SXSW16: The Greatest Show on Earth?

Passport - Check, Flight Details - Check, skignz QR Codes and Marketing Collateral - Check…. Ready to go..!

A 5:30am start on the long road to Heathrow for Co-Founder & CMO Si Brown and Head of DV Partnerships Jamie Clarke didn’t seem too bad. 

Although the constant rain all the way down one of the UK's busiest roads (M1 motorway) made the journey a longer one than expected… 

skignz was on its way to its first ever SXSW (South by South West) in Austin, Texas.  Widely regarded as THE Tech show to attend, SXSW is held annually in the One Star state in the USA and is attended by well over 100,000 people from all over the world.

Little did the two intrepid explorers realise, that upon arrival in Texas, the airline unfortunately decided to misplace Jamie’s suitcase. Then, upon arrival at the Hotel, there was a mix up with the booking and there was no room at the Inn!  

Somewhere to stay was quickly found in the form of a Motel (please imagine a motel, in the loosest sense of the word and your worst nightmare... you are not even close!) 

We then spent most of the early hours trying to book into another hotel for the remainder of our stay and assuming all was good in the USA. 

But these things happen in three’s don’t they? 

Well, they didn’t have to wait long, as at the end of the second day, Jamie left his phone in a 'hailed' Yellow Taxi and that was the set!

Jamie said, “At first, it seemed like fate had conspired against us.
 
But once we had gotten the three things out of the way, we were really pleased with how the trip went overall"

Things got decidedly better for the pair from there on in. Many thanks to colleagues at UKTi, Tech North and Tech City UK, who had supported skignz to be able to attend. 

We were also able to make some appointments in advance, so as to better utilise the time spent at the event.  

The whole environment was digitally enhanced by the presence of skignz to help attendees find their way around the huge city of Austin, finding Hotel Venues, the Party Venues, Registration and of course the excellent UKTi Great Britain House (which skignz made their base, throughout the week). 

“We placed skignz at all of the major areas of the event, guiding people to the Registration area, the Convention centre and helped the 'Lounges' to be found by people in an unfamiliar surroundings and generally showing people how useful visual way finding could be” said Co-Founder & CMO, Si Brown.

                      

Our meetings with some of the 'largest brands on the planet' went well, with several meetings leading on to follow up meetings upon our return.  

Si and Jamie held the majority of meetings in the GREAT Britain House, which was a superb venue designed to showcase the best of British businesses to our American counterparts.

Some great comments were received by the team throughout the trip, with people using twitter to say that skignz had ‘made their trip to SXSW’ with one amazing lady (you know who you are!) even saying on twitter “Fan girling the skignz tech was the highlight of the trip”, so, good impressions made by the guys in Texas.

Overall, this was a productive, and tiring trip for the guys.  With skignz placed all over the grand old city of Austin, the greatest tech show on earth, became the skignz show in the sky...

Could different types of AR have been used to introduce the varying VR experiences, could the whole room be set up in such a way that everything was AR or VR rather than a collection of areas with companies trying to out do each other?

Imagine a 'curated space' with complimentary AR/VR experiences leading users through a journey, opening their minds to new possibilities, provoking thoughts and questions on how each step could be applied to their own lives, both personally and professionally?

It needs a coordinated approach and some serious engagement in order for AR/VR to go from a nice to have, pithy, transition piece in the middle of SXSW to a major focal point in 2017. Very surprising especially with all with the current levels of investment and interest in the two.

SXSW AR/VR track made me seriously 'beg the question', How long can these technologies be classed as 'The Future' rather than the 'Here and Now'?

Read Si’s Blog Post on his thoughts of the VR/AR track at SXSW here…

With the airline again messing up but this time with leg room on our return journey, we certainly have had a mixed type of trip but as always we like to focus on the positive and it's those positives we hope skignz will benefit from going forward.

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

skignz @ SXSW 2016

skignz will be providing a 'skigned environment' right across SXSW in Austin, Texas, US.

