The latest edition of the TV of Tomorrow Show New York, in a new location at Town Stages in TriBeCa, delivered a day’s worth of engaging discussion and demos of advanced TV and OTT analytics and programmatic ad solutions on Wednesday, December 4, 2019. I produced and moderated the ‘AI and ML Take Over TV: Monetizing Every Pixel’ panel, which featured a powerhouse of experts in visual content automation and AI, including Richard Collins, CEO of Tellyo; Randa Minkarah, COO and co-founder of Transform Inc.; Phil Zepeda, vice president, product & marketing at Vilynx, and Thomas Jelonek, CEO of envision AI.

You can listen to the full session at: https://lnkd.in/e9hd-aG

Chris Pfaff, Richard Collins, Randa Minkarah, Phil Zepeda, and Thomas Jelonek, after the ‘AI and ML Take Over TV’ panel, December 4, 2019

Richard Collins discusses Tellyo’s multichannel automation features

Phil Zepeda discusses Vilynx’s content sentiment detection features

Randa Minkarah discusses Transform’s curation features

Thomas Jelonek discusses envision AI’s intelligent tagging features

Simon Applebaum (back to camera) asks a question of Richard Collins, from Tellyo, at the ‘AI and ML Take Over TV’ panel

Ravi Peravali, from event sponsor Tavant, with TV of Tomorrow Show founder and CEO, Tracy Swedlow

The 2nd Annual VR/AR Global Summit at the Parq Vancouver, from November 1-2, 2019, featured some of the leading brands in the broader XR space, including Apple, Lenovo, Viacom, Niantic, and Microsoft, among others. A diverse array of use cases and new solutions for VR training were demonstrated throughout the event. The event, produced by the VR/AR Association, showcased a solid representation from local Vancouver firms, validating Vancouver’s status as the leading visual effects and animation cluster in the world, a growing presence in the broader XR arena.

I produced and moderated a packed house for the ‘Expert Storytelling in XR’ panel on Day 2 of the event, November 2nd, featuring Srinivas Krishna, founder/CEO, Geogram; Michael Owen, CEO, MediaCombo, and Amy Lou Abernethy, President, Creative Director, and Chief Learning Strategist at AMP Creative. Srinivas showed off his latest technology for virtual event production and promotion; Michael showed off his work in AR museum curation, and Amy Lou showed off AMP Creative’s work in VR empathy training.

Michael Owens, Srinivas Krishna, Amy Lou Abernethy, and Chris Pfaff, after the ‘Expert Storytelling in XR’ panel, November 2, 2019

Chris Pfaff, Srinivas Krishna, Michael Owen, and Amy Lou Abernethy, at the opening reception for the VR/AR Global Summit, October 31, 2019

Kris Kolo, executive director of VRARA, Chris Pfaff, and Michael Owen, at the opening reception for the VR/AR Global Summit, October 31, 2019

Chris Pfaff, Alan Smithson, and Michael Owen, at the opening reception for the VR/AR Global Summit, October 31, 2019

Alan Smithson discusses MetaVRse’s latest ed-tech work, while Sophia Loren looks on

Galit Ariel and Chris Pfaff, after Galit’s presentation, November 1, 2019

Group shot of attendees at the Vancouver Economic Commission’s VIP Dinner, at the Hawksworth Restaurant, November 1, 2019

The Augmented World Expo (AWE) Expo Europe conference, held at the MOC Exhibition Center in Munich on October 17-18, 2019 was an intense assemblage of leading enterprise solutions experts from some of Europe’s most prominent industrial companies, from Deutsche Telekom to Alstom and Siemens. A strong showing from the Finnish VR/AR scene – including Varjo, Glue, Dispelix, and Immersal – and a diverse showing of German industrial XR solutions proved that Northern Europe is well-positioned to lead innovation in the XR space in the new decade.

