Each business is unique so we can't answer this question with accuracy, however, we can provide some insights into the changes for some categories of companies. And, please, don't be confused by our use of the word "business." We use this word in the loosest sense to mean any commercially-driven, non-profit or public organization.

Content Creators, Owners and Publishers

As the migration of information from analog to digital formats continues, we believe that in the next few years, content will be more frequently found, viewed and heard ("consumed") in context. If your company is currently running a content creation company, maybe designing buildings, or if your primary business is adding value to content, such as distributing or publishing content, perhaps a media company, you have already begun or completed your transition to a (largely) digital industry. If you are creating or managing a city's information assets, such as the geospatially-indexed points of interest (POI), your data is valuable to various departments as well as businesses and citizens.

With Augmented Reality, your customers or the citizens of your city, will use physical objects (also known as "the real world") as an interface for searching and using information they need or want to explore. This workshop will explain how the new information paradigm works.

Services Companies

All services companies will, one day, use Augmented Reality to deepen experiences with their customers, or, if you are in the business of designing content for other companies, you will need to use AR in a manner not unlike you are using the Web today–to help users achieve their goals, answer their questions and engage more fully with your offerings.

Although it is impossible to list all the ways in which AR will bring value to services businesses, we will show you many during the workshops. 

Products

Every product, like every human, is born. Products — from a bag of peanuts to the latest automobile — have digital data associated with them. When Augmented Reality is mature, some digital data will be associated with everything man-made, and with a lot of natural products as well. Anything that a user can touch or interact with in the physical world will have diigtal data to propose to end users using AR.

When is this going to happen?

Like the move to the Web, the move from digital data being separate from the real world to AR will not happen overnight. But, in contrast with our move from a purely physical world to using the Web (a process that has taken place over a quarter century), the adoption of the real world for digital data experiences will seep into daily use more quickly. It has already begun with personal navigation devices and smartphones with GPS and location technologies.

We hope that we've sparked your curiosity and that you will permit us to share more details about use cases for AR that could be relevant for your organization during the workshops on March 16 and 17.