Article and photos by Marcus Siu

Founder and Executive Producer, Ori Inbar at AWE2017. Photo by Marcus Siu.

SANTA CLARA, JUNE 2, 2017 – When the first Augmented World Expo happened in 2010, founder and CEO of AWE, Ori Inbar predicted that in ten years ”everyone will be using AR with experience reality in a more meaningful way”. Ten years would make it the year, 2020.

As we get closer to 2020 and look at how far AWE has gone as the 8th annual AWE comes to an end yesterday, we may have to call Inbar a visionary. He called the shot, and with another two years left, he may be right. Even Digi-Capital just published an article stating that mobile AR will top a billion users and be a $60 billion dollar industry by 2021, so there is conclusive evidence that others will agree with him.

AWE is the largest AR+VR conference and expo in the world and currently has 10,000 attendees. In addition to conferences in the U.S., they also make their presence in Asia and Europe. This year, they have utilized much more space compared to previous years, filling up the 100,000 square feet expo floor at the Santa Clara Convention Center. In addition, as well as seeing the attendance numbers drastically increasing exponentially, AWE will be promoting their conferences in even more countries around the world.

For this years’ show, there were 5000 professionals from startups, corporations and investors. It was a truly international affair, as many professionals came from everywhere around the globe. There were also over 300 speakers, and well over 200 exhibitors.

Mixed Reality and 3D experiences from Microsoft at the AWE Playground. Photo by Marcus Siu.

Part of that is due to the fact that many Fortune 500 companies realized that AR+VR is the latest platform of tomorrow. Many major mainstream companies include Walmart, Lowe’s, NASA, Shazam, Technicolor, Audi and Bosch, in which many are making their very first appearance at AWE.

Many of the high profile technology companies are also making their mark in a flashier way, such as Microsoft and Google, as well as the usual AR & VR startup companies, such as ODG, DAQRI, Kopin, Meta and Wikitude. Inbar points out that the media is focusing more on the Fortune 1000 companies becoming the fastest sector of this technology, but that they should really focus on the upstarts that are going to make a mark on the industry.

ODG continues to dazzle the AWE attendees with its demos for the R-8 and R-9 smart glasses. Photo by Marcus Siu.

Meta’s demo had the longest lines on the floor and ultimately took an Auggie Award for Best in Show AR. Photo by Marcus Siu.

The AWE Playground was a nice new addition this year. It featured many immersive and interactive demos. Though I didn’t have time to visit each demo, I did get a chance to try out a few, including PuttView’s AR Golf Practice, Epson + DJI + Edgybees new drone based AR gaming platform, and a group VR experience with Globacore’s Free Roam VR “The Yolodeck” which I absolutely loved. I was also impressed with Quantum Capture’s Virtual Humans who can 3D scan a real person, such as Ori Inbar or Guillermo Del Toro, and make him as real as can be in the VR world.

Globacore’s Free Roam VR “The Yolodeck” at the VR Playground. Photo by Marcus Siu.

Ori Inbar at the Auggie Awards at AWE2017. Photo by Marcus Siu.