2nd Dublin Augmented Reality Conference, big changes coming fast

By @SimonCocking

Hosted by Alex Gibson @thepersuaders this was the second year the event has taken place. It was a really interesting step into what the future offers for us, both in terms of digital marketing, virtual representations of experiences and also invaluable ways to help deal with medical conditions.

The speakers were at the top of the range in terms of people working at the bleeding edge of what is possible, what has been tried, and where they would like to take us.

There were a lot of great speakers, and also really interesting companies demonstrating their products too. Among these, but not only, were Daqri @DAQRI  (another new arrival to Irish shores), CreativiTIC @CreativiTIC, Octagon , vStream, Amplified Robot, iTagged,  twnkls and Von Bismark. 

The event was really useful for helping to visually demonstrate how and why AR will become a massive tool in education, training and marketing. As mobile handheld devices become more and more ubiquitous, so it will become possible for these technologies to be more wider available, for both producers and consumers.Howard Hunt’s Dustcloud live/real-time/virtual / augmented first-person shooter game was eye-catching. Even more exciting for an Irish audience was the fact that they will be moving to Ireland too. Another firm enticed here by the IDA’s forward-thinking policy on encouraging cutting-edge companies to relocate to Ireland.

Tomi Ahonen @tomiahonen gave a great tour through what to expect in the future, and how some great past successes had been completely unexpected, such as making money from premium texting services.

 Possibly stealing the show was the medical presentation by Kavin Andi, illustrating how useful AR has been for helping with serious illnesses. See here for more on his talk.
 Overall there were a lot of really interesting speakers and companies. Over the next few weeks we aim to bring you more in depth interviews with a number of the participants from this event.