Snapchat CEO to Deliver Keynote at AWE 2025 as Company Seeks to Enhance Its Standing in XR Industry

In June, the Chief Executive Officer of Snap Inc., the company famous for Snapchat and its cutting-edge Spectacles AR glasses, will step into the spotlight at the AWE 2025 in Long Beach, California. The conference, a major event in the world of augmented reality, will serve as a platform for Snap to present its latest advancements and reinforce its position in the extended reality (XR) sector.

Snap has carved out a niche as one of the few companies offering standalone augmented reality glasses available for purchase today. Despite this distinction, the company is often viewed as an outlier in the broader XR landscape. This perception largely stems from Snap’s unique approach, which diverges from the mainstream avenues pursued by other tech giants.

Most AR and VR devices, like the Quest headsets, PC VR, and PSVR 2, prioritize gaming. In contrast, Apple’s Vision Pro targets the realms of entertainment and productivity. Snap, on the other hand, takes a distinctly social route with its Spectacles. Their design encourages experiences tied to specific real-world locations and interactions involving multiple users in shared spaces.

As the co-founder and CEO, Evan Spiegel, prepares to address the audience at AWE 2025, he aims to not only articulate Snap’s vision for augmented reality but also to forge stronger ties with the existing players in the XR community. The event will run from June 10 to 12 and expects to attract over 6,000 attendees alongside 300 exhibitors and 400 speakers in a massive 150,000 square foot exhibition area.

As Spiegel’s keynote unfolds, industry leaders Qualcomm and XREAL will also grace the stage, reinforcing the conference’s stature in the tech world. Intriguingly, Snap has somewhat isolated itself by developing an AR ecosystem from scratch. This involves not just creating unique AR glasses but also developing Snap OS, a dedicated operating system for the Spectacles, and Lens Studio, a proprietary authoring tool for developers.

Scott Myers, Snap’s VP of Hardware, explained that Spectacles are being designed to someday replace smartphones entirely. The glasses are crafted to function independently without relying on a smartphone or any tethered computational device. Myers emphasized, “We aim for people to look up through their glasses, not down at their phones.”

Beyond prioritizing social and location-centric AR experiences, Snap also focuses on fostering a developer-friendly platform by continuously improving its tools based on feedback. Myers, who tests Spectacles daily for upcoming features, shares that the company is eager to make the development process as straightforward as possible, learning alongside developers.

To navigate its future, Snap needs a strategic approach to stay competitive as tech behemoths like Meta, Apple, and Google race to dominate the mainstream AR glasses market.

For those interested in witnessing this technological revolution firsthand, early-bird tickets to AWE USA 2025 are still available, and readers can enjoy a special 20% discount. Road to VR, as the Premier Media Partner of AWE USA 2025, is proud to offer this exclusive deal, ensuring enthusiasts get a front-row seat to the future of augmented reality.