July 9, 2025 • 12 mins
In this episode, AREA Executive Director Mark Sage chats with Troy Wood, Executive Director of Marketing at HTC.
Troy shares what fuels his passion for XR and why he sees the AREA as a critical force in shaping the industry’s future. He reflects on HTC’s leadership role and emphasizes how collaboration through AREA helps address real barriers to enterprise XR adoption—like standardization, awareness, and ecosystem maturity.
As the new chair of the AREA Marketing Committee, Troy outlines a clear mission: spotlight enterprise success stories, foster deeper collaboration, and elevate XR’s profile across industries. He also shares what it will take to keep XR innovation alive—continued education, aligned messaging, and a community-wide push to move from pilot projects to real-world impact.
Image still from Vive.com video "HTC VIVE at MWC 2025" Please visit the AREA.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Hello everybody. It's Mark Sage,Executive Director of the AREA,
AR for Enterprise Alliance, andwelcome to our latest Fireside Chat.
Our Fireside Chat program is bringingthe industry experts asking them three or
four key questions,
hopefully around 15 minutes to give yousnippets of what's happening in the XR
industry. And I'm super excitedto have with me today Troy,
(00:32):
Troy Wood from HTC. Troy,
you've got some exciting news totell us as well. But to start with,
just tell us a little bit about yourselfand you're going to be helping us out
in the Area Marketing Committee,
so talk to us a little bit aboutwhat's exciting you about that.
Yeah, you bet. Thanks for having me.
So I've been in marketingfor emerging tech
(00:54):
for almost my entire career.
And I started out whenmobile smartphones were a new
thing, a new platform in the ad space.
And then I had worked at Microsoft and
Amazon's setting up theirdeveloper ecosystems to use
(01:15):
ads inside their own appson mobile phones and tablets
and such. And then about 10 years ago,
I came to HTC and I thoughtit was going to be a
short stint,
but then they showed methis kind of behind three
locked doors, proof of concept productthat they were working on with Valve.
(01:38):
And it was the first widelycommercially available VR
headset. And so I'vebeen hooked ever since.
And I led global partnermarketing for them for a long
time,
working with the OEM onthe PC side and the GPU
side and all the accessories thatwent along with it. So we started
(02:02):
out in gaming, a lot of gamingand VR arcade type stuff.
And then we moved intoenterprise and this was,
gosh, the headset came out in 2016,
and so by 2019 around there, 2020,
that's when it got really heavyinto the enterprise space.
(02:24):
And we saw a lot of adoptionfrom industries like healthcare
and defense, publicsector, law enforcement,
that sort of thing where theyneeded privacy and security and things that fit in
with their broader IT ecosystem.
And so it was cool forme because I love partner
(02:45):
marketing, that's kind ofwhere I've always been,
but I always felt thaton the consumer side,
it's a bit fluffy and you kind of wonderwhat am I actually contributing to?
But the thing aboutEnterprise XR is you literally
see this is helpingpeople do what they do but
better and they're ableto train more efficiently
(03:09):
operationally,
it makes for better work out there.And so I've
been dedicating my work lifefor the past several years
to advancing that ecosystemand really telling the stories
of the companies who are helping to make
(03:30):
change so that other folkscan adopt it similarly.
So that's why I'm really excited to bewith the area because the core mission
is amplifying the realmeasurable value that AR is
bringing and also providingtrue actual guidance.
That's what sets this organizationapart is it's an alliance
(03:52):
of actual people who are leadingthese deployments and who are saying,
here's how you do it so thatthe entire industry can advance.
Amazing. Thank you. Youprobably don't know Troy,
but I've got a real softspot for HT C anyway.
I launched the first Android phoneback in the day in the UK and
France, and it was an HTC device,
(04:12):
so it was an awesome device. So cool.
Going back to our beloved XR ecosystem.
So what are your thoughts on the currentXR ecosystem and what do you think a
city area can do tocontribute to its growth?
Yeah,
I mean there's been kind of a renewedexcitement around the space with some
(04:34):
of the recent announcementsthat have come to market.
And so we think that thespace is primed to grow fast.
There was some manner ofhype fatigue for a bit,
and budgets kind of reflected that,
but now we are seeing in actual ROI
(04:54):
the impact that rollout couldhave. So for the XR ecosystem,
I mean there's still some peoplewho are unsure how to get started.
There's technical impedimentsthat people run into.