This will be a world first for SXSW, as visitors will be able to use the FREE skignz app to access 'virtual signs in the sky', helping them to navigate their way around as well as interacting with the skignz for further information and in some cases 'offers'.

skignz is so simple to use and the essential app for SXSW 2016.

If you don't currently have skignz then please feel free to download a copy (it's only very little at 1mB file size) of the skignz app for IOS or Android.

You can also scan the QR code (shown below) or on one of the many stickers across downtown Austin...

If you would like to come and talk to our guys then we will be in the 'Great Britain House' as one of the UKTI Tech Ambassadors.

They will be on hand throughout the Interactive show to demonstrate skignz, and how it might be applicable to your business or even for your own personal use...

Whether you want to use skignz to visualize your 'geo location data' and make it more accessible and useful, through to using skignz to find your friends in downtown Austin during SXSX?

All events are taking place at the 'Great Britain House' (206 East 4^th Street, Austin, Texas. (AKA Wanderlust Yoga) 

Please note that the 'Great Britain House'  is open 11-14 March from 9am-10pm daily

Just look for the skignz (just like below)...

For Further information on SXSW Interactive please visit: http://www.sxsw.com/interactive

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

What's happening in the AR Market?

Over the last 12-18 months you may have heard and read an awful lot about VR (Virtual Reality), especially since Facebook bought Oculus Rift for $2billion. 

Many of the world's biggest tech hardware & software companies are developing alternatives with VR Headsets ranging from a few thousand dollars right down to google cardboard.

The headline have been dominated by VR. What it can do? How it's developed over the last year or so and how it will change certain sectors / markets / industries.

However with skignz being an AR (Augmented Reality) company we have been taking a keen interest in our own market. If 2014/15 was all about VR, then 2016 onwards will be dominated by AR.

Yesterday blippar announced a further $54 million investment (Series D Raise) on top of the $45 million (Series C Raise) they raised exactly 12 months ago, making them one of the world's biggest and dominant forces in the AR market.

The blippar announcement comes on the heels of Google's investment of $568m into Magic Leap, Microsoft's Hololens & Apple's acquisition of Metaio. Also last year Blippar acquired Layar (Main Competitor), leaving Wikitude, Aurasma and skignz as the main AR platforms.

The acquisitions, investment etc... not only show the confidence in the potential of AR (blippar pre money valuation of £1.5 billion in Aug 2015), the relevance it has to a wider market than VR provides. Most of all it is showing ways that AR can be useful, rather than just an advertising platform (gimmick or campaign based activity), games platform or simulator.

We have been asked a lot in the last 24 hours... How does Blippar's investment effect skignz? We only think it's a very positive one! Especially as the skignz technology platform is complementary to Blippar's 'image recognition' based offering.

Blippar's latest investment (in our very modest opinion) is fantastic, not just becuase they are a UK AR company, but becuase they are pushing the boundaries of what is possible and moving towards a more Visual Search, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning platform. 

Across the AR market offering the majority is focussed on Image recognition and holographic based AR technology. Other than Magic Leap (Google) who have not announced exactly what they are doing, the skignz technology is based on a different method/approach of AR technology.

skignz (like blippar) works through a Free APP on the billions of smartphone or mobile devices across the planet. However skignz aims to provide hyperlocal relevant information, when and where you require it, anywhere on the planet, without have to point your device at something... You just pan around to find what you are looking for... and if you don't see anything, then you have the ability to place your own content!

If Google, Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg Quoting skignz strapline a few months ago), Microsoft and even Apple (although at present it's rumoured to focus AR on its driverless cars) along with VC's and other global tech companies like Qualcomm etc... are focussing billions and billions of investment dollars, surely there is something about AR that's extremely attractive?

With Digi-Capital predicting that AR spend will hit $150 Billion by 2020 compared against VR spend of $30 Billion, you will certainly be hearing more about the investment and growth of Augmented Reality.

Here are some articles over the last 12 months that we have come across you may find interesting on Augmented Reality:

AR to be far bigger than VR...

