Elearning: electronic, effective, engaging, engaged, e... learning: UBTech and InfoComm 2016 in Las Vegas, Day 1

I am spending a couple of days in Las Vegas to see what kind of new classroom technologies I can find at the UBTech and InfoComm 2016 events. As this is my first time in Vegas, that in itself is rather overwhelming.
First impression (although I have been told this is an exception) -- my flight was quite the carnival. With a rather lively flight attendant (I am wondering if he has as his night job a comedy routine) who asked riddles, told jokes, sang, and even asked us to participate in, what he called, low-stakes illegal gambling, the flight was certainly one of the noisier ones I have been on.

My first stop this morning was at the convention center to pick up my badge -- what a massive place and the conference is rather enormous as well although this is not so much about sessions (I have the sense fewer than at Educause) but about gear, so lots of vendors.
To get started, I went to the Exhibit hall at UBTech. Most of the venues I saw I was familiar with but a couple of items struck me as worth a second look.

For classroom technology:
HoverCam showed me a couple of very compact document cameras but also a movable (on wheels) interactive monitor connected via an extended arm to a lectern shelf on which they have a document camera and a tablet computer. It looks impressive and rather heavy, can be lowered and raised and may be the ultimate flexible teaching station: HoverCam CenterStage

A couple of camera folks were showing ways to keep the camera focused on a moving target -- so, similar to what we have been doing with the swivl, but possibly more stable. Vaddio has a beacon you can hang around your neck to keep the camera trained on you but also some pads to stand on to trigger adjustment of the camera -- I was thinking that that kind of pad might be useful in a larger classroom when students want to be captured on camera. Another company is using face recognition software to keep the camera trained, so nothing around your neck that may look awkward but 2 minutes of training. Dycap connects this feature with their lecturecapture system.

At one table, I found mention of Auburn University, in particular the College of Business and their new Financial Training room that is managed using EBS's Alphadidact Digital system

I had a brief discussion with cboard, a company that focuses on student ID cards, and the future of student IDs -- think apps to show you how much money is left on your student card from Tiger dining, where you left your ID card, an app tied to your ID that may substitute as a way to get into buildings and rooms.

I also had a brief chat with IT Training Solutions as a possibility for a different way to do Auburn's required Securing the Human training. I hope that we can look at their offers more carefully when we decide on the next version of this training.