November 12, 2024 • 37 mins
Skip Kimpel welcomes John Cunningham to the Tech Chef Podcast to delve into the transformative world of Extended Reality (XR) and its implications for various industries, particularly hospitality. Cunningham, a seasoned expert in the XR field, shares his extensive background, including his military experience and roles in significant tech companies. He emphasizes the rapid evolution of XR technologies and their growing accessibility, paving the way for widespread adoption across sectors. The discussion highlights XR's potential in enhancing training and development processes, arguing that immersive training environments can significantly improve knowledge retention and skills acquisition compared to traditional methods. For industries like hospitality, the integration of XR could lead to safer, more cost-effective training solutions while minimizing food waste and enhancing employee preparedness.
The conversation shifts towards the practical applications of XR in collaborative environments, especially in remote work scenarios. Cunningham illustrates how XR can revolutionize product design and prototyping, allowing teams to visualize and manipulate designs in real-time, fostering creativity and efficiency. This capability is crucial for industries that rely on visual collaboration, such as hospitality, where layout and design decisions can have a profound impact on operational efficiency and customer experience. As Cunningham discusses the need for organizations to embrace XR, he underscores the importance of strategic planning and the consideration of IT infrastructure to support these emerging technologies. The episode concludes with an exciting announcement about an upcoming XR Boot Camp aimed at empowering industry professionals with the knowledge and tools necessary to implement XR solutions effectively.
Takeaways:
- Extended Reality (XR) is reshaping industries by enhancing training, collaboration, and customer experiences.
- The hospitality sector stands to benefit significantly from XR technology for training and operational efficiency.
- XR technology is no longer just for large enterprises; smaller organizations can adopt it effectively.
- Organizations should consider a consulting partner with XR experience to guide implementation.
- The integration of AI and XR is transforming product design and development processes.
- As XR technology becomes more affordable, its adoption across diverse industries is rapidly increasing.
Links referenced in this episode:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You are listening to the TechChef Podcast. This is episode number
79, November 12, 2024.
This show is powered by Growth Advisors.
International Network wheretravel and hospitality companies
come to grow. For moreinformation please visit gainadvisors.com.
(00:23):
This is John Cunningham,President of Virtualware USA and
you are listening to Skip onthe Tech Chef Podcast.
Off Premise Strategy, BusinessContinuity. How about a taste test
of restaurant technology,drive through or curbside mobile
(00:44):
apps or AI? It's all on themenu, cooking up for the date. It's
a recipe for success. You'rein good hands with a Tech Chef. Pick
a plan to be your beststrategy with the Tech Chef.
(01:05):
Welcome to another episode ofthe Tech Chef. This is your host,
Skip Kimple and we have anexciting show lined up for you today
featuring a very good friendof mine, John Cunningham to talk
about the part of thetechnology stack you are more than
likely overlooking. Intrigued?Well, more on that a little bit later.
(01:25):
Many of you are currently atRestaurant Finance and Development
Conference out in Las Vegaswhile I'm here back at an event in
Orlando. I hope you are allsurviving Vegas and have a very productive
conference. I can't wait tohear all of the great things that
come out of the show and I'mwatching each and every one of you
on LinkedIn. As I mentioned inthe episode last Tuesday, I would
(01:47):
like to thank Growth AdvisorsInternational Network, otherwise
known as gain, for sponsoringthis show. More on that in the next
episode. First time listeners,thank you so much for taking time
out of your busy day to listento this episode and make sure that
you subscribe to this showthrough your favorite podcast platform.
We're on them all so it is nothard to miss us. Just look for the
(02:10):
Tech Chef or click on the linkin the show notes to easily plug
into the show. For thethousands of you that listen in over
100 countries, welcome back.By the way, make sure you listen
all the way to the end of theshow for a special announcement that
you as faithful listeners willhave first dibs on. Today I have
(02:31):
a very special guest. Mr. JohnCunningham is here to talk about
how XR, otherwise known asExtended Reality, is shaping the
enterprise marketplace and howhospitality can benefit from all
of the years of research andmoney spent and the success in other
industries. John currentlyserves as a President and Board Advisor
(02:53):
to virtualware, CEO of SpatialSynergy, COO of the Global VR AR
association, and serves as theDirector of Special Programs at the
Space Force Association.Throughout his 30 year career in
high tech, John has helpedcompanies create new lines of revenue
and grow existing revenuesthrough new product development and
(03:16):
global market expansion. Hehas built high performing direct
and indirect salesorganizations for leading technology
companies such as UnityTechnologies, Aruba Networks, Motorola,
HP and Verizon. As a pioneerin the XR and AI industry, John has
helped organizations such asthe U.S. department of Defense, Army
(03:38):
Corps of Engineering, LockheedMartin, NASA, Siemens Energy and
the City of Orlando implementXR and AI into their operations.
In 2019, he established theCentral Florida Chapter of the VR
AR association to foster thecreation of the modeling and simulation
ecosystem which has grown tothe largest and most active globally
(04:02):
and now serves as the ChiefOperating Officer of the vrara, helping
to lead the industryassociation's presence around the
world. In 2020, John was hiredby Unity Technologies to develop
Unity's public sectorstrategic plan and build their government
and aerospace business andbrand. He led the business to win
(04:23):
many large direct programs todevelop transformational xr, AI and
digital twin solutions as wellas building a large ecosystem of
integrators, independentsoftware developers and device manufacturers.
Nearly 90% of all XR solutionsacross the public sector are made
with unity. John is alsohelping the rapidly growing space
(04:47):
industry to take advantage ofthe new technologies such Americas
XR and AI and serves as aDirector at the Space Force association
where he co founded and helpsto lead the Space Force Association's
Creator League which is atechnology skills development program
to help develop the UnitedStates Space Force's digital capabilities.
(05:09):
Yesterday was Veterans Day, soI would like to mention that John
also served in the US army asa communications and special operations
officer and served in threedifferent overseas campaigns. John,
thank you for your service.Well, with a resume like that you
can tell John knows what he'stalking about. We are lucky enough
to have him spend the next 30minutes with us to share his background
(05:34):
knowledge, existing technologyopportunities and future facing technologies
as it relates to xr. Enjoy theshow. John, you have an impressive
journey across the tech and XRspace. From your background in the
military to UNITY to yourcurrent roles with the VR AR Association.
(05:55):
Virtual Wear, Spatial synergy.Goodness gracious. I'll look at your
bio and I don't know where tobegin. Could you share a little bit
about yourself and how youfirst got involved with XR and what
really drew you to this space?
Yeah. Hey, thanks a lot Skip.Well, I've been very fortunate to
have been working intechnology for well over 35 years
(06:15):
and as you mentioned, Istarted my career as a military signal
officer and I never thoughtthen that I would be doing the things
that I'm doing now. I just, Iknew that I love technology. I had
a degree in computer science.I had a great time as a communications
office officer in the militaryand got exposed to the latest newest
(06:37):
technologies, such asdeploying the first Internet network
in combat during OperationDesert Storm. And I just fell in
love with technology and knewthat that's where I wanted my career
to be. And I first got into XRwhen I was working at Carnegie Mellon
University. I was not on the,not on the academic side by any means,
(06:57):
I'm not an academic, but onthe business side where we were helping
a lot of the companies thatCarnegie Mellon had invested in to
exp. And one of those had beenworking in the area of virtual reality.
And I can remember the firsttime that I put this big headset
on and the engineers explainedto me that this was a flight simulator.
I was just blown away. I justknew then that I had seen something
(07:20):
that was going to transformthe way people did things. And so
that was in 2015ish. Right.And now we're in 2024. So it's been
nine years that I've been inXR and it's just really my opinion,
it's just starting to reallyget rolling now.
