Nextech AR Solution’s CEO is Focused on What Matters: Innovation, Adaptation and Value

On the June 2022 episode of Wall Street Reporter’s NEXT SUPER STOCK LIVE! podcast,  Nextech AR Solutions CEO Evan Gappelberg spoke with Jack Marks, CEO of Wall Street Reporter, about the spinout of the company’s augmented reality spatial mapping platform, ARitize Maps. Evan also used the opportunity to talk about the importance of focus, as well as the need for flexibility in a changing market. 

As a successful founder and seasoned tech CEO, Evan wanted to talk about new developments in the industry, as well as the company’s technology. As he explained in the interview: 

“When I founded Nextech back in 2018, it was on the premise that we were going to take on the augmented reality market, create 3D models for eCommerce and really become the 3D model supplier for all the eCommerce sites globally.” 

That goal led to many opportunities - and much growth - in the ensuing years. One of the opportunities that came up was the purchase of an innovative young technology company, AR Way, now known as ARway and soon to be a stand-alone company. 

“ARway is real world spatial mapping. So we could map an arena, a stadium, the insides of a house or a building, museums, college campuses. We have the technology to create the spatial map, which is essentially a 3D point cloud. And then we have a studio which allows you to drag and drop it in and populate the map with 3D assets. That is an unheard of end-to-end solution.” 

Exciting developments in the CAD-to-poly market were also top of mind: 

“I want to talk about the CAD-to-poly for a minute. It is transformational technology. Today, we essentially use that tech in house, but the goal - and what we're building today - is a SaaS platform where we can turn the tech over to the manufacturer, allowing them to create 3D models themselves. For us, it becomes a monthly licensing fee revenue stream.”  

The potential of ARway as a stand-alone company - and CAD-to-poly as a technology - are enormous. The ability to recognize and unlock their potential are examples of Nextech AR Solutions’ ability to understand the needs of the market. 

“E-com is a five trillion-dollar megatrend that's going to ten trillion. It's growing rapidly. It's unstoppable. I'm talking about e-commerce in general, even with the current supply chain issues. Brick and mortar stores are closing and what they're doing is investing more in their e-com business. And I'm hearing this in stereo every week when I’m talking with a major brand, a major e-com retailer. These companies are looking for a partner to take them into this world of 3D.” 

Despite the tremendous growth in e-commerce during the pandemic, that market has started to soften, which led to new acquisitions designed to move Nextech AR Solutions forward.  

“The massive growth from the pandemic was waning. As we rolled into the second half of 2021, really the summer of 2021, we acquired two companies [ARway and Threedy.ai]  that were transformative.” 

Evan is an example of a CEO who knows where his focus needs to be and is doing everything in his power to identify opportunities to deliver value - to shareholders, to customers, and to partners. 

“Every day I spend time in back to back meetings with my leadership team about building the business, closing deals, bringing products to market, our investments, our burn rate, our budget, and our revenue.”  

“Increasing shareholder value is always on my mind. My default thinking is how does all this benefit my shareholders, customers, and partners. I don't really have hobbies. I'm a workaholic. I work, work, work to try and increase shareholder value.” 

This tremendous commitment by senior leadership is what has placed Nextech AR Solutions at the vanguard of 3D and augmented reality. To learn how this commitment to innovation and customer value can benefit your business, visit us here and read about AR/3D technology solutions.  

To listen to previous Wall Street Reporter’s NEXT SUPER STOCK LIVE! podcasts featuring Evan and other members of our leadership team, visit WallStreetReporter.com.  

The Map D platform - a dynamic element of the Nextech AR Solutions product family - has seen unprecedented adoption and dynamic growth, as more and more event management companies seek ways to improve the operations, experience, and impact of their offerings. With Web 3.0 becoming even more critical, Map D is poised to deliver significant results. 

Leading the Way to Better Event Management 

The Map D self-serve event management software solution provides an extensive set of features and tools for managing almost any kind of event. Map D also fits with the current move to applications and personalized experiences made possible by Web 3.0. In the events industry, organizers are creating in-person, online, and hybrid conferences and tradeshows, and Map D helps simplify and manage these events with ease.  

