2018: A year in the life of skignz

As we reflect back on this past year, here are just some of the skignz highlights of 2018:

Starting the Year at CES (Las Vegas, US) onto delivering a skignz experience at the GREAT Showcase at the Consulate General's Residence (Los Angeles, US), followed by a visit to Apples HQ (Cupertino, US) to talk about skignz's 'Precise Location Augmented Reality'.

Heading on to SXSW, (Austin, US) where we launched the first 'Live AR Feature Film', J1S with our partners First Word Tree Productions, on the Uk DiT's GREAT main stage. 

Further Trade Shows and Exhibitions included ICE (London), NE Satellite Conference, (Durham, UK), Georgia SMARTCity Expo (Atlanta, US), SMARTCity Expo World Congress (Spain) and SIGMA'18 (Malta).

In early summer skignz delivered a demo in time for Apples WWDC'18, showcasing the new skignz IOS functionality, captured through an in-app video on an iPhoneX. Press Here for a sneak preview.

As the summer was drawing to a close we had our first skignz 'wedding'. Our UK VP walked down the aisle with his blushing bride, as a direct result of meeting through 'location based technology' and skignz.

skignz Founder & CEO was then onto India as Part of Immerse_UK's 'VR/AR/MR Experts' tour, taking in three major cities, presenting, discussing and understanding how technology can have an impact across their continent.

The Atlanta Braves increased their exposure of the skignz Precise Location AR Technology to their fans at their Pre Season Alumni Parade, where former players were highlighted during the street parade with skignz above their heads.

skignz winning a SMART City Expo World Congress Award, coming 2nd in the European Satellite Navigation Competition and Runners Up in the UK EXPORT '18 and Dynamo 2018 Awards, is a testament to the progress we are making as a company and as a brand.

Add to the above with members of the skignz team providing notable Keynote speeches and participation on various panels, at events such as SXSW (Austin TX), NE Satellite Conference (Durham, UK), RetailLoco (Atlanta,US), AdMonsters Pub Forum (Austin, TX), participating in numerous AR & location community events, all capped by ending the year securing one of our biggest client contracts to date, for delivery in January 2019.

All in all 2018 has certainly provided its ups and downs for skignz. Yet we have emerged stronger, our own proprietary technology platform is improving and expanding its capabilities almost day by day. 

Increased investment in skignz as various VC's and Angel Investors supported skignz continued growth. Our new and existing clients are now taking advantage of what skignz's 'Precise Location AR' has to offer? And how it can help them deliver on their own targets, aspirations and in many cases 'cost savings'. 

We look forward to what 2019 has in store, especially with The NFL's Super Bowl being hosted at the magnificent MB Stadium in Atlanta, GA which is actually less than a mile from our skignz US HQ, watch this space for something quite special in January 2019.

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

skignz provides consumer insights at Retail Loco, Atlanta 2018

Hosted by the Location based Marketing Association (LBMA), Retail Loco was attended by 250+ professionals at Atlantas Tech Village.

The event provided thought provoking content on how Location Based marketing and other technologies impact on a 'consumers day'. 

Industry experts from a range of top brands, provided the audience with insight into what is currently 'going on' in the location focussed sector, whilst also giving a glimpse of what is to come in the not too distant future.

AI alongside location based AR we mentioned by many of the speakers and alot was centred around one of 2018's buzzwords 'personalization'. 

With execs from HomeDepot, Verve, Coca Cola, Gimbal and also skignz.

Tom Daly, CMO/President skignz US, took part in the afternoon panel under the title 'Location, Loyalty & Engagement', which explored the relationship between consumers and brands. 

Also looking at how brands can utilize and harness new emerging technologies to win consumer loyalty and grow fan bases.

Fancy checking more about Retail Loco? You can see them here. 

Interested in learning more about The LBMA You can find out here 


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.

 

The UK's CIC include skignz in the Createch Top 100

The UK's CiC (Creative Industries Council) have announced that skignz has been included in the UK's Top 100 Createch Companies.

At the conference it was outlined that, Createch differs from established uses of technology to automate processes or handle large volumes of data. In Createch, a creative element — such as the use of design, storytelling, audio visual material or performance — is the key constituent alongside the tech component in achieving the final output and its desired benefits.

