Speakers Academy, a leading management agency that represents professional speakers across the globe, has embedded Layar into its biannual magazine and speaker catalogue.

In the new Spring 2012 issue, interviews and profiles of featured speakers are accompanied by “View with Layar” logos on the pages of the magazine. Scanning these pages displays bonus videos, giving readers a look at the speakers in action.

“It’s very hard to explain in the text what they can expect,” said Speakers Academy commercial director Rene Warmerdam of the difficulties of showcasing speakers in the print medium. “Now, when using Layar, [they] immediately get access toward the video that explains it all. It really, really helps.”

The magazine also features a full page Layar ad in the front which explains how readers can scan the pages to view additional content. The “View with Layar” logo is our way of signaling to readers that they should scan pages with Layar. You can learn all about the logo here, including links to download the logo.

We visited Speakers Academy headquarters in Rotterdam recently to talk with Rene Warmerdam. Check out the video below to see the details of how the magazine has adopted Layar to engage its print readership.

Our friends over at Tribal DDB - a global digital advertising agency - recently employed the help of Layar Vision to enrich one of its projects. The project is a desk reference “calendar” that the company sends to prospective clients to inform them all about mobile.

It’s called “Mobile Engagement: A Guide to the Mobile World,” and now with Layar’s help, the calendar comes to life with augmented information within the pages. In the video above, we sat down with Joeri Kiekebosch, who worked on the project, to get an idea of how and why they chose Layar Vision.

“We had the feeling that a static desk reference was… static. And we’re a digital agency that does digital stuff, so we needed something that made it interactive,” Kiekebosch told us. “If you talk about mobile, you should be able to do something with your mobile. Why not scan the calendar with your mobile and see extra content on top of that?”

“There are a lot of big shots walking around here, and these people kind of like geekiness but are not geeks. AR is perfect for these people,” he adds. “Everybody has an iPhone, they were like ‘Oh this is cool, this is fun!’ They got it installed easily, they understood it. For these kinds of people it really worked.”

Take a look at our interview with Joeri to see the calendar in action!

Layar Pioneers John Goto and Matthew Leach recently brought to our attention a Layar Vision project which they created to help enhance the artwork of 18th century artist Joseph Wright in his hometown of Derby, UK.

The artist and developer tandem teamed with Derby’s Museum and Art Gallery, as well as the Royal Crown Derby Museum to help celebrate Wright’s work and relationship with the famous Derby porcelain factory. Now anyone who visits the museums and views Wright’s work can simultaneously view related porcelain sculptures placed into the artwork digitally with Layar.

“The beauty of feature tracking is that the overlay can be exactly positioned” says Goto, who along with Leach used Layar Vision’s feature tracking technology to create the artistic montages.

“QR codes have in the past been tried in galleries to link viewers to additional information, but it is a cumbersome, rather un-visual process,” he adds. “Feature tracking is primarily visual, and therefore all the more appropriate for engaging an art gallery audience.”

For examples, you can visit Goto’s website which shows you the various works of art with their accompanying porcelain sculptures. Pull up the images of Wright’s paintings and scan them with Layar to view the montages created by Goto and Leach.

It’s been well over a year since Layar partnered with The Rolling Stones to launch the first augmented reality campaign with a major rock band, and now we’re joining forces with the similarly-named music magazine, Rolling Stone.

Last month, with help from Layar, Rolling Stone has been hosting RS Fest - a month-long holiday festival during in the middle of New York City. The fun thing about this festival is that it brings a bit of the summer scenery back to the city in the middle of winter.

Park Here has erected an indoor pop-up park at 201 Mulberry St. in the heart of New York that features warm and cozy temperatures. New Yorkers can escape the cold of winter and step into springtime scenery with green grass, flowers and park benches.

And best of all, the venue has been brought to life with Layar Vision. Around the festival, pointing your device at large Rolling Stone covers will let you watch bonus behind-the-scenes videos featuring celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Katie Perry, Conan O’Brien, Lil Wayne and even the infamous Snooki as they shot their iconic Rolling Stone covers.

The theme of the RS Fest venue is an outdoor concert in the park, and the area is populated with many small creatures. With Layar Vision, the creatures reveal exclusive live performances of up and coming musical artists like MNDR, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., and more.

With Layar, Rolling Stone has created a new way for fans to experience the iconic magazine covers and go behind the scenes with today’s hottest artists.

Last week we announced Layar’s partnership with LINDA. magazine, the largest women’s glossy in the Netherlands. 

In addition to LINDA., we’ve also had an exciting Layar partnership brewing in the US with popular do-it-yourself technology magazine MAKE. 

MAKE magazine enriched this month’s Toys and Games issue with Layar technology, adding videos, social sharing, links to additional online content and more.

The Toys and Games issue is on newsstands now in the US, so pick up a copy and launch the “MAKE Magazine #28” layer, or take a sneak peak at the digital content in this demo video.