This month: Hear how VR is changing the world and be transported yourself to new realities with some of the leading companies in the VR space including CFC Media Lab, OccupiedVR, Secret Location, Cubicle Ninjas, Cinehackers, Pinch VR, Globacore, Quantum Capture, BreqLabs, Proto3000 and Bublcam.
Virtual Reality (VR) is taking the mainstream by storm growing from what is expected to be a 3 million device market next year to over 30 million by 2020, making it a $4 billion dollar industry in just headset sales alone (Juniper). VR's immersive capabilities has a powerful capacity to change all aspects of our lives from how we play games, to how we experience movies and TV to how we train for our jobs and communicate with one another.
Our evening will begin with Ana Serrano, Chief Digital Officer at the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) who will talk on "Why VR Matters". Following this, we will hear from Stefan Grambart, Creative Director of Secret Location who will talk about the "Road to the Emmys" hot off the heels of winning the very first Emmy for VR for the "Sleepy Hollow" VR experience. The remainder of our on-stage sessions will include a showcase of VR work from OccupiedVR, Cubicle Ninjas, Cinehacks and Globacore before moving into a panel discussion on the impact of VR on our society from film and TV to training and work and beyond.
But of course talking about VR is not enough! We want you to try it for yourself. To do that we have put together a stellar demo area featuring experiences and tech from Quantum Capture, Bublcam, Globacore, Pinch VR, BreqLabs, Secret Location, Proto3000, OccupiedVR, CFC Media Lab, Cubicle Ninjas and Cinehackers.
PLUS Pizza from Pizza Pizza, Beer from Amsterdam Brewery and other refreshments will be served (we've got you!). And an AWESOME giveaway thanks to our giveaway sponsor Best Buy Canada.
This event is free but you must be a WWTO Meetup member to attend.
WWTO's New Reality event is part of VR Week in Toronto which starts on October 4 with Immersed conference (Oct 4-6) and Kaleidoscope Film Festival (Oct 4). Both events are on our website. You can get $100 off Immersed tickets using code "ImmersedWearables2015".
To give the folks from Immersed some time to head to WWTO,we will start our on-stage sessions at 7:30PM this event. This also gives you a full hour 6:30-7:30 in the demo area before we start in the auditorium. Note the schedule below.
Agenda
6:30-7:30: Doors open + bar/food + expo area begins (see list of exhibitors below)
7:30-7:35: Opening Remarks - Tom Emrich, Founder, We Are Wearables
7:35-7:50: "Why VR Matters" by Ana Serrano - Chief Digital Officer, Canadian Film Centre (CFC)
7:50-8:05: "Road to the Emmys" by Stefan Grambart - Creative Director, Secret Location
8:05-8:25: VR Showcase Presentations from OccupiedVR, Cubicle Ninjas, Cinehackers and Globacore
8:25-8:45: Panel: How virtual reality will change this reality forever - a look at how VR will impact all aspects of society from entertainment and gaming to travel, education and beyond
- J. Lee Williams - Co-founder, OccupiedVR
- Josh Farkas - Strategy Ninja, Cubicle Ninjas
- Ben Unsworth - Co-founder & President, Globacore
- Elli Raynai - VR Filmmaker, Cinehackers
- Craig Alguire - Technical Director & Co-founder, Quantum Capture
- Milan Baic - Founder, Pinch VR
- Moderated by Alex Davies - Writer, Tom's Hardware
8:45-10:00: Networking & Expo continues with the following companies:
A big thanks to our sponsors for your continued suport for the community MaRS Discovery District Centre, Uproar PR, EY Canada, CFC Media Lab, Proto3000 and BetaKit
About our Speakers
Ana Serrano is the Chief Digital Officer of the CFC and Founder of CFC Media Lab, the world-renowned and award-winning institute for interactive storytelling created in 1997. Serrano is driving the digital transformation of the CFC into a unique blend of talent, product and company accelerator and creative production house. Most recently, she launched Canada's first digital entertainment accelerator ideaBOOST with founding partners Shaw Media, Corus Entertainment, and Google. To date, Serrano has directed the development of over 130 digital media projects, mentored over 50 start-ups, and has received numerous awards from the digital media, film, and theatre industries in both Canada and the U.S., including a DigiAward for Visionary of the Year, a Best Canadian Feature Film Award from the International Reel Asian Film Festival for her own transmedia production Prison Dancer: the Musical, and a Jim Blackaby Ingenuity Award for Body/Mind/Change.
