The Auggie Awards are a highlight event at AWE. The main ceremony took place last Wednesday evening, but the awards for Best in Show VR, Best in Show AR, and the Awesome Award were awarded at the AWE closing ceremony on Thursday.
The ceremony included one new Auggie for Best Collaborative Tool, which was added in light of the high demand for this kind of product during the pandemic. In a similar vein, host and AWE co-founder Ori Inbar expressed understanding to award winners that could not accept in person because of travel restrictions.
The Best Art or Film award was presented by General Immersive CEO Ray Mosco and went to Peaceful Places by Gold Enterprises.
Presented by Epic Games Head of Brands and Advertising, Raffaella Camera,
Best Campaign Auggie Award went to Countdown Super Insects by Zappar. This is Zappar’s second Auggie.
The award was accepted by CEO Caspar Thykier, who gave a special thanks to the creative team.“It’s a massive team effort,” said Thykier. “I’m getting this on behalf of all of the great people I worked with.”
HP Global Head of VR for Go-To-Market, Joanna Popper, presented the award for Best Collaboration Tool to ShapesXR by Tvori. The award was accepted by founder and CEO Inga Petryaevskaya.
“Tvori has always been a creation tool,” said Petryaevskaya. “2020 showed us that it shouldn’t just be a creation tool, it should be a collaboration tool.”
Petryaevskaya also announced that Shapes XR is now available on Quest, having launched on the platform Thursday morning.
The award for Best Consumer App was presented by Hopscotch Interactive CEO Emily Olman to Google Maps Live View by Google.
AWE co-founder and Futurewei Technologies Director of AR/VR Tish Shute presented the award to Masterpiece Studio.
The award for Best Developer Tool was presented by Khronos Group President Neil Trevett to Mixed Reality Toolkit for Unity (MRTK-Unity) by Microsoft.
AR for Enterprise Alliance founder and Board Member Christine Perey presented the award for Best Enterprise Solution to Beamo by 3i Inc.
The award for Best Game or Toy was presented by Tech Trends Editor-in-Chief Alice Bonasio to Hand Physics Lab by Holonautic.
This year, the Auggies ceremony also included a Halftime Show by XR improv group The Technodramatists. The three-person troupe performed sketches using input from the audience while one off-stage member used face tracking to appear as a virtual character on screen.
The award for Best Headworn Device was presented by Lockheed Martin’s Chief Engineer AR/MR, Shelley Peterson, to Spectacles by Snap.
XR Association VP of Industry Relations, Laura Chadwick, presented the Auggie Award for Best Healthcare and Wellness to C19-Space by Immersium Studios.
The award for Best Indie Creator went to Holonautic’s Dennys Kuhnert for Hand Physics Lab. This is the second Auggie Award of the evening for Hand Physics Lab, following the win in the category of Best Game or Toy.
XEODesign President and founder Nicole Lazzaro presented the award for Best Interaction Product to TactSuit X40 by bHaptics Inc, accepted by CEO Gwak Kiuk.
“I’m truly honored and grateful to receive this award,” said Kiuk. “I would like to thank all of the developers who incorporated our haptic suit into their projects, and would like to thank even more those who will incorporate our suit into their projects in the future.”
Chicken Waffle CEO Finn Staber presented the award for Best Location-Based Entertainment to The Edge VR Matterhorn Experience by Redbull.
The Best Societal Impact Auggie Award was presented by Voices of VR Podcast host Kent Bye to Breonna’s Garden. Accepting the Auggie was the project’s executive producer Joanna Popper on behalf of the creative team and the family of Breonna Taylor.
Human Holograms CEO Dave Lorenzini presented the award for Best Use of AI to Mixed Reality Navigation System by Apostera.
The winner of the Startup Pitch Competition was presented by Venture Reality Fund founder Tipatat Chennavasin and went to inCitu. The award was accepted by founder and CEO Dana Chermesh Reshef.
During the event wrap-up on the afternoon of day three, Inbar introduced a second new category, the Hero Award, which went to the online participant with the most interaction on the AWE.LIVE app that Inbar introduced on day one.
The winner of this award (not technically an Auggie) was Ryan Ryba, BDR at BUNDLAR. Ryba will receive free tickets to all AWE events next year.
Inbar donned one of his disguises from his opening keynote to present the award for Best in Show AR as fictional ‘80s AI character Max Headroom, complete with computerized voice. The award went to Niantic and was accepted by Meghan Hughes.
The mask came off as Inbar presented the Best in Show VR award, which was presented to HaptX.
The Awesome Award has historically gone to a company, exhibitor, or panelist that went above and beyond in their in-person participation. This year, Inbar “presented the award” to the entire audience.
A camera showed the audience on screen, then changed to a QR code. When scanned, the QR code led to an AR version of the Auggie Award, created by rooom, who contributed to the virtual portion of this year’s AWE.
“We all made a commitment this week that we will not stop doing what we do to avoid a dystopia,” said Inbar.
If that’s all it takes to win a digital Auggie, I’ll take it.
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