A visual summary of the EventTechBrief.com article, "ASP Labs is Opening Eyes with Glass & Rift." Read the full article or subscribe to receive the latest news about event technology at EventTechBrief.com.

1. aspLabs is
opening eyes
with Glass & Rift
EventTechBrief.com

2. ASP (Event Tech Brief's technology partner) has another
division called ASP Labs. They use it to experiment with non-
conventional technologies that may impact the exhibition
industry and nudge organizers into thinking more
expansively.
For the past two or three months, Nolan O’Connor, ASP’s
Chief Marketing Officer, has been meeting with trade show
organizers to share ideas and collect feedback on Google
Glass and Oculus Rift. “We’re not developing apps for Glass or
Oculus, but trying to understand how wearable technology
will impact events and websites,” he says.
They’ve discovered there’s a lot of
misunderstanding out there.

3. Glass has received
condemnation. There is even a
“Glasshole” movement
underway. The criticism comes
from the idea that users invade
the privacy of others—taking
unauthorized video and
pictures. Some in the exhibition
industry believe that it’s just
another way to surf websites
and fear having to use a small
screen.
"The whole point of Glass
is to really add value to
the surrounding
environment."
That's not how any of this works
Nolan O'Connor, ASP

4. Glass is enhancing a number
of processes: Using Glass in a
fulfillment warehouse (think
Amazon) to pick the correct
products off of shelves,
scanning airline passengers'
boarding passes to learn their
meal and beverage
preferences, or watching a
baseball game and reviewing
the batter’s average as he
steps up to the plate.
How Glass works in the “outside” world

5. Within the event industry,
O’Connor imagines how Glass
could work, such as watching
a new airplane model take
flight at the Farnborough Air
Show and using Glass to
review the history of the
aircraft and production
statistics as it flies overhead.
Fashion show buyers could use
Glass to learn more about the
designer, outfit, and cost
without detracting from the
experience of the catwalk.
Putting Glass to work in an exhibition

6. Glass can be the window through which a virtual buyer could
attend a trade show, O’Connor says. “A person might say to a
colleague, ‘I just don’t have time to leave the office, but you’re
going. Can you stop by the booth and relay what’s there?’”
Redefining there and where

7. In another scenario, a live attendee can be in one location at a
very large conference, but view the streams from other
sessions elsewhere to decide whether it’s worth going to the
other venues.
Redefining there and where

8. Oculus Rift is a more difficult pill for exhibition organizers to
swallow...
Rift represents a line of practicality that is a little more
difficult to cross. Because the technology requires that an
apparatus be strapped to the user’s head (or, O’Connor says,
viewed on a mobile app using 3D-printed eyeglasses), it’s
impractical from the outset. Plus, he admits, “You wouldn’t
want to go through the same effort of finding products [in a
trade show] that you would playing a video game.”
Exploring the rift over Rift

9. Nevertheless, there are two other possible use cases:
Exploring the rift over Rift
Marketing the event experience.
O’Connor imagines that a Rift video—say of a fighter pilot in the
cockpit of a new military aircraft—sent via email to potential
attendees of the Farnborough Air Show with the caption, “Would
you like to see what the pilot sees before you come to the show?”
might generate considerable interest.
Extending the event experience.
Rift could help attendees relive or recall something they
experienced during the live event. O’Connor shows clients a
crowdsurfing video from a concert to demonstrate the point, but
he believes there are other possibilities. Some events, such as
amusement park trade shows or the Comic Cons that are so
popular now, are ripe for experimentation with Rift.

10. ASP’s interest in both Google’s Glass and Facebook’s Oculus
Rift is in how they can enhance existing event objectives.
While the potential for Glass as a conduit between
registration and the event website is apparent, O’Connor
explains,
After all, augmented reality and virtual reality have come and
gone in the industry over the years and mobile apps—not
wearables—are the current center of the exhibition universe.
Exploring the rift over Rift
Oculus Rift applications will require some more research.

11. Exploring the rift over Rift
Still, ASP Labs’ intentions are pure. “We’re trying to
understand the challenges that organizers have and trying to
open up their minds to technology in general. They often get
pinned to the same day in and day out ways of doing things.
We’d like them to think about putting a little bit of fun back
into the event experience,” O’Connor says.

12. Presentation Brought to you By
EventTechBrief.com
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