In Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality News
May 22, 2020 – In a few days, Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2020 will take place, but not in its usual form. In light of everything going on in the world right now, and with the continuing coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc on people’s global travel plans (not to mention that the original event venue has been converted into a temporary hospital for COVID-19 patients), AWE has decided to go virtual this year, and the event is being fully hosted online as ‘AWE Online’. The conference will be available via livestream to ticket holders, and there will be several virtual meetups taking place over four days.
For those attending AWE 2020, here’s what you need to know…
Attendees will be provided with a link to set up their own personal online profile for online.awexr.com. This is effectively what will act as the user portal through which people can view livestreams of talks, visit virtual exhibitor booths, and network with thousands of other attendees. As a result, the portal doubles up almost as a ‘digital business card’ for the event, where users can update their profile info, almost like an AWE-focused social media page.
Speaking about the upcoming conference in an AWE Online Orientation Webinar, AWE Co-Founder, Ori Inbar, commented: “It’s going to be a very busy week, and I personally recommend to think about it as if you’re actually going to the AWE event for the whole week.” He added, “Try to clear your calendar as much as you can, and be as immersed as you can in this event.”
Inbar will be the first of many speakers at the virtual event, as he will be holding the keynote AWE 2020 Welcome Address to kick things off. Other presentations at the event will be held by speakers from companies including Qualcomm, Niantic, Unity Technologies, Lenovo, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros Entertainment, Marvel Studios, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Samsung, and many more.
As well as the standard presentations and talks, all of which will be covered via livestream and which ticket holders will have an option of re-watching for a full year via the online platform, there will also be events held in virtual reality. These include a happy hour in AltspaceVR, a virtual Art Symposium, and a meet up in Mozilla Hubs, along with a few more (although, sadly for attendees on Pacific Time, you’ll have to be up at 5:00am to be a part of these, according to the AWE VR Side Events schedule listings at the time of this article’s publication).
Of course, networking is always a major part of these events, and people come from all over the world to meet under one roof, with a common goal of sharing their innovations and making lasting connections. Understandably, this is not going to be the case at AWE Online this year and people won’t be able to meet physically, however, ticket holders will be able to schedule meetings and share discussions with other attendees if they want, making the networking experience a truly virtual one.
Unfortunately, visitors won’t be able to fully try out all the latest in AR and VR technology if they don’t have access to some level of gadetry in their own home. However, for those that do, they will be able to virtually visit exhibitor booths for demonstrations and virtual technology try-outs. This will be interesting to see. Obviously it won’t quite be the same as the real thing first-hand, which is something we at Auganix have been looking forward to ever since last year’s AWE event. Nonetheless, we’re sure that if there is any industry event that can pull off an entirely virtual four day conference, it will be the one which is literally covering the extended reality market as a whole.
AWE Online will start on Tuesday May 26 at 8:00 Pacific Time, and finishes in the afternoon on Friday May 29, giving attendees four days of presentations, talks, exhibits, and networking opportunities. Ticket prices are USD $199 for a four day online access pass, and can be purchased here.
We’ll see you there!
To schedule a meeting with Auganix’ Managing Editor, Sam Sprigg, you can send a request through the online.awexr.com portal to Sam’s profile here.
Image credit: AWE
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About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.