Innovation

I went to Siggraph Los Angeles in California last July. Much more dedicated to image, motion capture, 3d glasses, special effects, cameras  for movies. Also many 3D printers.
Nevertheless, a lot of interesting conferences - apart the focus on Avatar, IronMan, etc…but less exhibiting companies that in the previous years – according to the exhibitors I met.
So (?) next edition will be in Vancouver, Canada which is becoming more and more the new city of production of motion pictures – to the detriment of the City of Angels…
I went there to meet companies and I also took the opportunity to accompany 2 startups of the WIN network : Enozone of Laval and Superdev of Limoges.

Laval Virtual was having a booth to make the promotion of the 2011 event that will be held in Laval, Western France on April 6-10, 2011.

As well as a student – and a teacher – of Ecole du Design de Nantes Atlantique who has been selected to compete with Artoo at the Disney Learning Challenge. Unfortunately Bastien didn’t win an award but his application (Learn with Shapes) has had a lot of success. The selection of Artoo is a testimony of the ability of the students of this school and the Western France territory.  So congrats.

The Emerging technologies area was the place where you could have found some amazing techs and apps. Like a part of Laval Virtual that shows each year such techs. It was also an area where you could have met some French people -often from the Western France area – who left France to join teams abroad (for instance in Japan..).

And this is also LA :

Journée extrèmement intéressante ce vendredi 18 juin dernier à Nantes.
C’était la deuxième édition du Web2day organisé par Atlantic 2.0, le réseau nantais des acteurs du web et du numérique.
Si d’aventure, vous aviez besoin d’être convaincus du fait que sur notre territoire se trouvent des acteurs intéressants, que notre territoire en attire de nouveaux et qu’il se passe des choses en IT sur Nantes et la région Pays de la Loire,  n’hésitez pas à visionner les vidéos qui se trouvent sur la chaine d’Atlantic 2.0 sur DailyMotion.

Vous y trouverez :
 
Web2Day 2010 – Interviews

 
Paysage numérique Pays de Loire

Atteindre son but grâce au Web

et 4 vidéos concernent le financement du numérique (avec les comparaisons entre ce qui se passe dans la Silicon Valley vs France/Europe) :

On attend l’édition 2011 du web2day nantais !

The World Investment Conference WIC will be held on 2, 3 and 4 June in La Baule.

It is the only European conference focused on technology, business, investments and policies to stimulate global economic growth.

Taking place each year in La Baule (Western France), it gathers more than 300 business leaders, investors, innovators, public officials and international media.

More information and registration on http://www.labaulewic.org

If you are a company from the Pays de la Loire region, register with a special 50% discount on http://www.ouest-atlantique.eu/

Let’s meet in La Baule next week !

I was yesterday at Laval for Laval Virtual, the 12th edition of this event dedicated to the European virtual and augmented reality.
A brief outline : 
- less immersive helmets than in 2009
- a focus on apps dedicated to museums (for example : Personal Space Tech BV from NL that showed a digitized artifact in 3D and allows the visitor to actually control it – see picture and the interactive visit of the Douanier Rousseau museum made by a Laval startup Enozone).

- tactile display screens (table, smartphone).

The area of the fair devoted to the students (Virtual Fantaisy) was interesting and creative  too : for example « Le Petit Chaperon Rouge » showed in AR by l’Ecole Poytechnique de Montreal… as well as the « Dummy’s Dream » by ESCIN and ESIEA (combination of virtual universe in stereoscopic relief and a real computerized puppet).

The IVRC award had been given to Immersive Rail Shooter, a concept of video game on AR by David Arenou of Ecole du Design de Nantes Atlantique. Congrats !

The award Virtual Fantaisy (limited time : 30 hours to lead a project) had been given to Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. Congrats too !

- Last but not least : some fun demos too such as bubble click from Sony (see picture below) and many more that the large audience will have the pleasure to test during the week-end. 
Thanks to this audience, Laval Virtual will be a hugue Augmented and Virtual Reality Lab for all the demos.

Many more info : www.lavalvirtual.org

The World Investment Conference will be held in about 2 months in La Baule, Western France on June 2-3 and 4.

First insert the event and the dates on your schedule (on your smartphone, on Outlook, on your office calendar, on a paper, where you’ll be sure to think of this, etc..) and follow the news about it through :

to be sure to attend it.

Hosted by Europe+ Foundation and co-founded by PGA Group and Ernst & Young, the World Investment Conference (WIC) brings together global stakeholders in business, technology, investments and policies through an exclusive high level platform.

Since 2003, more than 5,000 top leaders and influencers have participated in this unique conference to shape the future of international investment and the policies that surround economic growth. The event has won worldwide recognition.

This year, the World Investment Conference is more than ever committed to providing positive answers and sustainable solutions to overcome the current downturn affecting our regions, countries and businesses.

Current economic growth opportunities and challenges will be addressed through panels, speeches and collaborative workshops dedicated to finding solutions.

WIC is an independent organization, funded by private and public entities and backed by the European Commission.

More details : http://www.labaulewic.org/

Teradadesign of Tokyo in Japan launched the N Building project. (have a look on the video on their web site).

N Building is a commercial structure located near Tachikawa station amidst a shopping district. Being a commercial building signs or billboards are typically attached to its facade which Terada designers feel undermines the structures’ identity.
As a solution they thought to use a QR Code as the facade itself. By reading the QR Code with our mobile device, we will be taken to a site which includes up to date shop information.
In this manner they envision a cityscape unhindered by ubiquitous signage and also an improvement to the quality and accuracy of the information itself.

December 15th, 2009 they held an opening which included the limited release of an iPhone application made specifically for N Building.

Amazing, isn’it ?