Tech Critic Sara M. Watson looks at where the techlash has landed us and equips us with critical questions to integrate the futures we are building. Constructive technology criticism that aims to bring stakeholders together in productive conversation and poses alternative possibilities to ensure that we are building a humane, just, and inclusive future. 

Narrative designer and immersive technologist Stephanie Riggs introduces her game-changing theory of narrative for the immersive experience and brings together storytelling theory with practice. Stephanie shares her work as Creative Director of Experiential at Refinery29, a celebration of art and culture through interactivity, and in collaborations with Facebook, Amazon, Reebok, Netflix and more.

Voice-first technology, from voice assistants to smart speakers, is experiencing dramatic growth and adoption with no signs of stopping. While we often think about voice tech in terms of consumer products, early movers across entertainment and other industries are already self-disrupting with the aid of voice. Malte Kosub (Future of Voice) outlined the contours of a voice strategy at a critical moment in the development of this new technology.

As the scale, complexity, and variety of modern datasets continues to grow exponentially, these traditional data visualization methods hit their limits and no long accurately communicate insights. XR technologies offer a better way to explore datasets naturally and holistically, while decreasing the amount of time and effort needed to discover actionable insights. Suzanne Borders (BadVR) showed how we will interact with immersive ‘data environments’, and how they will increase the value of our data.

Today, data drives the marketing process from end-to-end. Strategic approaches are vital for unlocking the full potential of data for different industry sectors, as well as for finding new ways to interface analytic tools and AI with creative thinking. With inspiring case studies, Hannes Weissensteiner (ARTEFACT) and Björn Bremer (Ogilvy) shared key strategies for translating data into future-forward marketing.

The continuous exploration of autonomous driving will drastically change the way we spend time in our cars. Windscreens are becoming screens that show the way, provide metadata and offer one-touch shopping. Motorways and intersections become fantasy worlds or space battles. Jeffrey Katz (MBition) and Sebastian Stegmüller (Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO) discussed when those scenario become reality and what technology will characterize the innovation autobahn.

The full-body VR experience "A Linha" (“The Line”) was rightfully awarded in 2019 in Venice as "Best VR Immersive Experience For Interactive Content". Besides the creative use of scale in a virtual room it captivates its audience with a beautiful setting as well as a story that is tailor-made for the immersive medium. In this talk Ricardo Laganaro (Creative Director) talked about the production process and the technological and creative choices which made “A Linha” a small masterpiece.

Visualizing a tumor in the human body can not only decide over life during an operation – it also helps people to understand the treatment they are about to undergo. This is why imaging procedures with multiple sources and display methods like AR and XR can be used for today’s most modern hybrid operation rooms. We talked to Christoffer Hamilton (Brainlab) and Moritz Queisner (Charité) about how XR will change diagnosis, operation and therapy in different medical fields and how it's already been used today.

Volumetric VideoCapture is continuing its rise of success, making production of „Digital Humans“ so much easier with high end quality. Still, only a few studios worldwide are able to capture volumetric video. With Sven Bliedung (Volucap) and Sarah Vick (Intel Studios) we had two of the very best on stage, to discuss use cases for industry applications and entertainment and to share their practical experiences and business opportunities with us.

Digital Humans are on the rise, populating films, games, VR experiences or commercials. As graphics technology, storytelling, and social media converge to bring these new beings to life, it is worth reflecting on core questions—what are digital humans really, how do they come into the world, who makes them, how, and why? Hermione Flynn shed light on these questions by sharing how the 3D animation and motion capture studio, Mimic Productions, is pioneering the digital human.

The implementation of XR projects requires a process model that is specifically geared to the challenges of the design and implementation of 3D experiences and continuously adapts to new requirements and findings. In this slot, the procedure for an XR project is considered from the idea through implementation to the finished product by Dr. Tina Haase (Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation), Malte Wellmann (HEC) and Philine Oppenheimer (Interhomes).

Is it easier to sell a house or an apartment when the potential owners can experience a sunset in their fancy furnished new rooms in Virtual Reality? Can architects conveniently plan and evaluate projects with XR tools and then use the data for the diciding pitch? Is the technology only suitable for bigger teams and architecture firms that can provide enough hands to build APIs and custom made tool sets? Risa Tadauchi (Zaha Hadid Architects) and Boris Goldshteyn (ALLVR) discussed those questions.