Map D makes an event manager’s job easier by automating or crowdsourcing complicated logistics while simplifying the sales processes and adding new revenue opportunities. Map D can also provide a companion native mobile app for in-person events or serve as a self-contained virtual venue for attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, speakers, or anyone else participating in an event. 

Whether a better way to sell floor plan space or services at trade shows, expos, or festivals or to manage speakers and schedule details during conferences or meetings, Map D does it all. Map D is designed to manage all of the dynamic elements of even the most complex events - something that requires real-time updates and the ability to share critical information with event staff, sponsors, and attendees. 

Broad and Deep Adoption 

Some of the organizations using Map D to support their events include the American Distilling Institute, the New York Library Association, and Restaurants Canada, whose RC Show 2022 included demonstrations of forward-looking technologies that can be integrated with and extend the Map D platform. These included 3D product visualizations, augmented reality wayfinding, and more to provide attendees with information, increased engagement, and an improved overall experience.  

Beyond Map D 

Map D can be integrated with other Nextech AR Solutions’ technologies - including ARway (formerly ARitize Maps), ARitize 3D, and ARitize Holograms - to give event managers the end-to-end tools to provide engaging and immersive experiences that customers want. What could be better? 

Nextech AR Solutions 

Nextech AR Solutions is fueling the growth of the metaverse with breakthrough 3D and AR solutions. Event managers, and others, who are interested in learning more about Map D and our wide range of augmented reality (“AR”) experience technologies and 3D model services should click here! 

Creating easily-navigable virtual spaces has never been more important. Merging the real and the virtual - magically mapping layers of virtual information onto the physical spaces people use every day - has become a rich and exciting field for technologists, property owners, and marketers. 

Real World Impact of Indoor Wayfinding  

Moving through large unfamiliar spaces can be time-consuming. One recent study found that 70 percent of workers on large corporate campuses waste up to 15 minutes trying to find a meeting location.  

Confusion can be costly. RetailNext, for example, found that 65 percent of shoppers cited difficulty in physically locating a product as a key source of frustration, and 67 percent reported leaving a store empty handed when they were unable to find the product they were seeking. Augmented reality wayfinding can help lead the way.   

An AR-fueled experience can lead to improved sales and engagement. According to a Harvard Business Review study, customers who used AR viewed 1.3 more products and were 20 percent more likely to make a purchase as compared with non-AR-using customers. Studies also show that 84 percent of people feel more engaged - and enjoy a more memorable experience - when it has AR elements. 

Improving Position, Location, and Navigation (PLAN) 

ARway addresses these important issues with high-accuracy AI navigation, an immersive user experience, and rich connections between people, places, and objects. ARway delivers these capabilities in an easy-to-use collaborative work environment, with comprehensive version management and control, and access deep analytics on location and user behavior in space. 

ARway does for indoor spaces what Google Maps has done for outdoor navigation. Right out of the box, ARway provides a cloud-based solution for navigation and wayfinding with AR support for the growing Position, Localization, and Navigation (PLAN) industry. Critical tools for an important and dynamic sector.  

AR Power - Code Free

The power to lead people through physical spaces is easier than ever with ARway’s “no code/low code” approach. It enables creators of all types to deliver immersive experiences that connect people, places and objects. For property owners, ARway offers a unique way to increase the value of virtual assets in physical spaces and enrich the human experience. For people, an immersive new world - one of information, navigation, and well-targeted, locationally relevant messages - can suddenly be discovered all around them. 

But ARway isn’t just for navigation nerds. The ARway Creator Portal offers a wide range of code-free capabilities for building powerful location-based AI experiences. Metaverse creators can communicate and collaborate in a way that is simple and familiar to anyone who has used a service like Discord.   

Despite its power and potential, ARway can be accessed with just a few clicks and taps. This is due to ARway’s advanced artificial intelligence. AI-generated “blueprints” of physical spaces enable the placement of persistent metaverse experiences to be created. Any camera-enabled phone or device can easily access AI to recognize surroundings for hyper-accurate location-driven applications. 

Location-based Marketing and Advertising  

Its rich feature set, accessible tools, and active Creator Community allows ARway users to do some amazing things. The Guildhall School of Music & Drama, for example, used ARway to produce music and visuals for Harmony at London Wall Place, a series of location-anchored augmented reality artworks that bring London to life.  

