VR Manchester – Review of 2020

Event joining link: https://hopin.com/events/2020-review-meetup/.
You do not need to RSVP on Meetup.

Join us for a whistle stop review of VR in 2020, plus opportunities to chat with folk passionate about VR from Greater Manchester and beyond!

Apologies for radio silence everyone. The VR Manchester team talked about doing some virtual events but ultimately didn't have the personal bandwidth to pull anything together amidst everything 2020 threw at us. For this, we are truly sorry.

We din't want to end 2020 without bringing our extended VR family together again, so we've put together and end of year event. We'll look back on the more positive aspects of 2020, whilst looking forward hopefully to what 2021 will bring.

Schedule:

• 19:00: Event start
• 19:15: 2020 VR Review
• 19:45: Networking break
• 20:15: Panel – "What's next for VR?" (Panel guests detailed below)
• 21:00: Wrap and open sessions
• 22:00: End
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How to join:

We'll be using the Hopin event platform as it is accessible in the browser and supports the kind of unstructured networking we've come to value at VR Manchester.

We'll send the Hopin event link shortly before the event. Due to Hopin event costs tickets will be limited to first come, first served once the link is shared.
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"What's next for VR?" panel guests:

Dr. Vinoba Vinayagamoorthy, Project Research & Development Engineer at BBC R&D
Rosie Summers, 3D Animator at XR Games and VR Artist
Charles Radclyffe, AI Ethics, Technology Governance and ESG Specialist

More about our guests:

Dr. Vinoba Vinayagamoorthy is a Project Research & Development Engineer with the BBC working on Interactive and Immersive Media Experiences. She has research interests in HCI, (social) VR, AR, connected TVs/devices and interaction design. She has published with (and reviewed for) ACM SIGCHI, ACM IMX, ACM VRST, Eurographics, IVA, CGF and IEEE TVCG. She is also Technical Programme Committee member for MMVE 2021 and is General Chair for IMX 2021. She is also a BBC STEM Ambassador and volunteers with Inspiring the Future.

Rosie Summers is a 3D animator, Virtual Reality Artist and Tilt Brush live performer. She currently work at XR Games, where she worked on Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure for PlayStation VR. Rosie also stepped up to be a member of the VR Manchester organising committee after attending regularly for several years.

Charles Radclyfe is a serial entrepreneur who has focused his career on solving tough technology challenges for some of the world's largest organisations. A self-confessed 'geek' at heart, Charles combines his technical fluency with his business nous to really get to grips with how best to conceive, design, build and implement solutions which can unlock transformative business value.
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"Why not just do an event in VR?"

There are a lot of answers to this, but the short one is that not everyone has a VR headset. Yes, we could use other browser or screen accessible tools (Hubs, Engage, VRChat) but ultimately there are limitations and barriers to participation with all of those options. Almost everyone has a device with a web browser, and one of our goals has always been to welcome as many people as possible to our VR family.

"I've got a thing I want to share with the community!"

Great! We'll have space for you to spin up an informal session on the night that folk can come and join. We'll do our best to signpost your thing – drop us a DM on Twitter to give us a heads up.