New Worlds For Imagination

(Photograph courtesy of Heather Dodds, and used with permission.)

Virtual events allow lots of room for creativity, says senior XR researcher, designer and author Heather Dodds.

Heather, who has a Ph.D. in virtual worlds, creates and produces events in VR and XR.  In June, she co-chaired the 2020 Immersive Learning Research Network conference.  She and her staff had just over three months to take the conference completely virtual, due to the pandemic!

They did it--and ILRN 2020 was available as a fully-online, free conference AND in 360-degree virtual reality.

Heather talked about her background, the experience of taking the ILRN conference virtual, and offered guidance for anyone who's similarly looking at hosting a conference, special event or class in virtual or mixed reality.
On this edition of Over Coffee®, you will hear;

How Heather was first introduced to virtual worlds;

Her story of creating this year's completely-virtual ILRN conference;

Where to start, when you're planning a virtual event;

Differences to keep in mind, between creating an onsite event and one in XR;

Some of the "mechanics" involved in creating the ILRN 2020 all-virtual conference;

Heather's advice on adding the "fun" element to virtual events;

Mistakes to avoid, when hosting new virtual events;

Some of the platforms Heather recommends for classes and other virtual events, and why.