But the good news is that you havepeople who have gone out before you
and have been on this path andare kind of lighting the way for,
(05:16):
here's what you're going to run into,here's how you need to get in front of it,
both internally and froma leadership perspective,
getting buy-in and then also fromjust a technical implementation. So
there's been lots of innovation,
but traditionally there hasn't beenenough clarity on the ROI or the best
practices. So that's where area comes in,
(05:37):
offering the frameworks, the guidance,
the cross industry insights thatcan help to cut through that noise.
So I think in a unique position,
that's why I'm excited to jointhe marketing committee is we
are in a unique position becausewe have Boeing and Lockheed
Ericsson and ExxonMobil andRaytheon participating in
(06:02):
the community.
We're in a unique position to highlightwhat's working and to connect the right
people, build confidencein these platforms,
and then turn all of that,
the huge interest that'sout there into action,
helping to make companieshave informed decisions.
And I'd like thank you for talkingabout things that are actually making it
(06:25):
happen and getting it correct,
but also learning from mistakes isanother big piece I think we can do.
We're very lucky, and wechatted about it before,
there are a number of experts thathave spent a long time in their career
refining solutions and have done somethings that are wrong. So sharing that,
not just how to do it but not howto do it is a really good thing as
(06:48):
well. I think so. I mean.
That's how I learned things,unfortunately. Right. Yeah. It's trial by error.
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. No, you'reabsolutely right. So as I said,
you're coming on board as thearea marketing committee chair,
so thank you for that. What are yourmain goals? I know you've just started,
but what you've been thinking aboutand how is that marketing committee
(07:12):
going to support the area's mission?
Yeah, I mean,
I've never seen a greater wealth
of existing content in terms of the depth
and usefulness of the materials thathave been created. Like you said,
it's all the people who areleading the way. It's crazy.
(07:34):
Before I joined the marketing committee,
we would meet people justin BD meetings through HTC,
and it was always, oh,
the person who knowsthe most at X company,
we need to stay in touch withthem and this company the same.
And then it turns out these arethe people who are in the area and
participating in theworking sessions and stuff.
(07:57):
So that was pretty cool to see.
My top priority as marketingchair is to build a
more consistent highimpact content strategy.
And so that means taking allof these member learnings
and the success stories to kindof package that content in a way
(08:20):
that helps people understand howAR is being used effectively. But
just as importantly, itneeds to be consumable.
We need to chop it up and makesure that it's everywhere.
So we need to growareas, digital footprint,
I think stronger SEO, wider distribution,
more targeted distribution,getting traffic back to the site,
(08:43):
growing the site rankings. I think wecan do a lot of smart collaborations.
People throw around the wordinfluencer, thought leader,
subject matter expert quite a bit.
I think we have manymembers who can contribute
ideas and co-market so that everyonecan kind of learn from that space.
(09:03):
But it's about getting smartwith the collaborations and
the influencer partnerships,the media outreach,
it's basically just getting more eyeson these things and more engagement
so that we
also want to highlight the memberorganizations so that it's a win-win there
(09:25):
and we can leverage the marketingteams at the contributing members.
So yeah, that's basically an overview.
It's like we have a wealth of contentneeds to be consumable and it needs to be
spread widely and in a targeted manner.
Perfect. Thank you. And Iguess taking my crystal ball,
(09:45):
what do you see the future?
How is XR evolving and what dowe need to do in the area to
keep evolving and be atthe forefront of that?
I mentioned earlier that I was part of the
advent of the smartphone ageand even I was at the advent
of digital marketing and
(10:07):
apps and ads and apps before I and
self-serve ad platforms andreal time bidding ad exchanges.
I've been at the early stages ofa lot of different industries.
And so I've seen the hype cycle and
when an industry is movingfrom what's possible
(10:29):
to what's useful,
and I think we've arrivedat what's useful and
area is here's how you do it.
And so I think that for theareas like training and remote
collaboration and design vis,
(10:51):
I think we are just naturally atthe forefront because our members
are the ones who are driving it.
So we just need to highlightthose learnings and those stories.
And it becomes even more important as gen
AI accelerates all ofthis in the XR space,
(11:11):
it'll become more adaptiveand personalized and scalable
and low-code sort of thing.
Real-time changes withinaugmented environment.
And so area needs to lead with substance
because that is our true differentiator.
So that means more researchreports, case studies,
(11:35):
turning those into formatsthat are easy to engage with,
and creating an AI content engine thatpushes that out across the different
channels.
We're kind of the sole repositoryfor a lot of those expert
round tables.
