Tag: ar

The tech industry, social media, marketing and entertainment in the next few years will all be shaped by the development of virtual and augmented reality and the emergence of artificial intelligence. This industry will finally rid us of two-dimensional monitors, which for several decades played the role of a window into the virtual reality. Experts predict that by 2020 the VR hardware market size will reach $5.2 billion, while the VR software market will be around $24.5 billion. In 2016 the worldwide sales of VR head-mounted displays were for just $1.43 million. Polls show that 44% of the people with access to internet are very interested in virtual reality. The AR market can grow from nearly zero today to $90 billion by 2020. And half of that revenue is going to come from sales of AR hardware devices. By the end of this year worldwide AR headset sales could hit $1.2 billion. This will be perfect for Microsoft, which started selling the developer version of the mixed reality device HoloLens last year. In 2017 we expect a huge splash by the wireless virtual reality tech. This whole process started with Apple’s adoption of new Bluetooth standard in the iPhone 7 and 7S and now we are going to see products in different categories. The Taiwanese manufacturer of Android and Windows smartphones HTC is already taking pre-orders for a $220 add-on that cuts the cables of the headset Vive and transform it into a wireless device. Today Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed to the world a new prototype for VR gloves, that he tested during his tour inside Oculus Research facility. “We’re working on new ways to bring your hands in virtual and augmented reality. Wearing these gloves, you can draw, type on a virtual keyboard, and even shoot webs like Spider-Man. That’s what I’m doing here”, he wrote on his profile in the social network. Earlier this week Google revealed its plan to bring virtual reality into the web with the new mobile browser support for WebVR in Chrome. Now the browser allows users to navigate through webpages using their fingers or mouse on desktop PC. If you want to keep up with the hottest trends in the world of virtual and augmented reality Webit.Festival is the right place for you. During our summits, you can listen to top level speakers such as the Partner in IBM Ventures Christoph Auer-Welsbach, the VP & CTO of VMware for EMEA region Joe Baguley and the General Manager of PlayFab for Europe Mark Val.

During the last few years we have witnessed incredible growth and transformation in the digital advertising industry, which were driven mainly from the expansion of mobile tech and the new types of wearable devices on the market. According to 2016 internet advertising revenue report digital video has generated the greatest gain of any format across desktop and mobile. The revenues continue to go up, despite the mass adoption of apps and programs for ad blocking. Many experts predict that the industry will be driven forward by the need to deliver better and fewer ads to the customer. Most of them believe that 2017 will be the year that messaging services will take the lead. The reason for that is the rise of chat bots, who are attracting more and more budgets. But new types of bots are bringing some risks along with the value they add. Machines that create fake clicks and views can also steal information for our credit cards. This will put additional pressure on the cyber security and privacy experts, who will have to find out new ways to protect us from ad frauds and detect the toxic bots. Right now about 60% of Google’s net global ad revenue comes from mobile, up from about 45.8 percent in 2015. The company expects that by 2018 almost 75% of its ad revenues worldwide will come from mobile ad placements. The development of messaging apps like Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp is proving that customers want a more direct and private communication. We can expect to see entirely new options for paid content. The global practice chairman of Edelman Digital Kevin King predicts that the billions of daily users in the messaging platforms will enable marketers to make the best of new engagement opportunities. He is sure that these conversational experiences will combine past revolutions in e-commerce and text services, while in the highlighting the potential of AI. Meanwhile, the mass production of VR and AR devices will bring significant improvement in software and will increase brand efforts to penetrate this new market. If you want to keep up with the hottest trends in the world of marketing Webit.Festival is the right place for you. During the Marketing & Innovation Summit, you can listen to top level speakers such as the Global Editorial Director of Wall Street Journal Custom Studios Fara Warner, the President and Global Brand Director of Havas Worldwide Jason Jercinovic and the Head of CMO practice of Forbes Media Bruce Rogers.

Digital health is among the topics at Webit Festival - it starts with the champion of new technology in medicine Dr Shafi Ahmed who will show how virtual and augmented reality can revolutionize surgical education and training.

One of the first confirmed speakers for Webit.Festival 2017 in Sofia is Dr Shafi Ahmed - pioneer in the use of virtual reality during surgeries. In fact, he is the first person in the world to live-stream an operation using Google Glass. If you want to hear more from him about this, you will see him on stage during Webit.Festival 2017 from 25-27 April in Sofia. Next year’s edition of the festival promises to bring more than 5000 attendees along with the top executives from world’s most renowned companies, investors, hottest startups and policy makers. Going back to Dr Ahmed, he is world known as one of the best general and colorectal surgeons, operating at The Royal London Hospital. In 2007, he was appointed as a Consultant General, Colorectal and Laparoscopic Surgeon at Barts and the London NHS trust. But the thing he is most popular for is the world’s first live-stream of an operation using Google Glass, which was watched live by 13000 students around the world. Dr Ahmed is also the founder of Medical Realities - an innovative group offering medical training products, specializing in virtual reality, augmented reality and serious games. By using consumer-level virtual reality devices such as the Oculus Rift, Medical Realities can reduce the cost of training, reach a wider audience and provide a completely safe learning environment for medical students. This is a whole new way of education for students, who can take the role of a surgeon and see through his eyes how is the surgery performed. This approach could make healthcare more equitable, making the training of surgeons worldwide a lot better. All you need is a virtual reality headset and you don’t have to travel abroad to train yourself, which is in fact a huge expense. “Surgery has always been learned through apprenticeship. Students must spend time in an operating theatre to get quality training from a mentor. While hospitals have got bigger and surgery has improved, the theatre space around the patient is still limited and it is difficult to provide everyone with a good view. VR lets every student learn from the best seat at the operating table”, says the doctor in one of his interviews. The next step is the development of devices which imitate the physical contact between the user and computer. There are companies developing various gloves or bodysuits which can replicate touch and feel. Dr Ahmed thinks that this devices could be ready for use in 3 to 5 years and they will be the next addition in this new way of education for surgeons. Of course, to know more about his thoughts on the subject, we will have to wait till April and his speech during Webit.Festival. About Webit.Festival 2017: Webit.Festival is the European edition of the Webit Series of events, which will take place in Sofia, Bulgaria, from the 25th to the 27th of April, 2017. The festival consists of several parallel conferences and events, workshops, roundtables and exhibitions. The event is under the patronage of the Mayor of Sofia Mrs Yordanka Fandakova and the European Commission. The agenda includes Tech Summit, Marketing and Innovation Summit, Developers Summit and Smart Cities Summit. Separate area of the festival will be dedicated to startups from Bulgaria and other countries in the world. The agenda for the founders includes conference, meetings with investors, academy for startups and special stage for them to pitch their companies in front of a jury of investors, journalists and leaders of Fortune 500 companies. Webit.Festival is the most influential event on the tech and digital industry in the region. To buy your tickets for Webit.Festival 2017, click here. To apply for speaking, click here. To apply for partnership, click here. To apply for exhibiting, click here. To apply for our Founders Games, click here. To see the video gallery from Webit.Festival 2016, click here. To learn more about the events that are part of the festival, click here. To see pictures from our previous events, click here. For all this information and even more, visit our website www.webit.bg. Contact: Aniela Russeva

aniela@webitcongress.com