On March 6, 2019, we hosted the "meetups of meetups" for the VR/AR industry at SIRT's Stage 10. The focus of the event was on finding "Opportunities in Immersive Storytelling" in the GTA through networking, government funding and applied research. With developers, industry leaders and investors gathered together, we facilitated some great discussions.
James Knight, Virtual Production Director from AMD gave an insightful keynote on virtual production and the best tools and methods behind the scenes. Following were presentations and a panel from SIRT's applied research partners - SEED Interactive, Future Immersive and Xesto. They relayed their experiences from developing VR/AR applications as well as their strategies for success in the industry. Stefan Grambart lead the panel with questions about the VR/AR industry, exploring challenges and opportunities for content makers and business developers.
Check out our Twitter Moment from the event
In the second panel, we heard from government funding agencies including NSERC, OCE and NRC-IRAP. SIRT's Director David Dexter, moderated the panel as they discussed the different stream of grants that companies can leverage to expand or improve their products and services. This is especially critical in a high-tech industry like VR/AR or interactive media. SIRT can help you navigate the steps towards innovation. Whether its grant applications, hardware and software testing or applied research, SIRT acts as an extension of your team to help you overcome technical and business challenges.
In the final panel, the audience listened in to leaders from Toronto's top meetups and associations:
- AWE Nite TO
- CFC Media Lab
- Virtual & Augmented Realities Toronto
- VRARA
- VRC
- VRTO
- Unreal Engines Toronto
Joseph Ellsworth, Production Manager from the CFC Media Lab moderated the discussion. They focused on questions around how to make Toronto a better place for VR/AR and the role of meetups in helping companies to achieve their goals.
Overall, we succeeded in our goal to bring together the VR/AR community and share key resources available for developers, creators and innovators. Looking for more? Head over to our contact page to get in touch and learn how to collaborate with us. We offer support regarding government funding opportunities, applied research and technology access.
Finally, we like to give big thanks to the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) for sponsoring our event. For more info on grants and collaboration, click on their logo below:
