At YOXO FESTIVAL 2024, many companies and universities conducted proof-of-concept experiments and demonstrations, creating opportunities for collaboration between exhibitors across industries and business categories, interacting with citizens, and creating innovation throughout the city.
We spoke to JVC Kenwood Co., Ltd., a member of the Yokohama Mirai Organization and an exhibitor.
*"YOXO FESTIVAL - Future Experience in Yokohama"... Innovators and creators bring new ideas and technologies for the "future" and interact across disciplines to gain inspiration and experience excitement. It's a festival.
Details of YOXO FESTIVAL 2024please use this form.
Discovering “impression” and improving “corporate value”
---Please tell us the purpose of exhibiting this time and the content of the exhibit.
We held four product exhibitions in order to discover the ``inspiration'' that is our corporate philosophy of ``providing excitement and peace of mind to people around the world,'' and to make our company name widely known through our technology and ideas. <Click here for exhibition details>
A wireless communication tool that delivers “impression and peace of mind”
Sustainable activities for children
An experiential speaker that you can “hug” and feel the sound with your skin
virtual concert experience
All products are still undergoing verification testing before they become commercially available.
Among them, "Light Talk" (tentative name) developed and exhibited a prototype for YOXO FESTIVAL in order to explore the possibility of a new communication tool that brings together the technologies of "sound," "voice," "light," and "communication." . On the day of the event, an exhibition space was set up so that participants could experience remote communication, and participants could actually experience it while imagining how it would be used.
*"Light Talk" (tentative name)...A new communication tool based on the concept of "connecting with someone" and expanding the possibilities of communication using light and voice based on communication technology.
More than 500 people experienced it in XNUMX days
---What was the reaction from visitors on the day?
Many people enjoyed the experience throughout the day, so much so that there was a waiting line. There were a lot of families in particular, and I think everyone from adults to children enjoyed it.
During the experience, we intentionally did not give much explanation beforehand and tried to get people to touch and experience the product first.
By actually holding and experiencing the product, we were able to elicit genuine reactions and honest opinions, and find out what it was that made them feel "WOW." Of course we verify the technology, but by having children and families try it out, which is usually difficult to make connections with in demonstration experiments, we can get a variety of reactions and opinions, such as how they want to use it and what they find ``impressive.'' It was a valuable opportunity to conduct effective market research.
Possibilities of co-creation.
---Do you have any plans for the future (next time)?
I am very satisfied with the demonstration experiment because I was able to learn about the product's differences from the hypothesis, as well as market needs and awareness.
In the future, we will aim to improve the product and commercialize it, but I think there are challenges in monetizing it.
I was able to meet and interact with several companies while exhibiting at YOXO FESTIVAL, so I would like to consider co-creation and collaboration with other companies and aim to create a service instead of completing the project on my own.