Craig Alguire is a technical artist and 3D developer with experience in both the indie and AAA sectors. Emerging technology and R&D are his primary passions. He was the Technical Director at 3Di Solutions for 4 years before joining the VFX team at Ubisoft Toronto. 3Di were pioneers in interactivity utilizing massive touchscreens and gesture technology for games, television and installations. At Ubisoft, Craig shipped Splinter Cell Blacklist, Far Cry 4 and worked on pre-production of an unannounced title. Since 2008 he has also been a professor at Centennial College teaching the next generation of game developers.
Josh Farkas creates. He created for ten years as an illustrator, designer, and developer for startups and global Fortune 500 brands. In 2008, he created Cubicle Ninjas to bring powerful design to clients through an innovative and customer-focused approach. As CEO at Cubicle Ninjas he leads the creation of new initiatives, like Guided Meditation VR a virtual reality application for the Oculus Rift that helps people to relax wherever and whenever. He'd love to help you create too.
Milan Baic's unwavering passion and vision for design integrity and interactivity is the backbone of Cordon Media. His background in user experience combined with a great business IQ is what enables him to deliver products and services that provide the most innovative and inspiring solutions for the digital consumer and their ever-changing expectations. He believes in constantly challenging the status quo in order to redefine what's possible.
Stefan Grambart is an award winning creative thinker who has built a career on creating visual storytelling and interactive narrative experiences. With twenty years of combined experience across film & television animation, computer gaming, and digital media, Stefan has worked on projects for Warner Brothers, FOX, NBC, MTV, Family Channel, PBS, Canal+, HBO Family, FisherPrice, Hasbro Interactive, Teletoon, History Channel Canada, YTV, and Shaw. He is currently a Creative Director at Secret Location, where he’s proven himself to be a highly capable and innovative concept developer, visual artist, and experience designer. Focusing his attention on virtual reality, Stefan is exploring how this new medium will evolve our traditional narrative structures. He was the artistic lead on Secret Location’s VR experience for the hit FOX series Sleepy Hollow, which was awarded the first ever Emmy for a VR project (Outstanding User Experience & Visual Design). Stefan has been honoured with several Canadian Screen Awards, Marketing Awards, Digi Awards, FWA and FITC Awards. He has also had his work featured on Engadget, The Verge, and in Fray Magazine.
Ben Unsworth is Co-Founder and President of Globacore, the Toronto-based creative technology shop behind PaperDude VR and many other game-based interactive installations that can be found at exhibits, events and museums around the world. While Ben’s formal training is in Computer Science and English Literature from McGill University, he knows that the real lessons come while trying to get your 20′ multi-touch wall – built with lasers and duct-tape – up and running at 3 in the morning in the alleyway behind a convention center in the middle of Saudi Arabia hours before show opening while being chased by stray dogs.
J. Lee Williams is a multi award-winning VFX and animation director with many alter egos: illustrator, comic book artist, animator, flash developer, VFX director, film producer and his main role as commercial and film director. He is also the co-founder of 1188 Films, one of Canada's top Commercial Production companies that marries, film, post-production, animation and interactive into compelling multi-platform experiences for brands and artists. J. Lee has worked with Fortune 500 brands like Coca-Cola, Nike, Puma, and , traditional broadcasters like Bell Media, MuchMusic, MTV, Redbull, CTV Entertainment, and global artists like Drake, Steve Aoki, Hedley, LMFAO and many more. Most recently he directed the award-winning Body/Mind/Change, a CFC Media Lab and Tiff co-production, with creative direction by Lance Weiler and starring David Cronenberg. BMC is the world's first episodic interactive narrative on the web that generates a 3D-printed object. J.Lee is now embarkingon a new venture creating another company focused solely on the creation and production of virtual reality experiences. OCCUPIED VR will complement all the work that 1188 Films has done to date, extending their ability to move into a whole new world of immersive productions.
Elli Raynai has always loved movies and knew from an early age that this was the path he wanted to follow. Armed with a strong DIY spirit, he spent time mastering the technical aspects of post-production, more specifically the art of visual effects. As a result he landed a spot on Tron Legacy, the sequel to one of his favorite childhood film's. His previous short films were made both in Canada and the UK. In 2013 he completed two feature films, Living with Strangers and Personal Space. Being a big fan of tech he recently ventured into Virtual Reality and made the short film I Am You, specifically developed for the Oculus Rift DK2. Extremely excited by the results and prospect of VR film making he is rapidly moving forward in developing his next cinematic experience.
