XR for Business

Your company has access to AR technology. Great! …now what? Have you thought about how to effectively implement that technology to solve a problem? Or are you just planning to develop a neat digital gizmo, release it to the world, and hope folks will use it? Zappar CEO Caspar Thykier joins Alan to discuss his personal Three Cs for Success in AR, and how to think critically when developing AR solutions. Alan: Today’s guest is Caspar Thykier, CEO of Zappar. Caspar has an extensive background in advertising and marketing, and has been lucky enough to work with some of the most successful companies with the biggest blue chip brands, surrounded by the best people. Now he’s spending all of his time in the new world of spatial storytelling — or augmented reality, as some call it. He’s helped so many companies get to market, but the one that he’s working on now that is at the forefront of all this technology is Zappar. Zappar is an augmented reality platform, and a creative studio

The old ways of advertising in legacy media just won’t work in an XR environment, so Admix CEO Samuel Huber has tried to figure out more effective ways to peddle products in a virtual realm. Today he explores his XR marketing ethos, which focuses on the user first. Alan: Today’s guest is Samuel Huber, founder and CEO of Admix, the first ad tech platform for mixed reality, giving XR developers the best tools to monetize their content.  Admix is a platform that allows advertisers to place non-intrusive ads into VR and AR and gaming content. Their platform allows companies to filter hundreds of advertisers via their programmatic platform, and start generating revenue within minutes. Previous to Admixed, Sam was part of the e-commerce platform Kout.io, social gambling app Betify and the first binary trading game on the app store, Rogue Trader. Admix is a venture-backed startup, having raised $2.4-million. You can learn more about Samuel and Admix by visiting: https://admix.in/ Sam, welc

AR dragons, psychedelic displays at Coachella, and other digital gizmos made possible with XR technologies are fun and all, but Mark Sage, founder of AREA, is on the more pragmatic side of the table; he loves it when XR technologies can solve real-world problems for businesses. Mark and Alan sit down to discuss how to do that, and how that creates a better ecosystem for enterprise XR to thrive. Alan: Today’s guest is Mark Sage. Mark is a product owner, creator, marketer, innovator, business development professional, evangelist, spokesperson, strategist, program and project manager, and mentor across a range of AR, mobile, B2B and B2C technologies and products in an international context. Mark is currently the executive director of AREA: Augmented Reality in Enterprise Alliance; the only global, membership-funded, non-profit alliance dedicated to helping accelerate the adoption of enterprise augmented reality, by supporting the growth of a comprehensive ecosystem. AREA members include Exxon Mobile

6D.ai CEO Matt Miesnieks has been in the AR game since the beginning, and he says the best in the industry have always known the best, native use cases for the technology; the problem was for the technology to catch up to the use cases. Listen as Matt and Alan discuss how the tech and the vision are starting to line up today, with the help of groundbreaking cloud mapping technology. Alan: Today’s guest is Matt Miesnieks, the CEO at 6D.ai. Matt is renowned as one of the world’s AR industry leaders, and through his influential blog posts and persona around the world. He’s also the co-founder and CEO of 6D.ai, the leading AR cloud platform, which is his third AR startup. He also helped form Super Ventures, which is a platform and V.C. firm investing in AR solutions. He’s built AR system prototypes for Samsung, and had long executive and technical careers in mobile software infrastructure before jumping into AR back in 2009. In his career, he’s been the director of product dev

Businesses that were late adopters of the World Wide Web and the mobile realm are the butt of obsolescence-themed jokes today. Extended Reality evangelist Rori DuBoff from Accenture joins us to advise the businesses of today how not to miss the same boat, and shares strategies on staying ahead of the curve. Alan: Today’s guest is Rori DuBoff, Managing Director and Head of Content Innovation and Strategy for Extended Reality — that’s VR, AR and MR — at Accenture Interactive. Rori is a strategic and innovations leader with over 20 years experience working in digital marketing, integrated media, creative brand advertising, and emerging technologies. As a virtual, augmented, and mixed reality evangelist, Rori advises companies on strategy and marketing opportunities for brand and business transformation. Prior to Accenture, Rori was Global Head of Digital Strategy and executive vice president at Havas Media Group, where she led and managed strategic planning worldwide, with a fo

Elizabeth Baron drove innovation forward at the Ford Motor Company since the ’90s, advancing XR technologies in the automotive industry. Now, Elizabeth joins our host Alan as she discusses her new venture, Immersionary Enterprises, as well as her pioneering work at Ford. Alan: Today’s guest is Elizabeth Baron. Elizabeth has been a true pioneer of virtual and augmented reality as the global lead for immersive realities, bringing together multiple disciplines throughout Ford Motor Company. developing multiple immersive realities using VR, AR, and MR to provide information in context to the design studio, multiple engineering teams, UX developers, and computer-aided engineering analysis and many more. Elizabeth has seen dramatic changes, from huge room-sized, multi-million dollar CAVE systems, to haptic seats, to car cockpits made out of wood. From the promise of virtual reality to it becoming real, Elizabeth has been an industry leader always pushing the limits of technology. She has just

