Hello Zoe,
The Envision conference took place in Wichita, Kansas. There were 186 attendees, and I probably met with half of them.
About Envision
The Envision conference is all about low vision. There are no products for the blind here, although there were 2-3 blind people attending. The attendees include eye doctors, low vision specialists, occupational therapists, and rehabilitation specialists. Unlike CSUN or ATIA where we do not always know if a visitor is interested, at Envision, every single attendee needs to speak with you. It’s a very relevant group.
Booth Visits
As I wrote above, I estimate that at least half the attendees visited me to see Acesight. My estimate is that 50 people came by on Thursday afternoon. There were so many people that at times I would have an audience of 5-6 people.
There was a person who loved Acesight a lot. They liked that they could walk around. At one stage, they put their phone down on our booth and went walking into the dining area to where their friends were seated. The photo I took is kind of from a distance, but shows her friends standing around asking her about Acesight. She brought them all back to the Zoomax booth to check out Acesight for themselves. This group is a low vision clinic in Austin, Texas.
Some customers agreed we can use their photo in our marketing. These customers also took photos of themselves to share on their own social media.
Other customers posed for photos with their own camera. Others also took photos of Acesight on the white head.
Reaction to Acesight
I plan to share a more detailed document about Acesight reaction later in the week. For now, let me say the following:
- 99% of people who saw Acesight thought it was very good. They told me it was “cool” and added how much they liked it.
- Some other wearables were also at the show. I was happy for this because when I mentioned the advantages of faster display rate with Acesight and the open design allowing you to walk around, people nodded in agreement.
- One person said they felt dizzy with Acesight, but they have a medical issue that causes it. They claim they also feel dizzy wearing sunglasses.
- Perhaps 10—12 people took my offer to walk around with Acesight. As they did, it caused others to stop and watch or to even ask them questions about what they were wearing.
- In terms of things people liked:
- Floating Reading Mode. I demonstrated this every single time I showed Acesight. The image quality of reading material looks so good in this mode, plus, it is easier to pan their head around a floating image than it is to hold the physical paper.
- Display rate. Especially for anyone with experience using other wearables, they all agreed that our image was very smooth.
- Image quality. While there was a couple of people saying the image quality of something 100 feet away was not clear, most people remarked how good it was. Some of them said they had tried other wearables and found the image quality and indeed the experience to be not as good as Acesight.
- Comfort. I lost count how many times people said how comfortable Acesight was. I wished we had the head straps for 2 people with smaller heads, but otherwise it felt good to people. They said it did not feel very heavy, which is good.
- Some of the eye doctors asked if we would consider placing a Acesight with them to show patients. All I said for now is that we are interested in feedback, and might consider this if they would promise to try it with different patients with different eye conditions. One such doctor from Philadelphia said yes to this, so I might follow up with them.
As tiring as it was, Envision was a very exciting show. I enjoyed the positive energy and reaction from so many people. I don’t have much voice left now, but this temporary loss is a welcome exchange for such a good show experience.
Let me know if there are any questions.
Regards,
David