Developing Createch fields include Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Programmatic branding, Creative Robotics, Immersive Technologies and the application of Interactivity to Performance and Experiential markets.

"The recent Createch Conference and launch of the The Resource Book, are guiding snapshots, made possible by the ongoing dialogue of the UK's creative and Tech ecosystem". said Tim Davie (Chair of CIC).

skignz was selected from over a growing 4,000 plus Createch companies and rank alongside the global brands, Facebook, King and fellow AR brands Zappar & Blippar.
Founder & CEO of skignz Si Brown Said: "We are delighted to be acknowledged amongst a great range of UK Createch companies, it's testament to the hard work of the whole skignz team and its dedication towards improving our technology in line with market trend and technology evolution.

Although its a great honour and really nice to be recognised by the CIC and other organisations we remain focussed on the development of the skignz platform, which we will be bringing out the new versions of our IOS/Android very soon.

This will be followed quickly by our new SDK/APi offerings for those who are keen to embed the skignz experience into their own Apps. 

We already have quite a large number of developers involved with our early release programme, however we are keen to get the skignz tech into the hands as many different developers as possible."

If you are interested in joining the skignz developer programme, please get in touch.

To see 'The Resource Book' please press here!

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

skignz @ Chopfest, Suntrust Park, GA

skignz launched the partnership with the Atlanta Braves (MLB) last month, at The Battery in Atlanta.

It's a mixed-use development adjacent to The Braves’ SunTrust Park, in AR. 

Using the skignz app, visitors coming to ‘The Battery’ to attend a baseball game, eat or shop can locate different venues, see parking options and get previews of special events. 

According to Greg Mize, Atlanta Braves Director of Digital Marketing, 

“This type of location-based AR is a first-of-its-kind offering. Chop Fest is a family-friendly celebration of all things Braves and although the weather tried its best to dampen spirits with a lot of rain, the day was still a huge success, and a step forward for skignz”.

During Chop Fest, the skignz app showed many of the AR skignz that will be present all the time, such as, markings of restaurants and parking garages, as well as event-specific signage. 

For example, there was an indicator showing the time and location where ‘Braves Alumni’ would be signing autographs.

Attendees could check when they should show up to meet their favourite player and follow the app to navigate to exactly where he would be.

skignz own Jamie Clarke, said that during Chop Fest, attendees were directed to download skignz from an in-app pop-up in The Battery’s own app.

The event showed how this technology will enhance the entire Battery experience.

“Imagine cutting 10 minutes off the time it takes you to find the parking garage you left your car in, or knowing exactly where the restroom is when the kids are crying”

Following our time in the 2017 Coca-Cola Bridge Community Commercialization program, the skignz team is working on a lot of additional corporate pilots.

If you want to find out about what we are doing then please keep an eye out for the updates and changes either through this blog, our regular skignz Newsletters or any of our Social Media channels.

skignz is Runner Up in PD Ports, Export Awards

We are so excited and proud to have been shortlisted for the 'Most Entrepreneurial Exporter of the Year'.

On the 22nd February, we will be joining some other amazing companies, who have been nominated in one or more of the nine categories.The shortlist for the PD Ports Northern Powerhouse Export Awards 2018 in association with HSBC has officially been announced.​A range of companies from across the North of England have made the final shortlist for this year’s PD Ports Northern Powerhouse Export Awards, hosted and organised by BQ in association with HSBC.
Judges from PD Ports, BQ, Chamber International and the Institute of Export will meet towards the end of the month to decide the overall winners of each category and select the PD Ports Northern Powerhouse Exporter of the Year.

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This year PD Ports, Northern Powerhouse Export Awards is in association with HSBC and this prestigious event will be taking place in the City of Leeds at their Beautiful Town Hall.  

This year is being lauded to be bigger and better than ever before and is a fantastic opportunity for us, we can't wait for the big evening.

Update:
Unfortunately skignz didn't win on this occasion, we consider being Runner-up as acknowledgement of how far we have come in the last 12-months with regards to our export activity, soemthing we will be continuing to many more countries throughout 2018.

The evening was well attended and great to be part of. Thank-you to PD Ports and all the other sponsors for making this happen, maybe skignz will have better luck next year?

You can see more about these awards at: www.northernexportawards.co.uk

Wish us luck!

#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.

 

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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