Okay, so we've used the termXR already at the top of the show
(07:40):
a couple of times. I'm prettysure that there are some people in
this audience that have noidea what XR is. Now if they've been
hanging around me at all, theycertainly know what it is. But let's
assume for a moment that theyare not familiar with the term. Can
you expand upon that a little bit?
Yeah, you know, XR has justbecome a general term that stands
for extended reality. And thesimplest way to think, think of it
(08:03):
is anytime that you're usingdigital data to augment the real
world or you're using digitalenvironments with headsets, that's
really in the area of xr. Soday to day users, Pokemon Go. People
know what Pokemon Go is.That's an example of using augmented
reality on your phone. You'veseen the flight simulators with the
(08:26):
headsets that I mentioned.That's virtual reality, but it's
really just the combining ofvirtual worlds in real worlds in
many different ways.
Given your diverse roles andexperience, how would you describe
the XR landscape today? Imean, are there certain sectors that
you feel are really leadingthe way?
(08:46):
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know,this, this, this, this technology
has been in development for30, 40 years. So it's not anything
that's really new. It's justin the last five to seven years that
the technology has becomeaffordable enough for businesses
to use the software. Toolshave become easier to be able to
(09:09):
create content. But the firstindustry that really started adopting
XR was the military primarilyfor pilot training, training people
how to fix aircraft, trainingpeople just how to do normal tasks.
And they, they dumped massiveamounts of research and development
dollars into that. And thenother industries like energy and
(09:32):
manufacturing and oil and gassaw the success the military was
having and started their owninitiatives. And so we're now, you
know, you asked me to wherewe're at in the landscape. So here
we are in 2024 and I thinkwe're really just at the beginning
of this big wave of adoptionacross all industries to use XR technology
(09:55):
in many different ways. Andyou know, I think the industries
where things are really hard,difficult or expensive, think nuclear
power plants, building largeconstruction equipment, those are
the areas where the technologyhas been adopted the quickest because
(10:15):
the savings and the benefitsare so huge. However, you know, we're
looking at new industries likehospitality where organizations need
to train workers on everythingfrom working in restaurants and setting
up hotel rooms and trainingpeople on facilities, equipment all
(10:36):
the way through. How do youhandle guests, you know, soft skills.
And so I think we're just, youknow, the landscape is rapidly evolving
and I think all industries areusing this technology in different
ways.
So you opened the door therefor me automatically. Thank you.
I really wanted to talk aboutXR in training and development. Training
(10:58):
and onboarding are often citedas major use cases for xr. I almost
consider it the gateway drugfor a company into XR just because
it's the low lying fruit. Imean it really makes sense when you
start looking at the ROI ofit. What makes XR such a powerful
tool for training and how doesit compare to traditional methods?
(11:19):
Okay, let's start with thetraditional. What is the traditional
method for training today?It's really two ways. Either you
go into classroom and somebodystands up in front of the classroom
and goes through PowerPointslides or animations and talks about
something, or you sit down atyour computer and you go through
wonderful computer basedtraining. Now normally when you're
doing computer based training,you kind of have something running
(11:42):
on the side, you have a phonecall going and you know, I'm guilty
of this as well, just kind offlipping through the training and
answering the questions. Soyou're not really 100% in the training,
you're kind of watching it andit's not you know, it's interactive,
but a little bit, well, XRtechnology. And specifically in this
area of virtual reality whereyou're actually inside of a headset,
(12:06):
you know, you are completelyimmersed, there is no looking, you
know, at your phone or otherdevices because you're really in
that experience and you'refully engaged. And that is where
organizations are seeingtremendous amounts of knowledge retention,
learning new skills. And theother thing is it can be fun. It
(12:27):
doesn't have to be boring, itdoesn't have to be just watching
videos or going throughcomputer based training. You can
actually gamify it and make it engaging.
Well, from the restaurantside, I look at it from a couple
different aspects. First ofall, you know, not having to send
teams across the country oracross the world to train new employees
is pretty impressive. Also,you know, like you said, the gamification
(12:51):
of the process, there are somepretty significant studies around
the retention level aroundusing VR training is like 60% higher
than traditional training.Just because they are in the moment,
they're creating muscle memoryand they're reducing risk. Now I
know you and I sit on a lot ofdifferent committees and organizations
(13:12):
that, you know, we are lookingat enterprise applications of this
and nuclear facilities whereabsolutely there are safety factors
involved. But somebody sittingback is probably going, what's so
dangerous in a restaurant?Well, culinary skills training, somebody
to use a fryer in the back ofhouse, in the kitchen area. You know,
you remove all of thosedangers. And also from a restaurant
(13:34):
perspective, you don't haveall that food waste during the training
process. So I think of allindustries, I think hospitality really
has a great advantage to adoptthis type of technology in their
training aspect.
Oh, I would, I wouldabsolutely agree. And, and the fact
now that, you know, theability to create content, to create
training content, the cost ofthose tools and the create content
(13:58):
has just gone downtremendously. And so, you know, that
just improves your return oninvestment. But you said something
really interesting, not havingto fly people all around to go to
a training location. You know,people think that virtual reality
or extended reality issomebody sitting alone, you know,
in a headset. And that isabsolutely not true. Some of the
(14:19):
most effective trainingsolutions involve putting a lot of
people into a scenariotogether to have people teach them
how to do things right or runcourseware, or just keep doing a
task repetitiously until theyfigure it out. So it's really just
a complete whole newlandscape. And, and I think you're
(14:39):
right. I think hospitality isripe to use this technology to improve
worker skills.
Well, to your point, just forclarification, having all these people
in the headset doesn't meanyou have to be in one location. You
can have somebody on location,but you can be completely on opposite
sides of the world as a groupgoing through these training processes.
Oh my gosh. The other day Iwas sitting in a training just because
(15:02):
I was looking at one of thenew products that we're building
for one of our nuclear powerplant customers. And I was sitting
in my office, I put theheadset on and all of a sudden I
was in a nuclear power plantwith two other workers and we were
literally working on movingnuclear fuel rods around. And I felt
like I was there. It was, itwas really, it was like I was, was,
(15:23):
I want you to use the word anout of body experience. But that's
a, that's the simplest way Icould explain it. I did not feel
like I was sitting at my desk.I felt like I was there in the power
plant working with these,these other operators.
Well, you've got a fun job. Ijust have to say that with the rise
of remote work, how is XRchanging the way teams collaborate,
(15:44):
especially in industries thatrely on hands on or visual collaboration?
And maybe you can talk alittle bit about virtualware because
I think this kind of playsinto that.
Yeah. So we call it remotecollaboration. Right. That is starting
to become a big growth areafor the use of the technology. Okay,
I'm going to use an example.Imagine you're designing a new product,
(16:05):
like a new. This is. Imagineyou're designing a new toy car. Okay.
And an engineer designs it.They're using tools on their computer,
they build the CAD models.Well, now what? Right now what. How
do you get that design intopeople's hands? Well, the traditional
way is that you build aprototype, a physical prototype,
and then people go through itin a design review process. Well,
(16:29):
more and more that's becomingdigital. And now it's not just people
logging in on a computerscreen. If they can go into a VR
or XR headset, they can nowcollaboratively with a group of people,
go through and review thatprototype and actually even simulate
the way it operates anddifferent factors like that, which
(16:52):
dramatically reduces the costof developing products, gets products
to market quicker and reduces errors.
John, do you think XR willbecome the core tool for remote workspaces
in the future?
