#GREATShowcase

skignz were invited to take part in the #GreatShowcase in Los Angeles at the Consulate Generals personal residence.

The GREAT Showcase was formulated by one of the US directors in the DiT a few years ago, to showcase everything that is great about Great Britain and doing business with the UK, to an invited VIP audience.

The GREAT campaign is spread across the whole world and is the UK’s brand for encouraging the rest of the world to engage and trade with the UK, this year's showcase included skignz and other brands such as Aston Martin, Jo Malone London, Mill Channel and many more.

skignz role in the #GREATshowcase came during the DiT Directors speech (immediately after the opening address by the new British Consular General for Los Angeles) as the director introduced the evenings events and spoke about current affairs.

Dan preceded this by wishing to highlight who in the room were part of his team so if anyone would like to speak to them, they would know who they are … usually this would be done by a request for the said team members to raise their hands wherever they were in the room, however we Brits like to do things a little differently, cue skignz!

The skignz Founder & CEO Si Brown, was present at the event and on cue, he passed the Director Dan Rutstein, his iPhone X, which was immediate mirrored to the large screen behind them both, on which appeared the view Dan had using the iPhone … this presented a range of ‘skignz’ above each member of the DiT team in the room, leading to gasps and awe from the guests. 

Although a very small gesture and moment in the context of the whole evening, it certainly created a stir and quite a number of comments and interest during the rest of the evening and beyond we are delighted to say.

Please take a look below at some of the photos taken during the #GREATshowcase event.

If you want to find out more about skignz, then please visit our new recently launched website (www.skignz.com) as well as the usual social media channels

You can see the #GREATshowcase twitter feed for fun videos and photos here

skignz @ CES 2018, Las Vegas, US

This year's Consumer Electronics Show CES2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada, was the first visit in 10 years for our CEO Simon Brown, and a first for most of the skignz team.

Was it any different to the last visit (pre skignz)? OMG yes! 

If nothing else just the sheer scale of the event is literally on another planet compared to a decade ago! 

One aspect, was the multiple locations across Las Vegas for various parts of the show. 

The hosted Brand VIP parties, have got way way way bigger, one we attended was in the biggest club in Las Vegas and had a free bar till 11pm - 2,500 thousand people packed into the X Club and danced and partied away to loud music by top Dj’s, food was provided and again, a free bar.

If your asking yourself, why was skignz there? 

It's quite simple ... Many of the people we do business with, clients, partners, prospective clients etc … were there, if not exhibiting or presenting, they were looking to catch up with us and others in one location. This actually proves very cost effective if you have a global client base and real time, in person interaction is scarce.

Furthermore many companies announce new products/technology etc. at CES, so it's a great opportunity to see it first hand. For skignz, it's a way to understand more about who, what and why the people attending/exhibiting are interested in AR. 

In gaps between meetings, many miles were walked to interact and understand what competitors (indirect and direct) are doing, speaking with brands who are not currently utilising AR and what are the reasons behind that?

Many conversations happen at CES, most of them were in the bars, restaurants and clubs after the official show was finished. Much of the skignz time was spent speaking to various audiences in these places. 

Jokingly, it was said, that we felt we had been sat in the lobby bar at The Aria, for 2 days without moving… looking back at our expenses that is borne out.

Suffice to say although it was a great experience to be back at CES, however the sheer size of the show is now one of its major issues!

Too much going on, difficult standing out in the crowd unless what you have is very novel, or you have such a large budget, attendees can't fail to see what you are doing, i.e. BMW with their 'M versions' of all models being drifted and spun around a hotel car park all day, every day! 

A great advertisement for tyre durability, surely there is a tentative link to tech or consumer electronics in there somewhere.

If you want to find out more about skignz, then please visit our new recently launched website (www.skignz.com) as well as the usual social media channels.

 

12 days of Christmas - skignz Online Advent Calendar

This year skignz used an Online Advent Calendar for the 12 Days of Christmas to provide you with information on the top people, places and things in the world. 

These ranged from holiday destinations to restaurants, hotels to events, all of which we believe would be suitably enhanced further if you used skignz. 

Revealing even more information that's both useful and interesting certainly enhances these wonderful places and their environment. 

The content could be historical, simply useful, reveal offers, show videos and also allow you, the visitor, to leave a small digital note, almost like signing a guestbook!

Take alook for yourself here... https://skignz.adventcalendaronline.com/

The uptake we had was quite staggering, from an email list of just over 1,800 people, we had in excess of 900 people access the Online Advent Calendar, with over 500 accessing the interesting and useful content we provided. I

f you are reading this and you have decided to visit one of the places selected, please do share with us your experience and don't forget to use skignz whilst you are there!

Until next Christmas, may we take the opportunity to wish you all the very best for 2018 and a Happy, prosperous and healthy New Year.

