and eventually, consumers — with his line of AR glasses. Alan: Hey, everyone, it’s Alan Smithson here today. We’re speaking with Nick Cherukuri, founder of ThirdEye, about their all-in-one AR glasses hardware and software solution for enterprise in logistics, manufacturing, and engineering and how these tools are revolutionizing how we work. All coming up next on the XR for Business Podcast. Welcome to the show, Nick. Nick: Thanks, Alan. Glad to be on. Alan: I’m really excited. You guys have a really original and awesome looking pair of glasses for the enterprise. Walk us through your X2 glasses and how are people using them? What makes them stand out from the competition? What’s the form factor? Just w

PTC LiveWorx is one of the biggest gatherings of up-and-coming XR tech in the industry. With all sorts of amazing future tech demos, PTC’s Executive VP of AR Products Mike Campbell understands how businesses might want to implement the most far-out features of XR technology right away. But he says there’s plenty AR can do perfectly right now that more industries should take advantage of. Alan: You’re listening to the XR for Business Podcast with your host, Alan Smithson. Today’s episode is with Mike Campbell, executive vice president of Augmented Reality Products at PTC. Mike leads the Vuforia product team, and is responsible for driving the product and technology strategy of PTC’s leading solutions for the development of augmented reality applications. You can learn more about the work they’re doing at ptc.com. Mike, welcome to the show. Mike: Hey, Alan, it’s great to be here. Thanks for having me. Alan: It’s my absolute pleasure. I’ve b