Corporate Excellence Awards 2020

Mar20398 Escaping Reality Founded in 2016, Paracosma Inc is an augmented and virtual reality solutions provider serving clients across the globe. Following on from their success being named as the “Most Innovative Leader in Immersive Technology 2020” in the Corporate Excellence Awards 2020, we got in touch with Founder and CEO Ken Ehrhart to find out more. With 75 employees working in the US, Japan and Nepal, Paracosma offers depth and breadth of experience and capability across all areas of AR and VR. To start, Ken offers more insight into the firm’s specialties and its client base. “As leading innovators, we offer AR and VR application development and 3D content creation, including modelling for photography replacement and 360 video production. “Although we provide skills and solutions to both small and large enterprises, much of our focus is on larger clients exploring how AR & VR can improve their training and operational productivity. Whether it is VR training for the Oil & Gas industry or AR for manufacturing machine maintenance, we can provide new solutions to old problems. Given that AR & VR is evolving to be the leading solution for training and learning management, it is essential that we remain at the cutting edge of new developments in order to provide the best possible service to our clients.” Upon founding Paracosma four years ago, the firm wanted to make both augmented and virtual realities better than reality. Since then, much has changed with improving technology helping to deliver the most life-like experiences to their clients. Ken added “Our focus on photorealism and the improvement of our capability, demonstrates our commitment to delivering the most innovative AR & VR solutions. With the current coronavirus crisis, our promotions for free VR remote meetings and free consumer VR games are helping potential clients.” In contrast to some of their competitors, Paracosma through a large and diverse team is able to serve as a truly one-stop shop for AR & VR services. As Ken points out, the experience and knowledge their large team can bring to the table is invaluable. “Working on a global scale, we are able to focus across all AR and VR platforms, including emerging technologies. Moreover, with our Nepal-based development center, we can offer excellent quality at very affordable pricing.” Because Paracosma has been successful in establishing themselves in the AR & VR industry, the firm’s continued growth provides a great benefit as Ken explains further. “As a company, we have been able to grow faster than the broader AR/VR industry, so naturally we are well positioned. The biggest opportunity we are facing is that the vision of what AR and VR can be is still more advanced than reality, so as we continually innovate and grow our capabilities, we are doing so to realize what we and our clients eventually wish to achieve.” looking for premium artistic talent and technical capability rather than past experience. “On the engineering side, we work with the leading public and private engineering universities to hire their best students. Prior experience doesn’t matter as these individuals can grow and learn with the field.” Finally, Ken comments on the future of Paracosma and its plans for 2020 and beyond. “With the current coronavirus lockdown, most of the planet has moved to some form of remote working from home with bans on travel and in-person meetings. Naturally, this provides an enormous opportunity for the VR industry to lead the way with remote virtual meeting and collaboration technologies. As a result, we can provide a level of virtual presence and immersion with VR that can supplement video conferencing and achieve many of the benefits of in-person meetings. After launching remote VR meeting, collaboration and event tools, based on Microsoft’s AltspaceVR social VR platform, we are now rolling out with more clients. “In addition, we will continue to invest a lot of time, money and resources on R&D to understand where AR & VR will be in three to five to ten years to advance our industry by focusing on the latest innovations.” Contact Name: Ken Ehrhart Telephone Number: +1-833-Paracosma (833-727-2267) Address: 2 Clarence Place Suite 12, San Francisco, CA, USA Also: Tokyo & Kathmandu Web Address: www.paracosma.com “The current coronavirus lockdowns provide an enormous opportunity for the VR industry to lead the way with remote virtual meeting and collaboration technologies.” As a solutions provider, the quality of services provided to clients is entirely dependent on the skill, training and innovation of the firm’s employees. Ken added “Our ability to hire the best engineers and artists and provide them with the best tools and training, allows us to maintain our position as one of the leading AR & VR solutions providers globally.” Recruiting talent is rather easy due to the age of the AR & VR industry, as Ken points out the firm can find the right kind of personnel by Mar20339 “The CTG Group facilitators are chosen because their work has been brought to our attention. We strongly believe in a collaborative approach, ensuring that whoever delivers the programme will be thoroughly brilliant when working with our clients whether it be face to face training, online learning solutions or executive one to one coaching.” Most Outstanding Leadership and Coaching Provider 2020 - London Based in Hertfordshire and London, The CTG Group are experts in leadership development and executive business coaching, delivering bespoke programmes & workshops to inspire and motivate current and future business leaders. Following on from their success in the 2020 Corporate Excellence Awards, we got in touch with Brad Solomon to find out more. Founded in 1996, The CTG Group aim to provide the most inspiring training experiences for a professional’s career, driving leadership development through their workshops. To start, Brad provides us with a brief overview of the firm and its typical client base they work with. “The CTG Group bring behavioural psychology into workplace learning through developing a unique, bite-size approach that marries the best consumer training techniques with the latest academic discoveries. Typically, our programmes are designed to appeal to individuals’ self-interests to achieve sustained behavioural change and improve organisational performance. Many of our leadership and coaching programmes have been tried and tested by thousands of people, with 95% recommending The CTG Group to a colleague. Delivered by a global network of coaches & facilitators, every programme can be tailored to our clients’ needs quickly and run consistently.” “By adopting this approach, our clients in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific as well as North & Latin America have partnered with us to solve their toughest people challenges, ranging from employee engagement & performance management, to reorganisation and leadership development. Generally, our clients across the globe work amongst the high-tech and media industries as well as in health and security services. At The CTG Group, we subscribe to the values of ‘inspire, develop, excel and achieve’ working with all our clients to deliver the most inspiring and accelerated professional development available in the market.” With a team made up of expert coaches and facilitators, the firm have specialists in their field who have specifically been chosen to address and develop the competencies required for individuals and teams to be successful in the corporate world. As Brad goes on to explain, it’s the previous work done by their facilitators which brought them to the firm’s attention in the first place. “The CTG Group facilitators are chosen because their work has been brought to our attention. We strongly believe in a collaborative approach, ensuring that whoever delivers the programme will be thoroughly brilliant when working with our clients whether it be face to face training, online learning solutions or executive one to one coaching.” Although, as a globally operating business the firm haven’t faced too many challenges in their time, Brad does point out as the corporate world has become digitally focused, it has become necessary for the firm to adapt their content so it becomes more accessible. “With the corporate world becoming more digitally connected, we have adapted our materials, so the content is context rich and available to our clients at their convenience.” Like any other business, the staff at The CTG Group have a key role to play in the success of the firm, but as Brad goes on to explain by working with the people who have been there and done it before, the coaching programmes they deliver are to the point and effective. “We have built an associate model to deliver more and more value to our clients through working with coaching and facilitator experts across the world, delivering in leadership and executive coaching across the UK, EMEA, APAC and North and Latin America.” Finally, Brad commented on the future of the business and the plans that are in place for 2020 and beyond. “In recent years, we have enjoyed the fact that when previous client stakeholders leave their employed roles and become consultants, they often join our ranks as professional coaches, therefore enhancing the value of our services. So, with this recruitment strategy in place, things should take care of themselves. On a final note, we would like to inform our readers about our plan to launch our first APP based programme in 2020 to take this digital revolution one step further.” Contact Name: Brad Solomon Telephone Number: 08000563661 Address: 71 - 75 Shelton Street, London, WC2H 9JQ Web Address: www.ctggroup.co Issue 4 2020 9 Corporate Excellence Awards 115