• VIEW Conference 8 - Creating a Digital Future
• Turin, Italy
• November 6-9, 2007
• Description:
  

  VIEW Conference is a premiere international event on Computer Graphics, Interactive Techniques, Digital Cinema, 3D Animation, Gaming and VFX.

  Every year, VIEW proposes the most up-to-date discussion about cutting-edge applications of VR and Interactive Techniques in various fields, but paying particular attention to its industrial applications and to the multifaceted universe of cinema, including presentations by world-class experts of animation and visual effects.

  VIEW 2007, Creating A Digital Future, will continue to focus on exploring the increasingly fluid boundary between real and virtual worlds. Through lectures, meetings, tributes, exhibits, screenings and demo presentations VIEW will reveal the new digital frontier sweeping from cinema to architecture, from automotive design to advertisement, from medicine to videogames.

• Metaverse Summit 2007
• Estrel Convention Center, Berlin, Germany
• December 06 - 07, 2007
• Description:
  

  The web is moving from its 2D beginnings towards its virtual and 3D future. The Metaverse Summit will consist of two days featuring interactive sessions revolving the next generation of the internet - the Metaverse - in all its manifestations. The rapid development and explorations of 3D immersive environments is changing the way people communicate, collaborate, work and live. It is bringing about significant businesses as well as social and technological opportunities, challenges and questions. This unique event will bring together business leaders, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, technologists, futurists, and industry participants to spend two days discussing current and emerging social, economic and technological trends and issues around the 3D-enabled web, virtual worlds, immersive networks, and ubiquitous information.

• 3D Business Symposium & Exhibition (3D Biz-Ex)
• South San Francisco, CA
• September 18-19, 2007
• Description:
  

  The 3D industry (stereoscopic, volumetric and holographic) is much more diverse and rich than most people realize. There are over 40 distinct market/application segments offering 3D solutions today. But there is little awareness of these applications across the industry, which is hindering the sharing of technology and solutions. There is also a key need to educate the customer community about the maturity and sophistication of 3D solutions. All this is needed to move the 3D industry from a series of niche applications to a broad market force with mainstream solutions.

  As a result, Insight Media (IM) and the US Display Consortium (USDC) have organized the 3D Business Symposium & Exhibition (3D Biz-Ex). Our goal is create a “Big Tent” environment that will bring together developers, providers and customers in all of these 3D market/application segments. This has never been done before, and we believe it will create a unique environment for attendees to:

  • Gauge the full scope of the diverse 3D industry
  • Learn about other 3D applications
  • Network with other leaders in the industry
  • Develop technology/solution partnerships
  • Help customers understand the maturity and benefits of 3D solutions
  • Allow leaders to understand the key business issues facing market expansion
  • Enable greater understanding of technology innovations, market dynamics and strategic opportunities
  • Lay the groundwork for a major exhibition expansion in 2008

  We invite you to attend this important event to take advantage of the excellent opportunity to meet with industry professionals and media representatives.

• Second Life Community Convention 2007
• Chicago, IL
• August 24-26, 2007

• MEDICINE MEETS VIRTUAL REALITY 16
• “parallel, combinatorial, convergent: NextMed By Design”
• Hyatt Regency Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, USA
• January 30 - February 1, 2008
• Description:
  

  MMVR is the premier conference on emerging data-centered technologies for medical care and education.

  MMVR is an interdisciplinary, vanguard community of computer scientists and engineers, physicians and surgeons, medical educators and students, military medicine specialists, and biomedical futurists. At MMVR, developers and end users collaborate to design the next in medicine.

  MMVR offers a critical review of current progress: from initial vision and prototypes, through assessment and validation, to clinical and academic utilization and commercialization. Extrapolating from the state of the art, MMVR examines and guides the future of healthcare.

• Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference 31
• Washington State Convention Center, Seattle, WA, USA
• March 9-12, 2008
• Description:
  

  Presenting the geospatial industry’s first and only industry conference completely dedicated to exploring, discussing, and addressing the growing issues, challenges, and solutions for America’s and the world’s infrastructure.

  The Geopatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference (formerly Annual Conference) offers geospatial professionals and professionals involved with all levels of infrastructure planning, design and management the opportunity to convene in one place to identify leading geospatial solutions in the context ofinfrastructure management. The program features 111 technical sessions, 14 half-day seminars, a massive products and services exhibition, and so much more.

• Virtual Worlds Forum Europe
• London, England
• October 23-26, 2007
• Description:
  

  Welcome: our pan-European virtual worlds conference is the meeting place for brands, corporates, virtual worlds, entertainment, media, IT and all those interested in exploring the business possibilities of virtual worlds. If you’re interested in harnessing the power of virtual worlds to engage with clients, suppliers or customers, this is the place to be.

• Virtual Worlds 2007 Fall
• San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, CA, USA
• October 10-11, 2007
• Description:
  

  Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo Fall dedicated to helping businesses harness the power of virtual worlds to engage with their customers, partners and employees.

• State of Play V: Building The Global Metaverse
• Singapore
• August 19-22, 2007
• Description:
  

  Organized by Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, New York Law School, Trinity University, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, this pioneering global conference on virtual worlds invites experts across disciplines to discuss the future of cyberspace and the impact of these new immersive, social online environments on education, law, politics and society. The hallmark of the conference is its multi-disciplinary perspective.

  Whether they take the form of games, social spaces, or educational environments, virtual worlds are now truly global in scope. The popularity of virtual worlds in Asia is phenomenal. From Thailand and Malaysia to Indonesia and the Philippines, the Asia Pacific region’s on-line gaming market generated approximately $1.4 billion in annual revenues last year – a figure that is expected to reach $3.6 billion by the end of the decade. Much of this growth will be propelled by 180 million Chinese Internet users, the majority of whom will play on-line games.

The Virtual Worlds are starting to get interesting:

• The MLB piped the All-Star game into Second Life (population 321,000).
• Transhumanists have set up an Island in Second Life call Uvvy and held a presentation there while beta testing a new voice/hand raising technology from Vivox.
• Apparel companies are selling virtual versions of their clothing before releasing the physical version in the real world.
• Habbo Hotel (population 53 million) is expanding to mobile phones with a U.S.$7.7 million investment from a Japanese company.

What I find most fascinating is that most of this activity is occurring before the Grid truly arrives. Some games and virtual worlds are hosted on local grids, but the wider merging of all of these local grids into one global Grid is still a few years away. Even without mature technological platforms, virtual worlds already rival physical countries in both economy and population.

Virtual world activity in Asia, especially South Korea, is especially promising. These are places where all demographics visit the virtual worlds, unlike the United States where teenagers and young adults dominate.

If you do not already, what features would convince you to start spending time in the virtual worlds, and what features keep you away currently? I get bored with the virtual worlds easily and annoyed by people who knock me off mountains or say bizarre things as they pass by. Also, I do not like any delay in the graphics, but there is often latency (probably my 4 year old computer’s fault).

On the flip side, I am interested in the educational opportunities offered by virtual worlds. Museums, universities, galleries, and digital representations of real world art pieces are popping up in the virtual worlds. If you can master the building skills of each virtual world, then creating your own virtual space become much more interesting. So far I have only dabbled, but building and scripting tools are becoming easier all the time.

Accessing a virtual world is free or relatively cheap, but actually building a home/island and business costs money (though far less than trying to do the same in the real world). I wonder if people will start buying or renting cheaper and smaller places in the real world while they start spending more time in the virtual worlds? There is some indication of this trend in Japan already, where people are renting “Media Immersion Pods“. Maybe we will all live in “Media Immersion Pods” a decade from now. Take care of the body’s physical needs in the real world, explore the endless landscapes and possibilities in the virtual worlds…