VRLA 2016 closed last week with 6,000 attendees, which is 40 times as many attendees that attended the first VRLA conference. Organizers also reported over 130 exhibitors and sponsors. The conference exhibited an overall mood of excitement and optimism about this still-raw industry.

Many new products and platforms were announced and showcased at the conference, including a VR pod by AMD and Awesome Rocketship, a social VR experience, and numerous image-capture platforms and audio products.

AMD Showcases Awesome Rocketship VR Pod During Keynote

AMD and Awesome Rocketship partnered to create a VR pod called VenueVR Gateway. AMD wants to implement these VR pods in public venues like shopping malls and theater lobbies, AMD Corporate VP of Alliances Roy Taylor said during the keynote talk on Aug. 5.

Location-based VR has expanded this year through implementations in theme parks and an opening of The Void’s Ghostbusters experience in New York City. Other countries like Canada, England and China have seen openings of VR arcades and theaters. Chinese consumers have seen location-based VR experiences open in Internet cafes as well.

Location-based VR experiences are great in the implementation stage of the industry as high-end VR headsets are still expensive. Consumers can learn about VR through location-based VR without investing heavily in the experience.

Read more about location-based VR experiences at ChinaJoy 

Mindshow Brings a New Social Experience to VR 

Visionary VR demoed Mindshow at VRLA. The DIY VR environment platform had a wrap-around ecosystem for early social sharing of the short, user-generated experiences.

The experience was more structured than the blank-page concept of Tilt Brush and opened a VR creative space for want-to-be thespians. Users can build environments, select characters, act out scenes and easily share to friends. Users can only create in a high-end, tethered headset, but friends who view the experience can watch in a mobile headset.

Social is a great way for the VR industry to grow. Greenlight Insights’ latest consumer report identified the top five factors that influence consumer’s purchase decision was price, durability, quality of content, ease of use and quantity of content. Although consumers surveyed reported friends and family influence as a lower influence with 55 percent saying it affected their purchase intent, social media can still generally have an influence on perception of a product.

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