What I learned from Washington, DC’s 2nd Annual VR (Virtual Reality) Innovation Panel yesterday:

DC is becoming one of the largest hubs for VR in the U.S. due to the fact that we all live very close to a large portion of the country’s population, and also that we have a very active Meetup.com community where people get together, share ideas, and collaborate on projects. Developers here are not quite so withdrawn and secretive as they are in Silicon Valley (or so I hear).

It seems like most innovators aren’t just pursuing something different in terms of content (graphics, objects, etc.), but they are using entirely different mediums to build virtual realities for users. One team is building virtual office space technology, another is working on creating a testing environment to see how people can handle multiple tasks while doing critical operations (conversation during surgery, answering questions during nuclear lab work, etc.), and another is taking 360 degree video and stitching together realities, such as being able to stand in the middle of a stadium while fans cheer, and your favorite team runs past you.

Discussions of developing for evangelistic purposes through Google Cardboard –which is cheaper –versus developing for more robust platforms like Oculus Rift or HTC Vive also came into play, and answers concerning which is better always seem to be, “It depends” based on portability and usability.

One understanding that was consistent among the hundred-odd people that showed up yesterday is that those of us who are showing up to these events and experiencing VR, buying into the tech, or developing for VR systems; we are looking out from a bubble that is the immediate, and mostly unknown future. This is as large as the invention of the desktop computer; the cell phone, and the portable music player. And you will be involved in it within the next year, whether you like it or not.