VRARA Seattle Chapter 2023 Year-in-Review awesomeness!

2023 was a great year! Finally getting back into live get-togethers along with our virtual events. We had some great speakers and some memorable events. From mobile AR taking virtual tours to the next level, to in-person gatherings allowing HMDs (Head Mounted Displays) try-on demos, to fully immersed VR tutorials, to XR business insights and data analytics, 2023 had them all. AND we were just getting started!

Here, for your reading pleasure, are some highlights of our monthly events that drove the VRARA Seattle community in 2023 (OR if you rather watch a video click here.)

1. In February, we welcomed Julia Beabout as the new chair of Partnerships and Community. We also had Erik Horn, Brad Parrett, and the team from Fair Worlds talk about their mobile augmented reality app Space Time Adventure Tour, a historic AR experience anchored to the Seattle Center

2. In March, Hermes Frangoudis spoke about democratizing XR development with webXR.tools.

3. In April, Drew Stone of Locusium presented virtual worlds and how to choose a social VR platform for an event. We even started an Around the Virtual Worlds series with him a month later to try-on social VR platforms, starting with EngageXR.

4.  In May, our second in-person event since 2020 where we hosted Snap Inc and different local partners at the Expansive to talk about AR for iOS, Android, and the web.

5. In July, the Seattle and Vancouver chapters hosted a joint virtual VRARA Summer West Fest. We welcomed Tony Bevilacqua to talk about capturing user metrics within AR/VR and how it varies from traditional web metrics. We also heard from Boaz Ashkenazy and  Ashwin Kadaru of Simply Augmented talking about the intersection of generative AI and XR, along with using XR as a tool for exploring big data.

6. In August, we were at the Seattle Design Festival to share innovative VR and AR experiences with visitors.

7. In September, Cory Heizenrader spoke about the EducationXR platform for producing training within VR. We also had a follow up to our first in-person event centered on helping with further user testing of Fair World's Space Time Adventure Tour, a callback to our February meeting.

8. In October, Blue Origin hosted a limited number of VRARA members to tour their headquarters in Seattle and learn about their XR Innovations group. It was exciting to see and try-on such cutting-edge technology so nearby.

9. In November, John Cunningham discussed Unity and VRARA working together to drive adoption in the XR space. Also, Arian Kulp joined VRARA Seattle as Communications Chair. Later in the month, our own Roberto Haza spoke about spatial computing.

10. And last but not least, in December, we had our annual holiday social at the Rainier Club. It was a time for food, drink, and socializing along with an expert panel discussing AI's impact on investing. We had a wonderful time getting to know everyone a little better and celebrating the season.

IF you haven't attended one of our virtual or in-person meetings, we welcome you anytime. Also we encourage to sign-up for membership to not miss on unique opportunities available for VRARA members only, like the Blue Origin tour or the meet at Rainier Club.

We have an exciting line-up of events for 2024 and can't wait to see you join and be part of the community. We will get started in February, kicking off 2024 with our first online meeting of the year with Arian Kulp of VR Voyaging discussing travel and cultural heritage use cases in the realm of VR and AR.

Thanks again for a great 2023, and on to an even greater 2024!

Your VRARA Seattle team

Julia, Arian and Roberto

Industry leaders to Tackle the Next Stage of XR Industry's Growth at Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2023 Santa Clara, Hosted by The Virtual World Society

Seattle, WA (5/12/2023) - The Virtual World Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the next generation of immersive technology is used for good, is excited to announce their sponsorship of an intimate executive breakfast gathering some of the leading minds in the field together to discuss the next stage of the XR industry's growth. They will be exploring insights and solutions to some of the biggest opportunities facing the industry today. 

The breakfast will take place in partnership with the VR/AR Association (VRARA) and AWE leadership at Augmented World Expo (AWE) on June 1, 2023. Closed to the public and press to allow for open and exploratory discussions, highlights of the discussion will be shared with the wider public the following day at Tom Furness' and Alvin Graylin's AWE fireside chat + a longer report after the event. 

The community is being asked to get involved with a social media poll in advance, asking them for their input on what the "brain trust" should discuss; questions from the public will be incorporated into the breakfast discussion. 