I chaired Day 2 of the Enterprise Track, on Friday, October 18th, and had an incredibly strong line-up of presenters. All but one showed up; Citrix’s Christian Reilly (who was slated to lead off the afternoon sessions with a talk entitled ‘Future of Work: The Next Technological Revolution’) was a no-show, but I managed to conduct a one-on-one stand-up chat with one of his competitors – Matt Copping, director of AR/VR at VMware. Dirk Hartmann, from Siemens, did not show, but his colleague, Theodoros Papadopoulos, presented solo. Daniel Seidl, from Innoactive, showed a QR code on his presentation, and got more than 20 leads in one minute. Megan Lubaszka, from Gensler, had a packed house, as did Nestle’s Richard Hess, and the last presentation of day, from heavyweight Alstom, saw presenter Aurelie Perruchon swamped with audience members pitching her after the track’s sessions ended.

Presenters included:

• Panagiotis-Alexandros Bokaris, L’Oreal: Video-projected Augmented Reality in the Beauty Industry
• Jana Gerl, Vuframe GmbH, Virtual & Augmented Business: How to Discover and Leverage Immersive Data You Already Onw
• Richard Hess, Nestle, Scaling XR at Nestle
• Daniel Seidl, Innovative: Challenges and Best Practices in Adopting and Scaling VR Training in Enterprise
• Barbara Schiavi, VINCI Construction France: Use Case: Construction Use Cases for AR and VR
• Megan Lubaszka, Gensler: AR, VR, AI and the Future of Spatial Computing
• Mattias Johansson, Tetra Pak: Automation Today and in Tetra Pak’s Factory of the Future
• Theodoros Papadopoulos, Siemens AG: Design Concept in VR – Democratizing Simulation World
• Gary Smith, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water: MR in Industry – Risk Reduction or Risk Generation
• Eletheria Kouri, ABI Research: An Accurate ROI Story: Identifying Impactful Variables in AR/VR Implementations
• Aurelie Perruchon, Alstom: AR/VR Use Cassetin Alstom

#AWE2019 #AugmentedReality #VirtualReality  www.awexr.com/eu-2019/www.awexr.com

Chris Pfaff, chairing the Enterprise Track on Day 2 of the Augmented World Expo (AWE) Europe, in Munich, October 18, 2019

Chris Pfaff, chair of Day 2 of the Enterprise Track, at the standee for Augmented World Expo (AWE) Europe, in Munich, October 18, 2019

Richard Hess, from Nestle, discusses XR use cases for the brand

Megan Lubaszka, from Gensler, discusses the future of spatial computing

Daniel Seidl, from Innoactive, discusses VR training for the enterprise

Chris Pfaff and Panagiotis-Alexandros Bokaris, from L’Oreal, at the start of Day 2 of the AWE Europe Enterprise Track, October 18, 2019

Chris Pfaff and Philip Wogart, executive director, DACH, at the VR/AR Association (VRARA), at a VRARA dinner on October 17, 2019

Chris Pfaff and Wade Tinney, chief product officer of Patched Reality, on Day 2 of AWE Europe, October 18, 2019

Chris Pfaff, Brian Kane, from Magic Leap, and Leif Arne Petersen, CEO/founder of HOLOGATE, at the Hologate headquarters, October 18, 2019

The winners of the AWE Europe Awards, onstage at the closing awards ceremony, October 18, 2019

The Palo Alto Club, a co-working space created by Estonian angel fund Superangel, and led by Estopreneur Rain Rannu, lies in the heart of Telliskivi, the hip innovation hub in Tallinn. The retro-fitted space has become a popular site for industry meet-ups and workshops. Together with Kalev Kaarna, from Superangel, I produced and led a workshop, ‘Producing Killer Apps: What You Need to Know Before Going Mobile,’ at Palo Alto Club on Wednesday, October 16, 2019.

The audience of 20 Estopreneurs was taken through exercises on building and re-building their app-based companies, and a lengthy discussion session followed, with solid back-and-forth on what worked and did not work for various founders.

Thanks to Kalev, Rain, and the Palo Alto Club crew, as well as the incredibly energized audience.

See the original event overview, and photos, below.

