VR NOW - the Tech Biz Art Conference - debuts in Germany on Nov 16th

Say hello to the first stand-alone business and development conference & awards event dedicated exclusively to VR in Germany, VR NOW Con.

And it's siamese twin, the VR NOW Awards 2016, which celebrates outstanding technical, business, and artistic achievements in virtual reality.

The conference will offer attendees the following experiences:

1. Aims to create a hands-on atmosphere with a high amount of learnings. Packed talks focused on how-to's in VR and direct dialogue give participants the opportunity to exchange knowledge and gain new insights. The conference will feature international keynotes on technology, business and art.
2. Mixes local heroes with international projects and shows a complete round-up of current state of the art techniques and technology.
3. Celebrate outstanding technical, business, and artistic achievements in virtual reality. Three projects will be nominated for each of the categories (tech, business, art, and the grand prize).

The VR NOW Con is about giving new impulses on the medium and boosting the international developers and business community. The time is NOW to learn from and connect with each other to build the future of VR together. Come celebrate the conference, the award show, partner expo and lots of networking opportunities.

VRARA members receive a 22% discount on tickets. Contact your local chapter president for more details or send an email to the Amsterdam Chapter President, Amir-Esmaeil Bozorgzadeh at amir@virtuleap.com

VR/AR Association Amsterdam President launches Global WebVR Hackathon

The WebVR community gets some long-waited relief on November 1st in the form of a global hackathon run completely online and for the longest period ever, 90 days. The platform, Virtuleap, is co-organized by the Amsterdam Chapter President of the VR/AR Association, Amir-Esmaeil Bozorgzadeh, and is devoted to championing the WebVR cause by providing the community with the resources it sorely needs at this stage in the industry.

Mozilla, Microsoft, and Google are some of the technology partners alongside ecosystem partners like VRBASE, VR First, Force Field VR, and of course the VR/AR Association. The lead media partner, Upload, yesterday published the initial announcement of the hackathon, which has already stirred the grassroots community to prepare for the upcoming WebVR extravaganza. Student groups at Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and the Entertainment & Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, are all officially participating in the hackathon.

StartupAmsterdam, the government arm that is tasked with developing and enriching the startup tech community in the Dutch capital, is sponsoring the event and, as such, the prizes both themed to the city and include flying out winning teams to Amsterdam in April 2017. The top prize is a slot in VRBASE's accelerator program, which happens to be the first of its kind in Europe, which runs for 6-months and includes a cash prize of €30,000 (euros). The second prize is a 3-month internship program with Force Field VR, the second biggest VR studio in Europe and formerly known as Vanguard Games.

For more info, email Amir here. 

Highlights from the launch event of the Amsterdam Chapter

An eclectic crowd of local startups and companies in Holland, as well as visitors from neighboring countries like Belgium and Germany, came together last night to celebrate the launch of the VR/AR Association in Amsterdam.

Chapter President, Amir-Esmaeil Bozorgzadeh, spoke alongside Benjamin de Wit, co-organizer of the VR Days Europe conference happening on November 3rd to 6th and Robert Breton, CEO of the VRappstore, who announced the VRackathon that takes place at VR Days Europe. The hackathon is part of a series in which 6 challenges are presented to teams that are based on using immersive technology to make a difference in positively impacting societal ills like fear and violence.

The event was run in partnership with StartupAmsterdam, the government initiative that works to evangelize, catalyze, and rally the creative energies of the startup and tech community in the Netherlands' capital while continually building new bridges and resources to help foreign startups and companies plant their roots in the iCapital of Europe.

All of this magic was hosted at VRBASE, the incubator, accelerator (the first in Europe), and studio dedicated to supporting the VR/AR industry, and leading the mission to mark Amsterdam as the VR Capital of Europe.

Amsterdam presents VR Days Europe on Nov 3-5

For the second year running, Amsterdam's VR Days Europe presents four-days filled with the latest VR trends and hardware, inspiring keynotes, content creation and all varieties of demos to experience. Locations this year include the striking VondelCS building in Amsterdam’s beautiful Vondelpark, the Stadsschouwburg in the city centre and the city’s newly opened VRBase, the co-working space for VR companies that has now expanded as Europe's first VR accelerator and incubator. 

VR Days is the place where creators meet creators. Where they connect in a relaxed setting. Where they meet the people who they know are out there. To shake hands, look each other in the eyes and become professional friends. Where developers from all shapes and sizes, from software to hardware, from nerd to creative director meet to forge relationships so they can develop more easily, quicker, and co-create richer, with more tools and more knowledge. 

Albert 'Skip' Rizzo will be speaking during this year's event. He will talk about the design, development and evaluation of virtual reality (VR) systems targeting the areas of clinical assessment, treatment rehabilitation and resilience. This work spans the domains of psychological, cognitive and motor functioning in both healthy and clinical populations.

Another speaker is Dana-Maria Faneker, the the first coach in the Netherlands who is working with Virtual Reality. She has won the Samsung VR Challenge for the best VR idea in the Netherlands. That means that Samsung is going to help her to launch this idea first as a pilot in the Netherlands and then, fingers crossed, worldwide! The idea is called: "Fear or Love!” Along with her start-up, coined ”CaptainVR”, she plans on developing VR applications and train coaches, trainers, therapists and psychologists to work with this technology, so they can help people to get rid of all their fears and realize their goals and dreams. 

And of course there are many more interesting speakers. Check out www.vrdays.co to learn more.