AWE Nite Florence presents “Digital and Virtual Events” to be held within the VRE Fest – Virtual Reality Experience (VRE) the first and only Festival in Italy dedicated entirely to XR.

On October 15th, at 6pm (CEST) join us as we unite Florence, Rome, Torino in Italy with New York in the USA and Paris in France, to engage speakers of the highest level such as ORI INBAR and LOUIS CACCIUTTOLO.

ANTONY VITILLO and CECILIA LASCIALFARI will talk about their experience in organizing AWE Nite Florence and other VR events in which they have collaborated or participated.

MARIANGELA MATAROZZO, organizer of the VRE Fest, will host this special edition of AWE Nite Florence within the festival talks.

The VRE FEST will take place in real life, in Rome, with connections all over the world.
AWE Nite Florence will focus on the use of digital and virtual platforms, and will be a “hybrid” event with some speakers in attendance in Roma and others participating online.
VRE Fest is a step toward the return to events in person, such as AWE USA 2021 taking place in Santa Clara, California USA November 9-11 primarily as an in person conference and also with an online element.

VRE – Virtual Reality Experience (VRE) is an international festival created to explore Extended Reality (XR) and its impact on different disciplines: from Arts to Medicine, from Business to Cultural Heritage, from Sustainable Economy, social coexistence, International Cooperation and more. 

VRE presents a selection of XR works, virtual experiences, XR live performances, talks lead by expect XR field. 

VRE will focus its content on the Next Generation Eu, with the commitment to help raise awareness on the issues of economic, social and environmental sustainability and to spread the culture of sustainability to promote cultural change. 

VRE is always attentive to the evolution of new languages and new technologies and evolves from one edition to another with the aim of offering the best of new forms of narration and expression. 

At the beginning VRE was a pioneer in the virtual reality area. Today VRE celebrates XR in all its diversity.

What are the differences and difficulties in organizing a digital event and a virtual event?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of a virtual event and a digital event?
On what occasion should we use digital platforms and on which virtual ones?
What have past experiences of virtual and digital events taught us?
What is the future of digital and virtual events with the trend of the covid-19 pandemic?
How have digital and virtual environments evolved over the past two years?
What is the advantage / disadvantage of an online event compared to an event in the real world?
What are the tips for organizing a successful online event?


Expect a lively meeting, full of ideas, during which you can ask questions in the chat that the speakers will address live.

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PANEL CONVERSATION

Start: October 15th from 6pm CEST / 4pm GMT/ 12am EST / 9am PST

AGENDA
18:00 – 19:00pm CEST

1) Welcome & Introduction by CECILIA LASCIALFARI | Co-Founder ARea6DoF | Creative Technologist | Event Organizer AWE Nite Florence 

2) MARIANGELA MATAROZZO |Founder and Artistic Director of VRE – Virtual Reality Experience, entirely dedicated to XR (VRE 2019 – ongoing). Speech title: “Welcome to VRE-FEST”.

Graduated in Anthropology, Founder and Director of international innovative festival, Experience in managing cultural international projects, promoting culture, cinema and cutting-edge arts.
Define the strategic communication plan and lead communication and outreach initiatives.
Create open and trusting relationships with people and organizations to Improve cultural partnership and networking. HR manager in market oriented Multinational Companies.

3) ORI INBAR | Co-Founder AWE | Co-Founder Super Ventures | Co-Founder & CEO of AugmentedReality.org | Organizer AWE Nite in the world. Speech title: “Do we need really to choose between reality and virtuality?”

Ori Inbar is the Co-Founder and CEO of AugmentedReality.org, a global non-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing augmented reality (AR), and the producer of Augmented World Expo – the world’s largest event dedicated exclusively to the AR industry. AugmentedReality.org’s mission is to promote the true potential of AR, and hatch augmented reality initiatives that offer unique value to its active users.

In 2009, Ori was the co-founder and CEO of Ogmento, one of the first venture-backed companies conceived from the ground up to develop and publish augmented reality games – games that are played in the real world.

Ori has been an enterprising champion of the augmented reality industry since 2007.
He established Games Alfresco – a leading augmented reality blog that helped popularize AR, and co-founded the Augmented Reality Event (ARE) – the world’s largest and most influential conference for AR – now in its 4th year.

Ori is a recognized speaker in the AR industry as well as a sought after adviser for augmented reality initiatives. Previously, as Senior Vice President of Solution Marketing for SAP’s platform, Ori was responsible for the positioning and marketing of SAP NetWeaver – which under his leadership grew from a mere concept to a billion dollar business for SAP. Prior to SAP, Ori joined TopTier Software, as one of the first employees of this start-up.

He lead the development and introduction to the market of more than 15 multimedia and business applications including the world’s leading enterprise portal, which in 2001 was acquired by SAP for $400 Million.

Ori has a double major in Computer Science and Cinema from Tel Aviv University and is a graduate of INSEAD University business leadership program.

