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:
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Welcoming Remarks by Michael Gorman, Editor-in-Chief, Engadget |
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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!)
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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
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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:
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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:
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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.