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This new series is your deep dive into important and relevant Product topics and questions within the VR/AR industry:

- The overarching goals of VR/AR products for consumers right now
- The source of Product-based idea generation in VR/AR projects
- Key improvements needed with VR/AR products in the near future
- Skills required to succeed in Product in VR/AR
- How to tackle public resistance towards VR/AR products

Panelists:

1. Charles Dupont: Head of Product @ Dimension

2. Lizzie He: Senior Product Manager @ STRIVR

3. Yogi Rana: Senior Product Manager @ PTC

Register here (click on the Upcoming tab)

Register here (click on the Upcoming tab)

Join VRARA London for a preview of the Niantic Lightship ARDK and live Q&A with Niantic’s Senior Product Manager, Amanda Whitt, and Chief Research Scientist, Gabriel Brostow. 

Niantic has recently announced the private beta of its Niantic Lightship ARDK, part of its full Lightship platform that powers planet-scale AR experiences including Pokémon GO. We’re partnering with Niantic to give VRARA London members a deeper look at the ARDK in this talk and to invite them to apply to join the beta. You’ll learn about its tools and features, the experiences it can enable and see demos that bring its possibilities to life.

Niantic Lightship ARDK

The Niantic Lightship ARDK is a robust set of tools that enable developers to create multiplayer AR experiences and bring them to life with depth, physics, occlusions, and semantic segmentation. Key features include:

• Real-time Mapping through advanced Meshing, which enables you to create persistent and realistic AR experiences.

• Multiplayer functionality which enables immersive multiplayer experiences where up to eight players can share the same AR experience in the same real world space at the same time.

• Semantic Segmentation, which classifies outdoor natural objects that a user scans (like the ground and sky), enabling AR content interactions on or with specific surfaces.

The speakers

Amanda Whitt is a Senior Product Manager at Niantic, helping to lead the development of the Niantic Lightship ARDK. Prior to Niantic Amanda worked at Bose, where she helped to build out its SDKs and other third-party tools. She has also collaborated closely with AR creators and devs to help them to bring more immersive, adaptive audio to their games and apps. 

Gabriel Brostow is a leading member of the international Computer Vision community and Chief Research Scientist at Niantic, where he heads up the AR Research & Development team creating the future of AR. In addition to his work at Niantic, Gabriel is also a Professor of Machine Vision at UCL, where his group explores research problems relating to Computer Vision and Computer Graphics.

“Being a part of a collective where creators are sharing their work, questions and ideas is a big reason we’re excited to become a member of VRARA. At 6D.ai I was able to participate as a member of the AR Cloud Working Group and can say from personal experience, I really enjoy the workshops and content VRARA members create and share and we are looking forward to start doing the same at Niantic.”

— Meghan Hughes, Niantic

Register here (click on the Upcoming tab)

Register here

We will take a closer look at how VR and AR are being used for good, by charities and companies internationally. From helping post-reconstructive surgery patients, or children in hospital reach for their dreams, to humanitarian training or remote collaboration, VR and AR are helping scale life-changing programs.

RSVP here

Hear from two speakers in the VR training landscape and participate in discussions around the state of AR/VR in the time of coronavirus.

The VR/AR Association and Poplar are excited to announce their next meetup which, due to coronavirus, will be held online for the first time!

The event will feature short presentations from two of the frontrunners in VR training for soft skills: Marmot Labs and BODYSWAPS. The presentations will raise questions about how VR can be used for training, a question of particular relevance at this time when remote working has become so key.

The presentations will be followed by a series of breakout sessions on Zoom where attendees will be able to network and discuss in small groups a series of questions relating to remote work, training and work in the time of coronavirus.

The agenda will include:

1. Short presentations from Claudia Babescu (CEO of Marmot Labs) and Christophe Mallet (CEO of BODYSWAPS) on how VR can be used in different areas of training such as: (10 minutes)

• The evolution of the learning technology landscape

• How VR can help develop more human connections in coaching

• Best case studies around immersive learning

• The dos and don’ts of creating embodied VR learning experiences

• The challenges of Covid-19

2. Networking and discussion around breakout rooms. Participants will be split into groups to discuss topics such as: (40 minutes)

• How is your business affected by Covid-19?

• What are innovative uses of VR/AR in this crisis?

• Are you currently fundraising and how are you going about it?

The event will be moderated by David Ripert, London Chapter President for the VR/AR Association and CEO of Poplar.

RSVP here

Hear AR creators talk about their work, commercial and social media projects they're involved in and the current state of AR.

