Cross-Industry Meetup Vol.2: key takeaways from the Overly team

August 2019 saw the second cross-industry meetup take place in Latvia, which brought together international augmented reality and design specialists as well as software engineers. Around 100 people showed up to listen to what international guests had to share as well as stuck around to network and strike up ideas for international collaboration. So here we share our key takeaways from the event.

The first keynote speaker from Lithuania, Thomas Tumosa, looked back at his internship experience, during which he was working with augmented reality game development in Oculus Quest. His presentation was based around the challenges he faced along with solutions, which is an awesome way to encourage other developers and say: “Hey, you’re not alone!” Thomas revealed how he used artificial intelligence to make his characters follow certain rules and inspired our team with his vacuum weapon.

We really enjoyed the presentation from the self-professed former Swiss knife at the mobile AR start-up Grib, and an ambassador from the Finnish community XR Nation, Joh Orengo. He shared not only how businesses are willing and ready to invest in R&D in terms of immersive technology but also how the country is backing technological development. To have the Government’s backing is key for any industry to accelerate growth and be able to establish itself.

The final speaker of the night was the sound design specialist, Thor Gunnar Mýrdal, from Germany. He not only finished his presentation with a death metal performance but also talked listeners through the process of creating sounds and sound designing for virtual reality. Not all sounds already exist or are accessible easily and so the sound designers go to great lengths to create what’s necessary. For example, gathering up a bunch of metal singers in a forest for some screaming session is a true story.

Although most techies do know that it is possible to draw objects for their AR/VR projects wearing virtual reality glasses, newbies to the Overly team as well as on the tech scene were surprised to see Ian Crighton from Scotland draw in VR. He joined our networking guests on an outdoor terrace and created objects in virtual reality on the spot. A truly impressive amount of detail and speed!

After getting inspired by what the speakers had to share, the networking part of the event was highlighted as the best part of the event by most. And isn’t it always so? This is where the inspiration gathered throughout the night is shared and real ideas are born for further collaboration. Who knows, we may even be looking at a Northern European VR/AR Hackathon or conference thanks to this part of the event. Overly has organized VR/AR Hackathon in the Baltics for three years, but the XR ambassador from Finland is definitely keen to join and build on the community.

Having FOMO? You can mark your calendar for the next cross-industry meetup next year and join our monthly XR Community meetups in Latvia whenever you get a chance. Follow XRLatvia Facebook page and don’t miss events.