An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Your family and wellbeing come first. Everything else is secondary.
As a part of our series about cutting-edge technological breakthroughs, I had the pleasure of interviewing Eric Perez.
Eric Perez is the Director of Military Sales — Virtual Systems for domestic and international customers at InVeris Training Solutions. Prior to joining the company, Eric honorably served four years in the United States Marine Corps as a Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team member. Eric joined the company in November of 2001 as a Weapons Assembly Technician and in August 2002 he was promoted to the installation and training team for FATS® simulation systems. Due to Eric’s technical expertise in virtual systems he shifted to the Customer Support department and was then promoted to Latin America Service Manager in 2004. In this role, Eric assumed responsibility of the Weapons and Systems Repair Group sections. In early 2009 Eric became the Live Fire Account Manager for Southeastern U.S. and South America territories for the Law Enforcement business area. After a successful year securing key accounts, he transitioned to an Account Manager in the Military Virtual Systems business area in December 2010. In August 2011, he was promoted to Director of Military Virtual System Sales for the Americas. In 2015 he was promoted to Director of Virtual Systems Sales.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
After spending four years in the Marine Corps, I found InVeris Training Solutions was in my hometown and to work for them just felt right. I began working at InVeris nearly 20 years ago. I trained on the FATS® (Firearms Training System) as a young Marine in uniform, and later I became an instructor on the system. As I trained my Marines, I saw the value of simulated training and continued training when I didn’t have access to live ranges. I was able to increase the graduation rate of a very competitive weapons course simply by applying the training features of the system.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
The most interesting story in my career has to be when my boss requested I support a customer training event, and I immediately agreed without knowing many details. He then tells me the event is for the Marines, and it was in Hawaii. The great part of the story was when I came home and told my fiancée that I was heading to Hawaii for a few days and would bring her with me. It turns out she had a better plan than I did and said, “let’s get married.” She did all the leg work to plan our wedding while I was working, and 18 years later, it was one of the best decisions of our lives.
Can you tell us about the cutting-edge technological breakthroughs that you are working on? How do you think that will help people?
InVeris Training Solutions developed our new augmented reality training application, SRCE (See Rehearse Collectively Experience), to allow our military and first responders to conduct mission rehearsals in locations they will respond to for calls to service. When you can quickly scan a room and create a training area, it allows for enhanced, instant training anywhere in the world.
How do you think this might change the world?
Implementing this type of technology and giving first responders the ability to quickly train in an environment that they may respond to could be life changing. They can understand how that space looks and be better prepared through multiple training evolutions and understand what they did as individuals and as a team. They can quickly review their actions and tactics of how they could move through as a team.
Keeping “Black Mirror” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
I don’t see any drawbacks to the military or first responders being better prepared. Better preparation means safer, more effective work, and I think training and mission rehearsal will be the two areas SRCE is applied the most.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this breakthrough? Can you tell us that story?
The tipping for us was when we could use our BlueFire training weapons, and SRCE was able to keep up with multiple trainees in the same AR environment. What pushed us over the edge was when we saw the visual feedback of the after-action review inside of the area. To have the team understand where they were aiming, seeing and moving in the same room was an awe-inspiring moment.
What do you need to lead this technology to widespread adoption?
As Augmented Reality headsets gain wider fields of view, their adoption will gain traction. Much like virtual reality, as the popularity of AR grows commercially in other capacities, our target market will begin to understand AR and SRCE. I considered it a high-touch product, and you almost have to see it to believe it.
What have you been doing to publicize this idea? Have you been using any innovative marketing strategies?
We’re engaging with top-level military and law enforcement officials at tradeshows across the country, and we do a live demo for them, which allows them to see SRCE in action. It is one thing to talk or write about, but it is an entirely different experience when showing SRCE. We’ve also targeted several tier one military units as well as SWAT teams.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
See the above comments.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
- What you do now will be the difference for your future.
- Twenty years ago, when I joined this InVeris Training Solutions, I never thought I’d be in the position I’m in. Funny enough, everything I did before prepared me for what I do today.
- It’s easy to fall into a routine, but I love seeing new technology that gives me the ability to challenge myself and be the market innovation leader.
- Do that in your personal and professional life. Otherwise, why do it all?
- Your family and wellbeing come first. Everything else is secondary.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
You never know what your idea can trigger. Speak up.
Think about the positive outcome in everything that you do. Doing something good goes a long way. I’ve had the pleasure to see how excellent training can make a difference in how people excel.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Your cup is never half empty, and it’s always half full.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Readers can stay up to date about all things InVeris Training Solutions at inveristraining.com, as well as on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
The Future Is Now: Eric Perez On How Their Technological Innovation Will Shake Up The Tech Scene was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
