Agenda

Description

In this captivating abstract, visionary director Victoria Bousis will delve into the profound impact of virtual reality (VR) as a catalyst for empathetic engagement and compassionate policymaking. Bousis's latest creation, "Stay Alive My Son," a groundbreaking, immersive and interactive VR experience, recounts the powerful journey of Yathay Pin, a survivor of the Cambodian genocide who made the heart-wrenching decision to leave his young son behind for a chance at survival. Recently, “Stay Alive My Son,” won the Producers’ Guild Association Innovation Award for making movie history as a full-length and interactive VR narrative, by allowing audiences to become the protagonist and experience their story first-handedly.

Through the medium of VR, Bousis effectively conveys the emotions of ambiguous loss, regret, guilt, and unwavering hope for justice and reunion by allowing audiences to step into the shoes of a father and experience these emotions for themselves. As ordinary citizens and policymakers, by truly experiencing versus passively watching these emotions, they become vested personally, thereby humanizing the legal barriers and issues with a mission to change global policy for good.

Bousis's talk will extend beyond the immersive storytelling aspect, outlining the broader implications of "Stay Alive My Son" in mobilizing bottom up “community-driven initiatives” and top-down movements leading up to the United Nations’ Global Refugee Summit in Geneva in December. Her advocacy, combined with the emotive power of the VR experience, seeks to expedite family reunification processes in accordance with the United Nations' pledge to limit legal formalities to a 5-year cap, safeguarding the human right to family unity.

Having premiered in over 21 global festivals, including Venice, Cannes, and SXSW, and receiving countless awards, "Stay Alive My Son" has already proved its mettle. This session will offer an opportunity for Bousis to share insights into the adaptation process, technological advancements in digital humans, interactive spatial and game design used for interactive narratives, the intended impact of the project, and its future potential to inspire change.

Attendees can anticipate an inspiring discussion on leveraging technology for social change, highlighting the potential of VR to shape policies through deeply personal, human-centered storytelling, while also exploring its potential in illuminating untold stories for furthering social change.

Speakers

Victoria Bousis

Founder, Creative Director , UME Studios

Description

Chile is leading in Latam the process of transforming its energy matrix towards a more efficient and sustainable one. For the implementation of new H2V Green Hydrogen plants, it is key to have the support and understanding of the communities, in this presentation we will review the strategy that is being implemented for the development of the roadmap with intensive use in immersive experiences for both technical and communicational and educational uses.

Speakers

Ricardo Lira

Venture Partner XR , Creative Cities

Description

The panel discussion on "Immersive Technology as a Tool for Empowerment in Emerging Economies" aims to explore the dynamic intersection of technology and socioeconomic development in regions that are undergoing rapid transformation.

As emerging economies strive to bridge the gap between traditional practices and modern advancements, immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are emerging as powerful tools for empowerment. This panel will bring together experts from various disciplines engaged across bodies of the European Union and the World Economic Forum to dissect the multifaceted impact of immersive technology on knowledge transfer, entrepreneurship, policy regulations and social inclusion.

Speakers

Gianluigi Vona

Web3 Advisor , Acumen Public Affairs

Patricia Paulina Karrer

XKIC SRI Manager , EIT Manufacturing

Jennifer Bettinger

Responsible Tech Innovation Strategy , Accenture

Elena Bascone

Ambassador for Italy , Women in Immersive Technologies (WIIT) Europe

Description

Testing optical performance of components and the image quality of a completed XR headset is an important but not well-known part of the product development and mass production cycle - in fact, today's headsets would likely not be existing without it.

In this presentation, we will give an overview of the various steps in the production process where optical testing comes into play and discuss new developments like active alignment technology where we make use of real-time test data to assemble XR modules for best image quality.

Finally, we describe a new generation of test equipment that uses custom high-end optics specially tailored to XR that integrates both "big" and "small" picture-scale image quality test capabilities in one instrument, bringing test technology to the next level to support tomorrow's high-resolution XR headsets.

Speakers

Daniel Winters

Senior Technical Expert Optical Testing , Trioptics GmbH

Description

This talk will provide an overview of existing Web3 technologies and the ground reality of their capabilities in supporting XR applications. Web3, powered by blockchain technology, is evolving rapidly, and numerous upcoming features benefit Augmented and Virtual Reality use cases. It is resourceful for the XR developers and the enterprise to be aware of the developments in the Web3 space and explore synergies with decentralized protocols.

Speakers

Radhakrishna Dasari

Technical Education Lead , Web3 Foundation

Description

Join European creatives, Busterwood and FlatPixel and the Snap AR team to learn how they create imaginative and impactful AR experiences for a global audience. Get a behind-the-scenes look at AR activations that reimagine art and history at the Louvre, and create productivity apps for Spectacles. Donatien Bozon, director of Snap’s AR Studio in Paris, Oscar Falmer, Snap AR Developer Relations lead in Europe, and several European-based AR developers will share their first-hand experience and give you valuable insights that will advance your skills, help build your business, and inspire a new generation of mobile AR.

Speakers

Donatien Bozon

Director, Augmented Reality Studio , Snap, Inc.

