The VR/AR Association Partners with Tribeca Film Festival for a Special VR Event

New York, NY - The VR/AR Association is pleased to partner with TriBeCa Film Festival on a special VR event on April 19.

Tribeca Film and Hatchery partner with theVR/AR Association to promote an amazing day of VR innovation and imagination.

“Not only is Richard Branson there with a special film screening and the top woman scientist Regina Dugan former DARPA secret projects and now Google Advanced Projects, but also it’s the largest virtual reality activation event with everyone in the audience experiencing a whole talk in live VR with the top VR creators on stage. This is no regular tech event. This event is about showing you the world of the future today, with CEOs and top innovators. Some of the smartest people doing some of the most amazing things,” says Yao Huang, Managing Partner, the Hatchery.

The mutual partnership has a mission in fostering collaboration in the virtual reality and augmented reality communities. We are both very excited to see the VR community grow.

VRARA members get a special batch of discounted tickets. Use code VR75 for 50% off.

“This VR film event will blow your mind,” says Kris Kolodziej, President of the VR/AR Association NYC Chapter.

Agenda and speakers include:

Jason Kelly, New York Bureau Chief of Bloomberg

Bryan Johnson, OS Fund

Jon Iwata, IBM

Dr. James Canton, Institute for Global Futures

Regina Dugan, Google

Meredith Perry, uBeam

VR Headsets

Felix Lajeunesse & Paul Raphael, Felix & Paul Studios , Inside Story: A Journey Into Virtual Reality

Philip Rosedale, High Fidelity

Derek Belch, STRIVR Labs, Virtual Reality in Sports: Immersive Performance Training and Immersive Entertainment

Sir Richard Branson & Jason Hirschhorn, Daring to Dream

Katherine Oliver: Advisor to Bloomberg Philanthropies and Principal of Media and Technology at Bloomberg Associates

Screening: Don't Look Down

Q&A Sir Richard Branson

For more information please visit https://tribecafilm.com/festival/imagination

The VR AR March Event in NYC

The VR/AR Association NYC Chapter Launch event was a huge success.  Hosted at NYU, the event was sold out. The attendees represented a good mix of the NYC’s VR AR community, including Tech companies, Media and Entertainment, and Research.

The event included demos, including the following. David Lobster from NYU’s Holojam VR team showed us the fascinating work NYU is doing with its own VR headset unit.  Asher Weintraub, who is 12-year-old VR creator (Oculus VR), inspired everyone with his passion for VR AR and the work he’s doing.  Dennis Adamo and Owen Bush form Daydream.io showed off their Daydream.VR, a music powered Virtual Reality, which enables anyone to create a fully immersive, sound-responsive, fantastical world from their music collection.

There was a panel of experts, moderated by Chris Pfaff, CEO, Chris Pfaff Tech/Media. Chris is well known in the VR AR community and did a fine job with the following panelists: Marco Ricci, Director of Virtual Reality, EdgeDNA.   Caitlin Burns, Chief Operating Officer, datavized. Ariel Shimoni, Director of Virtual Reality, StartApp. Brad Albert, Founder, Co-founder, Azimyth Studios, and, Miguel Sanchez, Founder of Massideation.

The event concluded with a Startup VC Pitch segment of the program, which was another highlight of the evening.  Two VCs, Shawn Cheng from Vayner Capital and Jonathan Struhl from Indicator Ventures, were the judges for the startups that were pitching.  The audience at the event were also involved in voting the best startup.

The Founder of the VR/AR Association, Nathan Pettyjohn, flew into NYC for the event.  Below is a picture of Kris and Sarah, VR/AR NYC Chapter staff, with Nathan. And, other pictures from the event.  

Video of the event will be posted soon. 

Anyone interested in becoming a member of the NYC Chapter, email Kris@thevrara.com

AOL Virtual Reality Immersion Summit

Congratulations to AOL for putting such a great event together!  VRARA NYC staff Kris Kolo & Sarah Zhang attended the event, which was hosted at the AOL NYC headquarters. Experts in 360 Video, VR and Augmented Reality presented at the Future Possibilities of VR panel, which was moderated by AOL’s CTO Bill Pence. We also experienced VR tech at the demos fair featuring breakthrough NYC start-ups and industry leaders pre-selected by AOL to attend the event.

NYC VR AR Startups at the event included: SurrealVR, IrisVR, VisiSonics, Floored, YouVisit, and others. 

Come to our next VR AR event on March 22nd! Register here. 

VR AR at Microsoft in NYC

It was an awesome event at Microsoft NYC filled with demos and fun next-generation experiences. One demo that stood out was the VR Motion Simulator. Virtual reality has long been a dream of gamers everywhere. Given Microsoft’s interest in VR (i.e., HoloLens) and games (I.e. Xbox), the next big opportunity could be this motion simulator “unit” that I took for a test-drive, which combines motion with VR. Playing a car racing game, the unit gave me an immersive experience that I “felt” like never before; In addition to “seeing” the experience in VR, the unit also enabled me to “feel” every turn, spin, or accident with other cars by simulating the motion.  The prototype cost is about $3500, pricy, but cost will come down with mass production of these units. Coming near you at your local amusement park, arcade room, or your future in-house set!

Pitch AOL on Your VR Opportunity

By Kris Kolodziej

On March 3rd, AOL is hosting a Virtual Reality Summit in New York to announce their entry into the VR space. AOL believes VR is a revolutionary technology that AOL needs to be a part of. With that, AOL is looking to have 10 of NYC's top VR startups in to demo their work.

If you would like to set up a demo of your work at the Summit please contact kris@thevrara.com.  (there is no cost associated with presenting).

AOL expects about 100 people in attendance (executive leadership, senior engineers, reporters and photographers from Huffington Post.) In addition, three VC firms will present as well: Built By Girls, Dawn Patrol, and Nautilus.

VR/AR in the Big Apple

By Kris  Kolodziej, NYC Chapter President, the VRARA

Last week, I had the opportunity to present to about 40 VR/AR enthusiasts and professionals, during an event in NYC meeting hosted by Augmate.  

With the exception of one hardware vendor, most of this group was focused on VR/AR software and content. There were several folks interested in VR/AR Media (i.e., video), which aligns with Samsung’s newly launched New York VR Movie Studio. The studio will produce VR movies, aligned with Samsung's partnership with the Sundance film festival to foster new immersive experiences.

The event host, Augmate, enables IT departments to securely manage smart wearable device location, battery levels, usage analytics, communication to employees, and policy management. It partners with 60+ application solution providers for end-user solutions. It also has work zone positioning systems (beacons) for geofences and contextual awareness managed with our platform.

Stay tuned for more news from the VRARA's NYC chapter, including next month's chapter launch event.