There are a plethora of events that cover immersive developments, from large trade shows to small meetups. As each offers different insights into virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality, it can be hard to choose which to attend. To make things a little easier, I’ve pulled together some of the immersive events in my calendar this year.
RealTime Conference (6th-7th April: Paris and New York)
Created by industry veterans from DreamWorks, FMX and Weta Digital, the RealTime Conference (RTC) is a new cross-industry, simultaneously co-located event devoted to the impact realtime is having on art, technology, business, and society.
The conference is co-located at Forum des images in Paris and at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, with 500 select attendees per location. The conference will see 45 sessions a day and 120 speakers, VIPs, leaders and innovators from a range of industries bringing together pioneers of real-time technology. You can see the whole list of speakers and the full details of the event here.
2020 marks the launch of the RealTime Conference and with support from EPIC Games and Intel, I’m confident that this event will make an impact on the immersive event scene. There’s currently a 25% discount on Super Early Bird tickets (sale ends 31st Jan) and a 30% discount for VES and ASIFA-Hollywood members.
XR Europe (28th – 29th April: London)
This conference aims to keep entertainment studios, large-scale enterprises, content creators and investors abreast of the latest developments in tech, distribution and monetization strategies to ensure they stay ahead of the pack. The brightest minds on the continent focused on XR are brought together to take stock of the state of the industry and its future with over 300 attendees and 70+ speakers.
There will be live demos, speaker keynotes, exclusive product releases, and practical case studies of VR and AR technology. A standard conference pass is £1,399, but if you’re a startup, NGO or booking as a group, you can take advantage of discounted rates (subject to certain criteria).
Facebook F8 Developer Conference (5th – 6th May: San Jose, California)
This highly anticipated event is where Facebook, the owner of Oculus, shows off its latest technology and apps, plus paints its vision for the future. Positioned as a conference “about technology and human connection”, most virtual reality fans will have it marked in their calendar.
F8 2020 will take place at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, CA. Currently, the website is pretty bare, but you can sign up for updates here. In the past, tickets for developers have gone for $595, but Facebook has also made live streams of the keynotes available.
AWE USA (27th-29th May: Santa Clara, California)
With over a decade in the space, Augmented World Expo (AWE) is one of the leading AR/VR event series in the world and hosts four annual events in Silicon Valley, Munich, Asia, and Tel Aviv. It sees over 7,000 attendees, more than 250 exhibitors, and over 300 speakers—making it one of the best places for networking with leaders in the immersive industry.
This year’s conferences are focused on Spatial Computing, with pioneers in the industry sharing their experiences with solving major technical challenges, bringing AR/VR into new sectors, and working on the cutting edge of XR development. There are currently some big discounts available (sale ends February 3rd) with up to $700 of the regular price—Super Early Bird tickets can be purchased here.
Oculus Connect 7 (September TBC: San Jose, California)
Oculus Connect is Oculus’s annual two-day conference, where VR and AR developers come together to share ideas and forge the future of the immersive industry. The event is packed with high profile talks, exciting news, and technical demos covering storytelling, gaming, training and beyond.
Details for Oculus Connect 7 have not yet been released, but the event usually takes place in late September at the San Jose McEnery Convention Centre. In 2019, registration opened on 31st July. Last year a regular conference pass was available for $399. For eligible attendees, Developer and Student/Academic passes were on offer for $199.
In addition to the heavyweight events, there are plenty of meetups happening all over the globe which can connect you to your local immersive community easily and cheaply, or for free. It’s worth keeping an eye on Meetup.com for events like XRLO—a popular London meetup—near you.
This article originally appeared on Forbes.com