This executive breakfast is just one of many efforts supporting the VWS' commitment to creating impactful, positive change in the world of immersive technology. This "brain trust" includes thought leaders such as Alvin Graylin of HTC, Hugo Swart of Qualcomm, Neal Stephenson of Lamina 1 and Philip Rosedale of High Fidelity & Second Life. 

Tom Furness says, "As we enter a new era of spatial computing, it's particularly important that we take the time to stop, review, and collaboratively discuss our collective way forward for the benefit of humanity. The Virtual World Society is convening and hosting an intimate gathering of the best minds in our industry to discuss the next generation of our industry and explore some of the ways forward. We look forward to sharing the insights and recommendations coming out of it and believe this is a launching pad to a wider industry discussion." 

Contact: Dr. Angelina Dayton, Executive Director, The Virtual World Society 

Phone: (918) 822-0850 

Email: Angelina.Dayton@virtualworldsociety.com 

Press are invited to the session close (9am on June 1) at the entrance to the Great America Room. About the event: 

Attendees: 

● Alvin Graylin (VWS, HTC) 

● Angelina Dayton (VWS) 

● Avi Bar Zeev (RealityPrime) 

● Damon Hernandez (Mixx Reality, XR Guild) ● Hugo Swart (Qualcomm) 

● Jenna Seiden (Niantic) 

● Jeri Ellsworth (Tilt 5) 

● Leslie Shannon (Nokia) 

● Linda Ricci (VWS) 

● Nathan Pettyjohn (VRARA) 

● Neal Stephenson (Lamina 1) 

● Neil Trevett (Khronos Group, NVidia) ● Ori Inbar of (AWE) 

● Philip Rosedale (High Fidelity, Second Life) ● Sophia Moshasha (VRARA) 

● Tom Furness (VWS) 

● Tony Parisi (Lamina 1) 

● Dr. Yu Yuan (IEEE)

About the VWS: 

The Virtual World Society (VWS) is a global network of pioneers, developers, resources, events and organizations that are committed to advancing the power of virtual worlds for the good of society. 

For more information please visit www.virtualworldsociety.org. 

About The VR/AR Association (VRARA): 

Founded in 2015, the VR/AR Association is a global member community of the best minds in virtual reality and augmented reality with chapters in major cities across the world designed to foster research, develop standards, and promote and connect members. 

For more information please visit www.thevrara.com. 

About AWE: 

AWE’s mission is to further human progress through technology, and harness the power of XR to fight the greatest challenges facing humanity. Since there is no greater challenge today, we have committed to do all that we can to leverage our platform and community in service of fighting climate change and its effects. 

For more information about one of the XR industry's most important conferences and expos, AWE, please visit www.awexr.com 

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VR Voyaging Joins the Virtual Reality Augmented Reality Association

VR Voyaging, a news and review site focused on travel and cultural heritage, has joined the Virtual Reality Augmented Reality Association (VRARA) through the Seattle Chapter.

VR Voyaging focuses on non-gaming uses of virtual reality, especially immersive experiences that are interactive, educational, and culturally enriching. They publish articles about how VR works, thoughts about the current and future state of the technology, and interviews with creators in the field. They also maintain a database of nearly 200 VR applications that align with their focus, many with in-depth reviews. Finally, the site also keeps track of real-world exhibits and events that feature VR at museums and other venues. They are especially proud of their use of Google Maps technology to show the real-world places that are recreated in the apps they catalog and review.

Arian Kulp, founder of VR Voyaging, said, “There's a common view that VR is mostly for gaming and niche training applications. I think that if more people were aware of the immense opportunities to learn about our world through immersive experiences, adoption would increase by leaps and bounds as entirely new segments of people saw the value.” In addition to joining VRARA, Kulp is a former Microsoft MVP, has served as the director of K-12 STEM program the Oregon Game Project Challenge in the past, and has extensive experience with software development in the field of healthcare.

ABOUT VR VOYAGING:

VR VOYAGING is a media web site specializing in articles, reviews, and events relating to travel and cultural applications of virtual reality.

For more information about this topic, please visit https://www.vrvoyaging.com/about-contact or contact arian@vrvoyaging.com.

VRARA Seattle Chapter Event Recaps and Updates

April AND May have been packed with the first in-person events since March 2020. Don’t miss the upcoming event on May 11 at the Expansive, keep reading to learn more.

Seattle Chapter in-person at last!