Set-up for ‘Producing Killer Apps’ workshop at Palo Alto Club in Tallinn

Kalev Kaarna describes the workshop structure

Participants in the workshop describe their challenges in building and re-building app-based companies at the ‘Producing Killer Apps’ workshop

Chris Pfaff, Kalev Kaarna, and Harri Tallinn, after the ‘Producing Killer Apps’ workshop at the Palo Alto Club

Chris Pfaff and Mikk Orglaan, after the ‘Producing Killer Apps’ workshop

Producing Killer Apps: What You Need to Know Before Going Mobile

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

1:00-3:00 pm

Palo Alto Club, Tallinn

Overview:

The global app market now includes more than 2.7 billion smartphone users and 1.35 billion tablet users. Mobile apps will generate $189 billion in revenue by 2020. There are 2.2 million apps available in the Apple App Sore and 2.8 million apps on the Google Play Store. Approximately 57% of all digital media usage comes rom mobile apps.

It is now time to rethink what an app is. Entire businesses (e.g., Uber, Bolt, Transferwise, AirBNB) are built around apps. Utilities tied to major hardware products (e.g., exercise apps paired to devices) are apps.

What are the steps to developing and marketing a killer app? With more complexity on the device layer, and a more sophisticated user base, there are more key elements to consider when going to market, including: how to measure app usage; how to engage users; how to upgrade the app, and how to gain attention within the app stores.

In this session, start-ups will learn from each other and from session leaders on how to create strategies and consider new ways of building and sustaining app-based businesses.

As co-chair of the VR AR Association (http://www.thevrara.com), or VRARA Storytelling Committee, I had the opportunity to moderate a well-attended webinar on ‘VR & AR in Storytelling’ on Thursday, July 18, 2019, from 2:00-3:00 pm EST.

The session featured the following presenters:

Maarten van der Lee, Tiledmedia

Jeff Olm, Perfect Pictures

Tim Martin, FS Studio

Cortney Harding, Friends with Holograms

David Rodriguez, Zanni

Srinivas Krishna, Geogram

Michael Owen, MediaCombo

The webinar, part of the VRARA industry education series, was sponsored by the sponsored by the Storytelling Committee of VRARA.

You can access the full event recording at: https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/14711/362982?

The TV of Tomorrow Show in San Francisco, held at the Golden Gate Club in the Presidio, June 12-13, 2019, was a solid event. I moderated a panel – ‘AI and ML in the TV Industry: Mining Data in Every Corner’ – that brought together an incredibly rich array of perspectives on AI from five different solutions providers, including Randa Minkarah, COO and co-founder, Transform Inc.; Juan Carlos Riveiro, CEO, Vilynx; Kevin Gou, CEO, Hive; Aman Sareen, CEO, ZypMedia, and Arun Prakash, CFO, Cerebri AI.

The discussion ran from use cases of AI and ML in the OTT world as it reflects customer journey; content curation; content distribution, and programmatic advertising.

Chris Pfaff leads discussion on the ‘AI and ML in the TV Industry’ panel

Aman Sareen, from ZypMedia, discusses his approach to AI-powered local-first programmatic advertising

Kevin Gou discusses Hive Data, and how to build machine learning models 

Chris Pfaff, Aman Sareen, Randa Minkarah, J.C. Riveiro, Arun Prakash, and Kevin Gou, after the ‘AI and ML in the TV Industry’ panel

The past five years have seen groundbreaking production of theatre and opera that have integrated augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) – or, as the industry term refers to all types of immersive technology, XR – to develop new kinds of live and virtual experiences. The Welsh National Opera, in 2017, combined ‘The Magic Flute’ and ‘Madam Butterfly’ for ‘Magic Butterfly,’ an experience that used Google Daydream VR to demystify opera for audiences, in a new venue. Commonwealth Shakespeare Company produced ‘Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit’ in the past year, working with Google’s AR/VR Lens team to create five seven-minute acts in VR.

