Portland, OR at OMSI

Design Reality’s Immersed Conference  is scheduled for April 22nd-23rd at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). The two-day AR/VR conference will explore the current state of the Immersive Technologies and their impact on how we work, live, learn, heal, and consume. Design Reality builds on its monthly premier immersive tech event series to produce a conference offering a multitude of insights and opportunities.

Immersive technologies are changing the way consumers experience everything from health care to education to engineering. Learn what local and national companies are doing in the fields of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) and try some of these technologies for yourself on the Expo floor.

• Business Professionals in all industries

• Entrepreneurs, Investors and Influencers

• Designers, Developers and Tech enthusiasts

• Storytellers and creatives

• You!

Attendees will benefit from insightful takeaways delivered through educational workshops, expert speaker presentations, use cases for various verticals, and demonstrations during the expo.  

• Collaborate - meet innovators, entrepreneurs and thought-leaders

• Experience - new immersive technology, expo demonstrations

• Network - with multi-industry professionals, experts and thought-leaders

• Learn - new perspectives and how to apply it to your professional path.

• The overall state of the AR/VR industry

• Medical and Mental Health Applications for Immersive Tech

• Education and Critical Thinking

• Navigating Legal Matters for the AR/VR Industry

• 360 Film and Post Production

• Architecture, Engineering, and Construction

Featuring an opening key note Monday morning from Voice of VR's Kent Bye!

Since May 2014, Kent Bye has traveled to the top VR gatherings around the world and conducted over 800 Voices of VR podcast interviews featuring the pioneering game developers, enthusiasts and technologists driving the resurgence of virtual reality. He combines his background in art and science to distill the diverse thoughts and impressions of leading immersive technology visionaries, creators, and academics, and provides a holistic look at the future of virtual reality told by the people who are making it. He has also conducted over 90 interviews about Artificial Intelligence for his podcast The Voices of AI, which recently launched. You can follow his latest thoughts about VR on Twitter @kentbye

Educational Technology is a significant part of the contemporary higher education ecosystem, which will only continue to expand to accommodate more platforms and metrics. But beyond delivery and measurements, how will technology improve higher education? Can we be better teachers in VR? Can we be better learners in VR? Does VR make us smarter? Juliette Levy is associate prof of History at the University of California, Riverside and has been adopting technology in the classroom for the past 10 years and will discuss her experiences with VR. Currently, she is collaborating with Portland based studio Shovels&Whiskey on a learning module in VR that allows students to experience and critically assess a text. Follow her on Twitter @profjuliette

With advances in computer technology and software sophistication, the robustness and pervasiveness of VR solutions continues to progress. Healthcare-minded technologist are producing more impactful experiences for users and more clinically relevant applications. In this session, Fran Ayalasomayajula, HP’s Global Healthcare Lead for Population Health Information Technology and Innovations will take us on an exploration of virtual reality in healthcare, beginning with an overview of the technology by market segment, including medical education and training, patient education, surgical planning and digital therapeutics. Through an examination of these use cases, along with citations related to the clinical efficacy of virtual reality, attendees will gain an appreciation for the vast and growing areas of potential adoption and business opportunity.

For over 20 years, Fran Ayalasomayajula, executive healthcare strategist and technologist, has been dedicated to serving the interests of populations around the world in an effort to improve the quality of healthcare, provision access to healthcare, and increase health literacy and patient engagement.

Currently the Global Healthcare, Population Health Information Technology and Innovations Lead for HP, Inc., Fran directs the organization in the development of strategies and innovations designed to advance and deliver improved clinical outcomes and better population health. Prior to HP, Fran worked for major healthcare institutions, including WHO, CDC, BMS, and UHG. Fran holds degrees in epidemiology, public health, information technology, and certification in project and clinical trial management.

With consumers expecting and responding to enhanced and immersive visual experiences, how will you work with your clients to shepherd their brands and products into these new mediums? Join Portland 3D animation and VFX studio 9iFX for a discussion on how to incorporate VR and AR technology into your agency’s toolkit. We will look at concerns around maintaining brand integrity and creating a solid business case for these new technologies. We will also look at specific examples of successful outcomes in this area. Low cost tools and options will be presented to allow you to get started in providing this service, as well as a discussion around best practices for aligning with a technology partner to add these capabilities to your agency.

If you have an eye to  the future of visual storytelling and communications, you will want to attend this seminar to get started in the right direction.

Keith is a 20 year veteran of the digital media and agency world. His strongest role is that of a “translator”, bringing together the languages of design, technology and business intelligence. He has also worked as an educator, teaching in Communications and Liberal Arts at the college and university level.

