Boston Avatar Meet-Up & Blarney Stone on Tour, image courtesy Aki Shichiroji

AvaCon hosts and produces a series of educational lectures and community gathering meet-ups that reach approximately 15 to 40 attendees per event and take place in various regional cities such as Austin, Boston, New York and San Francisco.

These meetups feature a single panel discussion, presentation, artistic or musical performance, or community event to foster knowledge sharing and social networking among attendees who are interested in broad technical, scholarly, scientific and creative uses of virtual worlds, augmented reality, and 3D immersive and virtual spaces.

Interested in having an Avatar MeetUp near you? Sign up to be a host at the Avatar Meetups page or email us at info@avacon.org!

Cincinnati/Dayton VR Meetup – February 28, 2014

On Friday, February 28, 2014, AvaCon Vice President Chris Collins (Avatar: Fleep Tuque) attended the Cincinnati/Dayton Virtual Reality Meetup. The meetup featured demos of the Oculus Rift, Durovis Dive, Razer Hydra, zSpace, CAVE, Leap Motion, Nvis HMDs, 3D projection systems, and a variety of virtual environments, VR software and platforms, and other related technology.

“I was surprised at how well attended the meetup was, there were visitors from all over the region, including a lady who travelled all the way from Ann Arbor, MI,” said Chris.  “There were students and academics from area schools and universities, of course, but also people from industry like GE and P&G, as well as plenty of hobbyists and gamers.”

In collaboration with colleagues from the University of Cincinnati Center for Cognition, Action, & Perception and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center TEAM VR Lab, Chris demoed the Oculus Rift and showcased  a few recent projects being developed at the University of Cincinnati Center for Simulations & Virtual Environments Research, including environmental models that will be used for pediatric sports therapy and basic research.  “Many people hadn’t yet experienced the Rift, so it was fun to see their reaction for the first time,” she said.

The event was hosted at Miami University in Oxford, OH by event organizers Eric Hodgson, Director of the Smale Interactive Visualization Center, and Reverend Kyle, host of the VR Podcast and contributor to the Road to VR website.

AvaCon Avatar Meetup #SIx3D

The Smithsonian Museum held an inaugural conference on November 13th and 14th, 2013, to highlight it’s innovative program to bring 3D scanning and printing to the museum, and announce the commitment to digitize items in their collection in 3D, and 10% of their 2D collection over the coming years.

 

Boston Metaverse Meetup & Blarney Stone On Tour

Held in partnership with Open Media Boston and the Boston Second Life Meetup Group, our first Avatar MeetUp was a fun evening  mixed reality, music and mingling at encuentro 5 in Boston, MA on August 13, 2011. The evening featured live music courtesy of the Blarney Stone On Tour and Molasky’s Pub, two of Second Life’s most famous virtual bars, and served light refreshments and networking opportunities for participants.