Yet, some of the boldest work in XR for theatre is not surprisingly being produced in New York. An event produced by Chris Pfaff, and sponsored by the VR AR Association New York Chapter and Verizon’s 5G Lab, on Wednesday, November 6, 2019 featured some of the leading practitioners of XR in the theatre world who discussed their work and and their platform and technology choices, as well as how to shape narratives for interactive audiences in real-time experiences. Demonstrations of their work, as well as a guest appearance from award-winning XR production firm Felix & Paul Studios, were held prior to and after the main event, which was held in Verizon’s 5G Lab at the Alley powered by Verizon.

The entire event can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQQhDrp0vtQ&t=31s

Brandon Powers, producer/choreographer of ‘Frankenstein AI,’ a piece that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018, and producer/choregrapher of ‘Queerskins,’ discussed how he worked with the Intel Studios volumetric studio to use his choreographic and immersive theater expertise to move ‘visitors’ through the virtual space. ‘Frankenstein AI,’ which expressed our AI inhabiting a human body to communicate with the audience, and ‘Queerskins’ demonstrate ways for theatre producers to create new work with volumetric capture. In ‘Frankenstein AI,’ the human dancer performed choreography, which was created using a new choreographic notation that Brandon invented. The choreography was manipulated by an AI in real-time based on how the audience responded to the AI’s prompted questions, prompting the dancer to alter her performance for a unique live experience. Brandon is also developing a new episode in the VR experience ‘Queerskins,’ which involves an interactive choreographed duet utilizing volumetric capture which will give a unique experience for each user.

Kiira Benzing, from Double Eye Studios, the renowned producer of ‘Loveseat,’ a VR theatre piece that was featured at the 2019 Venice Biennale, in which two lonely, ordinary people are drawn into a reality show competition to win the love of a Perfect Partner (who looks an awful lot like an empty chair). Part-story, part-interaction between virtual and real worlds; the performers intersect realities in this comedy. Performed simultaneously to virtual and real world audiences. Kiira also discussed her work on ‘Loveseat’ and her more recent work on ‘Runnin,’ which was shot at Intel Studios in Los Angeles. ‘Runnin’ is currently available through the Samsung Gear app through Oculus Quest. Her work in designing virtual worlds has led her to ask ‘what is a stage?’ and ‘what is an audience?’ when audience members are represented by virtual beings and avatars.

Maciej Wisniewski, 99 Center Opera founder, and producer and composer of ‘Edelweiss VR, Act 1,’ or EVR1, the first original VR opera experience, discussed and demonstrated his work in creating a music-driven narrative that enables viewers to unlock hidden aspects of the story. Maciej’s work includes blockchain for encrypted messages that will be retrieved by the players of the EVR1 game, to unlock content. The story of EVR1 takes viewers through an interactive VR story in five acts, based on a true World War II experience of his great-aunt escaping a prison in Poland and becoming a Resistance fighter. Maciej’s work involves breathing light and texture into scenes based on music.

David Rodriguez, founder of Zanni, the first Audience Experience Design Studio, demonstrated the firm’s XR tools, Ovees™ and Zanni™ AXD, for both immersive audiences and theatre producers. David’s work with the Metropolitan Opera led him to consider how opera, and theatre, could evolve through VR and AR tools for both audience participation and narrative extensions, as well as how to enable immersive workflows for theatre/opera producers. Ovees is an XR take on stereoscopic opera glasses – and Zanni AXD – a mixed reality design tool that creates space to view stage production elements, reducing design process time and enhancing stage experience planning for design teams. Zanni is a new company, and the event marked the public debut of Zanni.

The panel discussion delved into how traditional theatre producers, directors, lighting designers, choreographers, and actors themselves are moving to expand the medium through immersive technologies. The group discussion yielded the overarching understanding of theatre being gamified and moved into a new genre altogether. The panelists discussed how technologies are rapidly evolving to meet demands for creative decisions. Kiira Benzing discussed how difficult it was to mount ‘Love Seat’ in Venice, with a massive point cloud that could, at any time, crash. The shared experience of theatre, in a live setting, pushes the boundaries of technical production for real-time communal energy.