Yeah, I think it's going tobe. It's like. I'm trying to think
of an analogy. Think aboutyour cell phone. When cell phones
(17:12):
first came out, they were justused as phones, and now we use them
as an integrated tool in theway we work. So some things I'll
do on my phone, I'll open app,I'll check information, I might have
a meeting or something, andthere's some things that I'm going
to go to my computer and workon. And I have two or three screens
and one screen might be mygraphic screen, another screen might
(17:33):
be where I do my worddocuments. Well, think of XR as just
being another display device,another way to engage with content.
So next to my computer, I havemy XR headset. And if there's something
that I really want tocollaborate with somebody on or,
or, or have a more immersivemeeting, you just switch over, pop
the headset on, and now thatbecomes your display. Does that make
(17:55):
sense?
It does. But how close do youthink we are to that reality? And
what are some of the practicalchallenges companies face when implementing
XR solutions for collaboration?
Well, I think we're gettingthere quicker than people realize.
I think that recently there'sbeen a lot of consumer headsets that
have come on the market thatwere originally intended for gaming,
(18:16):
like the meta quests. Peoplegot into them, they're like, wow,
that's pretty cool. And thenthey realize there's business productivity
apps as well. And so they'rebringing them into their offices
and using them. And thensomeone at a company has an idea
of, hey, let's build anapplication that we can all collaborate
together on. Well, then thechallenge becomes, we need to do
this securely. We want to runbehind our corporate firewall, we
(18:40):
want all the data secure. Sonow you're getting into IT infrastructure.
And so this is. So the firststep was getting the devices affordable
enough that everybody couldhave them in their home. Now the
next step is putting secureinfrastructure and the ability to
deliver content for companies.So that separates the consumer from
(19:02):
the enterprise applications.
Well, we had an interestingconversation the other day, and you
just brought up enterprise asthese enterprise organizations. And
I'm thinking, obviously frommy perspective of hospitality, there
are some security concerns andeven some of the organizations that
were on the call with us, Iwon't call them out, but some pretty
(19:23):
large organizations, it'sfunny how they got all the way through
the vetting process. And whenit came down to legal at the very
end, that was the one thingthat killed the entire project. So
you had a good point about,you know, if you're looking at some
of these projects to kind ofbring legal up front in the beginning
process, or at least, youknow, the, you know, what are the
qualifications and the needsof a headset in order to be sustainable
(19:46):
for that organization?
Well, I think there's acouple, when you look at the legal
implications, there's a coupleof areas to look at. You know, in
business, there's, there's thedata security, you know, the security
of the data on the headset.Right. Itself. And that can be handled
by IT policies. But then itgets into who owns the content. So
(20:07):
if you have somebody buildtraining content for you, do you
own that content as thebusiness or are you licensing that
content from someone else? Andthat's where some of the companies
have different policies abouthow the user data is owned. And that's
(20:27):
where the legal departmentsand companies really are not comfortable.
But that's okay because everyof these large headset manufacturers
have different models, and Iwon't go and name them, but some
of them, their business modelis data. Others are their business
models, they make really goodproducts and they don't collect any
(20:50):
data or own any data. And sothat makes it easier. So that, that's
an important considerationwhen organizations are looking to
embark on XR projects is, youknow, what, what are our security
and IT and legal requirements?
And as I've learned, you know,where is the chipset made that's
in that headset? There is, youknow, there's some Chinese headsets
(21:12):
out there that certainorganizations probably would not
allow. And, you know, if thatis not part of your thought process
in the beginning, that mightget. It might shoot down the project
at the very end.
Well, yeah, especially whenit's a new technology. I mean, when
new technologies or newprocesses are introduced to any organization,
people are a little bitskeptical. And anything that causes
(21:33):
concern typically is a flag toget it thrown out or it doesn't move
forward. It's not until thesetechnologies become ubiquitous and
everybody's comfortable withthem that then they relax those standards.
And so, you know, yes, likefor example, in the U.S. department
of Defense, they have arequirement that devices have to
be TAA compliant. They have tobe certified by the US government
(21:55):
before they can be scaled onDoD networks. And some companies
have a very similar policy.But, you know, over time we'll see
that commoditize and those,you know, and products will just
conform and you can use itjust like you would a cell phone.
Talk a little bit aboutproduct design, prototyping and visualization
(22:16):
because I want to loop thisback into hospitality at the end
of this. Many companies areusing XR for design and prototype
typing, obviously bringing a3D model into the world and having
designers work on itcollaboratively wherever they are.
Could you share how XRenhances the product development
lifecycle from ideation to production?
Oh, my gosh. That could be apodcast in its own skip. But I mean,
(22:39):
look, we are visual. You know,humans are very visual. We're very
collaborative. We want to seethings in 3D in three dimensions.
So the way things have beenprototyped in the past was you build
replicas. And I want to use anexample. Holiday and hotels. They
were one of the first brands.I think it's. I think it's ihg. They
(23:00):
were one of the first brandsto design new hotel concepts in virtual
reality. So they design themin their CAD system or the building
information management system,but then they'd put it in VR and
they would. Would get alltheir prospective hotel buyers to
go through their differentdesigns in virtual reality before
they built one of thesemodels. Because I guess these models
(23:22):
can be somewhere 20, 30, 40, $50,000.
Sure.
And it was only until they goteverybody in a room and they agreed.
Yep. That's the design that wewant for this property. Let's go
ahead now and build a physicalmodel. Because they're still not
comfortable yet trustingeverything, you know, to digital.
They still want to havesomething tactile. But, yeah, I mean,
(23:44):
it's. It's just, you know, youhave to go through the experience
once, and then people saythat's. I don't want to go back to
the old way. Right.
Well, I think they're therestaurants and the hospitality side
of things, especially therestaurant. I'm looking at the scenario
of taking a digital twin andimagining a group of ops people sitting
around the table trying tofigure out how to reconfigure the
(24:06):
kitchen in order to make itmore efficient and effective. And
in today's day, you can run,if you have the data set, you can
run AI simulations againstthat to determine if you've got a
better throughput or not. Areyou seeing that obviously used in
other sectors?
Oh, absolutely. And so, forexample, we have these large logistics
(24:27):
companies, and again, I won'tname them, but there's the large
logistics companies that shippackages. Well, they're starting
to use AI algorithms tooptimize how they pick a van, how
they pack a van or pack a car.Well, an algorithm is just going
to give you put this packagehere, put that package there, but
they still want to visuallysee it. What does it actually look
(24:49):
like? So then they can justtake that data and pop it into virtual
reality and be able, or pop itinto augmented reality with a pair
of glasses. And then thedriver can actually see what that
vehicle is going to look likewhen it's packed. Okay, so it's these
technologies working together.And so imagine going and designing
a new restaurant in the layoutusing your AI tools to make recommendations
(25:13):
on how the restaurant shouldbe laid out, but then actually seeing
it in, in 3D of what it'sgoing to actually look like with
the real, the actual colors,the fabrics, the materials. Right.
Think about how, how muchmoney can be saved during that process.
So we have talked a lot aboutusing XR for internal operations.
(25:36):
Beyond that, how do you see XRtransforming customer facing experiences
in the enterprise space?
Well, I'll give you anexample. You know, lately, like Warby
Parker and some of these otherglass manufacturers are giving customers
the opportunity to see whatthey would look like with those glasses
through a website or throughtheir phone. Hold your camera phone
(25:58):
up and then you can cyclethrough the different frame types.
Companies like Ikea and Amazonnow also let you look at how a piece
of furniture would look likein your actual house. So they're
using XR data, you know,presented visually to transform the
customer's buying experience.And so that's already happening.
