Conferences are the best occasions for students and professionals to showcase their achievements, acquire new information, and, most importantly, meet new people and grow their professional networks. However, lack of funds to organize such events and the time to attend them is depriving many people of this huge opportunity to broaden their horizons.
Thankfully, new technologies make lots of seemingly impossible things possible. In April 2018 a Canadian university will show the world how to attend a conference without leaving the home or office. Lethbridge College in partnership with VR/AR Association will host the first virtual reality conference in the world.
Merging Realities – the First Virtual Reality Conference
The conference is titled Merging Realities: An event of multiple perspectives, and will take place on April 26, 2018 between 9am and 6pm. The event is hosted by Lethbridge College in Alberta, Canada and will be mainly conducted by college students in the School of Media & Design.
Apart from being the first such event held in virtual reality, the novelty of the conference is that it will put the spotlight on the students and their VR projects. There will be, however, two notable keynote speakers who will open the conference.
Alex Katzen works at Google and is involved in the Daydream business. She is a content specialist with in-depth knowledge of the VR/AR environment, as she is constantly in touch with third-party developers.
Alan Smithson is the co-founder and CEO of MetaVRse and the inventor of the Smithson Martin Emulator DJ System. He is a pioneer in the virtual reality and augmented reality industry and MetaVRse was named Top 100 Rising Startups by Techweek last year.
The virtual reality conference will use Rumii, a virtual reality platform developed by the company Doghead Simulations for enterprise collaboration work.
Beyond the Innovation, a New Path Opens Ahead
Merging Realities is not a top level conference, by academic and business standards, because its main purpose is to allow Lethbridge College students to showcase their virtual reality projects and network with peers from all over the world. However, it is of the utmost importance in light of the possibilities it opens.
The experience of attending a conference and mingling and socializing with others cannot be replicated by podcasts or webinars. Distance and budget make it impossible for many people to attend events which could be turning points in their careers. Virtual reality removes these borders and distances, and brings people together in the most immersive and realistic manner possible.
The future of virtual reality conferences is in the making. If you want to be a part of the first ever event of this kind, you can register at this link.