Alex Davies: As a writer, Alex covers Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mobile Devices for Tom’s Hardware, one of the oldest (since 1996) and largest enthusiast technology news and reviews websites on the web. Prior to writing for Tom’s, Alex has contributed to various other technology news websites such as Mobile Syrup and IT Business Canada.As a long time computer gaming enthusiast (he built his first gaming PC in 1991) and science fiction fan, he has long dreamed of being able to enter the Metaverse. It wasn’t until he used modern HMDs that he really understood the immense trans-formative potential of this new technology.As a film fan and former film student, Alex also understands how these new technologies will forever change the way stories are told, and he is hoping he can play a part in helping talented creatives understand and work in this new medium.
About our Exhibitors
Cinehackers is a film production company that has a passion for making disruptive and innovative independent content. We are focused storytellers that leverage our interest in technology, in order to examine our human relationship to it. By pushing the boundaries we aim to create original, intimate, and edgy work in order to engage and immerse audiences all over the world in the stories we want to tell. Learn more at Cinehackers.com.
OccupiedVR: We are a proven VR development team working hard to be leaders in the world of Immersive Experience. The Occupied collective has been organically forming for the past year within the emerging VR community in Toronto, Canada. Each member has proven to be an important component to the VR workflows we are developing to bring you what we feel is our flavour of Virtual Reality or as we call it ‘Our VR’. Learn more at occupiedvr.com.
The CFC Media Lab is a unique production think-tank, training institute and accelerator for emerging interactive and digital creators, practitioners, entrepreneurs and companies, which has graduated over 200 professionals, prototyped over 100 interactive products and commercialized over 30 technologically-savvy start-ups. Learn more at cfccreates.com.
Secret Location is an Emmy® Award-winning content studio for emerging platforms. Working across the three key convergent specialties of brand, entertainment and original technology development, they create digitally accelerated stories. Specializing in cinematic/narrative experiences, the team at Secret Location finds unique concepts where these specialties intersect, providing results that leverage innovative tech and strategies to connect with audiences. Learn more at thesecretlocation.com.
Cubicle Ninjas is a full-service creative design and development agency. The company utilizes an innovative design-focused development approach that transforms ideas into highly effective and impactful deliverables. Clients enjoy a process that is customer-focused, collaborative, and fun. Cubicle Ninjas handles a variety of creative and development work for clients including: print, presentation, brand, web, motion, and virtual reality apps including Guided Meditation VR. Learn more at CubicleNinjas.com.
Globacore is an award winning creative technology company specializing in game development, large format multitouch surfaces, and unique human computer interactions using both physical and digital elements. With the depth of knowledge of traditionally trained computer scientists and the aesthetic vision of digital artists we have the key skills and talents to enable us to stay at the bleeding edge of interactive design and development. Globacore’s emergent interactive displays have been installed in cities around the world including Paris, Cannes, London, Barcelona, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and all over the US and Canada. Working with advertising agencies, marketers, brand strategists, exhibit designers and museum curators we encourage our customers to come to us with any idea for an interactive system no matter the difficulty. Learn more at globacore.com.
BreqLabs: Virtual reality will revolutionize the way humans handle and represent information. With just a virtual reality headset however, you are teleported to a remote world without a keyboard, without a mouse and without any other convenient and reliable way to interact. To solve this problem, BreqLabs provides sensor gloves that track accurately your hands and fingers in space and can deliver force feedback. The gloves allow the computer or mobile to reconstruct faithfully and teleport your hands with you into the virtual world. Come and see what your hands can do in virtual reality! Learn more at BreqLabs.com.
Pinch VR: Step inside your phone with Pinch - the smartphone case that unfolds into a virtual reality system. Learn more at helloPinch.com.
Proto3000's 3D technologies are changing the world. They fuel creativity and innovation, creating a revolution in the wearable tech industry and many other industries like it. Learn more at proto3000.com.
Quantum Capture creates content for virtual reality, video games, film and advertising by combining the technologies of 3D scanning, photo-realistic graphics and the immersion of interactive film and storytelling. Learn more at QuantumCapture.com.
Bubl Technology Inc. delivers the most innovative 360-degree camera and software offerings in the world. TheBublcam is the world's first spherical consumer camera that provides users with the ability to capture fully spherical photos and videos and share them with anyone, anywhere. Learn more at bublcam.com.
