High Techspectations

October was a busy month at Engage – so busy, in fact, that I’ve only just got around to writing this post! We held two very successful Techspectations events across two very different continents – one in Dubai (which was the first we’ve held since branching out overseas) and one in our hometown of London at Flux.

Our Techspectations series allows us to showcase our latest insights, giving our clients, press contacts and fellow technophiles the opportunity to experience our findings first-hand – and this month, we were demonstrating one of the most talked-about and highly anticipated products of the VR revolution. I’m talking, about the HoloLens – the world’s first self-contained, holographic computer and possibly the most exciting breakthrough in Mixed Reality the world has seen so far.

Our Dubai event took place on October 17th and offered the forward-thinkers of the Emirates a unique opportunity to interact with this new technology – Dubai thought-leaders gathered at the exclusive Capital Club to gain insight into the hefty potential of Mixed Reality for brands, audiences and society at large. Our panellists offered inspiration, introduced and explained several of-the-moment, challenging subjects and hosted a Q&A with the audience before demonstrating the HoloLens.

Ebru Binboga of IBM explained how IBM help their clients engineer moments of serendipity, building loyalty and creating unbreakable bonds; Hanah Huwair of Smart Cities Program Management discussed smart cities worldwide, how they have benchmarked and how his initiative will be moving forward to make Dubai Design District the most effective smart city so far; and Ross Maclean, Digital and Innovation Leader, EY unveiled the Citizen Science platform – connecting young people around the world with the global scientific community though the use of mobile technology.

Meanwhile, in London, we were busy preparing for our 18th October Techspectations event – which featured our Engage Works Head of Innovation, Amelia Kallman, discussing the collaborative impact of Virtual Reality and its practical applications – and the incredible potential of Mixed Reality. Richard Vincent, founder of FundamentalVR, spoke of the practical applications of Virtual Reality and haptics, which is already being used to train surgeons; as well as the blurring lines between Virtual and Mixed Reality. Our final presentation was from Max Doelle of Kazendi, who presented the ins and outs of the HoloLens in detail, with case studies, specifications and finally, an interactive demonstration for our guests!

All in all, the events provided an exciting platform to discuss some of the most intriguing aspects of Virtual and Mixed Reality, while allowing participants to be among the first to experience the power of the HoloLens. So a very big thank you to those who came and helped to make it such a fantastic event – and to those who couldn’t, we hope to see your faces at our next Techspectations in 2017!