The upcoming year will be an important year for the development of the Metaverse. There will be many real-life and virtual events about Web3 gaming, brands, and new business ideas.
Most Important Metaverse Events and Summits to Attend
On-site AR, VR, and XR conferences will return in 2023, allowing interested people to get up to date with every tech, idea, project, and company’s upcoming. This also presents an amazing opportunity to connect with new communities, network with companies, and meet new partners.
These are some of the most important summits and conventions, both in real life and virtual, that everyone interested in the Metaverse should attend:
Laval Virtual
Make a note on the calendar from 12 to April 14th because the hybrid event Laval Virtual is making a comeback with its virtual reality exposition. Users worldwide can access it virtually through Laval Virtual’s Metaverse after creating their avatar.
Participants will be able to learn about innovations, management, CEOs, startups, and all of the latest tech related to XR, VR, and AR. Even an award ceremony will be held, where XR solutions will participate in Microsoft, Lenovo, and Pico prizes.
Tickets cost €18 to €588, depending on the pass chosen. So naturally, the more paid, the more exhibitions and conferences will be available.
CES
Starting the year, CES (Consumer Electronics Show) will hold a convention from 5 to January 8th in Las Vegas, Nevada. Still, people all around the world will be able to join virtually.
Many important brands will be present there, with global exhibitions from Intel, Nvidia, LG, Sony, Qualcomm, HTC Vive, and Cannon. This summit also looks forward to spotlighting many developers, platforms, and manufacturers, boosting their business customer technology.
Registration is required to participate, with tickets costing up to $400 and space for more than 40,000 attendees.
SPIE
With an estimated date from 24 to January 25th (yet to confirm), the Society of Photo-Optical on Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) will hold a summit in San Francisco.
Engineers, researchers, and entrepreneurs are invited to this convention to focus on how to develop the next generation of XR. This includes smart glasses, optics, sensors, and head-mounted displays.
Among the tackled topics that stand out are combining optics and architecture, 3D display techniques, immersive human perception, and tracking sensors. Participants are also invited to submit their investigations to share them with other developers.
Ticket prices can be acquired between $500 and $600, and it’s expected that more than 5,000 visitors will attend it.
SXSW
The South by Southwest is organizing a convention that will start on March 10th and last 9 days, bringing the latest innovations in films, tech, VR, and music. They’ll also show expositions and demonstrations about the Metaverse and robotics that attracts many audiences.
Content creators can present to this convention with badges related to films, music, interactive and convergence, and access programming tracks for many themes. This includes advertising, branding, civic engagement, startups, and design.
Other topics such as Metaverse, cryptocurrency, NFTs, hardware, wearables, and robots are interesting topics to discover. Depending on the pass level, tickets cost from $475 to $1525; meanwhile, virtual attendees have a fee of $149.
GDC
From 20 to March 24th, people in San Francisco can visit the Game Developers Conference. Meanwhile, people worldwide will be able to do it virtually. This talk will bring key insights about the Metaverse, how to discuss solutions, solve problems, and even new development techniques.
Google, Epic, Oculus, Nvidia, and Sony will also have their role in this convention for those game developers who want to learn about the upcoming tools.
Depending on the selected benefits and talks to attend, tickets go from $349 to $2199. It’s expected that 17,000 people will attend in total, both virtually and physically.
IEEE VR + 3D User Interfaces
Estimated to be held between March 25-29, the IEEE virtual reality conference and its sponsors Nvidia, Qualcomm, Pico, and XR Bootcamp are expected to give much tech news. From engineering, research, and creation to everything related to the Metaverse and virtual/augmented reality.
Participants can also register to submit their papers, workshops, demos, and tutorials on many topics. From 3D construction to animation in virtual environments, passing through input devices, XR applications, and many other interesting themes.
Tickets vary between $100-$180; meanwhile, a submission costs up to $500, depending on the type of registration chosen.
Nvidia GTC
Virtually held during the days 21, 22, 23, and 24 of March, this conference brings many tech leader companies to its conference. Epic Games, Sony, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, Zoom, and Disney will attend, focusing their talk on the Omniverse, Metaverse, and computing graphics.
Developers, creators, and innovators from all around the world will have the opportunity to learn about AI and GPU, as well as about dev tools, robotics, and many more.
The entrance to this event is free, and more than 75,000 attendees are expected to be there, breaking the record of the last conference held.
MIT Reality Hack
Sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the hackathon is one of the most important XR conferences in 2023. People can attend in Boston or virtually, where more than 400 hackers join to work on their skills and learn together, all to create new virtual reality apps and Metaverses.
There’s a 12,000 USD prize pool for the winner who can create the best project, attracting many interested participants worldwide.
Entrance is free, but participants need to apply to it. In addition, many sponsorships usually contact the participant to cover travel costs, depending on the users’ skills and knowledge.
Global XR Conference
One of the most important upcoming Metaverse events in 2023 is the Global XR Conference, which will be held in late 2023. Sponsored by Microsoft and XR Bootcamp, this free-of-charge event includes many activities, all related to augmented and virtual reality.
Between the keynote speeches that will be held, users can find talks about diversity and inclusion in VR, how to create a safe and diverse Metaverse, and quantum computing.
What Makes These Events Important and Requested?
It’s also important to address why many people request these events and summits, which are created to learn and share and communicate with others.
Most of these conferences have huge marketing campaigns behind them, constantly promoting the event all over the web. This is vital in keeping people engaged and thirsty for more, with growing expectations.
Not having an expert marketing agency related to Metaverse and Web3 projects can make these summits a complete disaster.
For example, the European Union wasted more than $400,000 creating an event on a Metaverse platform offering music and entertainment to conscientize the use of social media. But it didn’t go as planned: only five users attended it when thousands were expected.
This could have been avoided if a marketing agency expert in virtual worlds topics like Exonite had been hired. Knowledge in advertising is important, and SEO marketing and community growth attract huge audiences to a virtual event.
Conclusion
The upcoming Metaverse events in 2023 look promising and are full of fresh information that promises to change many things related to how virtual reality worlds work. Huge leading companies are constantly developing new technology, and people are always eager to know more about it.
All of these events are the perfect opportunity for newcomers and people who aren’t experts in the area to learn more about the foundations of what’s expected to be tomorrow’s life.
