This week, I spent time in Los Angeles, California to attend an industry conference. The event is called the Vision Summit and it’s focused on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). It was a large conference, with over 1,500 people attending:
Like many conferences, there were keynote addresses, along with a host of individual sessions about specific topics. Our company presented one of these sessions, all about optimizing VR for mobile devices.
I also enjoyed a panel discussion about the use of VR in journalism and reporting. They had folks from ABC News talk about their emerging use of the new technology.
The location of the conference was actually in Hollywood. Specifically, we were at the intersection of Hollywood and Highland - sort of the Times Square of LA. It’s filled with tourists, cheap souvenirs, and gimmicky attractions. You’ll also find the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I only had time to capture a couple of stars in the sidewalk:
Next door was Mann’s Chinese Theater - where movie stars from years ago would come to premiers and put their hand/foot prints in cement.
Of course, there’s a wax museum tour…with poor Marilyn Monroe on display for all to see
And where else can you find Deadpool, Snow White and Catwoman all hanging out with each other?
Back at the conference, we learned about where all the VR talent is located across the globe. As you might expect, the majority (40%) of creators are in the U.S. with a combined Europe only at 17%. We’ll see how that progresses as the VR market starts to emerge in the next few years.
There were lots of great demos to experience. Most of these are difficult to show, but some of the smarter vendors would allow you to see what the participants were actually experiencing:
Here, a potential customer is taking a virtual look at an Audi car. He’s looking all around the expensive car, without traveling to a showroom:
The event was held on the top floors of the Loews Hotel. The weather was amazing, and you could even see downtown LA - which is rare. Usually, the smog prevents any kind of view like this:
After the conference was over, I had one more day in LA. I traveled to Venice, which is located near the beach (Venice Beach). It’s a really strange place - I used to live near there and would regularly go to Venice to watch the strange and exotic people that were there. Art can be found everywhere, including the sides of buildings:
I was there to meet with Snapchat, to talk about how to help them improve the performance of their app. They were really interesting to talk to:
Afterwards, I walked north to Santa Monica, which the beaches were much, much nicer than Venice. And the real estate is a lot more expensive...
I had a LOT of time before my train was to leave that night. I decided to drive to the Los Angeles LDS Temple, to attend a session while I had the time. It’s a beautiful structure, right in the heart of LA:
Unfortunately, the power had gone out earlier that day, and everything was shut down. I was really bummed. However, strolling outside along the grounds was still a good experience.
With time on my hands, my brilliant wife suggested I go visit Pink’s. This is a famous hot dog stand in LA, that’s an icon of Southern California. Being a huge fan of hot dogs, I went to try some newer menu items.
Now - I didn’t eat all of these…but I sampled each. On the left, you have the Swiss and Mushroom Dog. In the middle is the Lord of the Rings Dog, complete with onion rings and BBQ sauce. The one on the right is a standard Pink’s dog - which I always enjoy.
I headed for Los Angeles Union Station, to wait for my train. I boarded around 10pm and headed to my sleeper roomette. Here’s a quick look at the room when the bed is turned down:
The journey was much the same as described in the previous post. I learned a couple of things from the earlier ride and it made things run a little smoother, like bringing ear plugs ; )
During the next day, the scenery was much the same. this time, I was on the side of the train facing south. At one point, near El Paso, Texas we ran really close to the Mexican border:
Every once-in-a-while, the scenery would change...and you got a decent view of nature's beauty:
I arrived in San Antonio at about 6:30am on Friday. Again, a relaxing and relatively uneventful journey all the way from California. I think it would be fun to take the kids on a trip like this - these trains go all the way to Chicago or Orlando. We’d have to get a larger room, as you could barely fit two adults in these roomettes. However, it’s a change of pace that might actually help on a trip like that.
That’s it for my big VR conference in LA! Thanks for reading!
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