rooom AG was honoured to become a part of the XR Bavaria Meetup, held on 16th January, 2020. After all other VR/AR communities of Munich united under the umbrella of the newly founded XR Bavaria e.V., this was the first event of 2020 held by the group and naturally, XR enthusiasts grabbed this opportunity to connect. There was a massive turnout of around 100 attendees, from both industry and academia. The hosts at Timespaces, however ensured that everyone was comfortable despite the unexpected difference in the number of guests they had anticipated and who actually showed up. From the food to the chic ambience, we found everything to be on point and in accordance with the theme of the event.
Speaking about the theme, the meetup was based around VR/AR Hardware. 
What made the event even more interesting was the availability of different types of hardware to try along with detailed talks by industry experts. There was a separate area dedicated to trials where professionals from AR Experts guided users about the ideal VR/AR hardware for their business use cases. The team of Schenker Technologies exhibited the Varjo 2, which is probably the hottest headset in the current market due to its superior display technology. HTC also presented its new VR devices and services around the Vive headsets.
rooom AG was honoured to be among the exhibitors. Using two of our own VR headsets, we demonstrated how STAGE allows you to carry out effective multi-user collaboration within VR scenarios. We have had an overwhelmingly positive response for our tool at all our exhibitions, and the feedback from users at this event was nothing less. The audience was particularly excited to learn about our Quest Beta Program, whereby you can now use STAGE with the Oculus Quest and enjoy the flexibility of a standalone headset. Moreover, our team had fun gaining insights into the relevant hardware for STAGE and we hope to implement those learnings in improving our customer experiences.
While the hardware testing continued informally throughout the event, the official agenda included four individual presentations by specialists from the XR industry. Erik Hartmann, an Outside Sales Specialist from Dell, was the first one to present. His presentation focused around VR being the step towards a new era of business. 
From the importance of destination to the benefits of portability and finally to the world of immersion, the industry has experienced various changes. VR and AR have now become a vital part of changing usage patterns to increase productivity. These visualizations technologies are being used across a wide range of verticals, including Industry, Healthcare, Retail and Marketing, Education, and Gaming among others.
Erik also talked about the world’s first global VR Car Launch, a collaboration among Dell, Jaguar and HTC Vive, which earned the automobile manufacturer the BIMA Award in 2017. The talk ended with a discussion about Dell’s commitment to lowering barriers in the adoption of VR and AR and optimism from the audience that these technologies will become more mainstream sooner than expected.
The second talk was delivered by Björn Schwertfeger from AR-Experts. 
He elaborated on various factors, like eye comfort, that are taken into consideration while choosing AR headsets in the industrial sector. Demonstrations of voice translation, AR/VR worker training and workshops for production, services or e-mobility, remote collaboration and logistics are other important dimensions associated with their work. These demos held by the company help customers understand why they need the hardware that they are recommended by the AR experts.
Tom Neubert, from Schenker Technologies was the next one in line to present. 
The company is a leading supplier of IT hardware and the latest extended reality technologies. With individually configurable laptops and desktop PCs, the company addresses both company and private users’ needs. Tom discussed their curated portfolio and expertise with various VR headsets in terms of simplified entry and navigation for users. He also nominated HTC Vive Focus Plus as the all-in-one VR headset for enterprise due to its sharper new lens, more baralnced HMD, and fleet content deployment among other factors.
In context of their extensive background in XR technologies, we have partnered with the team and will be conducting an exclusive interview with Tom himself about the future of XR hardware. Of course you all will get the updates in one of our upcoming blog articles so keep following the blog 😉
The last presentation was given by Oliver Wöhler, the HTC-Vive Sales Director. He began his discussion with how the XR hype is presumed to be over whereas the reality is completely opposite. There are common perceptions of VR currently being at the peak of inflated expectations. While its success did initiate with gamers, business customers have silently taken the lead in XR innovation during the past few years. AR and VR are being utilized by numerous industrial players at present and HTC predicts even greater adoption in the upcoming months.
Each of the presentations was followed by intuitive question and answer sessions which helped the audience understand the use of XR from each company’s perspective. Amidst holding successful demonstrations of STAGE, and participating in compelling talks and discussions, our team had a great evening networking with XR professionals, students and beginners. It was exciting to learn about the ongoings in various industrial sectors and celebrate the success of XR together. In case you missed the event, we hope that our account gave you an adequate summary of the happenings. For details about upcoming meetups, you can follow the XR Bavaria e.V. Meetup page and ensure that you do not miss any other events!