And so those are the types of marketingstrategies that keep area at the
(11:58):
forefront. We just need to meet ouraudience where they already are.
Amazing. Troy,
I think this is a start of an ongoingconversation and I think it would be great
for you to carry on talkingto a kind of ecosystem about
what you are doing, what HTC are doingand what the AREA's doing. But for now,
thank you very much for that great insightand we're really looking forward to
(12:20):
working with you at the AREAand HTC. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much for havingme. I'm excited to join.
Hello everybody. It's Mark Sage,Executive Director of the AREA,
AR for Enterprise Alliance, andwelcome to our latest Fireside Chat.
Our Fireside Chat program is bringingthe industry experts asking them three or
four key questions,
hopefully around 15 minutes to give yousnippets of what's happening in the XR
industry. And I'm super excitedto have with me today Troy,
(00:32):
Troy Wood from HTC. Troy,
you've got some exciting news totell us as well. But to start with,
just tell us a little bit about yourselfand you're going to be helping us out
in the Area Marketing Committee,
so talk to us a little bit aboutwhat's exciting you about that.
Yeah, you bet. Thanks for having me.
So I've been in marketingfor emerging tech
(00:54):
for almost my entire career.
And I started out whenmobile smartphones were a new
thing, a new platform in the ad space.
And then I had worked at Microsoft and
Amazon's setting up theirdeveloper ecosystems to use
(01:15):
ads inside their own appson mobile phones and tablets
and such. And then about 10 years ago,
I came to HTC and I thoughtit was going to be a
short stint,
but then they showed methis kind of behind three
locked doors, proof of concept productthat they were working on with Valve.
(01:38):
And it was the first widelycommercially available VR
headset. And so I'vebeen hooked ever since.
And I led global partnermarketing for them for a long
time,
working with the OEM onthe PC side and the GPU
side and all the accessories thatwent along with it. So we started
(02:02):
out in gaming, a lot of gamingand VR arcade type stuff.
And then we moved intoenterprise and this was,
gosh, the headset came out in 2016,
and so by 2019 around there, 2020,
that's when it got really heavyinto the enterprise space.
(02:24):
And we saw a lot of adoptionfrom industries like healthcare
and defense, publicsector, law enforcement,
that sort of thing where theyneeded privacy and security and things that fit in
with their broader IT ecosystem.
And so it was cool forme because I love partner
(02:45):
marketing, that's kind ofwhere I've always been,
but I always felt thaton the consumer side,
it's a bit fluffy and you kind of wonderwhat am I actually contributing to?
But the thing aboutEnterprise XR is you literally
see this is helpingpeople do what they do but
better and they're ableto train more efficiently
(03:09):
operationally,
it makes for better work out there.And so I've
been dedicating my work lifefor the past several years
to advancing that ecosystemand really telling the stories
of the companies who are helping to make
(03:30):
change so that other folkscan adopt it similarly.
So that's why I'm really excited to bewith the area because the core mission
is amplifying the realmeasurable value that AR is
bringing and also providingtrue actual guidance.
That's what sets this organizationapart is it's an alliance
(03:52):
of actual people who are leadingthese deployments and who are saying,
here's how you do it so thatthe entire industry can advance.
Amazing. Thank you. Youprobably don't know Troy,
but I've got a real softspot for HT C anyway.
I launched the first Android phoneback in the day in the UK and
France, and it was an HTC device,
(04:12):
so it was an awesome device. So cool.
Going back to our beloved XR ecosystem.
So what are your thoughts on the currentXR ecosystem and what do you think a
city area can do tocontribute to its growth?
Yeah,
I mean there's been kind of a renewedexcitement around the space with some
(04:34):
of the recent announcementsthat have come to market.
And so we think that thespace is primed to grow fast.
There was some manner ofhype fatigue for a bit,
and budgets kind of reflected that,
but now we are seeing in actual ROI
(04:54):
the impact that rollout couldhave. So for the XR ecosystem,
I mean there's still some peoplewho are unsure how to get started.
There's technical impedimentsthat people run into.
But the good news is that you havepeople who have gone out before you
and have been on this path andare kind of lighting the way for,
(05:16):
here's what you're going to run into,here's how you need to get in front of it,
both internally and froma leadership perspective,
getting buy-in and then also fromjust a technical implementation. So
there's been lots of innovation,
but traditionally there hasn't beenenough clarity on the ROI or the best
practices. So that's where area comes in,
(05:37):
offering the frameworks, the guidance,
the cross industry insights thatcan help to cut through that noise.
