ConVRence: Hybrid Immersive Virtual Conference

ConVRence: Hybrid Immersive Virtual Conference

Date: 5 Nov 2020

Time: 8.30–10am (Australian Eastern Standard Time)

Location (Hybrid)

In-person: Global Change Institute, The University of Queensland (invitation only)

Virtual reality: Altspace VR UQ Global Change Institute World (invitation only)

About the event

As the world shifts to digital event offerings in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the future of conferencing is changing.

Listen as our panellists discuss the inclusion of immersive reality and how hybrid methods (physical events with simultaneous virtual and augmented reality offerings) can increase the range and nature of social interaction opportunities, regardless of attendees’ physical location.

This event forms part of the 2020 ACM SIGGRAPH Frontiers series. It utilises the prototype research world, built by The University of Queensland research team Dr Cristyn Meath and Dr Jurij Karlovšek and collaborators including Alexander Smith (Creative Director at Alternate Universe) and world-builder Luke Bubb. The team is researching the integration of digital architectural assets into social VR to enable hosting professional events and conferences

Following a successful hybrid VR pilot at the GRONEN academic research conference in June 2020, this event takes the concept one step further, investigating how immersive experiences will be integrated with in-person events and conferences in a zoom-fatigued, post-COVID world..

Event Panelists

Professor Mark Billinghurst

Mark Billinghurst is Professor of Human Computer Interaction at the University of South Australia as well as a Professor in the Bio-Engineering Institute at the University of Auckland. He is Director of the Empathic Computing Laboratory across both locations, where his team researches remote collaboration systems that allow people to share what they are seeing, hearing and feeling with others. He has published over 500 papers in topics such as innovative computer interfaces, wearable computing, Augmented Reality and collaborative systems. 

Professor Anthony Steed

Anthony is the Head of Group of the Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics in the Department of Computer Science, University College London. Anthony’s current research area is real-time interactive virtual environments, with particular interest in virtual reality, augmented reality, novel forms of interaction, large-scale graphical models, collaborative systems and networking for tightly synchronous telecollaboration.

Dr Jacki Morie

Dr Jacki Morie has over 20 years expertise in immersive virtual reality environment creation & production, with a focus on evoking emotional responses and meaningful experiences. Jacki is an expert in the health, training and social applications of new media and online worlds, and is actively researching the vectors of how our virtual avatar representations affect our physical reality.

Dr Jurij Karlovšek

Dr Jurij Karlovšek is a lecturer at the School of Civil Engineering and Community of Practice lead for Digital Engineering at the University of Queensland Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT)Top of Form.

At the International Tunnelling Association Dr Karlovšek is also animateur of Working Group 22, Information Modelling in Tunnelling. In addition, Jurij is a committee member of BrisBIM, a digital community group in Queensland. As part of the UQ Virtual Reality Conferencing project Jurij also used his expertise in digital engineering to develop the University of Queensland’s virtual reality Global Change Institute building – a digital twin of the physical building found at UQ’s St Lucia campus.

Panel Chair

Dr Cristyn Meath

Dr Meath is a Lecturer in Corporate Sustainability at the University of Queensland Business School with a research focus on the adoption of sustainability products and practices, including emerging technology, to improve the sustainability of organisations. Cristyn is co-Chief Investigator of UQ’s Virtual Reality Conferencing project.