Today was my last day in California, and as I woke up at around 6.00am, I finally got a good view of the sun, well sunrise. It was going to be a beautiful and sunny day today the first time since my arrival.
My first meeting of the day was it 7.00am, where I had breakfast with Humanware. Humanware are one of our biggest suppliers and they offer a range of high-quality products in the low vision and blindness space. Forecast in our we discussed a range of topics focusing on product development, supply chain issues, Covid recovery, marketing, and the product pipeline. Was a really good opportunity to sit down with senior staff at human where and develop the relationship between them and Vision Australia.
I then headed into some sessions. The first session was with Envision Glasses. Envision call presented on bringing their glasses together with an AI interface. I is really having an impact at this conference and we are starting to see more more products tap into it to assist users. Get to the necessary information in a much more structured and speedy way. As an example, where of these glasses can read a menu, then asked the AI engine to find the cheapest burger, or the desert, with chocolate in it, or a particular vintage of wine.
I then had meeting with Taptilo, an inexpensive braille learning device and Magic EdTech, a company specialising in document remediation, website auditing for accessibility, and document accessibility.
I then spent some time with Peter, my colleague on this trip with me, and we went through the exhibition exhaustively. Which petrol range of companies and export range new devices, strategies and emerging technologies. They were a number of products and a number of suppliers who are looking for footholds into the Australian market, so I’ve got a bit of follow-up to do to strike supplier agreements in Australia to get these products in the hands of our customers and clients. The key theme across the whole exhibition was the convergence of AI and accessible tech. I can see you over the coming years, if not sooner, that AI is gonna play critical role in improving the accessibility for people with low vision.
When we finished in the exhibition hall, I took some time back in my room to get organised as I was leaving at 5.00am the following morning and I had product launch and a dinner this evening. So once I was mostly packed, I got changed and Peter and I attended the launch of the monarch. The monarch is a device from humanware that combines Braille and tactile display in an innovative and never seen before way. This product will be a game changer. After the launch, I walked to the Westin Hotel and met with colleagues from BLVNZ. We are partnering with BLVNZ to launch a new website into New Zealand to supply products to low vision and blind users in New Zealand. Was really great catching up with these guys and we had some really cool discussions around AI and the stuff that we seen at the conference.
After dinner, I headed back to the hotel and hit the sack, ready for the next leg of my journey to Boston
