Alvin Graylin envisions how conferences of the future will be done through March’s V2EC2020 conference.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused total havoc on all types of travel for vacationers and company employees. Travelers are seeing empty seats on their flights while many corporate companies have halted travel plans for employees.
In February Facebook has canceled its annual F8 developer conference citing concerns over coronavirus, meanwhile, Google has canceled I/O 2020, its largest in-person event, due to similar fears. This has since been followed by the cancellation of several major tech events including GDC and SXSW.
Just recently the Educators in VR International Summit showcased how VR could be used to bring people together for a week-long educational event. The event had an incredible turnout and showcased VR’s ability to connect people from all over the world for education and collaborative opportunities.
Alvin Graylin, President of HTC China, was one of the presenters during the summit; after which he walked away seeing the advantages of virtual conferences. In a recent Tweet, Graylin announced that HTC will be hosting the world’s first fully virtual industry conference on March 19th through the platform Engage.
Those attending V2EC2020 will enjoy a 6DOF VR experience accessible via WebVR, tablet, or smartphone. Like a real-world conference, HTC will have a line-up of speakers, team-building experiences, and amazing networking opportunities with zero carbon, zero travel, and zero risk of Coronavirus.
In an interview with VRScout, Graylin said, “The CoronaVirus has dramatically impacted the people and business in China for the last two months and is forcing the country and now, the rest of the world to rethink how we live our lives and conduct business.” Graylin continues, “Essentially all physical events and travel in the country have been canceled since January, so doing a fully VR event makes perfect sense.”
According to Graylin, HTC’s V2EC2020 event will let you have the same 1:1 interpersonal contact you would normally have if you while attending a physical event. What’s more, HTC will let you do things in VR that you wouldn’t be able to do in the real world.
This will be the first-ever company led event in VR, a definite milestone in the evolution of not only VR, but how companies could conduct business remotely. “I’d expect this will be a proof of concept for how conferences of the future will be done,” said Graylin.
V2EC2020 kicks off March 19th at 1:30am GMT. Follow the hashtag #V2EC2020 on Twitter for more information.
Feature Image Credit: HTC