We had a successful reactivation of in-person events for the Seattle Chapter on April 20 with a hands-on user-test party of the Seattle Time-travel Adventure Tour, currently in beta and coming to the App Store soon. In true Seattle fashion, in 45-degree rainy weather, the team of Fair Worlds walk small groups of attendees through the experience. Thank you Erik Horn, Todd Little and Jordan Kellogg for walking and sharing your stories with all of us. Joe Gabriel and Trond Nilsen thanks for joining.
And to the chapter advisors Dan Collin and Boaz Ashkenazy for stopping by and sharing the wet cold memorable experience with all of us, thank you so much.

Here are some photos of the Seattle Center Time-Travel tour we so much enjoyed.

Virtual Event HOW TO CHOOSE A SOCIAL VR PLATFORM FOR YOUR EVENT – April 27 recap

It was great to see so many of you for our virtual event last week: How To Choose a Social VR Platform For Your Event presented by Drew Stone  of Locusium.  It was chock-full of great questions (and answers!) such as: why even hold an event in VR?  Drew walked us through the advantages and challenges as well as the ever growing social VR platform landscape.  Keep an eye out for more programming on this topic.  Drew will be returning for hands-on, in-VR training sessions for several platforms. 

If you were not able to attend the discussion live, you can find the recording on the VRARA Youtube channel here.

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Drum roll please! – in-person with Snap Inc – May 11

BattAR up: from VR to AR.  Join us on May 11, 6-8 pm, IN-PERSON for Snap To It: AR Beyond Snapchat, at Expansive 's gorgeous office space in Pioneer Square and AV and music provided by Wunderland Events.

This AR fest will be full of demos and lively conversation with Snap Inc's Global Head of AR Developer Relations, Joe Darko, and Global Head of Learning, Stacey Long-Genovese PhD. Get the latest news on how Snap is breaking out of the Snapchat eco-system with AR mirrors and their AR SDK for iOS, Android, and now web. Local Seattle Snap Lens Network Partners Novaby AR Studio and DB Creations will demo some of Snap's latest and cutting-edge effects including games, landmarker lenses, real-world physics, and Spectacles. 

Roberto Haza, Founder of Xtended Reality Advisory and VRARA Seattle Chapter President, and Julia Beabout, CEO of Novaby AR Studio and VRARA Seattle EVP of Partnerships and Community, are excited to host and share with the community why Snap is widely considered to be among the best and most innovative AR technologies on the market today. There will be fun, merriment, and info for all including AR/VR creators, developers, enthusiasts, and customers alike.  

Register for our next event: Snap To It: AR Beyond Snapchat

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Many more events lined up for the rest of 2023. From big data for good, to the very first regional event in partnership with the VRARA Vancouver Chapter, to unique opportunities available only to VRARA members later in the year.

We are looking forward to seeing all of you. Join and grow being part of the VRARA community in Seattle. Submit your inquiry here https://www.thevrara.com/membership-details

WebXR.tools in full display with the VRARA Seattle Chapter

Last week, Hermes Frangoudis, CTO of Arlene.io shared with us the now publicly available WebXR.tools suite of products. During the 30 min online meet, we learned about the Seattle Chapter and what Hermes and his team in Arlene have put together to democratize Web XR design, development and even publishing. In a matter of 20 min 3 XR experiences were created and made available for anyone to use.
See the recording now available in the YouTube VRARA Seattle channel.

Julia Beabout Joins Seattle VRARA Chapter as EVP of Partnerships and Community

Roberto Haza, Seattle Chapter President and Founder of Xtended Reality Advisory is thrilled to announce Julia Beabout, CEO and Creative Director of Novaby, is joining the Chapter as EVP of Partnerships and Community. Julia brings with her tons of experience as an expert and thought leader in AR Placemaking and Collective Memory practice, she has spoken on the subject for ARIA at the MIT Media Lab, U.S. State Department, Augmented World Expo (AWE), Architects Institute of America, the University of Washington, the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking, and even in our own VRAR Association

Julia has 25+ years experience leading clients and organizations through highly technical, creative projects up to $200 million, in the virtual and real worlds. 

She has a BS in Architectural Engineering from Penn State University and an MA in Asian Studies from the Florida International University where her research focused on Collective Memory Theory and practice. She is registered Professional Engineer (PE), Leed Accredited Professional, and U.S. State Department Critical Language Scholar. She speaks, reads and writes Chinese.