4) CECILIA LASCIALFARI | Co-Founder ARea6DoF | Creative Technologist | Event Organizer AWE Nite Florence – Speech title: “Summary of the experience in the organization of AWE Nite Florence”

“The right tool, the right job”. I sense, analyze, produce, solve.

I work in the Digital Department for Digital Innovation – Multimedia Asset Production Area (Videos, Audiobooks, Research, AR/VR/XR) of one of the most important publishing houses in Italy.

Since 2010, I have been working as a professional in the field of multimedia productions (publishing sector), I manage the realization of projects that exploit new technologies such as 360-degree video, NFC (Near Field Communication), Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, production of audiobooks and new ways to interact with digital books; I relate to companies outside the company.

I worked in web marketing, with social media and I managed websites for a few years.

I have a specialization in “Contemporary African Art”. In 2005 I designed the pictorial layout of the Nelson Mandela Forum in Florence, curated by the international artist Esther Mahlangu and the Women of Ndebele (South Africa); project realized by the Palasport Association, in September 2010.”

5) ANTONY VITILLO | Co-Founder The Ghost Howls | Co-Founder New Technology Walker Co-Organizers AWE Nite Florence – Speech title: “How to organize your VR event at its best”

I work with Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies since 2014, and in these years I have covered different roles in immersive realities, following important projects and getting prestigious awards.

As a developer turned into an entrepreneur, I’ve been at first the co-founder of Immotionar, a startup focused on an innovative full-body virtual reality system, and then the co-founder of New Technology Walkers, a group of professionals that offer consultancies all around breakthrough technologies. The two most important projects that I’ve developed with these companies have been: – ImmotionRoom, a wireless full-body virtual reality solution using Kinects and VR headsets, that was already available at the end of 2014, when there were not even the hands in VR; – HitMotion: Reloaded, a mixed reality fitness game developed with the support of HTC, and one of the 20 launch titles of the HTC Vive Focus Plus.

Together with this, I have helped develop many other AR/VR projects under NDA in various sectors from entertainment to industrial training for B2B customers.

Recently, I’ve also started collaborating with VRrOOm for what concerns virtual festivals and concerts: the Venice VR Expanded festival we organized won the “Best XR Event” award by XR Must, while the New Year’s Eve concert of Jean-Michel Jarre has been one of the most viewed events with more than 75M views worldwide.

Since 2016 I have a blog called “The Ghost Howls” where I talk all around AR and VR.
It has been chosen various times as one of the best 50 VR websites and I’ve been awarded by Onalytica as being one of the top 50 virtual reality influencers.

I’ve spoken at important events like WCVRI, View Conference, and AWE and I’ve been featured on Forbes, Huffington Post, Road To VR, and Authority Magazine.

I like all about augmented and virtual realities, and especially I believe a lot in the power of the community: if I can help someone else, I would always be pleased to do that. So if you would like to connect with me, I would be very happy about that 🙂

6) LOUIS CACCIUTTOLO | Founder and CEO VRrOOm, responsible for its sales and strategic partnerships.
Speech title: “Democratizing social VR events: from organizers to users, overcoming the barriers to adoption”

Louis worked in the US and China as Vice President of THX, a George Lucas company specializing in film technology, where he revitalized the brand and directed various music videos.

He was the owner of the Théâtre du Minotaure in Béziers between 1999 and 2020. He is also an entertainment entrepreneur, writer, director and producer of award-winning films, including the feature film ‘Cendre‘ in 2014, and the interactive VR animation short for Vive ‘The Last Footprint’ in 2016. 

He also co-produces augmented reality installations: Digitalis, a participatory work by artist Pierre Estève, adapted into interactive augmented audio with immersive sound studio Demute was shown in world premiere at Stereopsia Brussels in December 2019.

Since March 2020, VRrOOm has launched its virtual events production studio in social XR, dedicated to live streaming and 6DoF of artistic performances and live shows on VRChat.

7) Closing and final Q & A with ANTONY VITILLO & CECILIA LASCIALFARI

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To attend the event:

1) Download the Meetup application and join the AWE Nite Florence group.
2) Register for the event “Digital and Virtual Events”
3) You will receive the ​ZOOM​ link to participate a few hours before the start of the event!

Watch the recording and the summary of the last events from AWE Nite Florence:

1) “Overview in the Italian XR Ecosystem”, 28th January 2021 – (ItalianEnglish)
2) “Digital Italian Fashion in XR”, 25th February 2021 (ItalianEnglish)
3) “Augmented and Virtual Psychology”, 25th March 2021 (Italian English)
4) “Location Based VR & Entertainment in Italy”, 29th April 2021 (Italian English)
5) “XR Glasses for Enterprise”, 27th May 2021 (English Italian)
6) “Building the Future of eXtended Reality, Together”, 24th June 2021 (EnglishItalian)

Here you will find information on AWE XR GLOBAL

Join us to create an international network of Professionals, Entrepreneurs, Curious, Artists, Academics, Programmers… enthusiastic people who together can help Italy’s XR community to grow further!

N.B. The event will be held in English as it will have international relevance. We encourage you to register on Meetup in any case, so that you can receive updates on future events or new opportunities. 

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