(26:21):
I mean that's, that's, that's,that's really starting to scale.
But when you go into biggerthings like buying a condominium
or a house, and you reallywant to see it exactly as it's going
to be when it's delivered andit's not even built yet, this becomes
a great way of doing that. SoI would expect that the customer's
(26:43):
buying experiences is goingto, is going to improve dramatically
over the next few years asthis technology gets rolled out.
Now, in regards to some of thechallenges of implementing XR in
enterprises we've alreadytalked about a little bit about,
once again, that could be alonger conversation. Data privacy
and security, it has to comewith its own set of challenges. What
(27:05):
do you see as the biggestbarriers to adoption and how can
companies overcome those?
I think the biggest barrier toadoption is that a lot of senior
leaders who own the budgetsand can make the decisions don't
really understand it yet. Andso they're, they're not comfortable
(27:25):
making large investmentdecisions. And so a lot of times
things get stuck in what wecall pilot purgatory where they just,
you know, innovation teamskeep trying things, but they're not
really scaling it yet. So Ithink one of the biggest barriers
is just education andwillingness to accept this now, once
you overcome that, now you'regetting into more specific challenges,
(27:49):
such as if you're going to beusing virtual reality, for example,
within a corporate network,how much more traffic does that put
on the IT network? Can the ITnetwork today handle all this additional
traffic? Because 3D traffic,3D data is a lot more dense than
emails and stuff like thatthat goes across a corporate network.
(28:11):
Does that make sense?
It does. And so you talkedabout a couple different things in
regards to the barriers. Costand scalability are often concerns
with XR are the strategies orbest practices for companies that
want to start with XR butmaybe have budget limitations?
Oh, absolutely. So, you know,my company, Virtual Rare, has this
(28:33):
wonderful slogan. They've beendoing virtual reality XR for 20 years
and they have this motto whichis think big, start small and scale
fast. And I think that's agood, simple way of thinking about
figure out, okay, thistechnology can transform my business.
How? Think really big, right?Think from a customer perspective,
(28:55):
from an internal perspective,and then find some very specific
things that you can do topilot the technology. And it's not
just the technology, it's alsowhat kind of workflow, what business
processes have to change orwill need to change in order to take
advantage of this technology.So do some small projects, validate
(29:16):
it, and then once you foundthose ones that work for you, then
scale them fast so that youcan reap the benefit.
So not everybody listening tothis show is in the enterprise world.
Do you think smaller hotels orrestaurant chains can realistically
adopt XR in the near future?Or is it really limited to larger
brands for now?
No. I think in some casessmaller organizations might be able
(29:39):
to leverage it even quickerand get more benefit out of it because
there are so many, let's callthem, platforms out on the market
today that let people buildand deliver content or have prepackaged
content. By the way, we sawthis exact same thing happen with
the rise of mobile phoneapplications. When platforms came
(30:00):
out like OpenTable, forexample, all of a sudden small businesses
could, you know, saw theirreservation rates go higher because
OpenTable was now marketingtheir seats.
Let's talk about the future ofXR as we wind things down here. Where
do you see the mostsignificant growth for XR over the
next five to 10 years? And Iknow that's a big timeframe, but
(30:22):
hey, let's think big here.
I think over five to 10 years,I think the biggest growth is going
to be in augmented reality,meaning where people are wearing
where the technology isincorporated into glasses or into
Products that the user wearsevery day or goggles that are worn
(30:43):
on a manufacturing line, wherethe data is now going with the user,
the worker, the patient.Right. And I think that is where
we're going to see the biggestadoption and that's going to be across
all industries. And you know,this is something that technologists
have been envisioning fordecades, that at some point, you
(31:05):
know, it's kind of like havingyour hologram that goes with you.
Right. Or you can talk to yourhologram or someone can beam themselves
into the space that you're at.It's going to happen.
If an organization is justbeginning its XR journey, what would
you recommend as the veryfirst steps for exploring and implementing
XR solutions?
(31:26):
If an organization juststarting on the journey, my recommendation
is find a good consultingpartner, a company or consulting
practice that has realexperience, not technology, vendor
experience, but actualexperience implementing this technology
in businesses. Because there'sa lot of lessons learned that can
(31:48):
be shared and can helpaccelerate those initiatives. And
so for a small investment andbringing in someone in that's got
that experience, they canreally capitalize on it and also
potentially save themselves alot of money in the long run.
And John, that is why we arefriends. That is exactly the answer
I was hoping for, by the way.
(32:09):
I've been on, I've been onboth sides. I've been on the, I've
been on three sides. I've beenon the end user side, I've been on
the vendor, you know,technology side and I've been on
the consulting side. And sothe projects that I've seen that
have been most successful wereones that were well thought out,
you know, had some, thebenefit of other, other people's
experience and then theycould, they could make a good plan
(32:31):
and execute the plan.
Finally, where can ourlisteners follow to learn more about
XR developments? Doesn'tmatter if it's enterprise small business
vra. Yeah, I'm just dropping ahint there.
Well, it's, it's like, it'slike anything there. There's, there's
various industry associations,right. So, you know, every, every
(32:53):
industry has its ownassociation and we're starting to
see those, those or thoseassociations have more content around
xr. And then there's like theVRAR association, which is an association
that's focused on XR and hasdifferent committees and, or, you
know, working groups fordifferent industries. And you know,
(33:16):
and then, and then vendorshave their own, you know, there's
a lot of vendors like Meta andHTC Vive and Apple, you know, they
have a lot of good informationalso on their websites.
John, thank you so much. Iknow we're on the phone like three,
four or five times a week itseems like, but we could talk about
this subject forever and Ihave a feeling I'm going to be having
(33:38):
you back on the show as we, aswe progress in the hospitality side
because I'm really bullish onwhere this is headed and the opportunities
that hospitality has to gainfrom these emerging technologies.
Well, and I think in closing,I think what I'd like to just tell
everyone is folks like you andyou and me, we're not technologists
(33:59):
first looking for a place toapply the technology. We're coming
to this with deep industry andbusiness experience and can understand
how that technology cancompletely transform industries.
And so I think that's theright way of looking at it. I think
when, when, when thetechnology is, is being for, you
(34:20):
know, when you're trying toforce technology into something just
to see if it'll work, that'svery different than saying I can
really transform an industrywith this. And that's what you and
I both see, that this, this is transformative.
John, thank you again oncemore for your time here on the Tech
Chef. I know our audienceenjoyed this conversation and if
(34:41):
they have any follow upquestions, I'll make sure I pass
them along to you and we'llmaybe jump on another show.
Absolutely. Thanks, Kip. Take care.
Wow, that was awesome stuff.And as you know, this is exactly
what Magic Gate and GrowthAdvisors International Network is
providing to the hospitalityindustry. There are very few individuals
(35:04):
and companies that know thesetwo verticals. If this is of interest
to you, please reach out so wecan schedule a meeting and determine
what your needs are. I am notone for throwing technology at something
for technology's sake.However, many of you don't realize
this technology is alreadybeing implemented by large enterprise
(35:25):
restaurant chains and realizeit or not, you are being left behind.
Let's help you get in front ofthese technology opportunities. If
you would like to reach out tome or the show, you can do so via
everything social@SkipKimpleor Everythingagicgate Tech. This
includes X, Facebook,Instagram and LinkedIn. You can also
(35:48):
go to thewebsite@SkipKimple.com for all of
the archived shows and theshow notes will be posted there too.
