This is the second of a two-part series that details a week-long trip to California that included augmented reality, comic books and a David Hasselhoff flashmob.

Still a bit weary-eyed from the red-eye flight I deplaned this morning from beautiful San Diego and I decided to jot down this blog entry while my thoughts from Comic-Con 2010 were still fresh in my head.  My plan was to have some face time with a few clients, network and maybe take in a few panels.  Not very lofty expectations, right?  After all, I actually read a handful of comic titles growing up, loved drawing, and of course, am into gaming and movies which is why we have that type of clientele.

I was slammed into reality as I approached Day 1 of Comic-Con from my Gaslamp district hotel towards the convention center and saw it:  People.  Thousands of people,  a reported 130,000 people.

130,000? Gulp.

The following 4 days could be easily summed up by just saying that I had to get used to waiting in line for hours, and having to stop walking every 2 seconds because another Storm Trooper’s picture was being taken.

But actually, I think the prevailing theme over the conference is dedication.

Far be it for me to look down upon those who are so fiercely loyal to their hero/game/tv show character of choice. After all, anyone who knows me can attest to my occasionally over-the-top obsession with Family Guy. But what I found fascinating is that the fans were unflinching.  This is their world.  The time when like-minded individuals (again, 130,000 of them!) congregate and exist in entertainment-industry harmony.  Except for these guys, but I digress.

Witnessing the fanaticism first hand, I can see how Comic-Con has grown from comics and sci-fi nerds to a full-fledged pop culture convergence of media.  Angelina Jolie was there for Pete’s sake and it wasn’t to promote a new Tomb Raider game, but a rather mainstream action flick, Salt.

Given the attendees’ dedication you can see how film studios would use this as the platform to promote their titles.  After all, these are the folks that will pay to see your movies in theaters, likely more than once.  So panel after panel, studios showcased “exclusive” footage just for them.  During one Q&A session, an audience member asked a particularly detailed question that 90% of people likely would miss in the split seconds they had to view a trailer, and the film’s director quipped, “This is why I love Comic-Con. You guys notice all the little details.”

Here are my personal highlights from Comic-Con:

Networking: Yes, in a sea of 130,000 people I was able to meet folks that it would be a great opportunity to work with.

David Hasselhoff Flash mob: See for yourself.  Someone captured the Baywatch/Knight-Rider clad models as they promoted the Hoff’s new reality show, just before Hoff appears to surprise everyone.

Screening of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: A very cool director, a funny cast and great motion graphics and art direction in the film.

Tron: Legacy: Yep, Tron was at Comic-Con again.  This time they showed 8 more minutes of the film.  Looks pretty sweet.

The Other Guys Panel: Seeing as how most of my daily dialogue with humanity is done in movie quotes, I found it great that Will Ferrell was asked by an audience member what his favorite quotes were from his movies.  Among them were “I wanna be on you,” “Shake & Bake,” and “You’re my boy, Blue!”  What are your favorite quotes?

The overall creativity: So, what I geeked out about most is how the place was bursting with creativity from the stories being told in film, the amazing comic artists, the painstakingly detailed and addicting video games and so on.  I walked away feeling inspired and excited to continue to tell our story and our clients’ stories.  But not in a Storm Trooper costume… unless we work with LucasFilm (Hey Bill!).

Pics coming soon!

This is the first of a two-part series that details a week-long trip to California that included augmented reality, comic books and a David Hasselhoff flashmob.

Last March at SXSW, I had the great opportunity to meet Phylise Banner — the Instructional Design Project Leader at the American Public University System — after an interesting panel on whether augmented reality was a viable interactive engagement platform, or a marketing gimmick.

Our chat back in March centered around the mutual belief that AR can indeed be and effective and engaging tool, particularly around the higher education sector.  Over the course of the last few months we continued to meet and discuss how to start this dialogue more deeply within the education industry, and it culminated when Phylise got us on the docket to present at the Emerging Technologies for Online Learning Symposium in San Jose last week on using AR in education.

Entitled “Augmented Reality: Digital Engagement in Education,” our session was more a conversation with the audience than a traditional presentation. We wanted, or better yet, needed the dialogue from the standing-room-only audience that had made their way into our talk to really help us see where the opportunities presented themselves to grow AR as a learning platform.

I showed more common examples of AR in the marketing arena, and a few well-executed examples in a classroom setting, though these samples were few and far between, and seemed to leave audience members wondering how much further it could be pushed.

Phylise addressed learning styles and really lead the discussion with the audience while facilitating the dialogue in a way that hopefully left folks excited about assisting us in growing the platform.  Our takeaway from the session was this: Based on the community of professionals that continue to give us feedback in these types of settings and aid in our research, we want to be able to put together a thoughtful and robust example of an AR platform that can set an example for other institutions and organizations to draw from.

As a result, Phylise and I will be setting up a site in which we post our continual findings, show prototypes and grow the community around the platform.  I’m really excited about it and will post it here once we get it going.  Until then, please feel free to chime in via the comments area.