Blippar's latest investment & turning down £1.5bn acquisition offer last year...

Expensive Hardware for AR (Oculus Rift Style Headset)...

AR spend set to hit $150 Billion by 2020...

blippar CEO on being bigger than Google & connect to IOT...

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

skignz: The High Life with British Airways

So, what does David Beckham, James Corden, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Kevin Spacey, Simon LeBon plus many, many other talented and successful people have in common? 

'The High Life' of course. British Airways High Life to be exact. You can add our very own Co-Founder & CMO Si Brown to that esteemed list, as he's featured in March 2016's edition of the long running inflight magazine's Business Edition.

The publications have been running even longer than Si has been alive and can be found in Business & First class on of all British Airways flights throughout March 2016.

Si was approached following his presentation at last years WIRED Magazine Retail conference, where he spoke about Augmented Reality technology and it's future in retail. 

Editor Tim Hulse realised that skignz can offer so much more and isn't exclusive to Retail, so he wanted to know abit more about what skignz can do and where, along with Si's own journey so far.

In addition to the interview Si was asked to attend a photo shoot in central London, which was a very fresh and very early morning!

To add to the drama of the photoshoot, it took place on London Bridge right in the middle of 'rush hour'!!

It was actually a great experience for Si, and rather amusing for Jamie Clarke, skignz Head of DV Partnerships as he stood, nithered in the sub zero temperatures and counted over 200+ people turning their heads to find out if Si was someone famous... 

When they realised he wasn't and they didn't recognise him, they just carried on with their journey, none the wiser. 

We wondered if any of those thousands of commuters happen to read the article whilst flying on British Airways in March, Si may not be famous but they will certainly now know why he was being photographed that fresh London morning. They may be one of those 'blurred' people surrounding him in the picture.

If you would like to read the feature and if you don't happen to be a BA passenger this month, you can still read the 'Talent' article on skignz and Si, plus all the other interesting content each month in the British Airways 'Business Life' magazine either by checking the article out online or by downloading their App on ITunes (IOS) or Google Play (Android):


BA Business Life (Website): http://businesslife.ba.com/People/Interviews/Si-Browns-signposts-in-the-sky.html

BA Business Life (IOS): https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/british-airways-business-life/id554105749?mt=8

BA Business Life (Android): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pagesuite.droid.britishairwaysbusinesslife

If anyone happens to be flying Business/First Class with BA or manage to get their hands on a copy, please do take a pic and share it on Social Media tagging in skignz and telling us where you are off too. We look forward to seeing how creative you can be with your posts!

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

skignz announced as UKTi Tech Ambassadors at SXSW

skignz are proud to be travelling to Austin, Texas, US as UKTI Tech Ambassadors at the upcoming South by South West (SXSW) Interactive Festival. 

skignz have been planning for weeks to ensure that we take this opportunity to grow our network and increase opportunities across the US, as well as being lucky enough to exhibit what skignz can do, how we can work with others and showcasing the potential of our technology.

Co-Founder, Si Brown and Head of DV Partnerships, Jamie Clarke will fly out to the US in March to ensure that the current momentum continues, and new networks and markets are opened up and joined by our growing list of European partners.

The week long trip to the states will consist of exhibiting skignz at the ‘British House’, where UK tech companies have an opportunity to showcase their expertise, speak with US counterparts and build relationships.

Co-Founder and CMO Si Brown said, “We are excited to be attending the biggest event of the year in the tech Industry.  We have been fortunate enough to work with UKTI to enable skignz to be in a position to increase our global network by attending SXSW.  This is an important phase in our growth strategy and the timing is perfect for us”.

SXSW is the largest Interactive festival in the world, with businesses travelling from all over the globe with the hope and expectation of increasing their network of business contacts, whilst showcasing the excellence on offer from UK based technology companies.  

An incubator of cutting-edge technologies and digital creativity, the 2016 event features five days of compelling presentations and panels from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line-up of special programmes showcasing the best new websites, video games and start-up ideas the technology community has to offer. 