And you can also hear thesenew episodes on the Magic 8 website@magine.com
and of course you can alwaysemail me@SkipAgicate.com so some
of you been hanging aroundlistening to the end of the show
(36:08):
because I talked about a bigannouncement. So what is that big
news? Well, Magic Gate will belaunching an XR Boot Camp for industry
professionals. This is a lowtech, no tech approach to guide you
as business leaders withknowledgeable information to take
new ideas to your company andyour team members and be able to
talk intelligently around thesubject matter. This is a five week
(36:32):
course that will get youcaught up on terminology, discuss
business strategies, uncoverdevices and services to help you
down your XR path, as well ashow to manage this type of a project.
Most importantly, you will begiven research and tools to help
you make a business case forincluding this in your technology
(36:53):
strategy and roadmap. For moreinformation and to sign up, go to
bootcamp.magicgate.com Thereare very limited seats available,
so make sure you sign up todaybecause you as the listeners of the
Tech Chef are the first onesto hear about this. That's enough
(37:14):
exciting news for one week. Sountil next Tuesday, stay safe, stay
healthy and and stay hungry,my friends.
You are listening to the TechChef Podcast. This is episode number
79, November 12, 2024.
This show is powered by Growth Advisors.
International Network wheretravel and hospitality companies
come to grow. For moreinformation please visit gainadvisors.com.
(00:23):
This is John Cunningham,President of Virtualware USA and
you are listening to Skip onthe Tech Chef Podcast.
Off Premise Strategy, BusinessContinuity. How about a taste test
of restaurant technology,drive through or curbside mobile
(00:44):
apps or AI? It's all on themenu, cooking up for the date. It's
a recipe for success. You'rein good hands with a Tech Chef. Pick
a plan to be your beststrategy with the Tech Chef.
(01:05):
Welcome to another episode ofthe Tech Chef. This is your host,
Skip Kimple and we have anexciting show lined up for you today
featuring a very good friendof mine, John Cunningham to talk
about the part of thetechnology stack you are more than
likely overlooking. Intrigued?Well, more on that a little bit later.
(01:25):
Many of you are currently atRestaurant Finance and Development
Conference out in Las Vegaswhile I'm here back at an event in
Orlando. I hope you are allsurviving Vegas and have a very productive
conference. I can't wait tohear all of the great things that
come out of the show and I'mwatching each and every one of you
on LinkedIn. As I mentioned inthe episode last Tuesday, I would
(01:47):
like to thank Growth AdvisorsInternational Network, otherwise
known as gain, for sponsoringthis show. More on that in the next
episode. First time listeners,thank you so much for taking time
out of your busy day to listento this episode and make sure that
you subscribe to this showthrough your favorite podcast platform.
We're on them all so it is nothard to miss us. Just look for the
(02:10):
Tech Chef or click on the linkin the show notes to easily plug
into the show. For thethousands of you that listen in over
100 countries, welcome back.By the way, make sure you listen
all the way to the end of theshow for a special announcement that
you as faithful listeners willhave first dibs on. Today I have
(02:31):
a very special guest. Mr. JohnCunningham is here to talk about
how XR, otherwise known asExtended Reality, is shaping the
enterprise marketplace and howhospitality can benefit from all
of the years of research andmoney spent and the success in other
industries. John currentlyserves as a President and Board Advisor
(02:53):
to virtualware, CEO of SpatialSynergy, COO of the Global VR AR
association, and serves as theDirector of Special Programs at the
Space Force Association.Throughout his 30 year career in
high tech, John has helpedcompanies create new lines of revenue
and grow existing revenuesthrough new product development and
(03:16):
global market expansion. Hehas built high performing direct
and indirect salesorganizations for leading technology
companies such as UnityTechnologies, Aruba Networks, Motorola,
HP and Verizon. As a pioneerin the XR and AI industry, John has
helped organizations such asthe U.S. department of Defense, Army
(03:38):
Corps of Engineering, LockheedMartin, NASA, Siemens Energy and
the City of Orlando implementXR and AI into their operations.
In 2019, he established theCentral Florida Chapter of the VR
AR association to foster thecreation of the modeling and simulation
ecosystem which has grown tothe largest and most active globally
(04:02):
and now serves as the ChiefOperating Officer of the vrara, helping
to lead the industryassociation's presence around the
world. In 2020, John was hiredby Unity Technologies to develop
Unity's public sectorstrategic plan and build their government
and aerospace business andbrand. He led the business to win
(04:23):
many large direct programs todevelop transformational xr, AI and
digital twin solutions as wellas building a large ecosystem of
integrators, independentsoftware developers and device manufacturers.
Nearly 90% of all XR solutionsacross the public sector are made
with unity. John is alsohelping the rapidly growing space
(04:47):
industry to take advantage ofthe new technologies such Americas
XR and AI and serves as aDirector at the Space Force association
where he co founded and helpsto lead the Space Force Association's
Creator League which is atechnology skills development program
to help develop the UnitedStates Space Force's digital capabilities.
(05:09):
Yesterday was Veterans Day, soI would like to mention that John
also served in the US army asa communications and special operations
officer and served in threedifferent overseas campaigns. John,
thank you for your service.Well, with a resume like that you
can tell John knows what he'stalking about. We are lucky enough
to have him spend the next 30minutes with us to share his background
(05:34):
knowledge, existing technologyopportunities and future facing technologies
as it relates to xr. Enjoy theshow. John, you have an impressive
journey across the tech and XRspace. From your background in the
military to UNITY to yourcurrent roles with the VR AR Association.
(05:55):
Virtual Wear, Spatial synergy.Goodness gracious. I'll look at your
bio and I don't know where tobegin. Could you share a little bit
about yourself and how youfirst got involved with XR and what
really drew you to this space?
Yeah. Hey, thanks a lot Skip.Well, I've been very fortunate to
have been working intechnology for well over 35 years
(06:15):
and as you mentioned, Istarted my career as a military signal
officer and I never thoughtthen that I would be doing the things
that I'm doing now. I just, Iknew that I love technology. I had
a degree in computer science.I had a great time as a communications
office officer in the militaryand got exposed to the latest newest
(06:37):
technologies, such asdeploying the first Internet network
in combat during OperationDesert Storm. And I just fell in
love with technology and knewthat that's where I wanted my career
to be. And I first got into XRwhen I was working at Carnegie Mellon
University. I was not on the,not on the academic side by any means,
(06:57):
I'm not an academic, but onthe business side where we were helping
a lot of the companies thatCarnegie Mellon had invested in to
exp. And one of those had beenworking in the area of virtual reality.
And I can remember the firsttime that I put this big headset
on and the engineers explainedto me that this was a flight simulator.
I was just blown away. I justknew then that I had seen something
(07:20):
that was going to transformthe way people did things. And so
that was in 2015ish. Right.And now we're in 2024. So it's been
nine years that I've been inXR and it's just really my opinion,
it's just starting to reallyget rolling now.
Okay, so we've used the termXR already at the top of the show
(07:40):
a couple of times. I'm prettysure that there are some people in
this audience that have noidea what XR is. Now if they've been
hanging around me at all, theycertainly know what it is. But let's
assume for a moment that theyare not familiar with the term. Can
you expand upon that a little bit?
Yeah, you know, XR has justbecome a general term that stands
for extended reality. And thesimplest way to think, think of it
(08:03):
is anytime that you're usingdigital data to augment the real
world or you're using digitalenvironments with headsets, that's
really in the area of xr. Soday to day users, Pokemon Go. People
know what Pokemon Go is.That's an example of using augmented
reality on your phone. You'veseen the flight simulators with the
(08:26):
headsets that I mentioned.That's virtual reality, but it's
really just the combining ofvirtual worlds in real worlds in
many different ways.