For further information how you can get a Online Advent Calendar please visit www.onlineadventcalender.com
If you want to find out more about skignz, then please visit our new recently launched website www.skignz.com as well as the usual social media channels

AR/VR DiT Trade mission to US West Coast

skignz was invited alongside a host of other British companies for a AR/VR Trade mission to visit Los Angeles and San Francisco over 10 days.

The mission was run by the UK DiT in conjunction with their local offices in LA & San Francisco, who had lined up a plethora of presentations and meetings with some of the world's biggest brands in this space, and one or two lesser known ones.

Apple, Universal Studios, Lucas Film, IMAX, reFramed etc. were just a few of the organisations we visited on the trip. The experiences and knowledge gained was amazing, this was one of the best missions any of the skignz team had undertaken. Instead of being bored to death with presentations from Inward Investment organisations encouraging you to invest in their locality, this trip focussed on brands and organisations who were willing to open their doors to British Companies and engage in quite frank and honest conversations.

Some of the companies admitted despite being global players in their own verticals and marketplaces they felt they had learnt not only about what other tech and resource is out there, but were surprised at the talent from the UK that they hadn’t tapped into.

Our CEO, Si Brow said , "To visit the Lucas Film, see the original StarWars Artwork, experience what they are currently working on was a memorable experience that will live with him forever. 

Especially being able to fight Darth Maul in AR with a lightsaber and seeing a real hologram of Princess Lea. His favourite film coming to life was the icing on the cake. 

The first experience in the fourth instalment of StarWars, was way back in the latter part of the 1970’s. So to see the developments and progressions of the film tech was mind-blowing".

skignz were super keen not only to visit, but also understand more of what the world's most famous and leading branding, Apple, are looking for in Augmented Reality.

Apple have made no secret over the last 12-18 months about where they see the importance of AR and how they are focussing quite heavily on it (obviously without telling us what exactly they are doing beyond ARKit). 

We hope that a potential follow up meeting in early 2018 will provide us with more guidance, direction and opportunity for the skignz technology and platform with Apple. Watch this space ...

In addition to the companies we visited the delegates on the mission proved, as ALL missions do, that sometimes it's not where you are visiting or what work /relationships you aim to establish whilst there, it's actually the people you're with (sort of a Big Brother intensive shared experience) that actually brings more immediate opportunities and scope for partnerships. 

This was certainly the case on this trip and the skignz team are looking forward to more focused meetings with quite a few of the other delegates. Again watch this space ...

As the skignz team have considerable experience from these Trade Missions to various locations across the world, we asked Si what did he think were the 3 most important things you need to consider when ‘Investing in a DiT Trade Mission’, because that's exactly what you are doing, you are investing time, energy, resources, and above all, funds to be involved.

Si’s three key points to consider are:
1. Research the location, does it fit with a business metric? Can you realistically produce 5-10 times more in revenue than the trip costs? If it's not about revenue and it's about understanding a marketplace, then be careful to make sure it's the marketplace you can not only deliver and do business in, but to understand also the impacts on the rest of the business if it's successful.

2. Pick the right people in your team to attend. Sending one person is more than enough. The reason I say that is, it forces you to engage with the other people attending and gets you out of your comfort zone, too easy with 2 to 3 of you attending for it to become a jolly. Focus is key!

3. Request what the likely agenda will be, who you will be seeing, when and why? If it's inward investment bodies, accountants, lawyers and other professional firms, don’t waste your time! 

If you want to do business in that country/location then you need to meet prospective customers, then if there is a market for your product or service, they will not only clarify that for you in more detail, but also all the other things will come after if you secure a new client or three.

In summary Si commented: “These trade missions are only as good as what you put into them, long intensive days, strict timetables of activity that if you don’t adhere to them, you will fail to get the benefit you seek.

Furthermore, you have made all the effort to get there, don’t be a wallflower, talk to the people around you who are also in the same boat and ask questions … especially of those people who are presenting or showing you demonstrations/examples. 
They are giving up their time to ‘host you’, get as much out of it as you can.

Also, be brutally honest with yourself and your colleagues when you return, debrief them:

What was good?
What was bad?
What inspired you?
What did you find out?

Everything you think will help you and the team in your business who weren’t present. 

They may ask questions of what you did, answer them honestly, they may see things that you don’t”.

Finally you need to enjoy it … yes you are there to work but in our experience ‘highest energy wins’.

We will keep you updated through our blog and reference this DiT inspired and creative event with our follow up and further actions as a result of ‘being there’ on the West Coast.

If you would like to know more about the UK DiT or the GREAT campaign then please visit.

If you want to find out more about skignz, then please visit our new recently launched website (www.skignz.com) as well as the usual social media channels 

If you would like to download our FREE App then please Press here http://get.skignz.com

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