Opening Up the World

Over Coffee® | Stories and Resources from the Intersection of Art and Science | Exploring How to Make STEAM Work For You

(Photo courtesy of VRARA, and used with permission.) How would you like to learn about augmented, virtual and mixed reality, in applications you may never have imagined? And you get to do it virtually, over three days, courtesy of experts from all around the world? That's exactly the opportunity the VR/AR Association would like to offer you, with their upcoming VR/AR Global Summit Online Conference and Expo. (Dates: Wednesday, September 30th through Friday, October 2nd.) This isn't a "tech" conference--more of an exploration of where immersive technology will be showing up in daily life. Think education, sports, the workplace of the future, entertainment... And more applications than we can list here. VRARA Los Angeles Chapter President Natascha French and VR/AR Global Summit Executive Producer Anne-Marie Enns offered a preview of the Global Summit. (You'll recall, from our earlier interview with Anne-Marie, the VRARA pioneered their first all-virtual event in June. While Anne-Marie is an award-winning event producer, even she had a challenge. The pandemic forced her and her staff to take VRARA's Global Summit completely virtual with only six weeks' lead time! The result? An incredible three-day event. Now, imagine what VRARA can do with lead time and experience, for their fall edition of the all-virtual show!) Among the upcoming features Natascha and Anne-Marie mentioned: speakers from every continent; networking groups and interactive activities. (We can't wait!) On this edition of Over Coffee®, you will hear: How Natascha (who is s journalist and digital-marketing specialist) first encountered the storytelling power of XR; Anne-Marie's recollections of taking VRARA's June Global Summit from a traditional event in Lisbon to an all-virtual show; What Anne-Marie and Natascha experienced, as immersive-technology professionals, during VRARA's first all-virtual Global Summit; A "sneak preview" of some of the content and events; Natascha's preparations for the Global Summit, in her new position as President of VRARA Los Angeles; Some of the unexpected ways in which VR and AR can be used in daily life; What works best for keeping a virtual audience engaged (knowing that, no matter how good your content is, there will be distractions!); An unusual and fun AR application you may just want to check out! What to keep in mind if you're creating a virtual experience; How Natascha and Anne-Marie foresee events changing, post-pandemic. The VR/AR Global Summit Online Conference and Expo begins at 8 am Eastern time (5 am Pacific) on Wednesday, September 30th, and continues through 6 pm Eastern (3 pm Pacific) on Friday, October 2nd. Meanwhile, here is the link to September 10's VRARA virtual event, "Real-Time Virtual Production: How LA is Returning to Moviemaking," which Natascha mentioned in the course of our interview!