Given your diverse roles andexperience, how would you describe
the XR landscape today? Imean, are there certain sectors that
you feel are really leadingthe way?
(08:46):
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know,this, this, this, this technology
has been in development for30, 40 years. So it's not anything
that's really new. It's justin the last five to seven years that
the technology has becomeaffordable enough for businesses
to use the software. Toolshave become easier to be able to
(09:09):
create content. But the firstindustry that really started adopting
XR was the military primarilyfor pilot training, training people
how to fix aircraft, trainingpeople just how to do normal tasks.
And they, they dumped massiveamounts of research and development
dollars into that. And thenother industries like energy and
(09:32):
manufacturing and oil and gassaw the success the military was
having and started their owninitiatives. And so we're now, you
know, you asked me to wherewe're at in the landscape. So here
we are in 2024 and I thinkwe're really just at the beginning
of this big wave of adoptionacross all industries to use XR technology
(09:55):
in many different ways. Andyou know, I think the industries
where things are really hard,difficult or expensive, think nuclear
power plants, building largeconstruction equipment, those are
the areas where the technologyhas been adopted the quickest because
(10:15):
the savings and the benefitsare so huge. However, you know, we're
looking at new industries likehospitality where organizations need
to train workers on everythingfrom working in restaurants and setting
up hotel rooms and trainingpeople on facilities, equipment all
(10:36):
the way through. How do youhandle guests, you know, soft skills.
And so I think we're just, youknow, the landscape is rapidly evolving
and I think all industries areusing this technology in different
ways.
So you opened the door therefor me automatically. Thank you.
I really wanted to talk aboutXR in training and development. Training
(10:58):
and onboarding are often citedas major use cases for xr. I almost
consider it the gateway drugfor a company into XR just because
it's the low lying fruit. Imean it really makes sense when you
start looking at the ROI ofit. What makes XR such a powerful
tool for training and how doesit compare to traditional methods?
(11:19):
Okay, let's start with thetraditional. What is the traditional
method for training today?It's really two ways. Either you
go into classroom and somebodystands up in front of the classroom
and goes through PowerPointslides or animations and talks about
something, or you sit down atyour computer and you go through
wonderful computer basedtraining. Now normally when you're
doing computer based training,you kind of have something running
(11:42):
on the side, you have a phonecall going and you know, I'm guilty
of this as well, just kind offlipping through the training and
answering the questions. Soyou're not really 100% in the training,
you're kind of watching it andit's not you know, it's interactive,
but a little bit, well, XRtechnology. And specifically in this
area of virtual reality whereyou're actually inside of a headset,
(12:06):
you know, you are completelyimmersed, there is no looking, you
know, at your phone or otherdevices because you're really in
that experience and you'refully engaged. And that is where
organizations are seeingtremendous amounts of knowledge retention,
learning new skills. And theother thing is it can be fun. It
(12:27):
doesn't have to be boring, itdoesn't have to be just watching
videos or going throughcomputer based training. You can
actually gamify it and make it engaging.
Well, from the restaurantside, I look at it from a couple
different aspects. First ofall, you know, not having to send
teams across the country oracross the world to train new employees
is pretty impressive. Also,you know, like you said, the gamification
(12:51):
of the process, there are somepretty significant studies around
the retention level aroundusing VR training is like 60% higher
than traditional training.Just because they are in the moment,
they're creating muscle memoryand they're reducing risk. Now I
know you and I sit on a lot ofdifferent committees and organizations
(13:12):
that, you know, we are lookingat enterprise applications of this
and nuclear facilities whereabsolutely there are safety factors
involved. But somebody sittingback is probably going, what's so
dangerous in a restaurant?Well, culinary skills training, somebody
to use a fryer in the back ofhouse, in the kitchen area. You know,
you remove all of thosedangers. And also from a restaurant
(13:34):
perspective, you don't haveall that food waste during the training
process. So I think of allindustries, I think hospitality really
has a great advantage to adoptthis type of technology in their
training aspect.
Oh, I would, I wouldabsolutely agree. And, and the fact
now that, you know, theability to create content, to create
training content, the cost ofthose tools and the create content
(13:58):
has just gone downtremendously. And so, you know, that
just improves your return oninvestment. But you said something
really interesting, not havingto fly people all around to go to
a training location. You know,people think that virtual reality
or extended reality issomebody sitting alone, you know,
in a headset. And that isabsolutely not true. Some of the
(14:19):
most effective trainingsolutions involve putting a lot of
people into a scenariotogether to have people teach them
how to do things right or runcourseware, or just keep doing a
task repetitiously until theyfigure it out. So it's really just
a complete whole newlandscape. And, and I think you're
(14:39):
right. I think hospitality isripe to use this technology to improve
worker skills.
Well, to your point, just forclarification, having all these people
in the headset doesn't meanyou have to be in one location. You
can have somebody on location,but you can be completely on opposite
sides of the world as a groupgoing through these training processes.
Oh my gosh. The other day Iwas sitting in a training just because
(15:02):
I was looking at one of thenew products that we're building
for one of our nuclear powerplant customers. And I was sitting
in my office, I put theheadset on and all of a sudden I
was in a nuclear power plantwith two other workers and we were
literally working on movingnuclear fuel rods around. And I felt
like I was there. It was, itwas really, it was like I was, was,
(15:23):
I want you to use the word anout of body experience. But that's
a, that's the simplest way Icould explain it. I did not feel
like I was sitting at my desk.I felt like I was there in the power
plant working with these,these other operators.
Well, you've got a fun job. Ijust have to say that with the rise
of remote work, how is XRchanging the way teams collaborate,
(15:44):
especially in industries thatrely on hands on or visual collaboration?
And maybe you can talk alittle bit about virtualware because
I think this kind of playsinto that.
Yeah. So we call it remotecollaboration. Right. That is starting
to become a big growth areafor the use of the technology. Okay,
I'm going to use an example.Imagine you're designing a new product,
(16:05):
like a new. This is. Imagineyou're designing a new toy car. Okay.
And an engineer designs it.They're using tools on their computer,
they build the CAD models.Well, now what? Right now what. How
do you get that design intopeople's hands? Well, the traditional
way is that you build aprototype, a physical prototype,
and then people go through itin a design review process. Well,
(16:29):
more and more that's becomingdigital. And now it's not just people
logging in on a computerscreen. If they can go into a VR
or XR headset, they can nowcollaboratively with a group of people,
go through and review thatprototype and actually even simulate
the way it operates anddifferent factors like that, which
(16:52):
dramatically reduces the costof developing products, gets products
to market quicker and reduces errors.
John, do you think XR willbecome the core tool for remote workspaces
in the future?
Yeah, I think it's going tobe. It's like. I'm trying to think
of an analogy. Think aboutyour cell phone. When cell phones
(17:12):
first came out, they were justused as phones, and now we use them
as an integrated tool in theway we work. So some things I'll
do on my phone, I'll open app,I'll check information, I might have
a meeting or something, andthere's some things that I'm going
to go to my computer and workon. And I have two or three screens
and one screen might be mygraphic screen, another screen might
(17:33):
be where I do my worddocuments. Well, think of XR as just
being another display device,another way to engage with content.
So next to my computer, I havemy XR headset. And if there's something
that I really want tocollaborate with somebody on or,
or, or have a more immersivemeeting, you just switch over, pop
the headset on, and now thatbecomes your display. Does that make
(17:55):
sense?
It does. But how close do youthink we are to that reality? And
what are some of the practicalchallenges companies face when implementing
XR solutions for collaboration?
Well, I think we're gettingthere quicker than people realize.