About our Sponsors
MaRS Discovery District is a mission-driven innovation centre located in Toronto. MaRS works with partners to catalyze, accelerate and amplify innovation. MaRS supports entrepreneurs building Canada’s next generation of growth companies.
Uproar PR is an innovative technology public relations and social media agency. Along with its other technology practices, the firm has successfully built brand recognition for its wearable technology clients. Within the wearable space, Uproar works with companies including Thalmic Labs, Bionym, ShotTracker and PUSH. Through Uproar's media relations efforts and experience, these wearables have been featured in media outlets including The Today Show, Business Insider, New York Times and CNBC, just to name a few. The firm specializes in developing campaigns that drive awareness and sales, while creating industry buzz.
The CFC Media Lab is a unique production think-tank, training institute and accelerator for emerging interactive and digital creators, practitioners, entrepreneurs and companies, which has graduated over 200 professionals, prototyped over 100 interactive products and commercialized over 30 technologically-savvy start-ups.
BetaKit covers Canadian startup-news and tech innovation.
EY Canada helps media, technology, telecommunications and retail companies adapt to change, manage risk, meet regulatory requirements, foster product innovation and develop new business models. Our team of experienced industry professionals in Canada and around the world — supported by the EY Global Centres of Excellence — provides a multidisciplinary team of assurance, advisory, tax and transaction services to help you achieve your objectives.
Proto3000's 3D technologies are changing the world. They fuel creativity and innovation, creating a revolution in the wearable tech industry and many other industries like it.
Best Buy Canada is a specialty retailer and e-tailer of consumer electronics, personal computers and entertainment software and also operates the Geek Squad (www.geeksquad.ca), a 24-hour technology support task force. With nearly 200 Best Buy and Best Buy Mobile stores across Canada, our store employees and Geek Squad Agents are committed to delivering product solutions that enable easy access to people, knowledge, ideas and fun. Best Buy offers the largest selection of wearable technology and accessories in Canada with more than 200 products ranging from fitness trackers and smart watches to brain-sensing headbands and pet wearables. Best Buy stores across Canada have launched new in-store sections dedicated to wearable technology as well as a newonline wearable tech hub with everything you need to know about wearable technology including blogs, product reviews, videos and more.
About Our Partners
Belight: Billy Lee is a Photographer capturing events of our times to be shared and remembered. #event #conference #photography #photojournalist #documentarian #life #technology #wearable #startups #entrepreneurship #education #time #learning #change #better #experiences #humanevolution #involution #balance #awareness #creation #creativity #design Find him at @makingsenses or billy@belight.ca
Quick Attack Productions: providing video support for WWTO
Visual Talks are a dynamic, spectacular and truly enlightening method of documenting events as they happen. If you’re organizing an event, large or small, and you’re looking for new ways to engage and collaborate with your audience, live scribing (aka graphic recording or whiteboard illustration) is a uniquely powerful tool. It’s an inclusive and immediate way of communicating with groups of any size. It gives everyone in the room a sense that you are working together, contributing to the same vision.
The Amsterdam Brewing Company is an independently owned and operated craft brewery that is deeply rooted in the city of Toronto. A pioneer of the craft beer revolution in 1986 and initially called the Amsterdam Brasserie and Brew Pub, The Amsterdam was the first of its kind in Toronto to offer patrons hand crafted lagers and ales that were brewed ‘in-house’. Today they brew over ten different beers including their flagship lager – Amsterdam Natural Blonde, the award winning Big Wheel Deluxe Amber, Boneshaker IPA and multiple year-round and seasonal brews. The Amsterdam Brewing Company uses only traditional brewing methods and their beers are made with four all natural ingredients – malt, hops, yeast, and water. All beers are GMO-free, without preservatives, and never heat pasteurized.
Pizza Pizza: As a restaurant, pizza maker, employer, business partner and caring company, Pizza Pizza delivers. The Pizza Pizza network, including Pizza73, is composed of more than 600 traditional and non-traditional restaurants coast to coast, employing over 3,000 Canadians. We provide a flavourful, varied and high-quality menu to pizza-lovers of all ages and tastes. As a result, our organization has become a leader in the quick service segment of the Canadian foodservice industry, and one of the top pizza restaurant chains in the country.
Interested in speaking at or sponsoring the event? Want to join the team? Or have some feedback? Email the Toronto team at