Antony Vitillo’s Post

And of course... see you at CES 2025!

1/2 Dear Tony, Meeting you was definitely my highlight this year. And I say that as someone who was idiotic enough to fly to New York and buy a Vision Pro. Your article really touched me emotionally. It could have been 100% mine. Or that of many other people from the XR bubble I've spoken to this year. And I see this as precisely the problem: the XR industry is “not doing well”. There are too many agencies, too many freelancers like you and me, too many people doing “something with 3D”. But there is hardly any demand from potential customers. XR is still often ONLY found in the innovation department. PoCs are developed, so-called lighthouse projects, by decision-makers who just have a little budget to spare and put it into “a game” without looking for the business idea themselves. I took on the following role this year: A client approaches me with a budget. Explains his idea to me. I ask how he wants to earn money with this idea for his company and whether he is prepared to talk about alternative ideas. And I don't do this in an unfriendly way, but with a lot of understanding.

That's (as usual) a great post Antony Vitillo: I fully agree with you that largely most major XR events are "industry people talking to...industry people", and that has undoubtedly a huge value for dissemination, networking, hardware trial etc. For someone like me, who's involved 90% of the time in partnerships with the final client (buyer) of the experience (a brand, an agency, a platform, a venue etc) or the software/tool (similar buyers), those potential "buyers" aren't simply attending XR-specific events in bulk...if they do, they are exceptions that dont' represent entire industries or sectors (just a few companies/brands that are more invested in XR). Why? You already mentioned that in one of your answers...the space, for them, is perhaps too niche or as posted in one of the comments by Maud Clavier an "XR bubble" that, largely, interests people inside or close to the bubble, not large organisations that look at Technology and Innovation more "holistically". I see investing 1-2k in maybe a specific event for Networking, Information and Knowledge Increase purposes, but if the business aspect isn't so easy to reach, then I'd personally be much more selective about which one to attend.

Totally agree my friend. In the end, it's a matter of personal paradigms and what you are trying to build... but yes, you have to be clear of what you are trying to build so you can assess if the action is worth the effort. I am infinitely thankful for all the friendships I've gathered in this industry (yours included), and I think that the personal experience and network is always worthy of investment.

I overall agree with you, socially fun to be within the XR bubble, but business wise... That's why I love so much SXSW, there's a mix between several industries so the income can be greater. Aside from the fun :)

Always love reading your blogs Antony Vitillo! I still think inviting you to XRCC was one of the best decisions I did for this event 💪🏽 My favorite quote of your article: "Traveling is very expensive… luckily sometimes you are repaid with amazing food, like it happened during XRCC (Image by XRCC)" ❤️ See you in 2025 👀

You just perfectly nailed the disadvantage of travel. It's so underestimated.. a 4 day trip to the other side of the world cost you in the end about a full week of no income..that hurts..(for most of the people)

Thanks for adding to the magic with every event visited!

Always happy to see my friend, Tony! See you at AWE 2025 😀 I hope you make some great connections at CES!

Always love seeing you at events!