From hands-on training to big-picture analysis of the future, SXSW Interactive has become the place to discover the technology of tomorrow today.

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are predicted to be the breakout technologies of 2016 — So the buzz surrounding these two concepts will be significant at SXSW 2016. None more so at the ‘British House’, ran by UKTI, where skignz will be based throughout our trip. 

This really is an opportunity to grasp, and the team have been working hard to plan our visit, ensuring that we take full advantage of all opportunities.

We will keep you up to date throughout the week via our usual media channels, with pictures and commentary on the trip.

For mor einformation on UKTI@SXSW please visit:

https://www.events.ukti.gov.uk/sxsw-2016-12/

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

skignz: Tees Valley BNBA 2016

skignz were runners up at the 2016 Tees Valley Best New Business Awards. 

Last year, skignz were winners in the Marketing category.  However, this year skignz came Runner up in the Creative & Digital Media category.  

Ithica Films, Winners on the night, took to Social Media to say that they thought skignz was ‘Awesome’. 

skignz would like to congratulate Ithica on their Award, and also thank TV BNBA for our nomination.  The night was held at the Riverside Stadium, home of MFC, and was a night enjoyed by all who attended.

Head of DV Partnerships, Jamie Clarke said:

“It was a pleasant evening.  The awards night is an opportunity to keep skignz at the forefront of people’s minds, update the local start up community on our progress, whilst allowing us to meet new people and keep our momentum of 2016 going. 

Congratulations to Ithica, they deliver amazing films and were deserved winners”.

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

File size of the skignz App

The question we are proposing is 'Is Big beautiful or do the best things coming small packages?’

We ask this question because we have recently compiled some data about the file sizes of App on people's  smartphones and tablets.

Why did we do this?

One of our iPhones needed the software updating on it. We are sure you have come across this where IOS puts little red dot on your 'Settings App'. You go in and it says there is a new version of IOS and please download it now…

As you may have experienced, when you go to download this update it says you don’t have enough memory space! Either you have far too many Photos, videos or songs on your handset or a large number of apps. In some cases it’s not really any of the above.

Why don’t you have any memory left then? surely 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB memory are just that, space for 'your stuff'? 

However it's increasingly likely with every IOS update that the OS on your phone or tablet eats away at that available memory space, thus restricting what you can have or do with your device.

As we cannot do anything about Photos, Videos and Songs on your phone/tablet, this led us to looking closely at the size of apps we have on there. Focussing on the more common apps that people use around Social Media, search, messaging and more relevant to skignz, other major AR Apps.

The results were startling to say the least! All of the big apps like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Chrome, twitter etc… were around 75mB to 100mB in size. Then they slowly decreased in size with the likes of Instagram, We Chat, WhatsApp etc… right down to the AR based apps such as Blippar, Layar and Wikitude who were all a more sensible 15mB to 20mB.

File Size (Mb)

App's

We at skignz feel over the coming years there will be a move towards 'less apps' on your phone,  leaving more space for immediate storage or as connections improve more access to the cloud of your information.

With all of the above in mind, we then come to skignz. 

With its huge potential to benefit just about every person on the planet either professionally or personally, the verticals it can deliver 'visualised data' in a more meaningful and helpful manner, you would expect it to be leaning towards the higher end of the size of Apps, maybe a bit bigger than the other more established 'image recognition based AR apps.

skignz is only 1mB in file size… yes you read that right, your eyes are not deceiving you….

ONE megabyte. 

This file size this makes skignz one of the smallest 'file size footprints' available, yet has the ability to 'visualise' most if not all of the 'data' of the other apps in a more engaging and interactive way, especially the collection data normally presented on a map interface.

This goes right back to Si Brown's quote in 2013/14 that skignz helps you to stop looking at your phone… and start looking through it…

Next time when you are backing up your Phone or tablet, take a look at how much memory your apps are taking up… surely there is room for the little cute/light and small skignz app. 

