Tuesday, December 2, 2014

{#TechTuesday} Highlights from @EngadgetEvents #ExpandNY #Technology #Blogger

As a lifelong Gadget Geek and Tech lover, I am always excited about events that showcase emerging tech, great new products and gear and offer great speakers! With my schedule I don't get to see every conference and tradeshow that hits NYC but I certainly try my best to do so. Thankfully Engadget's #ExpandNY worked with my schedule, well somewhat, I was only able to catch part of day 1, but I did manage to take in quite a bit, here are my highlights:

Welcoming Remarks by Michael Gorman, Editor-in-Chief, Engadget


Rachel Haot, Chief Digital Officer and Deputy Secretary of Technology for the State of New York
Don't tell her, but I am evenly tied between wanting Rachel's job or Taylor Swift's New York City’s Global Welcome Ambassador spot! (and this butterfly does have a City Hall background!)

Charles Best, Founder of Donors Choose






































As a former Special Ed Teacher I was very taken by Charles Best who is the Founder and CEO of Donors Choose. Charles Best, a social studies teacher at Wings Academy in Bronx, New York (this butterfly's borough!), found himself and his colleagues funding school supplies from their own money, and they envisioned a platform for individuals to connect directly with classrooms in need. Charles Best created it and funded the first 10 projects HIMSELF to show the effectiveness of such a platform. In 2003, the Oprah Winfrey Show featured Charles Best in a segment on innovative teachers and traffic generated from that show crashed the site! Viewers donated $250,000 to fund classroom projects and now over $200 million has gone to fund over 400,000 classroom projects posted on the site, want to help? Visit DonorsChoose.org

What's Next For Wearables? was led by Kate Harman






































Kate Harman spoke on the future of Wearable Technology, and helped Engadget Attendees create it, with an actual hands on class to experience creating your own wearable tech, here is a pic of the demo below:



Marc-Andre Bazergui, LEGO Mindstorms Expert






































LEGO was definitely popular! Above Marc-Andre Bazergui LEGO Mindstorms Expert spoke to engadget attendees and I also got a chance to visit their exhibitor booth, here are some photos below:












































































FOVE Eye Tracking Mount Display


Above: FOVE presented an Eye Tracking Head Mount Display, by tracking gaze position in real time it is possible to interact with and control objects on the screen in new ways, amping up the virtual reality experience!








































Above: As an aspiring jeweler, I loved Clover - Credit Processing - Point of Sale - Clover Station where you can bill someone in real time on the go AND print them a receipt! Clever no? I am currently a Life Coach and I can see the possibilities with this for what I am already doing.



The Dodocase Smartphone VR Viewer definitely grabbed attention as a portable and convenient way to bring Virtual Reality to the masses! For my fellow butterflies that remember, this brought back memories of The View-Master!



Above: The Ultimaker 3D Printer caught my eye also as an aspiring jewelry designer, think of all the sweet butterflies I could use this to create!








































Above: As a Best Buy Brand Ambassador you know I had to make a stop and say hi to the folks at Best Buy - Geek Squad Academy! They were teaching attendees how to learn circuits and programming, check out this cool vine by twitter user @Zafar H Sayed - Press on his name to see the Vine Video on Twitter



Above: Panelists: Benjamin Heckendorn, host of The Ben Hack Show, Terrence O'Brien, Managing Editor, Engadget, Cyril Ebersweiler, Founder of HAXLR8R, Rahul Sood, Creator of VoodooPC and Microsoft Ventures and now CEO of unikm and Chris Quintero, Program Manager, Bolt




Above: Toyota offered attendees a Wifi lounge, and thank God for that because the venue Wifi was super slow and draggy, I stopped in at the lounge and Toyota's Wifi was on point!

Below: I also had to check out the Prius Plug-in Hybrid, butterfly would look cute behind the wheel of this whip right?









































Above: While I missed the Android Dance Party on Day Two, I did get a chance to visit the folks at Aldebaran Robotics who brought along a trio of their fifth-generation Nao bi-peds, developers can get their hands on them for about 6K and a consumer unit currently retails at $8,000. So no robot for this butterfly quite yet. But I'm thinking having one of these greet me at the door with a glass of wine and my slippers would be some kind of heaven! Visit their page at asknao.aldebaran.com

MY TAKE:

Even with a press preview component, I regret I couldn't get to every exhibitor, so my apologies to the brands I didn't get a chance to interface with or that aren't featured! Wearable Tech which was huge at Engadget Expand (as well as Get Geeked, which I recapped HERE), and is actually going to be my focus on these pages as some of the brands I have met at various tech shows have sent us review units so I will be sharing the best of Wearable Tech during my holiday gift guide this year and well into the New Year!

˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•●•٠·˙˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•●•٠·˙˙·٠•● Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ●•●•٠·˙

FTC Disclosure: I was provided Press Access to #ExpandNY. All opinions are 100% my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255 - Guides Concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising, you may visit our full giveaway and disclosure page for complete policy information.

36 comments:

  1. I love gadgets though i wouldn't exactly call myself a gadget or tech fanatic lol but this event sounds like it was awesome and cant wait to see more

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow what great speakers and looks like some really cool products too. I love gadgets too, but I don't think I'm a tech fanatic! Ellie x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Some interesting gadgets! My husband would of loved this event. Sounds like gadget heaven. lol

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love cool tech gadgets. What an awesome event that was!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for sharing your Engadget's #ExpandNY post and photos. We are gadget peeps here in Georgia and I really love all of these gadgets. It would have been a blast to attend.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That event sounds and looks like so much fun! I wish they would host them closer to where I live! I would have been in techy heaven from the looks of things there!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This sounds like a great event to attend. All the gadgets sound terrific. I would have been at the Lego booth.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love gadgets. I need a car that will drive itself for me. That would be my dream come true. I hate driving.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wearable tech would be awesome. Especially if it meant I could give my fingers a break from the keyboard all day.

    ReplyDelete
  10. That must of been a fun expo to visit. Specially meeting the Lego Mindstorm expert. I would of loved to attend something like that.

    ReplyDelete
  11. What an amazing conference! We love technology and gadgets in this house! I can't wait to show some of these to my son!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm so jealous you got to go to Engadget! Those LEGO robot looking things look so, so cool. I bet the hubs would love them.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I think wearable tech is just so cool. This sounds like a really interesting conference.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh man, I wish I could have been there. It's so totally up my alley.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow!!! All those gadgets sound fantastic!! What a great event!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. My husband and I are huge techies and would have loved to been at this conference. I'm glad you got to experience it!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I think I would have especially enjoyed that wearable tech demo. I'm so curious about that!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wow! What cool gadgets! Those robots look amazing! I can see why lego's were popular - they are one of the smartest inventions ;)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Wow that looks like a great place to be! So many gadgets!

    ReplyDelete
  20. This sounds like a great event. I would love to go to something like this!

    ReplyDelete
  21. This looks like so much fun. I would be in nerd heaven if I had been there.

    ReplyDelete
  22. This looks like a fun event. I'm always interested to see what kind of new tech products come out each year!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Wow, this looks like such a fun event to have attended. Thanks so much for sharing all the fun gadgets and highlights!

    ReplyDelete
  24. I bet that was so interesting. Love all the techy stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  25. At that price, that robot better wait on me hand and foot AND be my maid for life. ~lol~ Cool event!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Great stuff I'd love to try the FOVE Eye Tracking Mount Display and the Nao Bi Peds . Sure you would look great in that Prius Plug-in Hybrid but I'm sure I look fabulous !! Wish I could have been there .

    ReplyDelete
  27. This event sounds awesome. I would have loved to learn about all that tech stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  28. I love the wearable technology and donor chose. I have passed the information to those who might benefit in NY. I love technology, because it's forever changing sometime's in the right direction.

    ReplyDelete
  29. What a COOL event!! I would have been overwhelmed by all the amazing tech too.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Everything sounds so interesting. I def. would have loved to have seen a demo on wearable tech.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Bet that;s a super cool and geeky event! What neat products too

    ReplyDelete
  32. Now this looks like it was a great event to attend, I like the nerdy and geeky side of gadgets. I would totally love something like this.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Ahhh! I'm a total gadget geek; I'd love to attend an event like this. Digging the little robot!

    ReplyDelete
  34. This looks like a super neat event to attend! It's amazing how advanced technology has become!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Gadgets are so fun! This looks like a fab time! I love the little robot!

    ReplyDelete
  36. so many new products and technology to watch out for!

    Looks like you had a great time!

    ReplyDelete