He currently works as the Business Development Manager at Portland 3D animation and VFX studio 9iFX, where he enjoys bringing clients to the world of visual storytelling

Email: keith@9iFX.net
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithdistilled/

Did you realize screens have been the primary interface for computing for nearly 50 years? You are probably reading this text on a screen right now! Emerging technologies like Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence hold the potential to make our interactions with technology more contextually aware and dynamically integrated to our physical world. Paul will explore how game development tools became the default workflow for immersive applications and why that may ultimately keep us glued to our screens if we don't also evolve the creative development process.

Paul Reynolds is CEO and co-founder of Torch creating immersive prototyping and design tools for professional creatives. He has over 18 years experience in the video games and interactive 3D industry. Prior to starting Torch he was at Magic Leap for nearly 3 years as Senior Director of SDKs and Applications. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife Ashley.

XR is cool technology that feels like the future, but why should we care? The hardware is expensive, bulky and the software is experimental. For spatial computing to take hold on society we must create experiences that extend beyond the novel and empower the people that choose to participate. Technologies that distract us can have a moment, but those that elevate us will create a movement. On the other side of this work is an experiential age where our technology will exponentially advance our capabilities, intelligence, and connection.

Gabe is the Founder and CEO of WILD, the creators of Wildspace, a cloud-based realtime collaboration platform for designers to create and share spatial design in AR and VR. He has worked in spatial computing for over a decade building interactive experiences for brands including Google, Verizon, Nike, and Samsung. If you are still reading this you should follow him @gzeap and then consider joining the team at WILD.

While we are generating all kinds of new immersive technology, new ways of connecting, and new means for seeing the world around us we don’t really know the potential impact and to what extent it might be shifting our brains, our neuropathways, how we think, how we make meaning, and how we engage.
Virtual reality, augmented reality, and other immersive technologies are changing approaches in everything from clinical treatments and Autism therapy to e-coaching and behavior change. All this while facilitating high levels of personal efficacy. Core human fundamentals and awareness of the media technology landscape will be discussed through the lens of psychology and how used in tandem they can provide an illusion of nonmediation with positive outcomes.

Jerri Lynn Hogg is a media psychologist, director of the Media Psychology program at Fielding Graduate University, 2015 President of the American Psychological Association’s Society for Media Psychology and Technology, co-creator of Fielding’s Certificate in Brand Psychology and Audience Engagement , and co-author of Mad Men Unzipped.

She integrates her passion for branding, augmented/virtual reality, technology, and digital environments with research to advance the understanding of the positive use of media and technologies and their physical, cognitive, and emotional impact. Jerri Lynn is a coveted industry speaker and with over 50 scholarly presentations on media psychology, is a pioneer in the field of Media Psychology. She recently spent six months working with the U.S. Department of Defense Global Operations on an anti-terrorism simulation using narrative psychology to degrade and counter terrorist messaging in Iraq, Syria, and North Africa. Her current focus is on brand psychology strategies; augmented and virtual environment design solutions; and narrative messaging for positive change.

Jerri Lynn is a frequent expert speaker on immersive media (ISMAR, AWE, Digital Hollywood, & American Psychological Association) with several publications on augmented and virtual reality including “Cognitive Design Considerations for Augmented Reality”, “Audience Profiling: Engaging in the AR/VR/Realtime World”, “ What Is the Real World Anyway? Exploring Design in Built and Virtual Worlds?”, and “Sense of presence”.

You can find her on Twitter @HoggJL. She also authors a blog for PsychologyToday.com called “The Digital Life.”

In order to grow or chart new career paths in Immersive Tech, there are new skills and tools you must learn in order to navigate the onslaught of rapidly changing technologies. Extensive research from MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee shows, beyond a reasonable doubt, that people are falling behind because technology is advancing so fast and our skills and organizations are not keeping up. It matters not whether you are a developer, designer, creative, storyteller, entrepreneur, or business professional. This presentation will discuss current trends and possible trajectories through 2050 and the tools and techniques needed to navigate your future.

With more than 25 years tracking technologies, launching dozens of products, spearheading initiatives and defining new markets, Adriana is a Technology and Innovation Catalyst across multiple industries and technologies. She has been quoted or featured in publications that include: The Milken Institute Report: ‘Minds-to-Market’, San Diego Business Journal and magazines like PM Networks, PharmaTech Europe, SmallTimes, Hispanic Business, and San Diego Magazine. Adriana has served as advisor and/or speaker at technology conferences and devoted 12+ years to philanthropy and to NanoTecNexus – an award-winning nanotechnology organization she founded in 2003.