Julia is also co-founder of Tech in the Tenderloin (TNT), a non-profit that connects low-opportunity youth with high-opportunity tech through fun events and educational activities in the Tenderloi neighborhood of San Francisco and beyond.

We are certain the Seattle Chapter will continue its momentum and build VRAR partnerships and community with the active participation of Julia in our team. Please join us in welcoming her and stay tuned for exciting events this year.

Seattle Chapter Updates Fall 2022

Seattle Chapter Reactivation and VirtualEyes Media

We had a successful reactivation for the Seattle Chapter activities last September 8th. Roberto Haza, Founder of Extended Reality Advisory, is now serving as Chapter President and was thrilled to kick-off activities. As a first time BrightTALK user we had our clear glitches at the beginning of the recording, so please forward to min 4 to hear what Roberto and guest speaker Darryl Henderson, Head of Product and Marketing of VirtualEyes Media, prepared to share how Virtual Reality is taking virtual tours to the next level.

Recording of the event can be found here: https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/14711/555964

NIANTIC LIGHTSHIP HACKATHON SEATTLE - Sep 23-25

Last year Niantic opened up Lightship (the platform that built PokemonGo and is built on top of Unity) to developers around the world! 

This past May they released their Visual Positioning System, a spatial map that allows devs to anchor their AR experiences to real-world locations and have those experiences interact realistically with the environment! 

The Lightship VPS team is now headed to Seattle to host a weekend VPS hackathon, complete with talks and workshops! You can apply to join the Seattle event here: https://lightship.dev/vpsworldtour/ 

This is an intimate and hands on experience! Their team wants to build the real-world metaverse with you!

Using XR and the Metaverse for Real World Impact – Q4 event on October 12

Do you find yourself wondering how might we use XR technology to create exponential positive impact in the real world?

We hear so much these days about the Metaverse, which is often depicted as a game-like digital fantasyland where people can meet, play and work with the aid of new immersive technologies like VR, AR and MR.

There is much speculation about the nature of life in the Metaverse, its pros and its cons. But, what is often left out of the discussion is the question of how these technologies might be used in creative ways to deliver meaningful positive impact in the real world. Significant impact. At global scale. Involving everyone.

Join us on Oct 12 as Virtual World Society and Exponential Destiny share their stories with us, and what they are are working on now to address this question. And to tell us how we all can get involved.

Sign up to event here: need event link here please

We are looking forward to seeing all of you. Join and grow being part of the VRARA community in Seattle.

Announcing the VRARA Seattle Chapter Advisory Board

On August 7th, the VRARA Seattle Chapter had an interactive conversation with several influencers in the Seattle immersive community -- roughly 50 people showed up on a Tuesday night for an panel and open dialog we called and Innovation Pub. This discussion focused on the Seattle immersive technology landscape, what we consider success, and what an organization like the VRARA can do add value in a city with an already strong VR and AR presence. 

The discussion was moderated by the new Seattle Chapter President, Nirav Desai and had panelists including:

• Vinay Narayan, VP at HTC America in the Vive business unit;
• Elizabeth Scallon, Director of the University of Washington's CoMotion Labs and their VR/AR incubator;
• Trond Nilsen, Founder of the Seattle Immersive Technology Association and organizer of a series of VR Hackathon around the world.

The key takeaways included:

• A desire to document the strength of the immersive landscape in Seattle; the VRARA will build of the landscapes we have for other cities and document Seattle;
• There is a stong developer community; however, as the industry has pivoted from consumer to the enterprise, we could help with sector focused business literacy events for this community;
• There were requests for mentorship; we will look into developing such a program. 

Also, Vinay, Elizabeth, and Trond all agreed to join the Seattle Chapter's Advisory Board where they will help for the above three goals and guiding the chapter to best serve the needs of its membership in Seattle and globally. We welcome them to the team and look forward to learning from their insights. 

Finally, moving forward, the VRARA Seattle Chapter is supporting the following upcoming events:

• September 14-16: the next Seattle VR Hackathon (https://vrhackathon.web3d.org/seattle-2018-09/). On Saturday, the 15th, we will have our next Innovation Pub event to further refine and progress the goals above.
• September 21-22: The VR Global Summit -- The Seattle Chapter is working to ensure there is a strong Cascadia Corridor presence at this major event in the Pacific Northwest.