About this Event

Digital Catapult, the VR/AR Association and Poplar are excited to announce their next event, which will feature some of the industry’s top AR creators discussing their work, projects and lessons, including Ommy Akhe (@autonommy), Anrick Bregman (@studioanrk), Liam O’Neill (@liamo.studio).

You can expect to hear about a wide range of commercial and social AR projects across platforms and industries.

The agenda will include:

1. Showcase: AR Creators Discuss Their Work (45 minutes).

• How they got started

• Their biggest successes so far

• Key learnings from their work in social AR

• Key learnings from any of their commercial projects

2. A panel with the creators , moderated by David Ripert, Chapter President London for the VR/AR Association, plus Q&A from the audience (15 minutes).

3. Networking around drinks and nibbles

The VR/AR Association is excited to announce their next event, which will focus on AR within Marketing and Advertising.

To attend, you need to be a Member and email london@thevrara.com to register (free).

The agenda will include:

1. Keynote: Introduction to AR uses in Marketing and Advertising (45 mins)

• What’s AR and how do you activate AR experiences?

• Types of AR experiences for Marketing

• AR platforms available and the benefits of each

• Examples from the real world and from across industries, including Retail, Entertainment, Gaming, Music, and Travel

• Benefits of AR in Marketing and success metrics

• Q&A from audience

2. Panel: Why Instagram AR will be a game-changer for brands (30 mins)

• What does Facebook’s recent launch of Spark AR for Instagram mean for brands?

• Unique opportunities of Instagram vs. other social media platforms

• Examples of Instagram campaigns from the real world

• Q&A from audience

3. Networking around drinks and nibbles

Date: Tuesday, 24th September 2019

Time: 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm

To attend you need to be a Member and email london@thevrara.com to register.

RSVP here

The VR/AR Association London Chapter & Poplar are excited to announce their next event, which will focus on AR. Expect lots of interesting startups, tech execs, developers and agencies to attend.

The meetup will include insights from both ends of the AR industry: the companies leveraging AR for advertising purposes and the software and hardware players producing the latest in AR technology. Attendees are also encouraged to contribute their own use cases of AR, to be featured in future meetups!

The event will include networking drinks and expert panels with Terence Summerbell from Sony Music, Francesca Gaymor from Warner Music, AR content creator Ross Wakefield behind the viral Big Shaq lens (20M+ impressions), and Huub Heijnen from Scape, to be moderated by David Ripert, CEO of Poplar and Chapter President London for the VR/AR Association.

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The VR/AR Association London Chapter & Poplar are excited to announce its VR/AR meetup, co-hosted with the Xoogler network and Second Home, so expect lots of interesting startups, tech execs, developers and agencies to attend.

The event will include networking drinks and an expert panel with Fintan Gillespie from Snapchat, Dan Morgan from Speedo, VR/AR veteran Steve Dann from Medical Realities and AR designer/developer Christian Venables, to be moderated by David Ripert, ex-Head YouTube Spaces EMEA @Google, now CEO of Poplar and Chapter President London for the VR/AR Association.

Panel discussions will include:

• The state of the VR/AR industry: is it early, is VR losing vs AR, are we at an inflection point for AR?

• Potential applications for VR/AR in entertainment, e-commerce, enterprise, education, travel, real-estate etc.

• Who are the big players: from platforms like Google, FB and Snap to deep tech startups like Niantic, 8thWall, 6D.ai

• What does the future of VR/AR look like: machine learning, blockchain, cloudAR, persistence, social, productivity etc.

• Q&A from the audience

Register here

For discounted passes, email kev@thevrara.com

Future Tourism Forum was established to provide the tourism sector with insight and support in adopting fast developing new techniques to enhance visitor engagement and offer more immersive and interpretative experiences. We write case studies on emerging technologies, explore the latest research opportunities, the best use cases and provide study visits to experience them.

Our next major activity will be the first Future Tourism experience Conference and Exhibition on Tuesday 17th April at Kempton Park Racecourse.

For discounted passes, email jeremy@thevrara.com

This is a fast-track beginner friendly course and assumes no prior knowledge, you will leave up to date and knowledgeable in VR. It will be delivered to a small group, so you get lots of assistance and time for questions. The workshop will be led by one of our team member who is highly experienced in developing, teaching and consulting across VR and AR.

During the session, you will learn how VR can be applied to corporations, explore some use cases and try out several Virtual Reality Experiences that relate to business matters, such as Architecture, Finance, Engineering or Planning, etc. You will also learn the fundamentals of developing in Unity for HTC Vive and VR with a live development demonstration.

