Industry XR Leaders Reflect on a Successful Second Annual Event and Look Forward to Continued Expansion in 2021

The second annual Industrial VR/AR Forum took place February 25 - 26 at The Westin Galleria Houston, setting itself apart as the premier event for industrial, energy and engineering immersive tech leaders. The event exceeded all expectations, more than doubling in size from its inaugural year, both in physical space and in participation by exhibitors, sponsors, speakers and attendees.

This year, the event hosted more than 300 attendees, along with 31 exhibitors and sponsors who showcased their solutions / demos and 38 industry-leading speakers who shared their industrial, energy and engineering XR use cases over two action-packed days.

"In the Forum's inaugural year, there was a great turnout with an audience of mostly early adopters and dedicated innovators," said Paul Daley, e-Learning Specialist, Design & Development Team, ConocoPhillips. "Just one year later, attendance at least doubled, including many people new to the field and twice the number of vendors - all a quality group of leaders who are excited about advancing immersive tech in industrial applications. It was terrific growth to see, and I look forward to being a part of the Forum again in 2021."

A few of the vital topics covered in detail were scaling immersive tech programs, tracking ROI to build business cases and managing the massive amounts of data being made available from this new technology.

As Sean Guerre, director of the Industrial VR/AR Forum and the InnovateEnergy communities, said in his statement in a recent Oil and Gas Facilities article, “The industry wants to see more on the data issues surrounding immersive tech. They want to know about the data from people that are in the field. They want to know how to keep it safe. And the biggest questions are how are you managing that data, how are you analyzing it, and how are you storing it.”

In addition to the conference sessions that provided valuable takeaways for advancing immersive tech in industrial operations, the expo featured engaging opportunities to get hands-on and see solutions, including HaptX, HoloLens 2, Magic Leap, Varjo, Digital Twin Studios, Pico, BeBop Forte, Sector 5 Digital, Springboard VR, Circuit Stream, Immerse, Myriad Global Media, Paracosma, Shiny Box Interactive, Taqtile, UrsaLeo, Visual Live, Cognitive 3D, DiSTI, Fieldbit, Free Range XR, From the Future, CVR Appliance, Ovations VR, Engage VR, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HTX Labs, ITI VR, Kinemagic, PIXO VR, Siemens Energy, TechLabs, ThirdEye Gen, Trimble, Arvizio, Scandit, MACE Virtual Labs, Infinadeck Omnidirectional Treadmill and Future Sight AR.

The all-new Immersion Zone, sponsored by MACE Virtual Labs, offered the opportunity to schedule personalized, in-depth demos with VR goggles, AR glasses, haptic gloves, haptic suits and multi-collaborator stations.

 “The Industrial VRAR Forum is the premier industrial training and safety related XR show in the world,” commented Industrial Training International, an exhibitor participating in the Forum for the second year in a row. 

Paracosma, who also participated in the inaugural year and returned this year as a showcase sponsor, said, “We are delighted to sponsor the Industrial VR/AR Forum in its second year and see the impressive depth and breadth of solutions compared to only a year ago.”

First-time attendee and speaker, Daryl Roy, CEO with 3D Media, said, “Industrial VR/AR Forum 2020 was one of the best events that I have attended. The alignment of thought, passion, and quality blew my mind.” 

Just a few industrial companies who sent teams and XR leaders to share insight and attend include Aggreko, Arup, Bechtel, Bosch, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Fluor, GTI, Halliburton, Lockton, NPV Engineering, Plains All American, Schlumberger, Shell, Siemens, SNC- Lavalin, Solvay, U.S. Air Force, Wenck, Worley and many more.

"I came to the Forum to connect with other industry leaders," said Will Hanna, Innovation & Knowledge Transfer Director with Stork, a Fluor Company, in an interview at the event. "I got to see them, meet them and we got to learn from each other." 

“We are truly thrilled and humbled at the amount of support we’ve received and are excited we could expand it in its second year for the community,” said Sean.

In addition to helping to facilitate the advancement of immersive technology in industrial organizations today, the Forum hopes to nurture further progression by inspiring upcoming generations who are entering the workforce. This year’s event closed out with a live episode of the XR Showdown©, sponsored by ExxonMobil, which is available on Amazon Prime. The showdown featured future XR leaders who competed in five teams to create new XR solutions for sponsoring companies.

As the largest, and rapidly growing, community specifically focused on transforming industrial, energy and engineering business and driving digital innovation with immersive technology, the team is already planning for the expanded 2021 Forum.

The 2021 date and location will be announced soon, along with the full Post Show Report, which contains details, marketing insights and stats from the event.

For inquiries about exhibiting, sponsoring or getting further involved in the Forum, please contact Sean Guerre, seang@stonefortgroup.com.

 Further details about the Industrial VR/AR Forum, please visit industrialvrarforum.com.

About Industrial VR/AR Forum
The Industrial VR/AR Forum’s mission is to transform industrial, energy and engineering business and drive digital innovation with immersive and wearable technology. 

The Forum brings together the industrial, energy & engineering immersive tech leaders, software developers, wearables / exoskeletons platforms and VR / AR / XR systems to showcase how they are using proven mixed & enhanced reality technology in their enterprise industrial operations today to reach common industry goals, such as decreasing costs and risks while increasing safety, enhanced training / knowledge transfer and speed / quality of information delivery. industrialvrarforum.com

 About InnovateEnergy
From live events to digital resources with communities like Industrial VR/AR Forum, InnovateEnergy is a single resource that delivers actionable content, executive insights, thought leadership, “how-to” and real-world use cases in multiple channels for energy digitization, technology and innovation leaders worldwide. 

InnovateEnergy has a global audience of over 20,000 energy executives and digital innovation leaders, each involved with digitization efforts and technology integration from multiple industrial-focused enterprises, including Oil & Gas, Power / Utilities, Maritime, Wind / Solar, Chemical, Refining, Petrochemical, Energy Construction & Engineering and more.

Staying up to date on the latest digitization trends, best practices, news and solutions is a huge task as the areas for emerging technology in the energy industry rapidly evolve… but InnovateEnergy is here to make it easy. innovateenergynow.com

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