Boston has a respectable tech startup scene, but everyone knows it isn’t Silicon Valley. However, some believe that by snatching up more and more action around the “internet of things” trend for connected devices and augmented reality, Boston could become the place to be in those specific niches. What might establish it as such is a big, noisy Lollapalooza of a conference to rival the hipster magnet South by Southwest?

Devin Cleary (pictured), director of corporate events at PTC Inc., thinks he and his colleagues can make that happen. PTC is the sponsor for LiveWorx 18 in Boston, which he describes as “the world’s most respected digital transformation conference.”

Cleary spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Stu Miniman (@stu), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the LiveWorx 18 event in Boston, Massachusetts. They discussed industrial innovation, Boston’s growing tech scene, and the future of LiveWorx. (* Disclosure below.)

Show, don’t tell

Attendance at the LiveWorx conference has grown considerably over its three-year lifespan, and this year’s show profiles some of the most disruptive technologies out there in the industrial, IoT and augmented reality spaces — the “full scope of industry 4.0,” according to Cleary. The show runs the gamut from product design, to service, to manufacturing and beyond.

PTC aims to immerse attendees in all-five-senses experiences — not just yakety yak from company reps. “People are so sick and tired of going to the standard tradeshow,” Cleary said. “The days of pipe and drape and aisles of just being pitched to, and receiving free stress balls, and hiring staff that might not even be employed by the company but they just frankly look good — those days are completely over.”

PTC reaches outside the tech bubble and pulls in innovators from fashion, music, etc., to round out LiveWorx. This year, the immersive experiences include Extropolis  — an “expectation-shattering, groundbreaking, playground for adults in technology” with over 100 exhibitors. X-Factory puts a 20,000 square-foot factory of the future on the show flow with demonstrations of bleeding-edge manufacturing tech. PTC and partners said, “Let’s actually have every single attendee create, design and manufacture a smart, connected product,” according to Cleary.

Cleary hopes to expand LiveWorx into a week-long event spread throughout the seaport. “Think of it as South by Southwest meets industrial, and that is the future of this show,” he concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the LiveWorx 18 event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the LiveWorx event. Neither PTC Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE