VRTO

VRTO Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo
Frequency	Annually
Location(s)	Toronto, Canada
Most recent	2015
People	Keram Malicki-Sanchez
Website	conference.virtualreality.to

Started in 2015, as a Virtual Reality Meetup Group in Toronto, VRTO launched the VRTO Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo in June 2016 - an international exhibition and professional conference exploring arts, culture and science through immersive technologies. Its inaugural year - held at the Mattamy Centre^[1] (better known as Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada - featured keynotes from University of Toronto Professor Steve Mann, Hollywood film director Brett Leonard - director of The Lawnmower Man, Chief Digital Officer Ana Serrano of the Canadian Film Centre and Phil Lelyveld of USC.

Founded and directed by producer, futurist, musician and Hollywood actor Keram Malicki-Sanchez,^[2] the opening year featured a keynote, town hall and discussion panel around creating a Code of Ethics for Humanistic Augmentation^[3][4][5] VRTO Spearheads Code of Ethics on Human Augmentation also known as the HACode or The Toronto Code.^[6]

VRTO 2016

The conference, in its inaugural year welcomed 800^[7] attendees and 64 speakers from Toronto, Montreal^[8] and Los Angeles, and featured over 20 companies working in the development of virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality in addition to training sessions dedicated to the creation of 360 video, game development, photogrammetry and WebVR. The conference featured a preview of the FIVARS Festival of International Virtual & Augmented Reality Stories.

The conference featured a workshop titled The Hacker's Guide to the Metaverse that taught programming WebVR using the JanusVR open source platform.^[9]

VRTO 2017

The largest conference dedicated on virtual and augmented reality in Canada, the sophomore year featured 100 speakers and 60 installations^[10]. The second year of the VRTO Conference & Expo in 2017 was staged at the Rogers Communications Centre on the Ryerson University campus in downtown Toronto June 24th-26th with the theme of "Giants" based on the quote by Sir Isaac Newton: "“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of Giants.”

Keynote speakers included Stanford neuroscientist Professor Walter Greenleaf, PhD, Graham Smith, David A. Smith, Dr. Sara Diamond - President of OCAD University, Moses Znaimer, Charlie Fink^[11], Dr. Karan Singh and James McCrae - founders of JanusVR and additional live interviews with Steve Mann, and Tim Merel among others.^[12]

Several panels, under the banner of "Super Sessions" featured leaders in the field of Virtual & Augmented Reality, health sciences (Dr. Lora Appel, Dr. Tom Overly, Dr. Stephane Bouchard), "Out-of-Home" entertainment (James Jensen of THE VOID, Eyal Kleiner of IMAX, Ed Callway of AMD).

The show was also the launchpad for various products and initiatives including the Canadian Film Centre's Pulse on VR "living ecosystem" report on the Virtual Reality industry, the Webmoti camera that mitigates social anxiety for children with autism who wish to participate in the classroom, and the Somato Cherry^[13] haptic wireless virtual reality controller.

Themed pavilions were co-curated between Malicki-Sanchez and specialists in their respective fields including Dr. Maria Karam (somatosensory pavilion), Ian Kelso (Augmented Reality conference track, Isaac Rayment (Augmented Reality "ARt Gallery") that featured early Augmented Reality artists Zenka, Daniel Leighton, Alex Mayhew, Dan Goldman, among others.

VRTO 2018

VRTO 2018 shifted its lens to psychedelia, esoterica, blockchain and Visual Effects featuring such speakers as Steve "Spaz" Williams, Philip Rosedale, Brett Leonard and Charlie Fink, alongside 85 other leaders of the VR industry. In its third year, the event added an extra day of conferences, workshops and training.

References