Training employees can be like pulling teeth – both for the employees and management. But thanks to XR technologies, Jonathan Moss has had success in finding new, innovative ways to get the team engaged in training at Sprint. Moss chats with Alan, discussing how XR can be used to invigorate a corporate team, save a company millions, and how it can all be done in-house with a moderate investment. Alan: Our guest today is Jonathan Moss head of learning, technology, and sales enablement and XR strategy at Sprint. Jonathan and his team proposed to unleash everyone’s potential by evolving the experience and growing Sprint’s consumer sales organization, through learning and sales enablement. Concurrently, they are taking on the industry through utilization of technology to disrupt and design learning that is different from what we’ve ever experienced to date. They are on a mission to eliminate dull and ineffective training. Jonathan is a lifetime learner that continues to chal

You’ve heard of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”; get ready for “XR Moguls in an Uber at AWE.” Alan holds a quick, guerilla-style backseat interview with Kris Kolo, Global Executive Director of the VR/AR Association. They discuss the awesome things they saw at the expo – like the VR pool party – and the VRARA’s upcoming Enterprise Summit at LiveWorx Boston on June 10.

The future is here, and it looks like…a hipster Colonel Sanders? Strange as it sounds, turning the antebellum-esque brand icon into a Millennial-friendly digital influencer is just one way that brands around the world are turning to XR to reach their audiences in inventive new ways. Here to delve deeper into the ins-and-outs of marketing in XR is futurist Cathy Hackl, co-author of the brand-new book, Marketing New Realities. From Coachella, to virtual try-ons, and yes, even KFC’s “playboy chicken impresario,” Cathy explains how XR technologies will change the way we interact with our customers. Alan: Today’s guest is Cathy Hackl. Cathy is a futurist, speaker, and amazing author. Cathy is an Emmy-nominated communicator-turned-augmented-and-virtual-reality-global-speaker, producer and, author. Cathy has worked with You Are Here Labs, HTC VIVE, as a virtual reality evangelist during the launch of their latest headset, the VIVE Pro, and during the company’s partnershi

The latest generation of XR technologies introduces radical new capabilities, from multi-user tracking in massive spaces, to 6DOF standalone headsets, to the ability to track hands, eyes, and lips. HTC’s Alvin Wang Graylin discusses what this means for everything from automotive design to helping children learn about the universe. Alvin Wang Graylin is an industry leader, evangelist and passionate driver of XR technologies, particularly virtual reality. As the China President at HTC, he leads all aspects of the company’s VR and smartphone business in the region. Alan: Today’s guest is an industry leader, evangelist and passionate driver of XR technologies, and particular virtual reality, Mr. Alvin Wang-Graylin. Mr. Graylin is the China President at HTC, leading all aspects of the Vive/VR (VIVE.com) and the Smartphone businesses in the region. For those of you not familiar with HTC Vive, VIVE is a first-of-its-kind virtual reality platform, built and optimized for room-scale VR and

How will the convergence of 5G and AR and artificial intelligence lead to the creation of experiences that no one’s ever imagined? Join Forbes columnist and author Charlie Fink to find out! Alan: Hello everybody. Today’s guest is one of my good friends and someone I consider a mentor. XR consultant, columnist, speaker, and author, Mr. Charlie Fink. Charlie Fink is a Forbes columnist and an author of two AR-enabled books – Charlie Fink’s Metaverse: A Guide to VR and AR, and Convergence: How the World Will Be Painted with Data. Charlie is a former Disney, AOL, and AG Interactive executive, famous for coming up with the idea that turned into The Lion King. Charlie was EVP and COO of VR Pioneer Virtual World Entertainment. He was an SVP of AOL Studios and president of the American Greetings Interactive. Charlie founded and exited to venture-backed startups and has produced over 30 award-winning Broadway musicals. Charlie is leading the way in XR for business by covering and reporting on

We are about to see the largest transformation in human history. Artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, quantum computing, 5G, blockchain and virtual, augmented & mixed Reality are all maturing at the exact same time. My name is Alan Smithson, and I am going to be your host for the XR for Business podcast where I will interview industry leaders who are either making or using immersive virtual, augmented and mixed reality solutions for business. From marketing and sales to logistics and training to design and remote collaboration, you will learn how the world’s largest organizations are implementing an XR For Business strategy and why you should too. We are about to see the largest transformation in human history. Artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, quantum computing, 5G, blockchain and virtual, augmented & mixed Reality are all maturing at the exact same time. Anyone of these technologies on their own would be revolutionary but used together, we begin racing tow