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

KPMG Presents: The Best British Mobile Startup 2016

skignz came a worthy Runner-up in the KPMG - The Best British Mobile Startup Awards 2016, held in Manchester, UK

skignz along with the other shortlisted companies presented to an esteemed audience and judges at KPMG's Manchester office at St.Peter's Square on Wednesday 19th January 2016.

The deserved winner VST Enterprises has now been given the opportunity to present on stage at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain this February.

skignz enjoyed the experience especially as it allowed us to showcase our technology to a new audience of people, not only with the presentation but also the live demo provided for all in attendance.

If you would like to know more about KPMG then please visit: https://home.kpmg.com/uk/en/home.html

If you would like to know more about MWC then please visit: http://www.kpmgtechgrowth.co.uk/tag/mobile-world-congress-2015/

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

Review of 2015

2015 proved to be an award winning and interesting time for skignz, as well as externally, in the world of AR.

The landscape of AR changed quite significantly throughout 2015, as either acquisitions, or investments were made, reducing the number of companies in the market. Blippar invested heavily (increasing their worth to circa £1.4b) whilst also acquiring their biggest rival, Layar.

Other companies such as Apple acquired Metaio and Google invested even further ($542m) into MagicLeap.  

Other companies apps were not renewed and many digital/ad/creative agencies had to look for other ways to offer their client AR experiences, with Junaio being acquired and stopping its SDK for others to use. In addition, INTEL acquired RECON.

Also across the wider market, Apple introduced the ability to be able to open one app from another, something that was not previously available on the iTunes App store.

We know that skignz are focussed on AR, however VR's emergence over the past few months made some waves, with more progress from Occults Rift and even Facebook. Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg, quoting our own Co-founder & CMO Si Brown, stated that "Why look at your phone, when you can look through it!". 

Other VR progress was made in line with the huge interest in the technology. The first Oculus Rift Headsets were due to be shipped in the final quarter of 2015.

Moving on to skignz, the biggest difference you will have seen is the aesthetics of the skignz website and the skignz app. Considerable time was spent in developing 'version 2.0' for IOS with Android being currently finalised. 

In addition to the new look and feel, skignz were present at many outdoor events such as PRIDE LDN, Glastonbury, EDC & Leeds Festival. 

The feedback on the tech and also the performance exceeded even our high expectations.

Another key milestone was the development and introduction of the 'ARtAbove' channel, allowing ANY Artist, ANYWHERE in the World to place their own Art ANYWHERE they want, essentially making the whole world a gallery. 

This was developed in conjunction with artist Martin McCloon and was even showcased at Disgraceland (Banksy's Installation in Weston Super-mare), actually subverting the subversive.

2015 was an award winning year for skignz as they were voted as 'The UK's Most Disruptive Tech Startup' by Ignite, 'TechAwards NE', 'Thinking Digital' and the 'Marketing Award' at the BNBA'15. 2016 has already started with a bang, with skignz being shortlisted again in the BNBA'16 and last week coming Runner up in KPMG's 'Best British Mobile Startup'.

skignz increased their team with key additions of Jamie Clarke (Head of DV Partnerships) and David Murphy (Head of Sports Partnerships) both settling in quickly and hitting the ground running across the many conferences and events in the final quarter of the year.

In the final weeks of the year skignz launched their #skignzsanta experience, which allowed parents to follow the 12 days lead up to Christmas eve whilst learning each day how to set up their own personalised #skignzsanta. 

Parents placed two skignz outside their homes so when Santa was close (following on the NORAD or Google Santa websites) parents could show 'Santa' flying past through their magic santa camera Smartphone or tablet.

Initially they saw what looked like Santa in his sleigh being led away by his reindeers, then parents 'panned across the sky' to reveal a special 'personalised note' to their child(ren), telling them he can only deliver when they are fast asleep. 

The hundreds of people who did this across the globe said their children were simply ‘blown away’ by the experience, and getting them to sleep was a lot easier than normal! 

We will be looking into doing a similar thing for Christmas 2016 but we have a lot of other interesting and exciting 'skignz' projects to deliver before then...

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