Why RCN Ignite was a Blaze of Innovation at R-CON 2024

We’re in a golden age of conversations.

Social media. Podcasts. Video meetings. FaceTime. ChatGPT exchanges that start with you asking for a marinara sauce recipe and end up with you having a doctoral thesis on the tomato. Heck, even conference chatter has maintained a novel richness, as the gatherings still feel a tad more treasured than the pre-pandemic variety.

Yet as valuable as conversations are, they are still just that; and their preponderance in the 2020s has slightly muffled the builders, the doers.

Take genes. By this point, most of us have likely heard at least one of the following terms: gene editing, genomics, epigenetics, maybe the colloquialism “designer babies.” But only a few of us have heard of CRISPR. Even fewer know of Jennifer Doudna, the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist driving it.

All this to say, the doers need more done for them.

For the built environment, R-CON 2024 was happy to oblige.

In a first for the conference, Reality Capture Network partnered with POWER Engineers to launch RCN Ignite, a unique platform for startups to showcase their cutting-edge solutions and bring newfound innovation to all sectors of the built environment.

The field of entrants narrowed in the weeks leading up to R-CON, with the three finalists taking the stage to pitch their startup and compete for $32,500 in cash prizes. And while the finalists may have been awarded dollars, attendees and judges were awarded inspiration, knowledge, connection, and a glimpse into our future.

FIRST ANNUAL RCN IGNITE FINALISTS

3rd place went to the field work futurists of Cloneable.ai, pitched by CEO Patrick Lohman. Cloneable allows a user’s device to become a field expert through custom AI-driven apps, which can be built without coding.

Drag-and-drop functionality simplifies complex tasks, improves decision-making, and produces valuable insights with on-device, real-time AI/processing. Cloneable will be raising seed in Q1 2025 to advance its field data revolution.

2nd place was awarded to the capture & 3D reconstruction app Manifold, pitched by Founder/CEO Erik Peterson. Erik was a force at R-CON 2024, having also participated in the “Harnessing the Data Overload: Challenges and Solutions for AEC Professionals” panel, before presenting on “NeRF, Gaussian Splats and the Future of 3D.”

Already in the market serving 40 teams, Manifold is thriving from 3D having its own AI moment. It boasts auto registration, a stellar video-based “orbit capture,” and immense value in the construction space that has garnered the trust of large construction companies via VDC teams.

1st place was proudly awarded to Looq AI, pitched by Co-founder & CEO, Dominique Meyer. Looq’s bread and butter for utilities, EPC, and survey is its qCam, which enables easy collection of assets, of any size or complexity, up to 100x faster with no need to re-field.

Then comes qAI for 3D analysis, and qApp for visualization and coordination. It all coalesces into the Looq platform, an intuitive ecosystem full of patented technology for automated creation, visualization, and analysis of utility assets. It’s easy to see why the startup has experienced a 400% growth rate over the last six months, and is primed to help map the world’s most critical infrastructure.

RCN Ignite: Setting Old Workflows Ablaze

Providing a platform for these visionary companies was an indelible honor for R-CON, RCN Ignite, and POWER Engineers. Because like Shark Tank’s Lori Greiner once said, “It’s not in the dreaming, it’s in the doing.”

And now, at R-CON, it’s also in the pitching.

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