Chris Pfaff welcomes the audience at ‘XR in Theatre: Immersing New Audiences’ at the Verizon 5G Lab, 11.06.19

Chris Pfaff, Mikael Chagnon, from Felix & Paul Studios, and Brandon Powers

Maciej Wisniewski (foreground) and Kris Ramanathan (rear) showcase their EVR1 musical interactive VR piece

Brandon Powers discusses his immersive choreographic work on ‘Queerskins’ and ‘Frankenstein AI’

Kiira Benzing discusses ‘Runnin’ and ‘Love Seat,’ her interactive VR theatre pieces, and her work with Intel Studios

Maciej Wisniewski, from 99 Cent Opera, discusses his use of blockchain to unlock content in the interactive VR musical narrative

David Rodriguez, from Zanni, discusses his use of immersive tools for theatre and opera

The Q&A session for ‘XR in Theatre: Immersing New Audiences’ 

The 100+ audience at ‘XR in Theatre: Immersing Audiences,’ at the Verizon 5G Lab in New York, 11.06.19

David Rodriguez; Brandon Powers; Chris Pfaff; Kiira Benzing, and Maciej Wisniewski, after the ‘XR in Theatre’ panel

VR/AR Association New York chapter members Chris Pfaff, Cindy Mallory, Michael Owen, and chapter president Gordon Meyer

Maciej Wisniewski, Linda Aro, and Kris Ramanathan before the ‘XR in Theatre: Immersing New Audiences’ event

Kiira Benzing, Chris Pfaff, David Rodriguez, and Brandon Powers before the ‘XR in Theatre: Immersing New Audiences’ event

VR/AR Association New York chapter member Chris Pfaff, chapter president Gordon Meyer, and member Gordon Yee before the event

At Arctic 15 in Helsinki, I conducted a fireside chat on the ethics of AI with Pia Erkenheimo, founder and chief orchestrator of iloom.io (http://www.iloom.io), on Thursday, June 6th, from 1:20-1:45 pm on theAccenture AI Track at Arctic 15, at the Cable Factory (Kaapelitehdas, Tallberginkatu 1) in Helsinki.

iloom.io uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to analyze authentic text and language that employees and customers use to deliver narrative understanding beyond words. In addition to her role with iloom.io, Pia is also chairman of Solved – the clean tech company; serves on various company boards, is an AI researcher at the Aalto School of Science and Technology, and serves as an innovation expert and evaluator for the European Commission.

The conversation discussed the recent geopolitical issues with social media and targeted messaging and advertising, and how AI tools can spot and manage manipulation of public conversations. Pia’s work on the venture and non-government agency (NGO) sides lent great credence to the overall topic, and she hinted at further coming work on her behalf to help stem the tide of AI run amok in the public sphere.

Chris Pfaff and Pia Erkenheimo discuss the ethics of AI at Arctic 15 on June 6, 2019 at the Cable Factory, Helsinki

Chris Pfaff and Pia Erkenheimo discuss conversational topics prior to their fireside chat on the ethics of AI at Arctic15, on June 6, 2019

Chris Pfaff and Pia Erkenheimo enjoy radiant sunshine outside the Cable Factory in Helsinki, prior to their fireside chat on the ethics of AI at Arctic15, June 6, 2019

For the 3rd straight year, the New Jersey Tech Council (NJTC) has held a day-long forum on various technology topics at Bell Works in Holmdel. This year’s Future Forum, on May 7th, featured a panel, ‘AI: The Challenges Ahead,’ in which I participated, with moderator Steve LeVine, from Axios, and featuring K.P. (Suba) Subbalakshmi, from Stevens Institute for Artificial Intelligence; Anastassia Loukina, from Educational Testing Service, and Brian McLaughlin, from Rutgers University. It was great to discuss AI topics with academics, since I have worked with several researchers from European universities in the AI field. This was one of those sessions that could have gone on for much longer, and it was great to finally meet Steve LeVine in person. It was also great to see how much progress has been made on Bell Works, which has grown immeasurably in the past two years. The event concluded with a reception and award ceremony on the Bell Works palazzo, complete with aerialists and characters from ‘Game of Thrones’ (the Night King was quite evident). The old Bell Labs space that I knew so well from the late 1990s has become a thriving hub for innovation and commerce – a minor miracle considering its overwhelming size.

