Business View Magazine | May 2020

25 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MAY 2020 M ore than a decade ago, it was lonely as a developer in AR and VR, so a small group of pioneers regularly started to meet and share ideas out of sheer necessity. During these informal meetings, the concept for the Augmented World Expo (AWE) was conceived as a unique opportunity for hundreds of passionate AR/VR professionals and enthusiasts to meet, share ideas and help catapult this incredible tech into the mainstream. These annual gatherings helped shape the evolution of AR and VR, and over the years AWE evolved to showcase real products and customers in the enterprise and consumer markets. It grew to a place for thousands of professionals working in AR and VR to learn about the latest developments, partner, hire, generate high quality sales leads and synchronize the larger tech industry. By creating a roadmap to help the industry align itself and make the best use of funding and resources toward a common goal, AWE has continued its focus on improving adoption of AR and VR by the masses. The first event took place in 2010 and as a founding group they had one moonshot goal and rallying cry for their industry: “1 billion AR users by 2020!” Business View Magazine recently asked Augmented World Expo how they are adapting their business during the Covid-19 pandemic. The following highlights the company’s innovative and evolving responses to this critical situation. Challenge in the Industry BVM: What do you do when your expos aren’t allowed to exist (in their traditional format) for the foreseeable future? How do you pivot? How do you continue to provide value to exhibitors? AWE: When it became clear in early March that the Augmented World Expo (AWE)