Hospitals, sports stadiums, retail centers, realtors and real estate developers, and art/cultural institutions are all starting to recognize what the metaverse can mean to them. ARway can make their spaces, interactions, and offerings richer and more rewarding. Here are just a few of the ways ARway can support these types of organizations:

• Hospitals and medical centers - professional staff spending too much time providing directions. ARway helps hospital administrators remove this burden and improve staff efficiency through personalized digital wayfinding. 

• Museums and Galleries - these organizations are constantly seeking new ways to engage visitors - and convert visitors to members. ARway museum directors and curators expand exhibits beyond the physical bounds of a space to create more exciting and memorable experiences.  

• Retail - customers are avoiding physical stores. Finding products, navigating sprawling spaces, and frustration are all to blame. ARway gives merchandising managers - and others - the tools they need to make shopping deeply engrossing (and unlock amazing new revenue opportunities). 

• Sports Venues - sprawling spaces that are way-finding deficient. Information and technology leaders can use ARway to improve navigation, highlight specific vendors, and make stadiums and arenas feel as familiar as the back of your hand. 

• Tradeshows and Events - same old same old sponsorship packages just aren’t cutting it any more. ARway lets event managers offer new, engaging, and unexpected sponsorship opportunities in their existing space - by moving them into the unrestricted AR-enabled metaverse. 

The ARway Platform consists of the ARway App, ARway Creator Portal, and the ARway Kit SDK. Together they provide a powerful - yet accessible - suite of capabilities that needs to be seen to be believed. You can do that by signing up for a demo. You can also contact us for SDK pricing that will allow you to experience the full capabilities of ARway. Join the ARWay Creator Community and become a metaverse master. Gain instant access to tips, best practices, and educational resources to hone your navigational skills. Create a new world and an engaging way for people to discover and navigate it!

For several years, Nextech AR Solutions has worked with Google’s 3D/AR Search team to give customers access to one of the most effective search trends out there: 3D and augmented reality (AR). What makes these approaches so powerful? For starters, Google ranks 3D models higher in organic search than 2D ones. Google also reports that conversion rates for 3D-enhanced commerce are 250 percent higher than for non-3D content, and click-through rates are 94 percent higher. Shopify, for its part, has declared that the “future of eCommerce is 3D,” and who could argue with them? Consumers prefer it, and retailers report a 40 percent drop in returns when shoppers are able to see a product in 3D or “placed” in their space via augmented reality.

Our ARitize 3D BigCommerce App stakes new ground as the AR industry’s first true self-service AR SaaS platform. BigCommerce’s mission is to help merchants sell more at every stage of growth, from small startups to mid-market businesses, to large enterprises. ARitize 3D gives BigCommerce merchants access to scalable, affordable, easy to use, and - ultimately - high-quality 3D/AR models. With just a few simple steps, merchants can use our AI-powered technology, fully integrated into BigCommerce, to create models that can help drive customer engagement and sales. 

Nextech AR Solutions’s 3D model-creation app for Shopify has given merchants around the world a smooth and simple way to create stunning 3D/AR models for their ecommerce sites. The use and impact of the app has soared since it was updated in January. Shoppers love the experience of rotating or zooming into a product to see it in all its glory. This “try before you buy” capability is transforming ecommerce! 

Augmented reality transforms the customer purchasing journey from start to finish. It’s more likely to grab the attention of prospective customers and drive larger amounts of traffic, as the ability to place and play with a product in any environment is bound to grab attention. In 2021, it was used by over 100 million shoppers. Brands and businesses can now use their usual digital display advertising channels with game-changing banners that can display fully interactive, 3D versions of the products advertised. This has proved to increase click-through rates by 32% and conversionrates by 300% in our test remarketing campaign. 

Goh Ballet and Nextech AR Create Ballet Holograms to Improve Broader Access and Introduce New Ways to Learn Dance

Happy Father's Day! To celebrate, Nextech AR Solutions had the wonderful opportunity to chat with a few fathers from a diverse set of industries. Here is their personal take on fatherhood:

While the world is carefully starting to open, it isn’t likely to return to the pre-shuttered lockdown that was 2020. The past eighteen months helped us realize how much can be achieved by combining the digital and live; and the best part is, we’re only getting started.