With MarketTecNexus, a research and advisory practice, Adriana provides solutions and systems to help clients with strategic growth planning by strategically focusing on convergent technologies, trends and markets.

This panel discussion will focus on research and use cases that demonstrate how virtual reality and virtual worlds are helping users feel empowered and more connected to others.

Diving into digital marketing and social media during its nascent stage, Lisa Peyton is today among the leaders in the field. Based in Portland, Ore., she serves as Intel’s Global Social & Immersive Media Strategist working alongside her regional counterparts to launch global campaigns that engage audiences worldwide. With over a decade of digital strategy experience, her work includes implementing successful campaigns for both B2B and B2C audiences for brands such as Intel Corporation, Alaska Airlines and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

As a pioneer in the social media industry, Lisa has been both guided by the industry’s evolution and had a hand in directing it, capitalizing on the power of social media to increase her clients’ connection with their customers and achieve their overall marketing objectives.

Today, she is focused on new immersive technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality to help drive relevant, branded experiences.

Her passion for both psychology and technology drove her to complete a Master’s degree in Media Psychology, furthering her understanding of how humans connect via digital platforms. Ensuring these underlying social needs are met across digital channels serves as the foundation and philosophy behind her work.

Tawny Schlieski is a research scientist, and a virtual reality producer. She spent 17 years at Intel, including her most recent role as Director of Research for Client Computing. She is founder and president of the Oregon Story Board, a non-profit dedicated to building diversity and inclusion in the VR economy, and she runs Shovels and Whiskey, a VR prototyping studio in Portland, Oregon. Her work centers on new forms of communication and storytelling enabled by emergent technologies, including rethinking education and collaboration, creation and play, and immersive technology at work. Her recent partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company on The Tempest delivered record breaking audiences, and two Innovation Lions at Cannes.

Tawny has a master’s degree in political science from Duke University, and has studied and worked in the theater throughout her career.

Donna Z. Davis joined the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication faculty in 2010, where she now serves as director of the Strategic Communication master’s program in Portland.

Davis earned her PhD in mass communication from the University of Florida, where she studied relationship formation in 3D immersive virtual environments. Her ethnographic research continues to focus on the potential uses of virtual reality, virtual worlds, gamification, and other emerging social media, with special interest in disability communities and advocacy. She is currently working on a three-year National Science Foundation grant studying both the potential positive and/or negative effects of embodiment in the creation of life experience, relationships, identity and community in social VR (see www.ourditigalselves.org ). She and her co-PI, Tom Boellstorff from UC Irvine are also exploring how the evolution of emerging VR technologies are changing those experiences.

She was also an inaugural faculty fellow for the SOJC Agora Journalism Center for Innovation and Civic Engagement, extending her work with people with Parkinson’s disease who participate in a support community in a virtual world. She also recently received Agora funding to study the role of presence and immersion in 360-degree video use on advocacy behaviors for an environmental organization.

Stephanie is an Immersive Media Artist and 3D Designer focused on Social VR. Her goals are understanding the ontology of virtual spaces using a hands on approach, and partaking in a shapeshifter culture. In these new territories she is often present in a psychedelic or anthropomorphic form. Professionally, she has taught Digital Art and WebVR at universities, conferences, and the MIT Media Lab.

Dr. Juliette Levy goes deeper into how to design and developer VR educational experiences.

As the world moves to Virtual and Augmented Reality for displaying and annotating visual concepts, the need for 3D objects and environments becomes paramount. Whether you have existing products to feature, or want to create new storytelling mediums, you will need content created and ready for the authoring stage. Join Portland 3D animation and VFX studio 9iFX for tips and best practices on how to create and manage the 3D assets of your VR and AR projects. We will start with a look at free and low cost options for accessing 3D objects and scenes. We will continue with techniques for creating and optimizing your assets, as well as moving them into the authoring space. For those looking to work with 3D artists, we will discuss the best processes to ensure a successful collaboration. From converting CAD objects to rigging and texturing to importing into your creation engine, we will create a roadmap for handling your 3D objects.

Presented by Perkins Coie

Don't miss out on this amazing

for Immersed Conference Attendee's

Ground Kontrol is the West Coast’s premier classic arcade, located in downtown Portland, Oregon. They preserve and celebrate video gaming’s “golden age” in a retro-futuristic setting by operating over 70 classic video games, pinball machines, and a full-service bar.

Play all of Ground Kontrol's games and pinball machines for free!

Drink tickets will be provided upon entry for a tasty beverage.

This is a catered event so enjoy dinner on us!