So I think in a unique position,
that's why I'm excited to jointhe marketing committee is we
are in a unique position becausewe have Boeing and Lockheed
Ericsson and ExxonMobil andRaytheon participating in
(06:02):
the community.
We're in a unique position to highlightwhat's working and to connect the right
people, build confidencein these platforms,
and then turn all of that,
the huge interest that'sout there into action,
helping to make companieshave informed decisions.
And I'd like thank you for talkingabout things that are actually making it
(06:25):
happen and getting it correct,
but also learning from mistakes isanother big piece I think we can do.
We're very lucky, and wechatted about it before,
there are a number of experts thathave spent a long time in their career
refining solutions and have done somethings that are wrong. So sharing that,
not just how to do it but not howto do it is a really good thing as
(06:48):
well. I think so. I mean.
That's how I learned things,unfortunately. Right. Yeah. It's trial by error.
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. No, you'reabsolutely right. So as I said,
you're coming on board as thearea marketing committee chair,
so thank you for that. What are yourmain goals? I know you've just started,
but what you've been thinking aboutand how is that marketing committee
(07:12):
going to support the area's mission?
Yeah, I mean,
I've never seen a greater wealth
of existing content in terms of the depth
and usefulness of the materials thathave been created. Like you said,
it's all the people who areleading the way. It's crazy.
(07:34):
Before I joined the marketing committee,
we would meet people justin BD meetings through HTC,
and it was always, oh,
the person who knowsthe most at X company,
we need to stay in touch withthem and this company the same.
And then it turns out these arethe people who are in the area and
participating in theworking sessions and stuff.
(07:57):
So that was pretty cool to see.
My top priority as marketingchair is to build a
more consistent highimpact content strategy.
And so that means taking allof these member learnings
and the success stories to kindof package that content in a way
(08:20):
that helps people understand howAR is being used effectively. But
just as importantly, itneeds to be consumable.
We need to chop it up and makesure that it's everywhere.
So we need to growareas, digital footprint,
I think stronger SEO, wider distribution,
more targeted distribution,getting traffic back to the site,
(08:43):
growing the site rankings. I think wecan do a lot of smart collaborations.
People throw around the wordinfluencer, thought leader,
subject matter expert quite a bit.
I think we have manymembers who can contribute
ideas and co-market so that everyonecan kind of learn from that space.
(09:03):
But it's about getting smartwith the collaborations and
the influencer partnerships,the media outreach,
it's basically just getting more eyeson these things and more engagement
so that we
also want to highlight the memberorganizations so that it's a win-win there
(09:25):
and we can leverage the marketingteams at the contributing members.
So yeah, that's basically an overview.
It's like we have a wealth of contentneeds to be consumable and it needs to be
spread widely and in a targeted manner.
Perfect. Thank you. And Iguess taking my crystal ball,
(09:45):
what do you see the future?
How is XR evolving and what dowe need to do in the area to
keep evolving and be atthe forefront of that?
I mentioned earlier that I was part of the
advent of the smartphone ageand even I was at the advent
of digital marketing and
(10:07):
apps and ads and apps before I and
self-serve ad platforms andreal time bidding ad exchanges.
I've been at the early stages ofa lot of different industries.
And so I've seen the hype cycle and
when an industry is movingfrom what's possible
(10:29):
to what's useful,
and I think we've arrivedat what's useful and
area is here's how you do it.
And so I think that for theareas like training and remote
collaboration and design vis,
(10:51):
I think we are just naturally atthe forefront because our members
are the ones who are driving it.
So we just need to highlightthose learnings and those stories.
And it becomes even more important as gen
AI accelerates all ofthis in the XR space,
(11:11):
it'll become more adaptiveand personalized and scalable
and low-code sort of thing.
Real-time changes withinaugmented environment.
And so area needs to lead with substance
because that is our true differentiator.
So that means more researchreports, case studies,
(11:35):
turning those into formatsthat are easy to engage with,
and creating an AI content engine thatpushes that out across the different
channels.
We're kind of the sole repositoryfor a lot of those expert
round tables.
And so those are the types of marketingstrategies that keep area at the
(11:58):
forefront. We just need to meet ouraudience where they already are.
Amazing. Troy,
I think this is a start of an ongoingconversation and I think it would be great
for you to carry on talkingto a kind of ecosystem about
what you are doing, what HTC are doingand what the AREA's doing. But for now,
thank you very much for that great insightand we're really looking forward to
(12:20):
working with you at the AREAand HTC. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much for havingme. I'm excited to join.
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