I think that recently there'sbeen a lot of consumer headsets that
have come on the market thatwere originally intended for gaming,
(18:16):
like the meta quests. Peoplegot into them, they're like, wow,
that's pretty cool. And thenthey realize there's business productivity
apps as well. And so they'rebringing them into their offices
and using them. And thensomeone at a company has an idea
of, hey, let's build anapplication that we can all collaborate
together on. Well, then thechallenge becomes, we need to do
this securely. We want to runbehind our corporate firewall, we
(18:40):
want all the data secure. Sonow you're getting into IT infrastructure.
And so this is. So the firststep was getting the devices affordable
enough that everybody couldhave them in their home. Now the
next step is putting secureinfrastructure and the ability to
deliver content for companies.So that separates the consumer from
(19:02):
the enterprise applications.
Well, we had an interestingconversation the other day, and you
just brought up enterprise asthese enterprise organizations. And
I'm thinking, obviously frommy perspective of hospitality, there
are some security concerns andeven some of the organizations that
were on the call with us, Iwon't call them out, but some pretty
(19:23):
large organizations, it'sfunny how they got all the way through
the vetting process. And whenit came down to legal at the very
end, that was the one thingthat killed the entire project. So
you had a good point about,you know, if you're looking at some
of these projects to kind ofbring legal up front in the beginning
process, or at least, youknow, the, you know, what are the
qualifications and the needsof a headset in order to be sustainable
(19:46):
for that organization?
Well, I think there's acouple, when you look at the legal
implications, there's a coupleof areas to look at. You know, in
business, there's, there's thedata security, you know, the security
of the data on the headset.Right. Itself. And that can be handled
by IT policies. But then itgets into who owns the content. So
(20:07):
if you have somebody buildtraining content for you, do you
own that content as thebusiness or are you licensing that
content from someone else? Andthat's where some of the companies
have different policies abouthow the user data is owned. And that's
(20:27):
where the legal departmentsand companies really are not comfortable.
But that's okay because everyof these large headset manufacturers
have different models, and Iwon't go and name them, but some
of them, their business modelis data. Others are their business
models, they make really goodproducts and they don't collect any
(20:50):
data or own any data. And sothat makes it easier. So that, that's
an important considerationwhen organizations are looking to
embark on XR projects is, youknow, what, what are our security
and IT and legal requirements?
And as I've learned, you know,where is the chipset made that's
in that headset? There is, youknow, there's some Chinese headsets
(21:12):
out there that certainorganizations probably would not
allow. And, you know, if thatis not part of your thought process
in the beginning, that mightget. It might shoot down the project
at the very end.
Well, yeah, especially whenit's a new technology. I mean, when
new technologies or newprocesses are introduced to any organization,
people are a little bitskeptical. And anything that causes
(21:33):
concern typically is a flag toget it thrown out or it doesn't move
forward. It's not until thesetechnologies become ubiquitous and
everybody's comfortable withthem that then they relax those standards.
And so, you know, yes, likefor example, in the U.S. department
of Defense, they have arequirement that devices have to
be TAA compliant. They have tobe certified by the US government
(21:55):
before they can be scaled onDoD networks. And some companies
have a very similar policy.But, you know, over time we'll see
that commoditize and those,you know, and products will just
conform and you can use itjust like you would a cell phone.
Talk a little bit aboutproduct design, prototyping and visualization
(22:16):
because I want to loop thisback into hospitality at the end
of this. Many companies areusing XR for design and prototype
typing, obviously bringing a3D model into the world and having
designers work on itcollaboratively wherever they are.
Could you share how XRenhances the product development
lifecycle from ideation to production?
Oh, my gosh. That could be apodcast in its own skip. But I mean,
(22:39):
look, we are visual. You know,humans are very visual. We're very
collaborative. We want to seethings in 3D in three dimensions.
So the way things have beenprototyped in the past was you build
replicas. And I want to use anexample. Holiday and hotels. They
were one of the first brands.I think it's. I think it's ihg. They
(23:00):
were one of the first brandsto design new hotel concepts in virtual
reality. So they design themin their CAD system or the building
information management system,but then they'd put it in VR and
they would. Would get alltheir prospective hotel buyers to
go through their differentdesigns in virtual reality before
they built one of thesemodels. Because I guess these models
(23:22):
can be somewhere 20, 30, 40, $50,000.
Sure.
And it was only until they goteverybody in a room and they agreed.
Yep. That's the design that wewant for this property. Let's go
ahead now and build a physicalmodel. Because they're still not
comfortable yet trustingeverything, you know, to digital.
They still want to havesomething tactile. But, yeah, I mean,
(23:44):
it's. It's just, you know, youhave to go through the experience
once, and then people saythat's. I don't want to go back to
the old way. Right.
Well, I think they're therestaurants and the hospitality side
of things, especially therestaurant. I'm looking at the scenario
of taking a digital twin andimagining a group of ops people sitting
around the table trying tofigure out how to reconfigure the
(24:06):
kitchen in order to make itmore efficient and effective. And
in today's day, you can run,if you have the data set, you can
run AI simulations againstthat to determine if you've got a
better throughput or not. Areyou seeing that obviously used in
other sectors?
Oh, absolutely. And so, forexample, we have these large logistics
(24:27):
companies, and again, I won'tname them, but there's the large
logistics companies that shippackages. Well, they're starting
to use AI algorithms tooptimize how they pick a van, how
they pack a van or pack a car.Well, an algorithm is just going
to give you put this packagehere, put that package there, but
they still want to visuallysee it. What does it actually look
(24:49):
like? So then they can justtake that data and pop it into virtual
reality and be able, or pop itinto augmented reality with a pair
of glasses. And then thedriver can actually see what that
vehicle is going to look likewhen it's packed. Okay, so it's these
technologies working together.And so imagine going and designing
a new restaurant in the layoutusing your AI tools to make recommendations
(25:13):
on how the restaurant shouldbe laid out, but then actually seeing
it in, in 3D of what it'sgoing to actually look like with
the real, the actual colors,the fabrics, the materials. Right.
Think about how, how muchmoney can be saved during that process.
So we have talked a lot aboutusing XR for internal operations.
(25:36):
Beyond that, how do you see XRtransforming customer facing experiences
in the enterprise space?
Well, I'll give you anexample. You know, lately, like Warby
Parker and some of these otherglass manufacturers are giving customers
the opportunity to see whatthey would look like with those glasses
through a website or throughtheir phone. Hold your camera phone
(25:58):
up and then you can cyclethrough the different frame types.
Companies like Ikea and Amazonnow also let you look at how a piece
of furniture would look likein your actual house. So they're
using XR data, you know,presented visually to transform the
customer's buying experience.And so that's already happening.
(26:21):
I mean that's, that's, that's,that's really starting to scale.
But when you go into biggerthings like buying a condominium
or a house, and you reallywant to see it exactly as it's going
to be when it's delivered andit's not even built yet, this becomes
a great way of doing that. SoI would expect that the customer's
(26:43):
buying experiences is goingto, is going to improve dramatically
over the next few years asthis technology gets rolled out.
Now, in regards to some of thechallenges of implementing XR in
enterprises we've alreadytalked about a little bit about,
once again, that could be alonger conversation. Data privacy
and security, it has to comewith its own set of challenges. What
(27:05):
do you see as the biggestbarriers to adoption and how can
companies overcome those?