Outcome: You will gain a solid understanding of VR as well as insight into AR technologies, such as HTC Vive Oculus Rift and Microsoft Mixed Reality (MR) Hololens, for a range of business and industry uses. Enabling you to confidently discuss and guide your companies adoption in VR, AR, and MR. A hands-on session with room-scale VR using the HTC Vive is included.

This fast-track introductory session will fully prepare you for our VR application development focused classes.

To get discounted passes, email jeremy@thevrara.com 

This is a fast-track beginner friendly course and assumes no prior knowledge, you will leave up to date and knowledgeable in MR/AR. It will be delivered to a small group, so you get lots of assistance and time for questions. The workshop will be led by one of our team member who is highly experienced in developing and consulting in VR and MR/AR.

During the session, you will learn how MR can be applied to corporations, explore some use cases, such as Architecture, Finance, Engineering or Planning, etc., and try out several Mixed Reality Experiences that relate to business matters. You will also learn the fundamentals of developing in Unity for Microsoft Hololens and MR devices with a live development demonstration.

Outcome: You will gain a solid understanding of Microsoft Mixed Reality Hololens as well as insight into VR technologies such asHTC Vive, for a range of business and industry uses. Enabling you to confidently discuss and guide your companies adoption in MR, AR and VR. A hands-on session with Microsoft Hololens is included.

This fast-track introductory session will fully prepare you for our MR development focused classes.

The workshop will be presented by Dr John Holder, Head of Technology at the Realities Centre, M.Sc. in Virtual Reality.

For passes, email jeremy@thevrara.com 

This is a fast-track beginner friendly course and assumes no prior knowledge, you will leave up to date and knowledgeable in VR. It will be delivered to a small group, so you get lots of assistance and time for questions. The workshop will be led by our highly team experienced in developing, teaching and consulting across VR and AR.

During the session, you will learn how VR can be applied to corporations, explore some use cases and try out several Virtual Reality Experiences that relate to business matters, such as Architecture, Finance, Engineering or Planning, etc. You will also learn the fundamentals of developing in Unity for HTC Vive and VR with a live development demonstration.

Outcome: You will gain a solid understanding of VR as well as insight into AR technologies, such as HTC Vive Oculus Rift and Microsoft Mixed Reality (MR) Hololens, for a range of business and industry uses. Enabling you to confidently discuss and guide your companies adoption in VR, AR, and MR. A hands-on session with room-scale VR using the HTC Vive is included.

This fast-track introductory session will fully prepare you for our VR application development focused classes.

For passes email jeremy@thevrara.com

Develop:VR is a one-day conference, expo and networking event focused on the new commercial opportunities that virtual and augmented reality presents http://www.developvr.co.uk/

For passes, email jeremy@thevrara.com

Learn and develop your own app for HoloLens with a quick deep dive into MR and other technologies that are the Fourth Industrial Revolution! Learn how to use hand gestures, eye gaze, voice commands, spatial audio and spatialised mapping to create an app that is interactive, immersive and engaging. No Coding Skills Required.

Class Timing: The Course is scheduled to run on Tuesday afternoons (2-5pm) for 3 weeks, 31st Oct, 7th and 14th November. 

Goals:

• Understand the current MR and AR environment for corporate applications.
• Install and create the windows development environment.
• Build your own version of our test app with 5 core competencies.
• Deploy and Test your app with the HoloLens, tethered and remotely.
• Video your app and achieve a certificate of attendance.

Resources:We will have a Microsoft HoloLens (or two) throughout the course, and provide the source files to complete the project. You can also demo the Oculus Rift Touch and HTC Vive, during the course.

RSVP here

Level39 have teamed up with PwC's VR division, VR/AR Association London and the Realities Centre to throw a tech networking meetup on Thursday 26th October where VR & AR experts from various industries will be showcasing some of their latest work.

If you are interested in attending or showing your work please sign up via the Eventbrite. Any question, please email jeremy@thevrara.com 

To RSVP and for more info, contact us

This event will focus on hands-on demos as our research has shown a massive gap between the percentage of people who have heard of VR and those that have tried it (particularly high end VR) leading to a lack of understanding of VR's true potential.

For more info and tickets, contact us

The Virtual_ is a series of invite-only speaker, panel & demonstration events, made for marketing & brand professionals. An opportunity to discover the potential of Virtual Reality, to learn, play and interact with new models of experience and interaction.

VR v's AR v's MR & What's Next?

At this event our industry speakers will debate this question to answer, what is it? what's best? where should money be spent? what technologies are consumers using & what's next?

Speakers:
Virtual Umbrella | Zappar | Microsoft Hololens