Couldn't make it to the Virtual Reality Nordic 2020 Event? Here's the summary of what happened during the day
The Virtual Reality Nordic 2020 event organised in Oulu by MeKiwi Oy gathered nearly one hundred and fifty business representatives interested in the possibilities of VR technology and a number of industry experts.
The main venue of the event was the Aurora hall of the Hotel Lasaretti and the most enthusiastic guests had arrived well in advance. Samuel Kuosmanen, CEO of Mekiwi Oy, started the event with a welcome speech. After that, the energetic and charismatic Niina Karvinen took over as the event's host Niina is a business developer and influencer based in the Oulu region. Karvinen describes herself as an enthusiast who wants to help others succeed. In addition to her energy, many networking pods with a variety of services were used to make the day more enjoyable and create a special atmosphere for the whole event.
Virtual reality as a training environment
The first speaker of the day was Kim Härköki from Varjo Technologies Oy, who opened up the potential of VR technology, especially from a healthcare perspective. In healthcare, virtual reality is particularly used as an educational environment. Härkönen showed how surgeons practice complex and challenging open surgeries using virtual reality. The presentation highlighted the importance of changing the world by working together and using modern technology.
After Härkönen, there was the first keynote speaker of the day. Sami Heinonen from Zoan, who calls himself XR Evangelist, highlighted the added value of virtual reality across different business areas. Heinonen's presentation included many visually impressive demos and he convinced the audience of the potential of XR technologies.
After a networking break, Pekka Ouli from the vocational school of North Central Finlandtook the stage. He told the audience about advanced digital learning environments and how virtual reality enables completely new dimensions in learning. After Ouli, the stage was taken over by Jonas Rajanto (Grape People Finland). Rajanto gave an in-depth presentation on the benefits of VR technology for distance learning. Remote virtual meetings are similar to face-to-face meetings. Among other things, they make it easier to assess the emotional states of the participants and thus lead to more genuine interaction. The highlight of Rajanto's presentation was definitely the live demo, in which he was joined by a few brave visitors to the event. The demo was a great demonstration of how the virtual meeting increased the cohesion and focus of the participants on the topic at hand.
After a rich buffet lunch and networking, the programme continued in the Aurora hall. Tommi Teronen from Teatime Research gave a presentation on solutions for the cultural and entertainment sector. Iikka Finning from Nokia explained how they use VR technology in research and Orkun Ceylan from 3D Talo presented a VR solution in use at Ponsse. Before the second keynote speaker of the day, Jani Kaipainen, founder of MeKiwi, speculated on the future of artificial intelligence with its opportunities and threats. In the afternoon, there was also the opportunity to participate in workshops organised by Oulu University of Applied Sciences in connection with the VIRTU project. The workshops explored Teatime Research's immersive cultural experiences and Glue's virtual reality platform that allows users to collaborate remotely.
Addressing future challenges
The final speaker of the day before the panel discussion was the second keynote speaker of the event, who many in the audience had specifically gathered to listen to. Steven LaValle from the University of Oulu, a pioneer in virtual reality and robotics, did not disappoint this time either. He summed up the essentials nicely. LaValle sees the key to success as a constant desire to learn and the ability to accept critical feedback. Solving the challenges of the future requires cooperation. Bold testing of ideas and openness will take us step by step forward, LaValle concluded. The Virtual Reality Nordic event ended with an interesting panel discussion, led by the usual moderator, Karvinen. The panel included Kim Härkönen from Varjo, Begum Dogan from MeKiwi, Natasha Skult from MiTale and Steven LaValle from the University of Oulu.
The wonderful day included a wealth of VR-related case studies from the business world. Visitors also had the opportunity to try out the latest VR solutions in the form of demos provided by exhibitors. The day also included interesting workshops to solve practical challenges using virtual reality.
The presentations at the event showed that VR technology has come a long way and the use cases have diversified. It is clear thatvirtual reality is here to stay. It continues to grow in popularity and there is no reason to doubt that it will continue to grow as technology advances and the price of virtual glasses falls. Virtual Reality Nordic 2020 demonstrated with practical examples how VR technology brings many benefits as a design tool, an educational environment, a marketing enabler and an enabler of remote viewing.