Marcin JP

Creative Director , Flat Pixel

Audrey Niochau

Managing Partner , Busterwood

Oscar Falmer

AR Developer Relations Lead, Europe , Snap, Inc.

Description

This talk will share experiences gathered through out the design and implementation phase of a multilingual XR learning application that enables experiential learning of work safety related behaviors in forklift operations. The applications first explains important terms for forklift operation and makes them tangible and establishes the comprehension of forklift specific terms in a common target language (in this case German, but could be any other language as well. This makes instruction, training and safety training more understandable.

After the introduction to the terms, the forklift is put into operation virtually and the trainee is given work assignments that involve safety-critical situations. The trainee must act correctly in accordance with the theoretical training. If the trainee does not act correctly, a virtual accident occurs.

In order to properly address Kolb’s learning cycle appropriated feedback and after action review abilities are provided. We will report on experiences, challenges and solutions we developed throughout the user- and stakeholder-centered development of this application and the embedding into the existing curriculum of the BFI Austria, one of the largest vocational training providers in Austria.

Speakers

Kerstin Repolusk

Secretary , PRO-GE

Benjamin Roszipal

Learning Specialist , MINDCONSOLE

Description

Discover how the world's largest pump manufacturer, Grundfos, is using XR to drive value across sales, HR, and operations.

During this interactive session, you'll  learn how Grundfos, the world's leading pump and water systems manufacturer, is using the SynergyXR platform to drive organizational value by:

• Creating rapid 3D scans of customer sites to accelerate the sales cycle.
• Using virtual showrooms of facilities as environments to develop and boost recruiting and onboarding.  
• Providing virtual training and assistance to customers and technicians to reduce downtime.
• Experts from Grundfos and SynergyXR will share how their partnership is improving business processes and delivering measurable value to both internal and external customers.

They'll also highlight the tools, tips, and tricks your company can use to kickstart your own XR project.  

Speakers

Carlos Ebrahim Vendrell

Senior XR Engineer , Grundfos

Mads Troelsgaard

CEO and Co-Founder , SynergyXR

Description

Join us as start-ups pitch to our panel of judges for a chance to be named AWE's "Start-Up to Watch" for 2023. The winning start-up takes home an up to $200k with investment* (pending due diligence) provided by acclaimed investor Christopher Obereder. The winning company is also honored on the main stage at AWE EU 2023 with an Auggie Award and the winning title of “Start-up to Watch” during the event's Best in Show Awards.

Judges for the Start-Up Pitch competition will be Leen Segers, Petri Rajahalme and Christopher Obereder.

Speakers

Reedah El-Saie

Founder , Brainspark Games

Lili Eva Bartha

Founder and CEO , GN3RA

Tim Friedland

Co-Founder and CEO , forwARdgame

Wendelin Reich

CEO-CTO , Virtual Beings

Krasi Nikolov

CEO & Co-founder , QuarkXR

Mihai Streza

CEO , Wondder

Sergiu Ardelean

Founder , Artivive

Stephanie Riggs

Founder , Ink & Paint

Christopher Obereder

CEO , Start-up-Chris Ventures

Leen Segers

Venture Scout & Co-founder , Women in Immersive Technologies (WIIT) Europe

Petri Rajahalme

Founding Partner , FOV Ventures

Description

Virtual Reality (VR) has the potential to revolutionise education. In this keynote, we will share how GoStudent transforms how students acquire foreign speaking abilities and gain confidence with VR. But how do you make sure that businesses are using nascent technologies for the right reasons? How do you make sure to distinguish hype from sustainable innovation with real impact? In this keynote Alex will also share how he applied processes and learnings stemming from 5 years in Google’s AR/VR unit (Daydream, now known as Google Labs) to guide product development at GoStudent.

Speakers

Alexander Nick

Director Strategic Partnerships & Future Labs , GoStudent GmbH

Description

What makes companies stand out?
What are investors looking for? What do they not want to see?
How can I avoid some of the biggest mistakes start-ups make when pitching VCs?

Join this panel to chat with investors who focus on investments in AR/VR, spatial computing and immersive tech as they share their hot take on a specific use cases and opportunities.

Speakers

Leen Segers

Venture Scout & Co-founder , Women in Immersive Technologies (WIIT) Europe

Dave Haynes

Partner , FOV Ventures

Andrey Lunev

Venture Partner XR , Startup Wise Guys

Description

Social AR, or Augmented Reality on Social Media platforms, has evolved tremendously in the last 5 years. What started with simple filters (like the famous Snapchat dog ears) have now become advanced immersive experiences reaching billions, with features far beyond what most would expect.

The advances made by social media giants like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram have been significant, with their tools now resembling sophisticated game engines.

We will share examples of our work, and demonstrate currently available features you would never think possible on a mobile device!

Think VPS, Physics, LiDAR World Meshing, advanced particle systems, custom-built Machine Learning models, and much more, all in real-time.

Our work has utilized such advanced features, allowing us to create complex visuals and interactive experiences seen by millions.

We believe social AR is democratizing the field of XR with these accessible and powerful tools, which we will be discussing in more detail.