It will open you up to a whole new world of information

And as always for further information on skignz then please visit us on the usual Social Media channels or drop us a line info@skignz.com

12 'skignz' Days of Christmas - An experience your children will NEVER forget!

Tomorrow sees skignz launch their 12 Days of Christmas... leading right up to some 'Special skignz Magic Dust' we have 'sprinkled across the sky', right around the world for Christmas Eve.


This is especially so for those of you will young children who are still 'believers'. 

We 'believe', so we have developed two very special 'skignz' to help you get those little kiddie winkies to bed (no mean feat when their are 'off the scale' excited).

We at skignz also believe that: 

"If a picture speaks a thousand words... and a video speaks a million... then what does an experience represent, a billion? a trillion? or is it unquantifiable... beyond words..."


What is the 12 'skignz' Days of Christmas?
We have created an 'Online Advent Calendar' that you can visit each day at the following link www.skignz.com/santa 

Please don't forget, it's like any other 'Advent Calendar' in as much as there's no peeking on the days that are yet to come! (you can go back and look at previous days though).


What are we trying to achieve?
Every child has a wonderment around Christmas, Santa, his elves, the whole mystery. One of the customs is to put out a drink and mince pie for Santa, but since 1957 NORAD have provided children across the globe with regular updates on Santa's progress.

More recently a website (www.noradsanta.org) was created that many a child keeps regular watch on Christmas Eve... all wanting to know when Santa will be in their Country, region, town and street.

Two things happen at this point... the children are 'off the scale with excitement' and parents try to usher them to bed as he's 'getting close'. remember from when you were a child, that Santa only delivers his presents when you (children) are fast asleep.

Ok then, how do you 'Calm the children down' and get them off to sleep in a reasonable time?


How are we going to do this?
Each day you will open a window and it will provide you with a little bit more information on 'How you are going to BLOW your children's minds on Christmas Eve, yet be such a powerful experience that they will WANT to go to bed IMMEDIATELY and go to sleep....!"

We will lead you on a 'step by step' process of downloading skignz, setting up an account, right through to placing the 'Special Santa skignz' and how you will 'reveal' them to your children on Christmas Eve....


Where do the special 'skignz' come in?
If you follow all the steps in the lead up to Christmas Eve, which includes setup, checking and testing you will have created two virtual 'signs in the sky'.


The first is a Picture of Santa's Sleigh flying away into the distance...
 

The second one is a special 'Note from Santa', that is personalised with your childrens names on... explaining that he's just flown over (where you are and where you have placed the skignz and intend to show the children them).

It also says that he noticed that 'Lexi & Gab's' (insert your own children's names) are still awake and that he can't deliver their presents until they are fast asleep, encouraging them to go straight to bed, love from Santa.

*Please note that the two images above are actual images taken through the skignz app.

Then what?
You let your children follow the Santa through the NORAD website until he's close by where you are, then you go to the door/window to see if they can see him. 

At that point you say "maybe if we use our SmartPhone or Tablet it will help us see him". 

You then 'open the skignz App' and pan around like you are videoing the sky, where you will see the Sleigh riding away with Santa waving (We highly recommend you video or take pics of your childrens faces when they see this)

Then next pan across to where you have placed the second skign... 'Santa's Note' where you can read that Santa has left them a note and either let them read it or read it to them...

The children won't be able to see the skignz without the SmartPhone or Tablet, so you can say that Santa sent you a special camera to see him ;-)

And after that... when they are no doubt speechless... take them to bed!

We hope you enjoy this little magical experience we have created for any child anywhere in the world whose Parents or Guardians have taken the time to set this up for them... 

Afterall Christmas is all about children, especially those that believe... even the slightly older ones may question their beliefs ha ha ha or is that HO HO HO....

We hope you have a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
from 
The Santa skignz team

PS We ask just one thing of those of you who have read this.. 

Please share www.skignz.com/santa with others across Social Media, text, phone calls, messneger etc... , so many more children get the chance to experience this as well. 

We want to reach as many children as possible across the globe.