You probably already know that the annual Augmented World Expo (AWE) is going online this year. But, what about the Auggies? The Auggie Awards is the AWE’s AR and VR awards show, so, with AWE moving online, so are the Auggies.
“The Auggies Are Going Online!”
“This year, the Auggies are going online!” read a recent email from AWE’s Mary Potter. “As we adapt to and enter a new reality – the Auggies will continue to award innovation and excellence in Spatial Computing.”
Nominations are open to the public until April 15. After that, public voting is opened up from April 15 to May 8. A judging period lasts from May 13 to May 20. Finally, the Auggie Awards will be announced on May 28, during AWE 2020.
Categories and Past Winners
The Auggies recognize XR technology in 15 categories:
- Best Art or Film
- Best Campaign
- Best Consumer App
- Best Creator and Authoring Tool
- Best Developer Tool
- Best Enterprise Solution
- Best Game or Toy
- Best Headworn Device
- Best Input and Output Hardware
- Best Interaction Software Tool
- Biggest Societal Impact
- Best Indie Creator(s)
- Best Use of AI
- Best in Location-Based Entertainment
- Best Healthcare and Wellness Solution
There are also three Best-In-Show Awards:
- Augmented Reality
- Virtual Reality
- Startup to Watch
Finally, the NEXTANT Award goes to a “pioneer in XR” and the AWESOME award goes to “a moonshot concept or prototype.”
Notable past winners include 8th Wall Web (Best Developer Tool, 2019), The NYT apps (Best Consumer App, 2019), Ikea Place (Best Consumer App, 2018), Gravity Sketch (Best Creating and Authoring Tool, 2018), Vive Pro (Best Headworn Device, 2018), Varjo (Startup to Watch, 2018) and Unity (Best Developer Tool, 2018)
Nominating Your Favorite XR Technology or Experience
In order to nominate for the Auggies, you have to be registered with the AWE Auggie Awards site. This is not the same as having tickets to AWE and you can nominate for the Auggies without AWE tickets. Note that the public can nominate for the fifteen major categories but not for the Best-In-Show category, the NEXTANT, or the AWESOME awards.
For the nomination submission, nominators need to provide information on the organization or product that they are nominating. This includes a brief description and may also include a cover photo and video attachments.
Start Voting Tomorrow
As you can see from the past winners named above, getting an Auggie is a pretty big deal. By extension, nominating and voting for your favorite XR platform or experience for an Auggie is a great way to participate in the process. That’s whether or not you’re able to attend the conference’s live content.
With so much of the social and participatory nature of AWE lost, it makes sense to take advantage of as many of the organization’s digital offerings as possible.
