Talks, Thoughts, and Texas: Viget at SxSw 2018
Ben Eckerson, Former Senior Digital Strategist
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Viget's top picks for next week at SXSW, including 2 technical workshops led by our team
While Olympics highlights and Valentine's day memories are fresh in our minds, I'm here to ease you into the impending month of March. Not for the basketball madness, or St. Patrick's day traditions — but for the tech tradition of SXSW and next week's festivities. And in what will be our third consecutive year with multiple talks, we'll be sending our own small crew to Texas — including some fresh faces — for the knowledge, for the sharing, and for the free things they hand you while walking around. In addition to our two workshops, here are a few talks, and thoughts on SXSW 2018:
Thought: #
"I think the implications of AI are growing and being discovered at, or behind the pace of, AI tech which makes it an increasingly interesting, albeit a little scary at times, technology to learn about and work with."
- Ian Brennan, Viget Developer
Talk: #
Regulating AI: How to Control the Unexplainable
- Recommended by: Ian Brennan, Viget Developer
- When: Friday, March 9, 12:30PM - 1:30PM
- Where: JW Marriot, Salon 6, 110 E 2nd St
The rise of AI seems unstoppable—from finance to advertising, medicine and logistics, AI is reshaping industries. But the biggest hurdle to the adoption of AI lies in how well this “black box” technology can be controlled. Indeed, the past few years have seen a rise in regulations impacting AI, and more are on their way. This talk will explain how the worlds of AI and law are colliding, and what this means for data-driven companies, the tech industry, governments and citizens around the world.
Thought: #
"I'm interested in the production and capture of 3D content as we move forward — especially now with Facebook rolling out embedded 3D media in the news feed. I think the trend will be that we will see more and more 3D content added to our daily consumption."
- Prayash Thapa, Viget Developer
Talk: #
Beyond AR/VR: The Dawn of Volumetric Productions
- Recommended by: Prayash Thapa, Viget Developer
- When: Thursday, March 15, 11:00AM - 12:00PM
- Where: JW Marriot, Salon 1-2, 110 E 2nd St
People question whether VR & AR will be fads not realizing that the underlying tools at the heart of the new mediums is already something key to film production – volumetric capture. We will discuss the stage of volumetric capture, pipelines, workflows and how volumetric content leverages the cutting edge video capture and photogrammetry technology to create realistic assets for VFX heavy features, VR, AR, MR, and whatever comes next.
Thought: #
"I always love spending time touring through the SXSW Expo. There’s always a handful of companies using the latest technology to solve new and interesting problems."
- Eli Fatsi, Viget Sr. Developer
Our Talks #
For the third consecutive year we have two intensive technical workshops. Unfortunately, the first is completely booked up (we are sorry!) — but please do RSVP for our Sunday workshop! If you aren't one of the lucky registrants, we’d love to meet up for a beer or some bbq so contact us.
Exploring the Raspberry Pi Zero W #
- When: Saturday, March 10, 9:30AM - 12:30PM
- Where: JW Marriot, Room 402-403, 110 E 2nd St
In this workshop you'll get to dig into the capabilities of the new Raspberry Pi Zero W by the best means possible: hacking on it for a few hours together! Everyone involved will set up a motion activated camera with the Raspberry Pi Zero W that texts you gifs when it senses motion. With the help of Viget developers Ian Brennan and Prayash Thapa and hardware specialist Justin Sinichko — and some tech from resin.io, python, and javascript we will walk through how to set up a server on the Pi that can access the camera, and explore all that the Pi Zero can do.
Building iOS & Android Apps with React Native #
- When: Sunday, March 11, 11:00AM - 2:00PM
- Where: JW Marriot, Room 201-202, 110 E 2nd St
Using React Native, you can build native apps using the JavaScript language, workflow, and toolkit you already know and love. In this session, Viget's senior developers Eli Fatsi and Nate Hunzaker (with the help of Viget alumni Lawson Kurtz) will guide you through the development of iOS and Android apps using just your existing knowledge of JavaScript. First they’ll discuss the fundamentals of React and React Native. Then together you will build your very own native app(s). They'll cover everything: system setup, cross-platform code sharing, styling, built-in native UI elements and APIs, and more.
