Augmented World Expo 2025: XR Industry Event
Source: venturebeat.com
Augmented World Expo 2025
Augmented World Expo 2025 will host over 6,000 attendees, 400 speakers, and 300 exhibitors from June 10 to June 12 in Long Beach, California. Speakers include Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell, and Oculus/Anduril founder Palmer Luckey.
Ori Inbar, CEO of AWE, believes the XR revolution needs “head-turning content that must be experienced” to reach the mainstream.
The focus has shifted from the “metaverse” to practical mixed reality applications for enterprise and consumer markets like gaming. The industry is considering whether AI will help or hurt XR and the metaverse.
Meta, which acquired Oculus in 2014, has invested billions in XR. Mark Zuckerberg and Palmer Luckey have formed an alliance between Meta and Anduril. Apple, with its Apple Vision Pro launched in February 2024, is a competitor. Apple has slowed development of its next-gen XR headset, while Zuckerberg is focusing on AR/AI glasses. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel is concentrating on augmented reality glasses, with Spectacles now in their fifth generation.
Nolan Bushnell and five of his children will discuss the future of gaming through XR. Brent Bushnell recently launched DreamPark, an XR startup that transforms parks into mixed reality theme parks. Other speakers include Vicki Dobbs Beck, Ziad Asghar, Brian McClendon, Jason Rubin, Hugo Swart, Jacqui Bransky, Chi Xu, Helen Papagiannis, and Tom Furness.
AWE Builders Nexus, a new startup program, will provide resources for founders, developers, designers, product managers, and business leaders. The event will also feature the AWE Gaming Hub.
Exhibiting Companies
Pico, founded in Beijing in 2015 and acquired by ByteDance in 2021, makes standalone Pico XR headsets. In September 2024, it launched the Pico 4 Ultra Enterprise headset. They also offer full-body motion trackers. Leland Hedges, head of enterprise business at Pico, noted the LBE market's growth in China. Pico will present 15 user stories at AWE.
Purnendu Mukherjee, CEO of Convai, demonstrated avatar-based generative AI solutions at the Game Developers Conference. Convai will offer learning and training simulations at AWE. Convai can create high-fidelity avatars and enable non-technical users to create simulations without coding. Convai will announce pricing for its self-serve platform and enterprise subscription.
Ohto Pentikäinen, CEO of Doublepoint, has a technology that uses a smartwatch to detect hand gestures for controlling devices. Doublepoint is showcasing gesture control with Android XR. Xreal uses the technology to control AR interfaces. 150,000 people have downloaded the technology, and there's a developer community of over 2,000 since January 2024,” Pentikäinen said. The company is launching a Doublepoint developer program.