Steve LeVine, from Axios; Suba Subbalakshmi from Stevens Institute for Artificial Intelligence; Chris Pfaff; Anastasia Loukina, from Educational Testing Service, and Brian McLaughlin, from Rutgers University, on the ‘AI: The Challenges Ahead’ panel at the NJTC Future Forum

(from left to right) Steve Socolof, from Tech Council Ventures speaks with attendee; Sid Ahuja, from Yorktel, and Chris White, from Nokia Bell Labs, before Chris White’s keynote presentation at the NJTC Future Forum

Chris Pfaff, Sid Ahuja, and Steve Socolof, after the event: the old Lucent New Ventures Group gang has a reunion

Sanjay Macwan (with microphone), from Vonage, speaks on the AI Perspectives panel, with Kurt Bettenhausen, from Siemens; Merwan Mereby, from Panasonic, Dan Tinkoff, from McKinsey, and Ibrahim Mohamed, from Google

Chris Pfaff and Sanjay Macwan, at the NJTC Future Forum reception

Chris Pfaff encounters the Night King at the NJTC Future Forum reception

The stilt lady at the NJTC Future Forum reception: I have always looked up to her; she has always looked down on me

The old transistor-inspired water tower at the entrance to Bell Works, Holmdel, NJ

Thanks to the inimitable Ben Weintraub, from Merit Software, I produced events on VR and AR producing at Temple Emanu-el and the Wharton Club in New York in December, 2018, and March, 2019, respectively. Both sessions were sponsored by the VR/AR Association’s New York chapter, of which I am an advisor, and current co-chair of the Storytelling Committee.

Michael Owen, CEO of MediaCombo, and Dex Smither, director of Verizon envrmnt, presented at Temple Emanu-el on December 16, 2018, and joined me again, along with Cortney Harding, CEO of Friends with Hologram, at Wharton Club New York, on March 26, 2019. The events, ‘Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality: Producing the Future,’ discussed various use cases regarding immersive experiences for brands, public institutions, and for the emerging 5G ecosystem, which Dex Smither explained flawlessly.

Many thanks to Richard Abeeku Mills-Robertson, from Greenberg Traurig, for hosting the Wharton Club New York event.

Ben Weintraub (seated) gets virtualized while (left to right) Chris Pfaff, Dex Yee, Michael Owen, and Dex Smither watch, after the ‘Producing the Future’ event at Temple Emanu-El

Chris Pfaff welcomes the audience at Temple Emanu-El, for the ‘Producing the Future’ event, 12.16.18

Chris Pfaff, Dex Smither, and Michael Owen, setting up for the ‘Producing the Future’ event at Temple Emanu-El, 12.16.18

Michael Owen demonstrates MediaCombo’s AR installation at the Morgan Library, at the ‘Producing the Future’ event at Temple Emanu-El, 12.16.18

Dex Smither discusses 5G, and its significance in the streaming AR and VR ecosystem, at the ‘Producing the Future’ event at Temple Emanu-El, 12.16.18

Dex Smither answers a question from the audience at the ‘Producing the Future’ event at Temple Emanu-El, 12.16.18

Dex Smither discusses Verizon envrmnt’s work at the ‘Producing the Future’ event at Wharton Club NY, at Greenberg Traurig, 03.26.19

Michael Owen, Dex Smither, Richard Abeeku Mills-Robertson, Chris Pfaff, and Cortney Harding, after the ‘Producing the Future’ event at the Wharton Club NY, at Greenberg Traurig, 03.26.19

Chris Pfaff, Ben Weintraub, and a guest at the Wharton Club NY event, ‘Producing the Future,’ at Greenberg Traurig, 03.26.19