Visual 1st Perspectives


October 30, 2023

This year's Visual 1st Award winners



 

Overall impression of this year’s Show & Tell presentations


In the past we saw companies who had incorporated Machine Learning or Deep Learning and people said: “Wow, you can automatically remove backgrounds or modify images!” and so forth.


Then the next year it felt like everyone had copied similar approaches and the excitement of AI had faded.  


This year really felt like a big step forward again, but on a much broader set of use cases. Generative AI is already having a major impact in many areas, and we saw some great examples of that this week. 


In our discussions, we were not only excited about the new wave of innovation demonstrated this week, but also what lies ahead!


Andy Kelm, Managing Director at Palmarés Advisors

Photos: Mikkel Aaland



[from left to right]:


  • Visual 1st Best of Show award: Lib AI
  • Visual 1st Best Business Potential award: Zenfolio
  • Visual 1st Best Technology award: BRIA
  • Visual 1st Special Recognition award: Projector


Who was there last week? 


Check out the impressive list of companies represented at the conference.


78% of the audience were senior executives ((co-)founders or Director level or higher); 60% of the audience were top level executives (C-level or (co-)founders); 23% were (co-founders) of photo or video startups.

 

81% of the audience was from North America, 29% came from overseas (21% from Europe; 8% from Asia and Oceania).

 

We’re extremely pleased with the fast-growing popularity of our Women in Imaging pre-conference networking luncheon: this year 38 women attended, reflecting the growing portion of our female attendees.

 

Finally, here are the photo highlights of the event.

 

Visual 1st Best of Show award: Lib AI


This year Generative AI was the largest category, with more than 8 developers showing generative AI-based solutions. One of them was comprehensively impressive with a great demo that resulted in beautiful output – very finished, a result you could show your clients.


Lib AI has a clear business focus on interior design and architecture, and they demonstrated both verticals. They also combined in the application several technologies, including variations, fusing of images, lighting, integration with backgrounds. Lib AI incorporates many technologies, it's not a one-trick pony.

 

On the business side it was obvious who were the users, who were the customers, and it addressed well defined business verticals.


Finally, the Lib AI demo was excellent; it showed many features and abilities – all in 4 minutes!


Robert Blumberg, Managing Director, Soquel Group



Visual 1st Best Business Potential award: Zenfolio


We chose Zenfolio because we felt that they are looking at how they can use AI to make their existing customers' lives easier. This company is now using AI to create customized portfolio websites, which will allow their customers more time to focus on other aspects of their business such as growth and marketing.  


This will not only help to move their customers' business forward, but also their own business, opening up new areas of opportunity. We believe there are several opportunities for Zenfolio to grow this application in the future and this is just the start to using AI for their clients in an interesting way.


Anna Dickson, Group Product Manager, Google



Visual 1st Best Technology award: BRIA


The generative AI field is growing rapidly, yet the rights of the artists whose work the AI is built upon are often neglected. BRIA’s technology and models exclusively incorporate licensed content. 


Moreover, its innovative licensing and attribution framework ensures that the original artists receive their rightful compensation. The rapidly expanding field of generative AI requires both technological and business model breakthroughs to ensure fairness and benefit for all.


Sami Niemi, Partner at Spintop Ventures  



Visual 1st Special Recognition award: Projector


There was a lot of agreement among us that Projector has done something truly interesting. We loved their insight on why video sharing is so challenging, and seeing their solution that combines simple packaging with a focus on consumer value to make home videos as accessible as Netflix.


Andy Kelm, Managing Director at Palmarés Advisors


Visual 1st 2023 Sponsors

 
 

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