HTC is battling the spread of coronavirus by shifting its annual Vive Ecosystem Conference to VR later this week. Here’s a sneak peek at how it’s shaping up.
Vive China President Alvin Graylin Wang posted the below video, which offers a look inside the conference before it opens its doors. The Vive Ecosystem Conference is being held in Immersive VR Education’s Engage platform. Several rooms have been kitted out with the Vive branding, where HTC will host talks and provide networking space.
#V2EC2020 Starts 3/19 1:30am (GMT)The #Future of #Events is here! Join us in #6DoF #VR w/ 1000+ others from 55+ countries for a full day of thoughtful content & 1:1 interactions?😮 #V2EC
Sign-up: https://t.co/mJjjXVCdB4 No-VR HMD:#Livestream here: https://t.co/rmu6OrVOO5 @htcvive pic.twitter.com/bgrarvCWzH— Alvin Wang Graylin (汪丛青) (@AGraylin) March 17, 2020
Traditionally hosted in China, HTC moved its Ecosystem Conference online in face of the threat COVID-19 poses to physical events. The traditional gaming and technology event calendars have been hugely disrupted by the current situation; MWC didn’t take place in February, GDC was supposed to be running this week and E3 has already cancelled its June 2020 event. In lieu of GDC, Facebook is this week running a digital Game Developers Showcase to make new announcements about its platform and games.
The Vive Ecosystem Conference, meanwhile, is open to over 55 countries and will feature both English and Chinese audio tracks. Announcements at past events have previously been geared more towards HTC’s Chinese audience, but there’s often still news relevant to the west too. With HTC gearing up to launch a more consumer-friendly Vive Cosmos Play headset, a developer XR faceplate and a concept lightweight device, we could well see some interesting news from this year’s show.
The Vive Ecosystem Conference 2020 kicks off on March 18, starting at 5:30 pm Pacific (or 1:30 am March 19 in GMT). You can sign up to attend here, although there will also be a non-VR livestream on YouTube here. Will you be attending to show? Let us know in the comments below!