I think the biggest barrier toadoption is that a lot of senior
leaders who own the budgetsand can make the decisions don't
really understand it yet. Andso they're, they're not comfortable
(27:25):
making large investmentdecisions. And so a lot of times
things get stuck in what wecall pilot purgatory where they just,
you know, innovation teamskeep trying things, but they're not
really scaling it yet. So Ithink one of the biggest barriers
is just education andwillingness to accept this now, once
you overcome that, now you'regetting into more specific challenges,
(27:49):
such as if you're going to beusing virtual reality, for example,
within a corporate network,how much more traffic does that put
on the IT network? Can the ITnetwork today handle all this additional
traffic? Because 3D traffic,3D data is a lot more dense than
emails and stuff like thatthat goes across a corporate network.
(28:11):
Does that make sense?
It does. And so you talkedabout a couple different things in
regards to the barriers. Costand scalability are often concerns
with XR are the strategies orbest practices for companies that
want to start with XR butmaybe have budget limitations?
Oh, absolutely. So, you know,my company, Virtual Rare, has this
(28:33):
wonderful slogan. They've beendoing virtual reality XR for 20 years
and they have this motto whichis think big, start small and scale
fast. And I think that's agood, simple way of thinking about
figure out, okay, thistechnology can transform my business.
How? Think really big, right?Think from a customer perspective,
(28:55):
from an internal perspective,and then find some very specific
things that you can do topilot the technology. And it's not
just the technology, it's alsowhat kind of workflow, what business
processes have to change orwill need to change in order to take
advantage of this technology.So do some small projects, validate
(29:16):
it, and then once you foundthose ones that work for you, then
scale them fast so that youcan reap the benefit.
So not everybody listening tothis show is in the enterprise world.
Do you think smaller hotels orrestaurant chains can realistically
adopt XR in the near future?Or is it really limited to larger
brands for now?
No. I think in some casessmaller organizations might be able
(29:39):
to leverage it even quickerand get more benefit out of it because
there are so many, let's callthem, platforms out on the market
today that let people buildand deliver content or have prepackaged
content. By the way, we sawthis exact same thing happen with
the rise of mobile phoneapplications. When platforms came
(30:00):
out like OpenTable, forexample, all of a sudden small businesses
could, you know, saw theirreservation rates go higher because
OpenTable was now marketingtheir seats.
Let's talk about the future ofXR as we wind things down here. Where
do you see the mostsignificant growth for XR over the
next five to 10 years? And Iknow that's a big timeframe, but
(30:22):
hey, let's think big here.
I think over five to 10 years,I think the biggest growth is going
to be in augmented reality,meaning where people are wearing
where the technology isincorporated into glasses or into
Products that the user wearsevery day or goggles that are worn
(30:43):
on a manufacturing line, wherethe data is now going with the user,
the worker, the patient.Right. And I think that is where
we're going to see the biggestadoption and that's going to be across
all industries. And you know,this is something that technologists
have been envisioning fordecades, that at some point, you
(31:05):
know, it's kind of like havingyour hologram that goes with you.
Right. Or you can talk to yourhologram or someone can beam themselves
into the space that you're at.It's going to happen.
If an organization is justbeginning its XR journey, what would
you recommend as the veryfirst steps for exploring and implementing
XR solutions?
(31:26):
If an organization juststarting on the journey, my recommendation
is find a good consultingpartner, a company or consulting
practice that has realexperience, not technology, vendor
experience, but actualexperience implementing this technology
in businesses. Because there'sa lot of lessons learned that can
(31:48):
be shared and can helpaccelerate those initiatives. And
so for a small investment andbringing in someone in that's got
that experience, they canreally capitalize on it and also
potentially save themselves alot of money in the long run.
And John, that is why we arefriends. That is exactly the answer
I was hoping for, by the way.
(32:09):
I've been on, I've been onboth sides. I've been on the, I've
been on three sides. I've beenon the end user side, I've been on
the vendor, you know,technology side and I've been on
the consulting side. And sothe projects that I've seen that
have been most successful wereones that were well thought out,
you know, had some, thebenefit of other, other people's
experience and then theycould, they could make a good plan
(32:31):
and execute the plan.
Finally, where can ourlisteners follow to learn more about
XR developments? Doesn'tmatter if it's enterprise small business
vra. Yeah, I'm just dropping ahint there.
Well, it's, it's like, it'slike anything there. There's, there's
various industry associations,right. So, you know, every, every
(32:53):
industry has its ownassociation and we're starting to
see those, those or thoseassociations have more content around
xr. And then there's like theVRAR association, which is an association
that's focused on XR and hasdifferent committees and, or, you
know, working groups fordifferent industries. And you know,
(33:16):
and then, and then vendorshave their own, you know, there's
a lot of vendors like Meta andHTC Vive and Apple, you know, they
have a lot of good informationalso on their websites.
John, thank you so much. Iknow we're on the phone like three,
four or five times a week itseems like, but we could talk about
this subject forever and Ihave a feeling I'm going to be having
(33:38):
you back on the show as we, aswe progress in the hospitality side
because I'm really bullish onwhere this is headed and the opportunities
that hospitality has to gainfrom these emerging technologies.
Well, and I think in closing,I think what I'd like to just tell
everyone is folks like you andyou and me, we're not technologists
(33:59):
first looking for a place toapply the technology. We're coming
to this with deep industry andbusiness experience and can understand
how that technology cancompletely transform industries.
And so I think that's theright way of looking at it. I think
when, when, when thetechnology is, is being for, you
(34:20):
know, when you're trying toforce technology into something just
to see if it'll work, that'svery different than saying I can
really transform an industrywith this. And that's what you and
I both see, that this, this is transformative.
John, thank you again oncemore for your time here on the Tech
Chef. I know our audienceenjoyed this conversation and if
(34:41):
they have any follow upquestions, I'll make sure I pass
them along to you and we'llmaybe jump on another show.
Absolutely. Thanks, Kip. Take care.
Wow, that was awesome stuff.And as you know, this is exactly
what Magic Gate and GrowthAdvisors International Network is
providing to the hospitalityindustry. There are very few individuals
(35:04):
and companies that know thesetwo verticals. If this is of interest
to you, please reach out so wecan schedule a meeting and determine
what your needs are. I am notone for throwing technology at something
for technology's sake.However, many of you don't realize
this technology is alreadybeing implemented by large enterprise
(35:25):
restaurant chains and realizeit or not, you are being left behind.
Let's help you get in front ofthese technology opportunities. If
you would like to reach out tome or the show, you can do so via
everything social@SkipKimpleor Everythingagicgate Tech. This
includes X, Facebook,Instagram and LinkedIn. You can also
(35:48):
go to thewebsite@SkipKimple.com for all of
the archived shows and theshow notes will be posted there too.
And you can also hear thesenew episodes on the Magic 8 website@magine.com
and of course you can alwaysemail me@SkipAgicate.com so some
of you been hanging aroundlistening to the end of the show
(36:08):
because I talked about a bigannouncement. So what is that big
news? Well, Magic Gate will belaunching an XR Boot Camp for industry
professionals. This is a lowtech, no tech approach to guide you
as business leaders withknowledgeable information to take
new ideas to your company andyour team members and be able to
talk intelligently around thesubject matter. This is a five week
(36:32):
course that will get youcaught up on terminology, discuss
business strategies, uncoverdevices and services to help you
down your XR path, as well ashow to manage this type of a project.
Most importantly, you will begiven research and tools to help
you make a business case forincluding this in your technology
(36:53):
strategy and roadmap. For moreinformation and to sign up, go to
bootcamp.magicgate.com Thereare very limited seats available,
so make sure you sign up todaybecause you as the listeners of the
Tech Chef are the first onesto hear about this. That's enough
(37:14):
exciting news for one week. Sountil next Tuesday, stay safe, stay
healthy and and stay hungry,my friends.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!