5 Takeaways from VRTO that will Help to Guide VR Forward
The VR Industry’s Unique Culture Will Fuel Innovation
With technology evolving so rapidly, in my own talk at VRTO on how to monetize VR, I warned attendees to steer clear of innovating for VR. We are in an industry that needs to maintain a focus on solving for the jobs to be done, not the technology, and we also have to preserve our culture of people rallying behind changing the world.
It’s Different in Canada
Under Ana Serrano’s leadership as the Chief Digital Officer of the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), her Team is driving Canadian innovation with a blend of government, corporate and private funding, paired with four activities which reinforce each other. First, they are investing in technology and content creating companies for VR, AR, MR and more. Second, they’re running labs on a range of capabilities in the ecosystems. And, they’re working in the space themselves to build expertise and learnings, as well as sharing their own research findings, in their new quarterly Pulse on VR study that is posted free for the industry to access. Serrano highlighted that the study proves Canadian companies are already monetizing VR.
It’s not just the collaboration and support from government-backed groups. Keram Malicki-Sanchez, Founder and Executive Director at VRTO Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo, credits an aggregation of three unique factors that are helping to drive the success of VR in Canada. It’s “the combination of multiculturalism, government subsidized arts and technology innovation programs, and in Toronto particularly, this model of artist run coops that make the power tools available to artists.”
Partner Up
Corporate Vice President of Alliances for AMD, Roy Taylor, flew in to speak at VRTO. But one of his main goals of attending was to “listen, and to learn.”
One of AMD’s focuses right now is to better understand the new needs of out-of-home VR businesses, such as allowing for the best playback performance.
And we can learn exponentially faster with AI. AMD’s Taylor was also clear that “ No way can we develop VR, without at the same time develop artificial intelligence and deep neural networks.”
Out-of-Home VR Is Being Monetized, And There Are Ways To Solve for Its Challenges
Canadian-born IMAX, The VOID, and the hundreds of VR arcades popping up world-wide, are proof that out-of-home VR has a range of business models that work.
But moderator Charlie Fink called attention to the labour, through-put and guest count peak and valley challenges that still need to be solved.
Pay Attention to Untapped Markets
A handful of Znaimer’s media innovations engage boomers, and he sees a great opportunity to build VR solutions for them. His message was clear. “I want to dispel this idea that boomers aren’t interested in kicks, they’re not interested in ‘wow moments’, they’re not interested in deeply shallow things…and they are definitely not slow to adapt.”
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