Speakers

Arthur Bouffard

Creative Technologist , Creator

Max van Leeuwen

Creative Technologist , Creator

Description

This session will discuss how collaborating with NGOs can support your XR projects to make a positive impact on the environment, while boosting your product’s reach, visibility and generating new and engaging in-game content.

Using the VR Game 'The Great Ocean' as a case study, producer Michael Geidel from Actrio Studio will present how working with scientists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is making a unique and positive impact on their development of The Great Ocean by receiving support and advice on shaping elements of the game, as well as collaborative promotional support to widen the reach of the game. Joining Michael will be Sally Ward from Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) to discuss how gaming and XR is making a difference to their urgent conservation work by collaborating on game development concepts to include important conservation facts, increasing their reach to new audiences and raising vital funds for their work through meaningful in-game applications.

Speakers

Sally Ward

Digital Partnerships Mgr , Whale and Dolphin Conservation

Michael Geidel

Producer , Actrio Studio

Description

Unity is a game engine. But it's increasingly being used for scenarios that are more enterprise-y: line-of-business applications, AR/VR systems with server connections. For these areas, Unity's performance-centric architecture is less than ideal.

This talk introduces a real-world tested approach to designing Unity applications in a way that supports clean separation of presentation and logic, support for unit testing (even outside the Unity editor), built on the UniRX framework and my open source MVPToolkit for Unity.

Speakers

András Velvárt

CEO , Response KFT

Description

Can Virtual Reality trigger a paradigm shift in how we tackle climate change, racial biases, and intergroup conflicts? To answer this question, Alina Nikolaou, PhD analyzed over thirty years of empirical research about the effect of VR experiences on social attitudes and behavior. The findings reveal critical and surprising insights about the roles of immersive modality, embodiment and perspective-taking;and they inform XR technologists, policy-makers and activists alike about the bold opportunities, and formidable risks, of using VR to change how people think about complex social topics.

Speakers

Alina Nikolaou

Media Scholar , University of Vienna

Description

The XR hardware market has been dominated by consumer gaming and social media-focused companies. But the most important use cases for the growth of XR are in the enterprise, and they are achieving ROI today. Enterprise needs are different, customers not only need great hardware and solutions they also need scalability, support, services, and financing. Join Johannes Stettmeier, Business Development Manager for AR/VR Technologies at Lenovo, as he discusses the challenges and shares solutions for customers looking to scale into the Enterprise Metaverse.

Speakers

Johannes Stettmeier

Business Development Manager EMEA AR/VR , Lenovo

Description

Having grown up in a digital informational world, the future workforce requires a more active and engaging approach to training. AR, MR, and VR combine real and virtual environments to provide the experiential learning workers need. Join Johannes Stettmeier as he maps out key benefits and important considerations for commercial immersive learning and training programs.

Speakers

Johannes Stettmeier

Business Development Manager EMEA AR/VR , Lenovo

Description

Join us for a captivating talk on how Siemens, a global technology leader, harnesses the power of digital twins to achieve its sustainability targets.

Digital twins, virtual representations of physical items, play a pivotal role in enhancing resource efficiency and reducing energy consumption throughout the product lifecycle. By avoiding costly prototyping, optimizing production processes, and enabling continuous improvement, Siemens demonstrates how digital twins contribute significantly to sustainable manufacturing practices.

Discover how this holistic approach ensures that sustainability considerations are integrated into the planning and optimization of factories, presenting an inspiring example of leveraging technology for a greener future.

Speakers

Alexandre Piedade

XR Solutions Expert , Siemens

Description

Throughout this speech, we will delve into the transformative power of 3D & Augmented Reality for Display ADV and how it serves as a solution for brands and media agencies in defeating all their day-to-day challenges. We will address the main advertisers headaches, such as banner blindness and the lack of differentiation, and explore how immersive rich media can effectively overcome them.

Our discussion will focus on the significant benefits that they bring to the table, particularly in terms of enhancing brand recall, brand lift, and engagement. By creating interactive and engaging experiences, 3D & Augmented Reality captivates audiences and stands out amidst the sea of traditional advertising formats.

We will analyze compelling case studies to showcase the effectiveness of immersive rich media in driving memorable brand experiences. Additionally, we will explore the underlying principles and best practices in order to implement these campaigns, ensuring maximum impact and desired outcomes.

Join us as we uncover the potential for 3D & Augmented Reality for Display ADV, how it reshapes the advertising landscape, and the strategies that brands and media agencies can employ to leverage its capabilities.

Speakers

Mattia Salvi

CEO , Aryel

Description

Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented Reality is the latest development aimed at changing the way people digitally connect and consume information. Not only will VR and AR alter how we interact and how brands deliver messages to audiences, it will also have significant impacts on behavior change.

During the keynote, attendees will learn about the ways in which virtual and augmented reality are being used to drive behavior change in campaigns and storytelling. The talk will cover the latest research on the effectiveness of these technologies in promoting positive behavior change, Empathy Building and embodiment. There will also be shown examples from companies that have successfully leveraged XR technology to convey messages, serving as a source of inspiration during the talk.

Speakers

Katrine Konyher

Senior Bus. Developer & Marketing Specialist , Khora