Brisbane VR Hackathon 2017

The virtual reality ecosystem is ever changing, innovating and building on the ideas of the passionate few who foresee the impact this this medium has on the world. This community is global but for three days in June 2017, Brisbane was the location of the Hackathon for Virtual Reality and Immersive Technologies.

The VR Hackathon was a collaboration between the Web3D Consortium, Virtual World Society and leaders in the local community who represent virtual reality technologies in their home cities. Immerse Academy (our sister company which delivers education around immersive technologies) was fortunate enough to have co hosted the Brisbane event with CSIRO, exploring the possibilities virtual reality has to offer in the river city.

The event had a sizable turnout, numbering around 80 passionate developers, designers and artists. Held across three days at the Brisbane Powerhouse, the attendees represented the leading edge of immersive technology. The aim of the three day workshop was to explore new ideas, innovations and disruptions that are achievable through virtual reality and it’s accompanying technologies.

What exactly is a hackathon? For those who may not be familiar with the term, a hackathon is a event held in the technology sector to bring together programmers, designers, software developers, user interface specialists and other professionals within the industry. Having all these bright minds in a single space allows them to collaborate and unlock their creativity to develop solutions to software problems, have fun and drive the technology forward as a team.

The event was also designed to be a highly social event allowing attendees to create connections, meet new people, collaborate and build teams that will later form the basis for fresh ideas.

The intellectual property rights to the creations that the attendees collaborate on and build over the weekend belong to them and their team following the event. This ensures that the flourishing of ideas and solutions will remain in the control of their creators and will be seen to completion.

Rewards and prizes were offered at the conclusion of the three day workshop thanks to dedicated sponsors, in this case our sponsor for the event was information technology company, MSI who are leaders in developing virtual reality and other computer hardware. This gives hackers and their teams the incentive to continue building on the ideas that they conceptualised during the event.

It is really exciting to not only be a part of these game changing events but also to have the opportunity to witness the virtual reality and immersive technology community come together in our home city. We hope to see more hackathons in which the dedication, passion and creativity of our industry can come together and collaborate on building the future of this emerging medium.